A little boy was in church one Sunday morning with his grandmother. Everything went well until it was time for the offering. The grandmother began to frantically search thru her purse, but she couldn't find her offering envelope. Apparently she had left it at home. It was one of those embarrassing moments as she kept looking thru her purse for something to put in the collection plate. Her grandson sensed her dilemma. The little boy had a solution to her problem. "Here, Gramma," he told her, "you take my quarter and put it in, and I'll hide under the seat!"
Children learn from watching adults. That is how they determine what is important in life. Wayne Barrett says that the first time he ever saw a fifty dollar bill was in a church offering plate. Wayne is a nationally recognized leader in the field of Christian stewardship and author of THE CHURCH FINANCE IDEA BOOK. Seeing that fifty dollar bill in the offering plate spoke louder to him than any words. He saw first hand how important the church was to his parents and the other adults in their congregation by the gifts they gave. It wasn't that these folks were wealthy. They were not; they were committed. Seeing fifty dollar bills and twenty and ten dollar bills in the offering plate taught young Wayne a lesson he would remember the rest of his life: the work of the church is important.
The church he grew up in didn't use offering envelopes. Wayne says that there is teaching value in letting children see what their elders are contributing to the church of Jesus Christ. Or at least we can talk about it. How many of us sit down and discuss our gifts to the church with our children? It's much easier to give them a quarter and send them on their way.
The Pharisees were once again plotting against Jesus. They had a question for him. They were trying to trap him into saying something that would discredit him. They wanted to silence him and make him look bad in front of the crowd. Being the hypocrites that they were they baited their trap with a compliment. "Teacher, we know that you are sincere," one of them said, "and teach the way of God in accordance with truth." Say, what? They didn't believe that for a minute, but they wanted the people listening to think they were giving Jesus a fair chance. Then they asked him a loaded question. "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?" Uh-oh. If Jesus says it's all right to pay taxes to the Roman government, then he will lose face with the majority of his audience. For the pious Jew it was offensive to pay taxes to the hated Romans. Paying taxes was tantamount to supporting this detestable occupation. On the other hand if Jesus says it's wrong to pay taxes, then he will be in trouble with the Romans. He will be siding with the revolutionaries who want to overthrow the Roman government. It's a no-win situation.
Jesus knew the Pharisees were trying to trap him. Fortunately he was wiser that they. He asks, "Show me the coin used for the tax." Jesus is using a subtle strategy here. One of the Pharisees produces a Roman coin from his pocket. Little did the Pharisee realize that in even possessing a Roman coin he already was well on the way to losing the argument. The Jewish people found the inscription on the Roman coins offensive, "Tiberius Caesar, Son of the Divine Augustus, Pontifex Maximus." To the pious Jew the inscription on the Roman coin was a deliberate break with the Ten Commandments which prohibit "graven images." For these and other reasons the Jewish people did not use Roman coins. They had their own temple currency. In producing a Roman coin the Pharisee showed which side he was really on.
And that's true for us as well.
THE USE OF OUR MONEY SHOWS WHICH SIDE WE ARE REALLY ON.
"Where a person's treasure is, there is his heart also." If someone wanted to know what you and I truly value in this world, all they would have to do would be look at our check book and our calendar. Where we spend our money and our time is what we really care about. Many of us value our cars more than we do God. Many of us value our leisure time more than we do God. Some of us value trinkets more than we value God.As a pastor greeted persons at the door following a stewardship sermon in which he discussed pledging, a disgruntled member asked accusingly, "Where in the Bible do you find anything about pledging?" Like many of us this man was uncomfortable being challenged to pledge to his church.
Instead of being defensive about his sermon the pastor answered good-naturedly, "That's a good question. Let's get together over lunch and talk about it this week." The gentleman agreed; a time and place were set.
Later that week the two of them did get together for lunch. After they had ordered, the pastor brought up the subject. "You know, your question was a good one." The pastor said the question forced him to do some thinking. "The Bible is full of references to pledging," he told the reluctant church member. But the member remained unconvinced. "Come on now, Pastor," he said. He knew that sometimes pastors have a way of exaggerating.
The pastor told him that he looked up the word, "pledge," in a Bible dictionary. He had written down some of the words he found there that pertain to pledging: "Commit, promise, dedicate, devote, covenant, vow"--very familiar Biblical words. That made the man think more about stewardship. His pastor explained, "Christian stewardship is merely a reflection of our spiritual commitment to Christ. Stewardship is first of all our response to God." The man's attitude about pledging changed as result of their lunch together.
How we use our money shows which side we are really on. Jesus exposed the Pharisees as hypocrites. They said one thing, but their lives said the opposite. Jesus takes the coin and asks, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" Without a moment's thought the Pharisees answer, "The emperor's." Quietly Jesus says, "Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's and to God the things that are God's."
When an emperor came to power he would immediately have coins minted with his name and portrait on it. That would signify that the coins belonged to him. In his answer Jesus said that since the coins already belong to the emperor, give them back to him. Give back to the emperor what belongs to the emperor and give to God what belongs to God.
JESUS WANTED THE PHARISEES TO CONSIDER WHAT WAS REALLY IMPORTANT--THEIR ALLEGIANCE TO GOD.
The late Danny Thomas lost his life savings of $600.00 at a time when he was out of work. He and his wife, Rosie, had a baby on the way, and they needed money. Danny worked at part-time jobs so Rosie could buy gro-ceries. He also borrowed money from friends. It was a tough time in his life.
A week before the baby was born, Danny had the grand total of seven dollars and eighty-five cents to his name. What would he do? "My despair led me to my first exposure to the powers of faith," Danny would later recall.
On Sunday morning Danny went to church. When the offering plate was passed he put in his "usual one dollar." But something unexpected happened that day. A special missions offering was taken. The priest explained where the mission offering would go, and Danny felt he had to give something. "I got carried away," Danny said, "and ended up giving my seven dollars."
He had given away all his money that Sunday. What in the world had he done? He walked up to the altar rail, got on his knees and prayed aloud. "Look, I've given my last seven bucks," he prayed. "I need it back tenfold because I've got a kid on the way, and I have to pay the hospital bill." He went home with a mere eighty-five cents in his pocket--all the money he had in the world.
"You won't believe this," Danny Thomas later wrote, "but the next morning the phone rang in the rooming house hall." It was a job offer. He was offered a part in a commercial. The job wasn't much but the pay was good--seventy-five dollars. "I literally dropped the telephone receiver," Danny remembered. "First I whooped with joy; then an eerie feeling came over me." He remembered what he had prayed at church the day before. "The seventy-five dollar fee," he said, "unheard of for me at that time was almost exactly ten times the amount of money I had donated to the church."
The important truth about this story is not that Danny Thomas received a ten-fold return on his money. He might have done just as well at the race track. The important thing was Danny Thomas' life-long allegiance to God. Those of you who know his story know that St. Jude's Hospital for Children stands today as silent testimony to that allegiance. Often when God asks us, "What will you give?" we take the bit than we can spare, the part we can easily give and offer it to God. The question is one of total allegiance. How committed are you to God? But there's one thing more we need to see.
THERE IS ALSO JOY IN GIVING.
Stan Gaede was thirteen years old and sitting in the driver's seat of his father's pickup truck. He wasn't old enough to be driving. He was barely able to look over the steering wheel. Nonetheless, he was driving right through the middle of town. His father, sitting in the back of the truck, was delivering 100-pound bags of potatoes to friends, relatives, and needy people in their town. He recalls his Dad running back and forth from pickup to house and back again--toting those 100-pound bags on his shoulders. For young Stan it was a lesson in generosity he would never forget.
Stan was glad he was too small to be lugging around those 100-pound bags. At first he was embarrassed by his father's actions. After all, his father was a fairly successful farmer, with land and employees and social standing. Yet there he was, "running around town with sacks of potatoes on his shoulder, making a spectacle of himself." It was an act of love, though. Stan would never forget the joy his father experienced giving away 100 pounds of potatoes. There is joy in giving. If you have not discovered that joy it's not too late.
Children learn what's important in life from watching adults. Jesus said, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." It's a matter of declaring which side you are on. It's a matter of allegiance. But it's also a matter of joy.
