What Jesus said about Love

Last month our focus was “What Jesus Said About Money” and money is something that affects all of us in one way or another.  Some of us because we have it and others of us because we don’t.  And last week at the end of the series we had Step Up Sunday and we asked folks to make a financial commitment for the upcoming year.  And many of you took the challenge and committed to increase your giving over last year, thank you so much. 

Now we are going to take a wee bit of a turn, over the next month and a half I’m going to be looking at “What Jesus Said About Our Emotions”.  And we are all emotional creatures.  Some more so than some but we all have emotions.  And sometimes it makes us question one another when others don’t feel like we feel.  And so questions are asked like “Do you have to be so emotional?” or the converse “Don’t you have any emotions?”  And the answers are “yes” and “no”. 

For those who wear their hearts on their sleeves they do have to be so emotional, that’s the way they are wired.  And for those who don’t show their emotions all the time, that doesn’t mean they don’t have emotions they just don’t show them. 

People who have no emotions are sociopaths, they don’t love, they don’t grieve, they don’t feel joy or sorrow.  But that isn’t the way it is supposed to be, we were created as emotional beings.  From the very first stories of creation we see Adam and Eve as creatures of emotion.   God created man, but then said it was not good for man to be alone.  So there was the emotion of loneliness, then God created woman and the man felt joy, and probably other emotions too but we won’t get into that.   They ate the forbidden fruit because of envy, they wanted what they didn’t have and what God did, then after they realized they had been deceived by the devil they felt afraid, and when they were confronted over their behaviour they felt guilt and then shame. 

And it is emotion that moves us to action, whether good action or bad action is up to us but action nevertheless.  It was Carl Jung who said “There can be no transforming of darkness into light, and of apathy into movement, without emotion.”

So from now until the middle of June we are going to be looking at “What Jesus Said About Emotions”  Love, anger, joy, fear and self-esteem.  Because we can’t ask Jesus to be in control of our lives unless he is also in control of our emotions.   We can’t just box that area of our life up and call it out of bounds to God.  We can’t tell God “You can have control over all areas of my life except for my emotions.”  We can’t declare our emotions “out of bounds” or “off limit” to his Lordship.   We can’t justify how we feel about things and how we react to things as simply “The way I was made” or the “Way I was born, I can’t help myself.”

Remember when we commit ourselves to a life of following Jesus that he defined it as “Being born again”, so while we may justify our behaviour as “the way I was born”  it doesn’t have to be part of your new birth.  And the excuse of “I’ve always been like that” doesn’t cut it in light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

So, where should we start?

Almost thirty years ago Tina Turner had a hit song with “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”  In the case of Christianity love has everything to do with it. 

Christianity was birthed in love was shaped by love and continues to be defined by love.  But what is love? 

If you asked a dozen people what love was you would probably get a dozen different answers.  And most of those answers would relate to how someone feels about someone else.  It was Woody Allen who said “I was nauseous and tingly all over. I was either in love or I had smallpox.”  And so for most of us love is a feeling, an emotion and it’s hard to control or harness our emotions.  And that’s why people can fall in love with someone and then fall out of love with the same person.  And so if we don’t have an emotional bond with someone than we don’t feel that we can love them. 

We bandy the word love around like it’s just a collection of letters but it is so much more than that.   And you will hear people say they love this or they love that.  But they can’t really love a reality show the same way they love their mother.  They can’t love pizza the way they love God. 

The Greek language however has several different words that are used to convey love for different things.  First there is Eros, which is a sensual love, a passionate love.  So my love for Angela is Eros.   The next form of love was Philio and this is the warm fuzzy feeling we have for those nearest and dearest to us.  It is Philio that I feel for Reg Thomas who has been my best friend since 1974.   This is friendship.  Have you ever wondered why Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love?  Then there is Storge, and this is affection, what you feel for your family members.  This is the emotion that I feel for my parents and my children. 

When Jesus talks about loving my neighbour, and loving other Christians and loving my enemies he doesn’t expect me to love them like I love Angela, or Reg or Stephen and Deborah. 

Instead he uses the word Agape.  And agape is less a feeling of the heart and more a feeling of the mind.  It is as much an act of the will as it is an act of the emotions.  It is a choice we make.   It is why Jesus can tell us to love our enemies.  It is a conscious action, something that you decide to do and something that you cannot do without the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. 

Remember the sum of Jesus teaching is to Love God and to Love Others.  Which is why when there is a disaster, on the other side of the world, happening to people we don’t know and might not like if we did know them Christian relief organizations are there firstest with the mostest.  And you have to wonder what would happen if everyone lived by those principles?

It was Napoleon Bonaparte who wrote “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires; but what foundation did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”  And the foundation of Jesus’ teaching?  Love for God and Love for People.

So it goes back to: what is love?  And I think we all know what love is supposed to be but that seems way too hard so we try to define what love is and what love isn’t. 

Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan?  Do you remember how it started?  A man came to Jesus and asked the question Luke 10:25 One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”   And so Jesus said you know what you are supposed to do, what is it the Law says?  And the man replied by saying Luke 10:27 The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”   

Simple enough right?  That must be what Jesus thought because he replies by saying Luke 10:28 “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”   Simple, right?  Apparently not because in the next verse we read Luke 10:29 The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”   And that’s when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan ending with the question Luke 10:36-37 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”  Simple, right?  Obviously not as simple as one would think because throughout the New Testament love is constantly being defined, spelled out and clarified. 

Jesus told those who choose to follow him in John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.”   So what are those commandments?  Luke 18:20 Jesus said “But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother.’”

And so Jesus told us that You Love People By Not Doing Things to Them  This is probably the easiest way to define love and the easiest way to display love.  Love does no wrong to others. 

We have all heard about the Hippocratic Oath, even if we don’t know what all is in the Hippocratic Oath, and what we do know is delivered through television and is wrong.  We hear TV Doctors say “remember what it says in the Hippocratic Oath “First do no harm””  but that isn’t in the Hippocratic Oath, that is just an old Latin saying. 

The Hippocratic Oath is the Oath historically taken by Doctors and it was written by a Greek Doctor named Hippocrates 400 years before the birth of Christ.  And the first part of the oath states:  I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

So really if we took a similar oath to never harm anyone we would be well on the way to being a loving person.  A good part of Love is not harming people.  Physically or emotionally. 

When Paul was defining love for the early Christ Followers in Rome he reached back into the Ten Commandments and pulled out four of the last five commandments Romans 13:9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”  So from this reference anyway love seems pretty simple.  You demonstrate your love to your spouse by not sleeping around on them.  You show you love to your annoying neighbour by not choking them to death while they sleep or poisoning their strawberries.  You show your love to the rich man down the street by not stealing his shiny new car.  And you do this by not coveting what doesn’t belong to you, not his wife, not his life and not his possessions.    

But when you stop and think about it, if that is all there is to loving someone all you would have to do is avoid them.  If you have no contact with people then you will not steal from them, lie to them, murder them etc. etc. 

By that definition of love the first two men who came upon the traveller in the story of the Good Samaritan loved the man, because they did not kill him, they did not steal from him or lie to him or rush home to sleep with his wife.

So the most loving people in the world would be the hermits who retreat from society, and maybe that’s why they do it.  It’s just easier to be nice to people when there are no people around to annoy you. 

But for most of us that’s not an option.

So in the real world our love is not only defined by how you don’t behave, more importantly it is shown by what we do do.  Luke 6:27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.”  And so Jesus told us that  You Love People by Doing Things For Them  If it was just in not doing bad things then we could love our enemies by ignoring them, but Jesus actually tells us to do good to those who hate us.   Probably the greatest definition of love written is in 1 Corinthians 13 and this is what Paul writes 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

This is how we show love in the everyday, nitty-gritty world we live in.  This is how we display the love we show to our family our friends and the strangers we come in contact with every day.  Maybe it could simply be redefined as respect. 

It is more about what you do do than what you don’t do. In this case love becomes work.  It goes beyond avoiding a problem and it corrects the problem.

It is love that forgives, it is love that goes the extra mile, it is love that prepares meals for Ronald McDonald House, and love that puts on work clothes and helps clean up the back yard at Phoenix house or helps paint rooms at Adsum house.  It’s love that writes the cheque for World Hope or World Vision when there is a need on the other side of the world.

And it’s the little things, holding the door for someone when you go into a store, from my vantage point at Tim’s I am amazed at how few people exhibit even that basic common courtesy.  Giving someone a break in traffic, giving the homeless guy a buck and not lecturing him on his behaviour, how about giving someone a smile.  Carol Burnett said that her philosophy in life came from Beverly Sills who said “I’m not always happy, but I always try to be cheerful.”

It’s easy to love those who love us, Jesus tells us that in Luke 6:32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! Hitler probably loved his mother. 

But this isn’t about loving the high profile sinners, the Paul Bernardos in life, or the crazy pig farmer from BC, well it is kind of but that is pretty abstract. 

This is about demonstrating the love of Christ to those we come into contact with every day, the staff at Tim Horton’s, the homeless guy on the street, the person you work with, your spouse and your kids. 

How about the parent who abused you?  The boss that passed you over for promotion?  The bully who picks on you?  What about the jerk that cuts you off in traffic or has 12 items in the 10 item express lane.   

Luke 6:33-35 And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return. “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked.  Not just avoid doing them harm but do good to them.

That’s tough, and it will be a choice that you make, you will either do it or you won’t do it.

Lets’ go back to the scripture that was read earlier, where Jesus told his apostles John 13:34-35 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

And finally Jesus said Your  Love Defines Who You Are  People will recognize you by what you do and don’t do.

Jesus told us that when people see our love they will know that we belong to him.  Do they?  And John writes in 1 John 3:14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.  And Peter wrote in 1 Peter 4:8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

And I know as Christians that we blow it from time to time and there are always people around to point a finger and say “and you call yourself a Christian”.  And that’s good because we need to be reminded occasionally that we do call ourselves Christians and with that comes responsibilities. And the greatest responsibility that we have as a Christ follower is to demonstrate his love through the way we live.  “Your love will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” 

Because ultimately Jesus said that people would know that we follow him, not by our wealth, and not by our theology, or by the translation of the Bible we read, or the church we attend or the T-shirt we wear but by the way we love.  And you say “that sounds hard.”  It is hard; if it was easy everybody would be doing it. 

So the bottom line is this “If people had to guess who you were following by your life and your behaviour what would their first guess be?”

Every one of us is older today then we were yesterday, and yesterday is gone, you can’t change how you loved people yesterday but you can decide how you are going to love them today and tomorrow.

And so I close with the words of Anne Morrow Lindbergh  “Love is a force that enables you to give other things. It is the motivating power. It enables you to give strength, freedom and peace. It is not a result; it is a cause. It is not a product, it produces. It is a power, like steam or electricity. It is valueless unless you can give something else by means of it.”

 

Do Not Misuse Your Money

Everybody ready for tomorrow?  April 30^th, last day to get your taxes filed for 2011.  Or maybe you’ve already filed.  Maybe it depends on whether it you are getting money back or paying money out.

And taxes are a touchy subject for some folks, Politicians are elected or rejected often based on what they promise to do with our taxes.  Oh, if we only had every tax cut that had been promised to us by the parties who got elected into power. If I recall a little bit of my world history the United States was born out of frustration with taxes that were being paid to the Crown. 

I understand here in Canada the Canadian Revenue Agency has come up with a new motto:  It used to be: More Ways to Serve You, but now it is:  “We’ve got what it takes to take what you’ve got.”

And taxes have been a touchy subject as long as there have been taxes being paid, and that has been for quite a long time.  How do you think the Egyptians built the pyramids, or the Myans built their cities, or the Romans constructed the aqueducts and coliseums?

And as long as there have been folks collecting taxes there have been folks resenting having their taxes collected.  Throughout the New Testament the term “Tax Collector” is often used in statements like Matthew 9:10 Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.  Or Mark 2:16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” Nice.  And when the religious leaders criticized Jesus one of the charges was Matthew 11:19 . . .‘He’s a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’

So here we are in week last of our Stewardship month.  You can all breathe a sigh of relief.  Through the month of April we have been looking at what Jesus said about Money.  So on April 1 we looked at “Don’t Serve Money”, on the 15^th it was “Be Careful Where You Store Your Treasures” and last week was “Don’t Worry About Money”.   

Sometimes pastors choose to not speak about money in church, maybe in hopes that somehow their people will learn about it on their own, perhaps by osmosis.  Or maybe it's because they feel that talking about money is too personal or too obtrusive. but Jesus talked a lot about money, he talked about the way people make it and what they do with it after they have it.  And because money is talked about in the scriptures, and because Jesus seemed to attach a great deal of importance to it, to the point of linking it to our eternities it is something that needs to be addressed. And we can’t just ignore it because it bothers some people and offends other people.

Seriously, what would happen if every preacher prepared his messages to not offend or bother anyone?  You might as well open fortune cookies. 

But apparently Jesus wasn’t afraid to express his opinion on a wide variety of topics that are deemed off limits today.  People’s behaviour, people’s attitudes and people’s money.  Surprisingly though, especially if you are in the habit of watching the political situation in the States, Jesus never talked about politics.  He never told people how to vote, never expressed a preference for a certain political party, never wore a campaign button or endorsed any particular candidate or political party.  Just sayin’.

And this is how this particular story of Jesus happened.  Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees met together to plot how to trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. In the original language it says “they wanted to ensnare him with his own words”.  And so the Pharisees enlisted some unlikely allies, in the NLT we are told they were “supporters of Herod”  the actual word used was “Herodians”.

So on one side you have the Pharisees, the religious elite of the Jews and on the other side you have the Herodians who through their support of Herod, the puppet king of Palestine, are de-facto supporters of Rome.  What is that old saying about “strange bed-fellows”? 

And so this unlikely and unholy union asks Jesus a question that on the outside seems like simple curiosity.  Matthew 22:16-17 They sent some of their disciples, along with the supporters of Herod, to meet with him. “Teacher,” they said, “we know how honest you are. You teach the way of God truthfully. You are impartial and don’t play favourites. Now tell us what you think about this: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Now we need to understand that this was not just a general question about Jesus’ philosophy on taxation.  They were not talking about taxation in general they were speaking of a very specific tax.  2000 years ago in conquered Palestine there were several different layers of taxation, much as there is today in our country. 

Those in the know tell us that there was a first of all a ground tax. Kind of like our property tax.  Then there was income tax, that's self-explanatory.   And then there as what was called “the poll tax” or the “Tribute”.  This tax had been put in place when the Romans conquered Israel in in 63 B.C. and had to be paid by every male from the age of fourteen to the age of sixty-five, and by every female from the age of twelve to sixty-five.  It was a tax paid simply for the privilege of being alive and living as a subject of the Emperor. 

And people resented paying it.  There had already been one rebellion, 25 years earlier, primarily over this particular tax. So you see where this is going, right?  If Jesus speaks out in favour of the tax, the ordinary people are going to be outraged; it will solidify what the religious right has been saying about Jesus not being the Messiah.  However if Jesus rejects the tax the Herodians will take the report back to Herod, and eventually to the Romans, that Jesus is talking treason and encouraging people to not pay their taxes. Win, win for the enemies of Jesus, lose, lose for Jesus himself.  In Australia they would say it was a bit of a sticky wicket, here we would say that Jesus was between a rock and a hard place. 

Doesn’t seem to bother him though he doesn’t even break stride, instead we read Matthew 22:18-19 But Jesus knew their evil motives. “You hypocrites!” he said. “Why are you trying to trap me? Here, show me the coin used for the tax.”  Some people have commented that it shows that Jesus wasn’t concerned about money because he didn’t even have a coin on him. But the coin he was talking about wasn’t simply pocket change, it was a denarius.  And it was a silver coin that was the equivalent of a full day’s salary.  But I think it goes deeper than that.  The problem with the coin was the inscription on it. On one side would be a picture of the present ruler and the inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of Divine Augustus.”  This picture and the claim of quasi-divinity made the coin a portable idol, is it any wonder that Jesus wasn’t carrying one with him.

So they waited with baited breath, waiting to find out who Jesus would offend, knowing that there was no way that he could come out of this unscathed.  And the we read Matthew 22:20 When they handed him a Roman coin, he asked, “Whose picture and title are stamped on it?” Simple question, perhaps they thought he was simply stalling for time and so they answered.  Matthew 22:21 “Caesar’s”. And I’m sure they were thinking . . . “and” “Well, then,” he said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

And then we are told in Matthew 22:22 His reply amazed them, and they went away. So what was Jesus saying and what is the message for us today?

Some of Your Money is the Government’s  Nobody really likes paying taxes, that something that most of us have in common, we think we pay too much and deep down think others pay too little.  We always assume the burden falls to those of us in the middle.  The very poor don’t pay tax and neither do the very rich.  Most of us were not surprised at the attitude expressed by American business woman Leona Helmsley.  Helmsley was worth over a billion dollars, when an employee commented that she must pay a lot of taxes when she said “We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes...” She took it as her due that she shouldn’t have to pay taxes.  Of course she did go to jail for income tax evasion.  But the reality is that all of those who enjoy what our country has to offer should pay taxes.  It was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who said “Taxes, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”

Jesus was acknowledging that there was benefit to being a part of the Roman Empire.  The sword of Rome might have been wielded by an oppressor but it had brought peace to the known world, something that hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years. Road systems were developed for trade, water systems were built and laws were being enforced.  It wasn't perfect but it was working.  It was the Roman Historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus who wrote “The repose of nations cannot be secure without arms. Armies cannot be maintained without pay, nor can the pay be produced without taxes.”

We grumble and complain about government waste and extravagance but as long as we want our public health care, as long as we want our children educated, as long as we expect a degree of safety, both from outside forces and from the criminal element there will be taxes that have to be paid.  If we expect safe water to come out of our taps when we turn them on, and if we expect our streets to be plowed and our garbage to be picked up we will have to pay taxes. 

And the more you travel the more you appreciate our system.  (Pictures from Africa)  Because this is what health care looks like without the taxes we pay.  And this is what education looks like without the taxes we pay.  And this is what main roads look like without the taxes we pay.  This what the drinking water supply looks like without the taxes we pay.  And this is what dinner looks like, actually that has nothing to do with taxes it’s just one of my favourite Africa meal pictures. 

And so Jesus was telling us that if we want all the benefits that our tax dollars bring then we will have to pay taxes.   And I’m proud to pay taxes in Canada, although truth be told I think I could be just as proud even if I only paid half as much.

And maybe tax time can even be a time to be thankful.  You understand that you pay more in taxes than your Grandparents, or maybe even your parents made.   When I was a teenager I remember my father telling me what he paid for income tax that year and he seemed excited about it.  When I asked him why he said “Do you know how much I had to make in order to pay that much in tax?”

And so today, as 2000 years ago there are taxes that must be paid, and I also think that our Governments need to pay heed to other words from 2000 years ago as well, it was Emperor Tiberius Caesar who observed “It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them.”

Some of Your Money is Yours  Then there is the money that we get to keep.  And this money comes with all kinds of choices.  Will we spend it or will we save it?  And what we will spend it on and what will we save it for?   Last week we looked at Christ’s words when he told his followers Luke 12:22 Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear.”  And while we are not to worry about such things we are still required to provide them. 

And some of us make good choices and some of us make bad choices.  Last week there was a story in the news about a single mom who was destitute and was about to lose her home but then she won the lottery.  That’s supposed to be a good news story, but my first thought was “What was a single mom who was destitute and who was about to lose her home doing buying lottery tickets?”  You understand that is a message for a different time, but lotteries are really a tax on the mathematically challenged.

If we spend more than we make eventually it will catch up with us, if we spend our money to support our addictions, eventually that will catch up with us. 

And I don’t think that Christians are supposed to be destitute but I do believe that we are supposed to be responsible with what we have.  A good exercise for all of us is every once is a while just sit down and figure out where you are spending your money.  Are you using it wisely or not.  And that really is subjective, what you might consider wise I  might consider foolish.  But if you are having trouble paying for food and shelter or if you have problems giving the government their share or God his share then you may be spending it in places that it shouldn’t be spent.  And those are all part of the choices we make.

Some of Your Money is God’s  From the very beginning of the book people have offered up something as an offering or as a sacrifice.  So in Genesis and continuing throughout the Bible we see people returning part of what they have to God.  Notice I said "returning" because we need to understand that all that we have comes from God, from our lives to our livelihoods.  And sometimes that was called offerings, and sometimes it was called sacrifices and sometimes it was called a tithe.

And those gifts, those sacrifices, those offerings were given for a couple of different reasons.  From the time the Israelites began gathering together for corporate worship there were costs associated with that worship. 

If you read through the Old Testament first there was the Tabernacle, which was like a portable temple that needed to be constructed and maintained.  There were priests who led the people into worship who needed to be paid, there were scrolls and ink for recording the scriptures that needed to be purchased.  There were sacrifices and offerings that were part of their worship which needed to be provided.  And God called on his people to provide for those expenses.  There was a fiscal responsibility to their worship. 

Could God have done it without the giving of his people?  Sure he’s God.  But he knew that anything in life that doesn’t cost you something isn’t worth anything. 

Today there is still that practical aspect of our worship.  If you want to worship under a tree by yourself there will probably be very little practical cost associated with that.  However, if you want to come together corporately to worship there are costs associated with that.  We’ve talked about this before.  Before we even look at salaries at Cornerstone there is a building to be paid for and maintained.  There are mortgage payments that have to be made every month, there is power that needs to be paid to light and heat the building, there are cleaning supplies and insurance and snowplowing and lawn mowing. Last week they were here to inspect and maintain the alarms and emergency lighting and to inspect and clean the Heating and Ventilation system.    And that is before we do anything in the building.  And then there are the salaries and curriculum and licensing costs that allow us to provide the ministries for you and your family.

Do we require that people at Cornerstone give?  Yep, sure do.  Does that mean that if you don’t give you can’t worship here?  Nope.  Does that mean that if we are going to send someone around to your door looking for your offering envelope?  Nope.   

But if you don’t give there will be no Cornerstone.  You understand that right?   If the people of Cornerstone didn’t make the sacrifices necessary to pay the bills then the staff would be laid off, the building would be sold and there would be no Cornerstone.  Because there is no magical pot that we go to for our funds.  Every dollar in our budget comes from those who call Cornerstone their church home.

But more than just the practical side of giving is the spiritual side of giving.  Because even if you were worshipping under a tree by yourself there should still be a sense of giving back to God.  Early in the story that was called making sacrifices and it involved bringing meat, grain, wine or oil and offering it to God as a gift.  Did God need those things?  No he is God.  But it goes back to anything that doesn’t cost you anything isn’t really worth anything, including your worship.  Because it allows us to acknowledge that what we have comes from God and to be thankful for that which we keep.       

And very early in the story it is laid down what God’s people are to return to God, When the law was laid down over three thousand years ago it was written Leviticus 27:30 “One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.”  And it was reiterated in Deuteronomy 14:22 “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year.”      

And often when you bring up the tithe people will tell you that the tithe is an Old Testament concept, and that is a sermon in itself, but when Paul was writing about money to the church in Corinth this is what he wrote. 1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. The believers in Corinth had a Jewish heritage so I wonder what they assumed when Paul said that should put aside a portion of the money they had earned.

And then they will go on to tell you that the Tithe was used for something very specific and that is true, listen to the words of the prophet Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. The tithe was provided so that the temple and all that was involved in temple worship could be maintained.  And we don’t have a temple and priests and scribes but we do have a church and we do have a pastoral staff. 

So what is the tithe?  Tithe simply means tenth and throughout the word of God the concept is reiterated that all that we have comes from God but he requires a tenth of it back.  For the people of God this does not mean that we give God ten percent of what is ours, it means that He allows us to keep ninety percent of what is His.  Now listen to the last part of that verse from Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!

And so God tells his people, “If you tithe, if you return to me ten percent of what I have given to you then I will bless you”  You see when we give to God, we are just taking our hands off what already belongs to Him.

And as a side note, we live in a great country where if you give to God what is God’s than Caesar won’t want nearly as much.  When you do up your taxes this year and you use the receipt that is provided by Cornerstone for your giving you will discover that Caesar will give you a break on your taxes.  If you gave a hundred dollars a week, which is the tithe on a fifty thousand dollar salary,  then you will save over $2,500.00 on your taxes.  And to quote F. J. Raymond “Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.”

Don't Worry Just Trust

How many folks out there were born after 1958?  So what do you think of the change in the Old Age Security age?   If you missed the last budget the age for eligibility has changed for the Canadian Old Age Security from 65 to 67 and I would suspect that is only the beginning. And it really doesn’t affect how I was thinking about retirement because my plan has been to continue pastoring until I’m seventy.  All things being equal.  But for some people it is a concern, they have been anxiously awaiting the day they turned 65 and could begin drawing that enormous amount the government has been promising them.

 A little history lesson here, the first public pension plan in Canada was put into place in 1927 and it basically required the federal government to share the cost of provincially run, means-tested old age benefits. 

The plan as we know it was introduced in 1952 and allowed people to retire with some benefits when they turned 70.  In 1965 legislation was passed that reduced the eligibility age to 65, phased in over a five year period.   

We are planning on going to the SaltScapes Expo next week and if it is like the other years it will be full of different tourist destinations in the Maritimes, food exhibits, and retirement service people.  Interesting.

And at first you would be tempted to think that is simply related to the demographics of those who read SaltScapes, but it’s not just the SaltScapes Expo.  If you go to the boat show they are there too.  Not the tourist and food exhibits but the retirement people.  And if you go to the home show or you go to the RV show there they are.  Walk down the mall and there they and everyone talks about their RRSP’s and when they plan to retire, the freedom 55 or 60.  Angela and I are on the freedom 85 plan.  Figure if we can retire at 85 and die at 90 we should be all right.

I was recently reading that it was in the 1950’s that western society achieved a standard of living that had never before been seen in history.  We had come to a place where the average person was no longer living day to day or a hand to mouth existence.  All of a sudden the average family had discretionary income, the opportunity to buy what to that point had been considered luxury items and to save for retirement.

Today we have stepped even beyond simply saving for retirement to the point that we are not content with being able to retire to a life of ease we want to be able to enjoy all the facets of life that escaped us during our years of employment.   

And it is a concern for folks that they may not be able to have that lifestyle when they eventually retire.  And certainly I have seen examples in the past of people who sacrificed things in order to have lots in place for tomorrow only to have tomorrow arrive without them.

We want to go from being Yuppies to being WOOFs (Well Off Older Folks).  And so there is a whole new industry that has sprung up so that we can invest now for that day down the road when we no longer have to work, whether that day comes when we are 55, 65 or 85.

If you live in Canada when you retire you may have to worry about whether you can have full cable or basic cable, you might worry about whether you will be able to travel, you may have to worry about whether you live in a nice neighborhood or a sketchy neighbourhood, you might even have to worry about whether you buy Kraft dinner or the no name mac and cheese but you will not starve to death or have to go naked.

I have delivered groceries to people who told me that their children had nothing to eat and when I got there they were watching cable and the apartment smelled of cigarette smoke, indicating that there were apparently choices that had already been made that precluded buying food, but that’s not the same as not having food to eat.

If tomorrow Angela and I were unable to work, we would eventually have to sell our home and sell our cars, we might lose everything we own.  We might lose our lifestyle but in Canada in 2012 we would not lose our lives. 

For the vast majority of those of us who live in Canada today the concept of worrying about what we will eat or what we will wear is radically different then it was when these words were spoken.  Today we worry about what our choices will be, will I have chicken or will I have beef? Will I wear the red top or will I wear the blue top?  Which pair of shoes will I wear today?  Will it be Tims or McDonalds for lunch. 

Today those are frivolous choices; 2000 years ago they were life themselves. When Jesus said Luke 12:22 Then, turning to his disciples, Jesus said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear.”  He was talking to people who sometimes did not have enough food to eat and who only had a very basic wardrobe.

Let’s put this passage into context.  The crowds coming to hear Jesus preach have grown from tens of people to hundreds of people and now we are told in Luke 12 thousands of people have gathered to hear the words of Jesus.  And it is as he is teaching a group of thousands we are told in  Luke 12:13 Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.” And Jesus makes a turn in his teaching and starts to talk about greed and makes the statement Luke 12:15 Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”   And then he tells them a story.  It is sometimes referred to as “The Parable of the Rich Fool”  you may remember I referenced some of it last week.  This man had so much that he didn’t know what to do with it, he has to tear down his barns to build even bigger barns to hold all that he had. 

Jesus was drawing a picture of a man who we rich beyond the average person’s imagination?  If you showed our homes and cars and lifestyle to the majority of the world we would be that man.  Our RRSP’s and mutual funds are simply bigger barns.

Remember that this story was told in a society where people lived from day to day.  That was the nature of the beast, it was a subsistence economy, you grew it, caught it or picked it and that was what you had.  Or you made it and sold it to buy something that you needed for today, and that is how many people still live around the world. 

And so I’m sure that many of them were feeling a little smug when they heard Jesus say: Luke 12:21 “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” 

“Not a problem Jesus, we have that covered you don’t have to worry about that.  We promise we will not store up earthly wealth.”    Seriously, they had no barns that were bursting at the seams; their daily concerns had more to do with how to find food and clothing then what to do with all the extras.  His apostles had given up everything to follow him, they had left behind their professions and their possessions, and then we read in Luke 12:22 Then, turning to his disciples, (it was almost as if he knew what they were thinking) Jesus said, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food to eat or enough clothes to wear.”  He was telling them, you can be caught up in a little amount of stuff as well as lots of stuff.

This was not a once off statement, did you catch what he said “That is why I tell you. . .” this was an ongoing discussion.  Perhaps at the end of the day as Christ and the twelve sat around the fire the discussion would turn to what was on the menu for the next day, where they were going to come up with enough food for the twelve of them.  It had to be a concern, especially for whoever was in charge of making dinner. 

Can you imagine the food they must have gone through when they were travelling around the countryside?  Everyday twelve men would eat breakfast and then they would eat lunch and pretty soon it was supper time and they would have to eat again.   My father used to tell the story about an incident that happened with his father during the depression, my Grandfather was working down on one of the wharfs on Grand Manan and one of the other men said “It looks like it’s lunch time”  to which my Grand Father replied “It might be lunch time at your house but at our house it’s just twelve o’clock.”   So maybe the apostles didn’t have lunch time they just had noon time.  But even if they skipped lunch it was still 24 meals a day, that had to come from somewhere.  And then there was the clothing issue, “Peter is really rough on his robe, and it’s starting to wear in the back, and if he doesn’t do something soon we are going to be seeing more of Peter than we want to.  And all this walking is wearing out our sandals, does anyone know where we can buy a dozen pair of sandals?  Cheap?”

This entire section is directed at the committed, to people who had already given up a lot to follow Christ and now he is challenging them to take one more step of faith.  Understand they were a lot further down the path then most of us are.  They had already given up more than any one of us has given up.  Now he was telling them to not even worry about the basics about staying alive. 

First Jesus Told them: Do Not Worry!  The word “Worry” is mentioned 34 times in the Bible and in 26 of those instances it is prefaced by the words “Do Not” and another five times we are asked the question “Why worry?”  And I would say that the command to “Not Worry” is a whole lot easier said than done.  How often have you been told “Oh don’t worry about that.”  Or how often has someone asked you “Why are you worrying about that?” 

Those of us who don’t worry much can’t understand those who do worry.  “What good does it do?” we ask.  And those who do worry can’t understand those of us who don’t worry.  “Don’t you care?” they ask.  So I’m not sure that the command “not to worry” is real helpful in itself.  But maybe this will help. (Bob Newhart Video Stop It)

So roughly translated Jesus was saying “Stop it”.  And  I’m not sure that the simple command to not worry by itself is overly helpful, so Jesus goes on to add to the command.

And so Then He Asks Them: Why Worry?  We all know that worry doesn’t accomplish anything, it is different from trying to find a solution.  With worry we don’t say “How can we solve this?” It jumps right to worst case scenario.

Realistically we need to be able to be able to look at what life might have in store for us, but we can’t stop at that point and not move on.  Every decision we make in life might have negative consequences, Jesus himself challenges people to count the cost before they move on, but to move on. 

Trust me when we were in the planning stages of this building there were nights that I woke up in the middle of the night and wondered how were we going to make that $9,000.00 a month mortgage payment, that was more over $2,000.00  than our monthly income, and what would happen if nobody came.  And then I would think: it’s a going to be a great building in a great location, and if worse comes to worse than we will sell it and move on and then I would go back to sleep.  Amelia Earhart said “Of course I realized there was a measure of danger. Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when I first considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it again.” 

Earhart realized that either she would make it home safe and sound or she wouldn’t and she determined that it wouldn’t be a point of worry.  I’m sure she did everything in her power to increase the odds in her favour, but she knew that worrying wouldn’t change the outcome.

At some point we need to realize that whatever it is in our lives that we are worried about, it will either happen or it won’t, and all of our worry won’t make one iota of a difference. 

 And so Jesus asks his disciples Luke 12:25 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?   60 seconds that’s all, will worry add even 60 seconds to your life?  Of course not.  If anything worry will subtract time from our lives.  In the physical sense health professionals warn us about worry and what it does to our blood pressure, and how it creates ulcers and gives us head-aches and stress. But more than that it robs us of time we could be spending doing other things, productive things.

Of course Jesus wasn’t expecting an answer, it was simply a rhetorical question so he warns them.  Luke 12:26 And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things?

In the parable of the sower Jesus talks about good seed that was sown and took root and began to grow but was soon overtaken by the thorns.  And then he told them the meaning of the parable Luke 8:14 The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.

In his book “Crazy Love” pastor Francis Chan challenges us with this question “Do you see evidence of God’s kingdom in your life Or are you choking it out slowly by spending too much time, energy, money and thought on the things of this world?”

What is it that steals your attention away from God?

It was French playwright Jean Anouilh who said “We poison our lives with fear of burglary and shipwreck, and the house is never burgled, and the ship never goes down.”  And Winston Churchill who said “When I look back on all the worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.”

Here is a reality check: your wishing won’t make it happen and your worry won’t keep it from happening. 

So what is the opposite of worry?  Trust.  Finally He Challenges Them: Learn to Trust! 

We worry about things when we don’t trust them.  Whatever that level of mistrust is or why we don’t trust.  Worry is a lack of trust.  People worry about flying because they don’t trust airplanes, people worry about being on the water when they don’t trust boats, people will often worry about what their kids are up to because they don’t trust their kids.

And sometimes that is warranted, at some time perhaps we were let down or we know someone who was let or we read about someone who was let down.  But sometimes it is simply us worrying.  What was it the psychologist asked in the video “Have you ever been buried alive in a box? Do you know anyone who has been buried alive in a box?’’

Jesus tells the disciples: “Look around, do the birds worry?  Yet God feeds them.”  Little side note here, the birds don’t worry but the birds do work, God doesn’t just drop the worms in their nest.  “Look at the wild flowers”  Jesus suggests “Even Solomon, the richest king in our history didn’t dress like them” 

If you can imagine the worst case scenario why not flip it and imagine the best thing that could happen.  Be like the guy who fell off the ten story building and when he went by the third floor someone heard him say “So far, so good.”

Jesus was asking the disciples “Has it worked out so far?  Have we starved to death or had to run around naked?”   I mentioned earlier that the word worry was used 34 times in the Old and New Testament, the word trust is used in 134 times. 

The question is this:  Can you trust God?  Can you trust him to provide for you and to allow you to provide for his church?  

Two things to finish with  this morning, it was Mitzi Chandler who said “Worry is as useless as a handle on a snowball.”  I have no idea what that means but it sounds great. 

And the most important thing this morning is the last words of our scripture passage and they are the words of Jesus in Luke 12:32 “So don’t be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom.

Can you believe that today, are you able to trust the one who holds the universe in the palm of his hand?