Gratitude

The following is a summary of the conversation we had last Sunday.

The word for today is “grateful.” We are called to be followers of Jesus Christ, which means that we are all in the process of deciding if we are ready and willing to actually follow. But, the reality is that we won’t follow a stranger. This means that following Jesus begins with a relationship. We experience His presence in our lives and we learn to trust Him more and more every day.

What this means is that everything we do in Church should help us to build our relationship to the living God. In fact, the ultimate goal is for us to become like Him and He has made the way for this new life.So, from time to time we gather together to celebrate this relationship and our transformation and this is what we call “WORSHIP.”

The word that should define everything we do in the Church is “GRATEFUL.” Worship was never meant to be an educational program and it was never meant to be a spectator sport. Worship is each of us individually coming together corporately to declare that we are “forever grateful” for all that God has done for us. Worship is not about us but it says something about us. When we give up our time to be in worship we are making a statement about what is valuable to us. Being in Church (or staying home) are both statements we make about what is important.

And this is the continual challenge we face. If our goal is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, how is that love expressed? If we actually love the Lord with everything we have how do we measure that love? If I keep saying that I love potato salad but never eat potato salad wouldn’t you wonder what I meant by that statement? If I said that I love football but never watched football or played football wouldn’t you want to know what football really meant to me? If I say that I love God and it doesn’t affect the way I talk and act and the way I spend my time and my money wouldn’t you want to know what I mean when I make that claim? Our friends want to know!

What I’m getting to is that at some point our conversation about love has to become pragmatic. What am I willing to do because I love the Lord MY God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength? What sacrifices am I willing to make because I love my neighbor as I love myself? The offering is not us just paying the bills. The offering is me trying to put into real, meaningful terms how much I love Jesus. In that sense, the offering may be the most significantly spiritual moment in the entire worship gathering because it is me putting into real terms what my love for Him really means.

What you and I give should have nothing to do with what your Church’s annual budget is. You and I should give out of thanksgiving for what God has done (and is doing) in our lives. You and I should give because we love Jesus more than we love anything else. In order for me to be thankful my giving has to mean something to me. It’s not enough that I gave more than you did. That misses the whole point. What I give has to mean something to me or it means nothing at all.

I’ve always thought that a tithe was a good place to begin the conversation. Julie and I have been “tithers” for our entire married life even when we had nothing, even when we were raising three small children, even when we had to borrow money to pay our taxes God deserved our love and thanksgiving. It wasn’t always much and it was never enough but it was a sacrifice we were willing to make. It meant something to us. I can imagine that there are people in the world for whom a tithe wouldn’t mean anything at all and for those people a tithe wouldn’t be enough.

My mother is 94 years old and she lives on social security and a small pension my father had from his years with the police department in La Crosse. Last time we talked about it, my mother was giving $20 each week to her local church. Sadly enough, at the time I think that made my mother one of the largest givers to her local church. She gives because she’s thankful.

Every day we express our thanksgiving and as we do there are a number of principles that we need to pay attention to.
“…of him who has much, much will be expected.” (Luke 12:48)
“…the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly” (2 Cor. 9:6)
“You cannot serve both God and wealth.” (Luke 16:13)

It is always about being thankful.