Will Rice - Sermon #31 - Audio

"Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing" Sermon Preached on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 at Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas on October 15, 2006


MP3 File

Will Rice - Sermon #31 - Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

“Deep Casting, Abundant Sowing"

I spent last week in South Padre Island with my wife Alisha and our foster son Joshua and the dogs. I got a chance to do some fishing as I always like to do when I have time. Here is the thing about where I was fishing: As I stood on the beach there was the water line, and then a little ways out a sandbar, and then a little further out another sandbar. The fish were on the other side of the second sandbar. So, I had two choices. I could stand on the beach and cast my line out to the spot between the two sandbars and catch no fish. Or, I could wade out chest deep, getting pounded by the waves, until I reached the second sandbar cast my line out and catch fish. Now I spent a lot of time on the beach, because I was on vacation and I didn’t want to work that hard. But when I waded out, got slammed in the face with some waves, got knocked over and swallowed some sea water, I caught fish.

⁶The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

I realize that as a church, we sow sparingly. I think many of us know that if we really put all of our heart and mind, more of our time and money into spreading the message of the gospel, it would have an amazing impact, but we don’t do that.

When we talk about stewardship here at Grace, throughout the year, we talk about our prayers, presence, gifts and service. But, sometimes we forget to talk about what is at the core of all this, our stewardship of our knowledge of the love of God through Jesus Christ. If we got that and thought about stewardship as our responsibility to share that message of Grace with the world, I think we would be more excited about stewardship. I think we would start to realize and be ok with the fact that sharing the message requires us to be generous with our material possessions.

I take the way the church gives personally, because I feel that when we are not giving as we ought, then perhaps I have failed to cast a vision. I know so many people who don’t give faithfully to the church who do give faithfully to the Sierra Club, the Ronald McDonald House, the Boys and Girls Club, The Republican Party, The Democratic Party, The Lions Club. I think people should give to organizations they believe in. I just take it to heart when they don’t give as faithfully to the church because I haven’t cast a vision, I haven’t given a reason to believe in the church. Yes, you can believe in God, but not believe in the church.

People believe in and therefore give financial support to The Lions Club and the Sierra Club, etc. because they have shown people how they can use their money to change lives. Just $1 a day can help save the spotted owl from extinction. Just the price of a cup of coffee a day can help a poor child in Africa get the medication she needs, your one time gift of $100 can help us get another kid off the streets and into an after school program.

Here at the church, I think we get part of it right, when we talk about our need to give to God to remind ourselves that all of life is a gift from God, but then we have trouble following through with what that generous giving can do.

I remember one year my Dad getting a phone call from the Salvation Army in Buffalo. “Mr. Rice, if you send us $50, five homeless people will get a nice hot Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings.” Now Thanksgiving in Buffalo is very cold. It snows sometimes. So the idea of five people getting to go inside and have a nice hot meal is a nice thought. Of course, he wrote a check and stuck it in the mail.

⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Talk about a cheerful giver. He was happy to write that check. He probably would have written it for four times that if they had asked.

How about this, “Mr. Rice, I am calling from Grace United Methodist Church and we would like you to give some unspecified amount of money to help us pay our apportionments.” Or “Mr. Rice, we are having trouble meeting our budget this year. You see, while 55% of our pledged givers are current or ahead on their pledges, 65% are behind and although actual expenditures are below budgeted expenditures, we still anticipate a 13% shortfall. Could you help us out?”

I think Pastor John has done and continues to do an amazing job of helping us see why we give. We give because everything we have, every last thing, is a gift from an outrageously generous God who doesn’t owe us a thing, but lavishes gift upon gift on us. We give out of a grateful response to the generosity of God.

But his brilliant, authentic and heartfelt thoughts on the matter might not answer another question we might have. Why give to the church? We know why to give, but why give to the church? That is the question we do not answer very well. As a church, we are likely to show you a chart. We are likely to talk about fixed costs and apportionment dollars and payroll taxes. All that stuff is very important to keep the church running, but that is not the right answer.

We have all seen the television commercials for organizations like world vision or feed the children. These people know how to help us understand what they are doing. They don’t ever show pie charts or talk about operational expenditures or budget shortfalls. They say, “look at this child. She is hungry. Send us $100 and she can eat.” They say “We are in the life changing business and we need your help.”

A few months back Astria Smith from the Methodist Children’s Home in Waco came and spoke to us on a Sunday morning. She brought with her one of the girls from the home who, through the Children’s Home’s programs was able to leave a bad life situation, get back on track, and was ready to attend college. Astria told us of kids who left lives of poverty and drugs and were now successful college students. She told stories or changing lives and then asked for money, and you all gave her a lot of money. Of course you did, who doesn’t want to be a part of making someone’s life better?

I think what we fail to say enough at the church is that we are in the life changing business as well. Remember, I said at the beginning that at the core of our stewardship is our stewardship of our knowledge of the love of God through Jesus Christ and that is powerful, life changing stuff!

At Grace, God changes lives. And it happens in so many ways. Every Sunday, in worship, there is the opportunity for someone, for the first time to hear a message about how the creator of the universe wants nothing more than to be in relationship with them. Every Sunday, in worship, there is the opportunity for someone has heard that their whole lives finally go “Aha!” to finally really feel in their heart that God does love them, God does forgive them, God does accept them.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Sunday, in Sunday school, patient and loving teachers begin to build the foundation of faith in our children, passing on the stories of scripture and beginning to help children see the love of God that surrounds them. Their lives are being changed even as they being formed as they are given an alternative to the world which tells them that their value is based on how they look or where they go to school or how much money they make. They have a place that tells them that their value is based solely on the fact that they are God’s children.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Sunday, in Sunday school, the lives of our youth are touched as they have a place to come and be surrounded by love and support and scriptural teaching that can help them face the really trying, life changing decisions that they have to face every day that will affect every aspect of their future.

Every Sunday, in Sunday school, adult lives are changed as well, as adults have the opportunity to encounter God through scripture and through the lives and stories of each other.

Every weekday, Grace’s facilities become a place of safety and learning for children through the Early Childhood Development program, giving children a loving and nurturing environment that reflects the love of God that begins to teach them of their value and giving parents piece of mind that their children are in good hands so that they can concentrate on their jobs in a world where it is sometimes impossible for one parent to stay home with the children.

During the week, during the day and the evening, Grace’s facilities and staff are put to use teaching and leading, opening up the words of scripture to adults, children and youth.

I have told the stories in another sermon of Disciple Bible Study, where people start out in the fall, sometimes with no knowledge of the Bible and come out in the spring as different people, changed by the encounter with God through scripture.

At Grace, God changes lives. Every Wednesday evening, this church bursts at the seams with confirmation which teaches about our faith so that young adults can make the commitment to profess their faith for themselves plus Bible studies for younger and older youth, plus Bible studies for older children.

And the rest of the building is full with our mentoring program where children from our community have a chance to have a one on one relationship with an adult mentor who can give them love and support and a role model. Talking about God changing lives – some of these kids have no real stability in their lives, maybe no role model or someone who really has time to pay attention to them. Ask any of our mentors, you can see a change in these kids from the time they first come to mentoring and the end of the school year. This isn’t just a program, or a budget line, or a church thing, this is a way of spreading the love of God by positively affecting the lives of children in our community.

At Grace, God changes lives. We don’t always see it, but the changes that take place within the walls of the church affect the world outside the church. Children, youth and adults that are nurtured within the community of faith begin to sense God’s call on their lives and live that out in the world. Let me give you an example. Val Borhauer, a member of this congregation had her life changed by the grace of God and has taken that out into the world to Laverne, California where she serves as a United Methodist Missionary, using her education to teach girls who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect.

At Grace, God changes lives. Val is just one example. There are a number of people who throughout the year, either in organized groups, or are their own head off to Mexico, Mississippi, downtown Corpus Christi and use their skills and their hands to listen to the call of God on their lives to share the Gospel by bringing some amount of comfort to people who need their home repaired, replaced, or even built for the first time. If you don’t think the church changes lives, you haven’t seen the look on the face who roof has just been repaired by a bunch of kids and volunteer adults in the middle of summer for no other reason than they just wanted to help.

At Grace, God changes lives. Sometimes in ways that we don’t even think much about. The monies that we give to the district and the conference and the national church, both through planned giving and special offerings change lives in ways we will never truly know, building churches in Russia, responding to worldwide disasters through The United Methodist Committee of Relief, try to give at risk children a shot at life through Methodist Children’s home, starting new churches here in the Southwest Texas Conference so that more lives may be changed through the Grace of God.

I think we have trouble sometimes because maybe sometimes we can’t see the change.

I think we have trouble sometimes because we don’t sit down and quantify things. Perhaps if I figured out how much it cost to change one life. I was adding up my conversion the other day, financed by committed Christians who sowed abundantly. How long did I go to church before I ever put something in an offering plate? How much did that cost the church in electricity and mortgage and interest and salary and benefits for pastors and staff? What was the expense that others undertook that there was a sanctuary and bibles and beautiful music and a thought-provoking sermon. What was the cost of that cup of coffee I was offered while I waited around? What was the cost of the classroom space where I started going to Sunday school?

⁶The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

It cost a pretty good chunk of change to take me from a place of not knowing God to a place to understanding God’s grace and claim on my life and committing my heart and life to God’s service. I don’t know how much it cost. But I know that most people who know me and know the change in my life that occurred through a relationship with God, if I could figure out the cost and duplicate it on someone else, would gladly write that check.

And that is what we do. We help God change lives. We are in the life changing business. When we think of ourselves as being in the church business we think about cutting costs. Is there a way to do this cheaper? When we are in the life-changing business, we just want to know how we can do more!

⁷Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

A survey published this month in Time Magazine reports that 61% of American Christians believe that God wants them to be financially prosperous.[1] So, I am officially again in the minority. I believe that God wants us to be just and compassionate. I don’t think God wants us to be rich if it is at the expense of the rest of the world, including many other Christians who are living in poverty.

But, let’s face it, on a global scale, just be being Americans, we are rich. Even the poorest among us have electricity and microwave ovens and plenty to eat. Whether or not God has willed us to be rich, the fact of the matter is we are. And we have a chance to do some kingdom building with that wealth.

the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

We can sow bountifully with our prayer, our presence, our service, and our financial gifts. John has challenged us this year to take the 1% challenge, upping our giving to the church by 1%. The more I have thought about this over the last few weeks, the more excited I got about it.

If every household in the church did that, if those who already give just added 1% and those who haven’t made that commitment to give just started at 1%, I cannot even begin to imagine what God could do with that. I get excited because I do begin to imagine the number of lives that could be changed in this church, in this community and eventually around the world. Instead of spending the year thinking, “How can we get by, how can we keep these great programs going.” We could ask, “what else can we do to spread the Grace and love of God to the world?”

¹⁰He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; ¹²for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.

Back to my fishing story. It was nice sitting on the beach with my fishing pole secured in its holder in the sand. I could sit and watch the waves and my pole swaying in the wind all day. But, to catch fish, I had to go deeper. I had to risk getting wet, falling down.

We have a gift. We know about something that can change lives, can change with world. We watch it every day in our children, youth and adults. We see lives changing. We see people changed in such a way that they go out to change the world.

We should be wading out into the deep water, casting far out, we should be sowing bountifully, that the harvest, those touched and moved and changed by the grace of God, may be bountiful.

---

[1] David Van Biema, Jeff Chu, ”Does God Want You To Be Rich”, Time Magazine, September 10, 2006

Will Rice - Sermon #30 - One Body

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

1 Corinthians 11:17-29

“One Body”

On this Sunday, while we were still sleeping, Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo left their homes for places of worship to see their pastors take bread in their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In the Church of the Holy Resurrection in Jerusalem were heard the words, “This is my body.” In Saint Paul’s in London a hush fell across the congregation as the pastor declared, “This is my body.” In churches and cathedrals across the United States today pastors take bread into their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In thatched-roof mission stations across the islands of the Pacific this afternoon will be uttered, “This is my body.”

This is World Communion Sunday. Throughout the world churches of all denominations, in all nations, in many languages, are celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Today, as I lift the bread and say these words,

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

we are reminded that I don’t just mean “we” all of us in the room, but “we” all of us in the body of Christ, in this body that we call Grace United Methodist Church, in this community of Annaville and CalAllen and Corpus Christi, in this state we call Texas, in this country we call America, and around this great a varied world.

At least, in the moment that we break the bread and in that wondrous time when we file forward to receive the Holy Mystery, we can get that part that “we” in the room are one. I think that, at least for the moment we are able to put aside our differences and celebrate our oneness in Christ.

I was personally challenged on this the other day. I was at a clergy gathering and serving this particular day was a member of the clergy that I honestly don’t much like. I think she is mean. However there she was holding the cup. And I am hearing Paul screaming in my head:

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Now I had three choices, especially remembering some guidance from Matthew’s Gospel:

²³So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, ²⁴leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.

So, first, I could have just left. But that would not have really fixed anything. So, choice two, I could have asked everyone to hold on a moment while I had a chat with my sister there holding the cup. Which, being a clergy gathering, may have worked, had it not been just before lunch. Or three, which I went with, I could take the chance to ask God to work on my heart so that I could truly see that moment and a moment of reconciliation and see our oneness through the sharing of the bread and cup.

Now, my clergy sister and I are still not chummy, but I cannot help but see her in a different light, the light of Christ.

That should and does happen all the time in the church. We come here from so many different backgrounds with different understandings and different calls and claim on our lives. If we are really true, authentic people of God, we will annoy, perturb, frustrate and generally get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Here at the table we are called to remember our oneness in Christ and God’s abundant, healing grace helps make that happen. At the Lord ’s Table our differences can be reconciled or at least softened in the warm light of Christ.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

But, especially on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that the “we” carries far beyond the walls of this church, past the safe community of people, who although we differ with in background, and political affiliation and other details, we hold much in common. But outside these walls in sometimes a different story.

I may be the luckiest person on the planet, because nearly every day, I get to stare into the eyes of a reminder of vastness of our oneness. In my house lives a little boy who looks nothing like me, a little boy who wasn’t, like me born, to two loving parents in a sleepy little Western New York town. The very presence of our foster child reminds me of our oneness in Christ and what a struggle that is for us. I am reminded that it wasn’t too many years ago that had I brought that little black boy to church with me, it would have been scandalous!

I can look in the crib at my home and see a glimpse of the body of Christ, but even that is limited.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Especially on this World Communion Sunday, we remember that the “we” carries far beyond the walls of this church, beyond Annaville, beyond CalAllen, beyond Texas, beyond The United States of America. We, who are very many, and seemingly so different, are one.

The hands that are held open to receive the loaf this morning will all look very similar, but the hands that will partake of the one body of Christ around the world will look very different. As we reconcile with each other, the limited “we” of this congregation, so does God call for the reconciliation of all the world as we all share from the one loaf, as we are truly one body.

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

Paul’s words are harsh when I think how short I have fallen in being truly reconciled with my brothers and sisters here in the church and even in the community; they downright sting when I think of how unaware I even am of those other hands open to receive the bread this day.

2^nd Corinthians5 ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

When we come to the table of Grace it is just a little snapshot of the kingdom that God has in mind for us. I am not talking about the heavenly kingdom we all seek at our death. I am talking about the kingdom of God that God is working to make present in this world. That kingdom we get a glimpse of at the Lord’s Table. As our differences are reconciled or softened, at least for the moment as we share together at this table, so is God leading us to a broader reconciliation, not just in this room, but around the world.

¹⁹that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

If World Communion Sunday is nothing else, it is a reminder of the global nature of our oneness in Christ. It is a day that, when we receive the bread in our hands, we can close our eyes and picture a deeply dark, black woman in sub Saharan Africa dressed in a hand made, tattered gown, a woman who didn’t have any breakfast so that she might have enough to feed her children, a woman who walked ten miles to a place that we would hardly call a church. We can picture her kneeling, holding our her hands to receive from the same body we receive, trembling at the promise of love and transformation contained in those simple grains and the juice of the fruit of God’s creation.

Today is a day that, when we receive the bread in our hands, we can close our eyes and picture a tiny gathering of believers in China who are actually risking arrest by gathering in an “unregistered” group. We can picture a Chinese man sitting in a small room, holding out his hands to receive the same body we receive, trembling at the power of the sacrament and perhaps the fear of being discovered.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

Today as we receive the bread on our hands and dip it in the cup we can close our eyes and picture our brothers and sisters in Iraq, who although the look so different are very much one in the body of Christ. Maybe they are only with us in thought today as it the tiny minority of Christians there (around 3%) take their lives into their hands just going outside, let alone trying to be Christian while rival Muslim factions struggle for control.

When I come to the tables with these brothers and sisters can we still feel that transcendent love of God that binds us together. Are we all truly one in the body of Christ?

²⁷Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.

When I think of how little I even know about my brothers and sisters around the world, their struggles, their joys, how some of their lives are actually affected simply by the food I choose to buy or where I shop or who I vote for, when I think of how little attention I pay, I instantly feel like I did sitting in that clergy gathering getting ready to receive communion from someone I didn’t much like.

Here is the good news of the communion table. None of us are worthy, but all of us are welcome. However, that doesn’t let us off the hook. As I invite you to the table, I invite you to think about all of our brothers and sister around this room, around town and around the globe. They are truly at this table with you.

“Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”