“The End Of An Era…Or A New Beginning?”
Text:
Jeremiah 29:4-7
© October 14, 2007 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton
United Presbyterian Church.
Back
in July a 27-year-old woman was stabbed at a convenience store in
Unfortunately,
that’s the world that we live in today. A world where all too many people look at the
pain and suffering that’s right there in front of them, but basically they shrug
their shoulders and say, “Oh, well, it’s not my problem!”
Oh,
yes, it is your problem. That’s the essence of what the prophet
Jeremiah is saying to us here in this passage that we just listened to. You see, the situation was this. Around the year 600 B.C. the Babylonian
empire, based in the region where
Well,
as you might imagine, those people who were forced to live in exile didn’t like
it very much. And so they developed an
attitude where they essentially said, “We don’t want to have anything to do
with these Babylonians. And so we’re
going to do our best to just ignore them and go about our business as
usual. Yeah, they might have problems
and troubles that they’re dealing with.
But they’re their problems and
troubles – not ours.”
And
that’s when Jeremiah wrote those exiles a letter containing this message. Jeremiah said to them, “If you are truly
God’s people, you can’t ignore the people who live around you. You can’t just seek your own well-being and
what’s good for you. No, you need to
seek the well-being and what’s good for all people, no matter who they
are. Because whether you realize it or
not, their problems are your problems, and God wants you to do what you can to
make a difference in the communities where you live.”
I
think it would be safe to say that in many ways Crafton United Presbyterian
Church is making a difference in this community. We’re making a difference when it comes to
helping people who are going through difficult times. As you’re probably aware, our church runs the
food pantry that serves Crafton and Ingram.
And this year more than 70 families in the community have turned to us
for help when their cupboards at home have gotten bare. And the simple fact is that if our church
ceased to exist for some reason or if we decided that we weren’t willing to
dedicate the staff and resources anymore to operating the food pantry, there’s
no place that those more than 70 families would be able to turn. From time to time I’ve asked the other
pastors in town if one of their churches would like to take a turn and run the
food pantry, but whenever I make that offer, the only response I’ve ever gotten
is complete and total silence, with everyone just staring down at the table.
Every
month our church gets phone calls from people in the community asking for help
and guidance as they face some crisis in their lives. And when we ask people what led them to call
our church, quite often the response is, “Well, I called such-and-such church
in town first, but they said that they couldn’t help me, and that I ought to
ought to call you.”
Or
just a couple weeks ago a church in the community called us and said that they
wanted to donate a basket of food to a needy family, but they said that they
didn’t know any needy families in the area, and they wanted to see if we would
be able to steer them in the right direction.
The simple reality is that if for some reason Crafton United
Presbyterian Church ceased to exist, a lot of the hurting and needy people in
this community wouldn’t have a place to turn.
I
think it would also be safe to say that this church is making a difference when
it comes to reaching out to the children of the community. Each Wednesday at Youth Club I teach the kids
a story from the Bible. And it’s
exciting to do that, because virtually every week there are kids whose eyes go
wide and their mouths fall open when they hear about the amazing things that
God has done in different people’s lives.
They’re stories from the Bible that most of us might take for granted
that everyone knows. But for many of the
kids who come here to Youth Club it’s the first time they’ve ever heard them.
I
don’t think it’s a stretch to say that if we offered youth activities here
seven days a week, there would be dozens and dozens of kids who would be here
every single day. And that’s because our
church is succeeding in offering young people a safe place, in the midst of a
dangerous and violent world, where they can get together and experience for
themselves the love that God has for them and the love that God’s people have
for them as well. And so if for some
reason Crafton United Presbyterian Church suddenly disappeared from this community,
there would be a huge hole in many kids’ lives, because there isn’t any other place
else they could turn to get what they’re getting here.
And
our church is making a difference in this community in many other ways. Community groups like Al Anon and Al A Teen
and the Girl Scouts and the ICTUS choir count on our church for a place to
meet. Senior citizen programs that we
sponsor offer opportunities for older adults to meet together and eat
together. And our preschool is one of
the most highly regarded preschools in the area, with the teachers doing a
great job of getting youngsters excited about learning and preparing them for
kindergarten. And so if this church were
to suddenly vanish from the community, there would be a big hole in the lives
of many, many people.
The
sobering reality is that every year there are churches in our area that are
closing their doors. A couple weeks ago
the Presbyterian church in
But
that couldn’t happen to our church, could it?
Yes, it could. And it could
happen a lot faster than you might think.
Every year we ask people to pledge, every year we ask people to donate,
to contribute toward the basic operating costs of the church – to help cover the
cost of paying the gas bill and the electric bill, to help cover the cost of
having a part-time secretary and a part-time custodian, to help cover the cost
of having a pastor. But for years and
years the people of the church have been giving less than what it costs to run
the church. And so for years and years
we’ve been using up our reserve funds.
This year, for instance, it looks like donations will be about $40,000
less than what it costs to pay for the basic operating costs of the church. And that sort of deficit can’t go on forever.
Maybe
you’re thinking: well, let’s eliminate
some of the special things that we do and save money there. But virtually every special thing we have at
this church is a result of gifts we have received from sources outside the
membership of the congregation. Youth
Club and the other various youth ministries that we have aren’t paid for out of
the money that you contribute on Sunday morning. No, Youth Club is primarily funded through
gifts from sources outside this church.
In
the same way, some people might say, “Well, then, get rid of the van that we
have to bring people to church. That’s a
luxury.” But again no donations from
church members went toward the purchase of that van. That money came from outside the membership
of the church.
In
the same way, it is donations from outside the church that make it possible for
us to have Tricia Sanders as our Outreach Coordinator, that make it possible
for us to hire a new Coordinator of Youth, Family, and Young Adult Ministry who
will be starting in December, that make it possible for us to have fellowship
lunches after worship each week, that make it possible for us to have the
fantastic digital piano in the chancel.
Right
now 30% of the donations to our church come from just 2 church members. And half of all donations come from a total
of just 12 church members. Is that fair? Is that right?
Of
course, the common protest is, “Well, I can’t afford to give thousands and
thousands of dollars. I don’t have that
kind of money.” OK, maybe you don’t have
thousands and thousands of dollars that you can donate, but what can you give? When it comes to giving, God doesn’t ask us
to give what we don’t have. Instead, God
invites us to give in proportion to what we have received.
Well,
you might ask, what proportion should I give?
In answer to that question, the Bible speaks of the tithe. A tithe is 1/10. In other words, the Bible suggests that
giving 1/10, or 10%, of our income back to God for the doing of God’s work is a
good guideline to follow. As you compare
what you receive, as you compare your income to what you give, what percentage
are you currently giving? If it’s less
than 10%, start increasing it. Maybe
you’ll decide to start increasing your giving by at least 1% a year until you
get to 10%. And you know what: if you do that, chances are that somewhere
along the way you’ll discover that giving isn’t a burden, but that it’s a joy,
and you might even end up deciding that you’ll want to go beyond the tithe.
And
I’ll offer you the same guarantee that I offer every year. The guarantee is this: Tithe.
Give 1/10 of your income to support what God is doing here through this
church, and if at any time during the year you discover that God is not
providing for all your needs, just let me know, and the church will give you
all your donations back. So if you end up
deciding not to tithe, don’t say it’s because you can’t. Because the truth is that with that
guarantee, if you don’t tithe, it’s simply because you don’t want to tithe.
And
just to let you know that I’m not asking you to do something that I’m not
willing to, for the coming year I’m going to pledge at least $255 a week, or a
total of $13,260 for the year. I’m doing
that because I believe in what we’re doing here in this church. I’m doing that because I believe that God is
up to some great and exciting things in our midst, and I want to be a part of
it.
Our
church is making a difference in this community. But what does the future hold? If we choose to limit our giving and just go
through the motions and give what’s easy to give, then we’re probably nearing
the end of an era, we’re probably nearing the end of this church. But if we choose to be generous, if we choose
to do what is in our power to do and give in proportion to what God has given
to us, then this church is poised for a new beginning. If we choose to do what is in our power to do
and give in proportion to what God has given to us, then there’s no telling
what great and wonderful things God is just waiting to do.