For your insomnia

Sunday's sermon - note: I don't preach from a manuscript, but this is 90% of what I said (minus the typos - who likes to proofread?).

Okay, I know we are presenting our pledges today, so it says somewhere in the Bible that the priest must make a silly joke about giving to church. Because we want to be faithful to the bible, I have a couple, but if they are not funny, it’s not my fault. I’m just doing what I’m supposed to do. Here goes:

One day there was a family walking out of church. The man says to his wife, “That wasn’t much of a sermon that father gave.” The wife then adds, “Yea, and the choir sang off key.” Meanwhile, their small son has been listening to his parents’ conversation. Finally, he speaks up, “It seemed all right to me,” he says, “especially considering that it only cost us a dollar!”

One more. A 100 dollar bill, a 20 dollar bill, and a one dollar bill meet up at the shredder at the end of their lives. The 100 says, "I've seen the whole world during my lifetime. Why, I've been on cruises in the Caribbean, safaris in Africa, and vacations in Europe." The 20 says, "Well, I've not done quite as well, but I have been to Atlantic City, Disneyland, and Starbucks." They both turn to the one dollar bill and ask, "How about you?" The one, not wanting to be outdone, says, "I've seen the whole country as well. I've been from church to church to church..." Then the 100 asked, "What's a church?"

I know those aren’t very funny, but when you Google church jokes you will find more and more jokes about stewardship, tithing, and money more than any other, probably because a really good joke will have an element of truth to it and these jokes do reflect the reality of stewardship.

And it’s customary for priests and preachers to tell these kinds of jokes because frankly, it’s a little uncomfortable for the preacher to say and for the listeners to hear, “Folks, you need to give more.”

At least it is for me. I talked to my friend Mike this week and he relayed the story of our friend Nathan and his visit to a new church. Apparently he attended church on the wrong day because the pastor was fired up. The Sunday before was stewardship Sunday and the pledges were not meeting expectations.

Now I would prefer to tell you a joke and hope you get the hint, but this pastor left nothing for the creative imagination. It was so hard, that people actually got up during the sermon and walked out!
I don’t know if the pastor’s tactic worked, but something tells me probably not. At St Michael’s there will not be any screaming or threats or even guilt trips. I try to do unto others as I would have them do to me, and screaming, threats and guilt trips have never worked on me, just ask my mama.

We do pretty well here. When I say we do pretty well, I mean that we always seem to meet our needs. We need to be challenged on a consistent basis, because we always need to be challenged. But I have faith that we will receive our pledges and we will make our budgets and rely, as we always do, on God to see us through each year.

So my stewardship sermon will not be so much about money and percentages and all that, even though I think they are very important, and I hope you do, too.

Instead I want to know why we believe in God.

I know that might sound silly, ‘why do we believe in God,’ but think about it for a minute. For a long time I believed in God for the same reason that Abby will believe in God. I’ll tell her to. She’ll be in church. She will say the memory verses. She’ll be in Christmas Pageants. She will reflect what I say, because her father is reflecting what he was told.

And unless she or anyone else actually thinks and searches why they believe in God, then chances are their Christianity will be a watered down, inch thick, shallow attempt at faith.

Faith that is a dogmatic imperative given by authoritative adults will result in faith that cultural and sentimental but not life changing.

A recent survey found that only 42% of Brits pray. The irony is the news article thought that was a pretty good number, but given that England has an official religion, I think those numbers are pretty weak.

Why do we believe in God?

Christianity is really kind of strange, if you step back and take a look at it. We have a Bible that is sometimes hard to read and many times confusing and dull and when it’s not dull it’s morally ambiguous with episodes of God smiting people for not doing the simplest things.

Christianity is easy fodder for critics and our belief in God-in-flesh and the Eucharist, Baptism, and the mysterious Holy Spirit, not to mention the fact that our salvation is through the inhumane execution of a carpenter, makes all sorts of people wonder – why do we believe in God?

We have our problems as Christians. We fight and sometimes when we fight we kill each other, and we do it in the name of the God of Love. We are judgmental and hypocritical and if you ever get close to the inner workings of the church, you may ask yourself, why do we believe in God?

A few weeks ago, I told you that I was going back to the very first church I served 8 years ago to preach. The current pastor is a really nice guy; he is basically in the same spot now that I was in 8 years ago. He has a lovely wife whose sister actually went to college with Cherilyn and me and 8 weeks ago they had child.

Monday I received a phone call from one of the parishioners that their child suddenly died. As of today, the cause of death is still unknown; at least the news hasn’t traveled this far south.

And I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear of things like this I first make sure I know where all of my loved ones are and then I wonder what I would do, what I would feel if I were in that situation.

A young pastor with a young wife with the greatest loss the world can take. In my anger, in my confusion, in my helpless, would my voice rise like Job’s and would I shake my fist at the sky and ask, “why do I believe in you?”

But God already knows this about you and me. God already knows that we have, are, and will ask the question and God has already given us our answer.

Listen to the words of Isaiah, a prophet that watched his entire nation, his kingdom, be pillaged with all the people sent to the far corners of the empire. Hear his message to the people of Israel, hear God’s answer to their question.

"Pay close attention now:
I'm creating new heavens and a new earth.
All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain
are things of the past, to be forgotten.
Look ahead with joy.
Anticipate what I'm creating:
I'll create Jerusalem as sheer joy,
create my people as pure delight.
I'll take joy in Jerusalem,
take delight in my people:
No more sounds of weeping in the city,
no cries of anguish;
No more babies dying in the cradle,
or old people who don't enjoy a full lifetime;
One-hundredth birthdays will be considered normal—
anything less will seem like a cheat.
They'll build houses
and move in.
They'll plant fields
and eat what they grow.
No more building a house
that some outsider takes over,
No more planting fields
that some enemy confiscates,
For my people will be as long-lived as trees,
my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work.
They won't work and have nothing come of it,
they won't have children snatched out from under them.
For they themselves are plantings blessed by God,
with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed.
Before they call out, I'll answer.
Before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard.
Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow,
lion and ox eat straw from the same trough,
but snakes—they'll get a diet of dirt!
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
anywhere on my Holy Mountain," says God.


Deep down in our souls, deep down in our bellies we know there is something behind this life of ours. And we know that the world as is know is not the world as it is supposed to be.

God knows this too! God is not aloof or distant; God knows too well what we feel:

‘No more babies dying in the cradle, or old people who don’t enjoy a full lifetime.’
‘No more sounds of weeping in the city, no cries of anguish.’
‘Before they call out, I’ll answer. Before they’ve finished speaking, I’ll have heard.’

We believe because when we hear this promise of God, we feel its truth. We know babies aren’t supposed to die in the cradles and we know old people are supposed to have full lives. We know there is supposed to be peace and harmony and love and kindness.

We know this because we are created in the image of God and our spiritual DNA is linked back to a time and place when everything was perfect and there was peace and harmony and long life and no agony or sadness.

And because it is in our genes we seek that original perfection and harmony but because we’ve had thousands of years of time and space and rebellion, we seek these things in the wrong places and in the wrong people and in the wrong things.

But when we hear the voice of God, given to us through the prophets, patriarchs, apostles, martyrs, and most of all through Jesus the Christ, we know – we feel – its truth.

We recognize it because we see a part of ourselves in the promises. We see ourselves because we are created in the image of God.

But if we are going to believe in God, let’s believe in God. Let’s believe in Christ and his saving work on the cross and his resurrection. Let’s believe in the Holy Spirit and his guidance and comfort in our daily lives. Let’s believe in the power of the sacraments and how we encounter the living God. Let’s believe in the Church, the reservoir of truth and stability.

Let’s believe it and not allow it to become shallow and hollow and superficial.

For I believe if we truly believe, we won’t need stewardship sermons or even stewardship Sunday’s because giving, and serving, and praying, and worshipping, and loving will be as natural as the beating of a heart.

And while we are always challenged to increase our giving, we are challenged even more to increase our faith, or rather, to increase our commitment to our faith.

Not because I’m telling you to or because we live in a quasi-Christian culture or for any other reason, except that you believe.

You really believe.

Jesus said, ‘Pay close attention now, I’m creating new heavens a new earth.’ No more pain. No more trouble. No more heartache. No more loneliness. No more death. No more war. No more fighting. Just peace. Just love. Just perfection.

It looks so familiar; like we’ve been there before.

Do you believe it? Do you?

Amen.