October 21,2007

Give!

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Luke 24:33-49

Opening Illustration – Meal in the Dominican

Kingdom of God is shared with the world when we share the mysteries we have received.

Passage is set on Easter evening. Jesus has appeared to all the disciples.

He eats fish to prove he is not a ghost. Disciples realize he has really been resurrected.

Jesus explains his life as the culmination of all revelation in the OT.

Nuanced understanding of fulfilled prophecy.

Jesus tells them to begin preaching about him in Jerusalem. Circle of ministry must be expanded to the whole world.

Disciples are to call people to repent of sin; they must announce that Jesus’ death and resurrection bring about forgiveness of the sins of the world.

He tells them to stay in Jerusalem until God empowers them to go out and do this ministry. Obvious reference to the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

Focus is on what Jesus wants the disciples to give to the world after he’s gone.

I want to talk about giving today. When we think about giving to missions, this passage helps us understand a little about how we should do that.

First, we cannot share the kingdom of God with the world unless we are clear that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God’s own being.

His death and resurrection are the key to understanding everything before him and everything after him, even our own lives and history.

When we give of ourselves to others in Jesus’ name we sometimes fall into the trap of packaging Jesus in terms of our own culture and our own self-understanding.

Our nation seeks to “export democracy” to other countries. We seek to convince communist countries to adopt capitalism because it’s the only way. Our army is said to be fighting radical Islam. And many people understand that as being done in God’s name.

Jesus is asking his disciples to do something very different. He’s not asking his disciples to force a better economic system or system of government on someone. He’s asking us to tell people about the cross and the empty tomb. Let God worry about the rest.

• Second, The kingdom of God, which we share when we give to missions, involves repentance and forgiveness.

Our mission giving is a call for justice and repentance from unjust behavior.

We give to missions because we are convinced that the death of Christ has made the forgiveness of sin available to every person.

• Third – We give to missions because we have been empowered by God to do so.

We do not give because we are good, generous people who want to give the little guy a chance to do a little better in the world.

We give because God has empowered us to give by blessing us with resources that lots of people in the world only dream of.

When we look at how God empowered the early church in Acts 2, one of the things we realize is that God empowered everyone. God did not discriminate against people the way their society did.

God empowered men and women, slaves and free, Jew and gentile.

When we give to mission, that same sense of equality has to be at the root of our giving.

When we look at the poor in the videos and the pictures, we must realize that they are our equals. Our wealth does not make us better or godlier than they are.

We must understand their poverty as the consequences of sin in the world, not as a sign of their failure as human beings.

We also must understand that our giving, according to Luke, is rooted in the work of economic justice Jesus spoke about.

Mission giving is a way of continuing to preach good news to the poor.

Final Illustration: Esther in Izmir

A university student in a country with the ruins of many churches from ages gone by.

Walked by church that had been abandoned since WWI.

Esther was surprised to see people meeting in it. It was a Baptist house church started in 2002.

Esther stopped in and the church gave her a New Testament.

She began reading and needed help form the church in understanding its meaning.

Church discipled her as she read the whole NT. She has come to faith in Jesus in an Islamic nation.

Esther’s faith experience took place because the people in the church gave to her the message of Jesus. And part of the reason why they were able to do so is because faithful American Baptists gave sacrificially to the World Mission Offering.

I wouldn’t make such a big deal about giving if I wasn’t convinced it really worked, if I wasn’t sure it changed lives, if I wasn’t sure this offering afforded us the opportunity to be in mission in ways we normally could not be.

Jesus told his disciples to give this message to the whole world. We give when we write a check; we give when we treat someone with kindness; we give when we fight for justice and fairness.

And we give because God has empowered us to do so.