Sermon Lenten Wednesday Service: Give

Sermon Lenten Series 2012 Give

Text: Luke 6:37-38, 7:11-15

Luke 6:37-38 ³⁷Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who fills us completely with compassion and love.

         Our theme this evening is give. And when I think of give, I then think of gift, and then I think of Christmas presents, and then I think about getting Christmas presents. I think it’s rather telling that within moments of thinking about give, I have flipped it completely around and found myself at getting.

         Now after I get away from presents in my mind, what I go to is offering. Our tithe of a monetary value each month, week, or year, or whatever. And I think that’s what goes through people’s heads when we start to think about giving.

         In our text from Luke I don’t think it really has that much to do with money. Now, we want to think so, and I know you could look at the messages of people like Joel Osteen and other televangelists who will tell you a dollar sent to them is a dollar you will see in return. Now maybe that’s the case with some people, but I don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about. I think Jesus is talking about giving of ourselves.

On Monday night I attended a Chili with the Bishop event at Bergen Lutheran, the last of a series of Chili events where they have been announcing the South Dakota Synod’s new vision statement, “That all may be fed.” At the event the Bishop commented on the difference between sympathy and compassion. Most people are sympathetic. We have sympathy for others. When we read a story in the newspaper, or watch a report on the TV we get upset, we become saddened or angry about what has happened to other people. But, then we turn the channel or put the newspaper down. So, we hear the situation, but we don’t do anything about it. What is needed instead is compassion. And that is what is necessary for true giving.

Of course is it possible to give through sympathy, we can see a sad situation, write a single check, and send it off to get it off our conscious. But, instead can we give through compassion? Compassion is continuing to send monetary help while the need continues. It’s getting in your car, going there and lending a hand. It’s visiting the people who have been harmed, or ostracized, cut off from everyone else. Giving through compassion means you have to become involved, it means you are going to be in relationship with other people, as scary as that sounds.

My friend Elly works for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and is based in Jerusalem. One of the things she does on a daily basis there is walk with the people of Palestine. Not just walking along side them on the street, but walking with them, accompanying them along their daily troubles. She works a lot with the youth of the church. Currently they are working on getting a group of youth prepared to come over here this summer for a presentation tour and a visit to New Orleans during the National Youth Gathering. One of the major steps they have to take is getting visas arranged so they will be allowed to travel. But, to get the visas means they have to go through a interview, and to get to the interview they have to cross from the Palestinian West Bank to Israeli West Jerusalem. And it’s not as easy as crossing from North Sioux City to Sioux City. It’s a little more complicated than speed cameras. There are 20-30 foot high concrete walls with barbed wire on top and the only ways through are at a few checkpoints along the wall. To get through a checkpoint you enter one gate, essentially a turnstile like you would see at a ballpark, but instead of entering a open beautiful field you find yourself in a enclosed metal bar tunnel that leads you along winding to another turnstile, and then another, then another. Finally after having all of your paperwork checked they were allowed to enter West Jerusalem. And on the way home they have to return through the same barriers. Accompaniment, being with other people in their hardest times, going through the same barriers they go through, is truly giving of yourself.

And now you are all sitting there thinking, well, that sounds incredibly difficult.

But, it is something you can do without travelling across the world. You can go visit the elderly in the nursing home, you can visit your neighbors in the hospital, you can go to the Prison and visit the inmates during a Thursday evening service. Pastor Kwen, one of the Chaplains for the Prison in Springfield, said visiting prison is one of the best ways to share the gospel without having to say anything. They are so glad of your presence.

We give of ourselves through simply being with others. The best form of accompaniment, and what people need most is not our money or our work, but simply our presence.

At the Chili with the Bishop event they did a brief bible study on another passage from Luke from the very next chapter, Luke 7:11-15

“Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him.¹² As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

 ¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.”

         What Jesus does when his heart goes out to this widow, when he has compassion for this widow, is to go to her and be with her in this most horrific of moments. It was only a short period of time, and he then moved on, but his presence made such a difference.

         And Jesus’ presence is not just for that widow. The reason we give, why we have compassion is because we ourselves have known the feeling of being on the bottom and having Christ lift us up. It is the reason we give, because Christ gave so much to us. Christ hungers when we hunger, Christ walks through the barriers we walk through. Christ gives, more than we ever can, and we feel that compassion. And we let that compassion and giving fill us when we are so empty. And finally full we go out and extend Christ’s love and compassion to the world around us. Finally full we are able to give of ourselves.