A Famine Not of Bread

"The Judgment of Solomon" by Giorgione Click here to listen to this sermon. “Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart” (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “His whole body was filled with delight. The aroma was so good, so tempting. It merited a closer look. At the jar’s edge, the scent overwhelmed him. He settled upon it and gorged himself with sticky sweetness. But then he could not pull away. Although he beat his wings until they buzzed, the ointment clung to him and drew him down to silence. ...

Photo credit Suzanne Jaton Click here to listen to this sermon. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity… [But] e veryone to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart” (Ecclesiastes 5:10, 19-20). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The day of my Dad’s farm auction, his landlady also sold the land he had been renting from her family for over 35 years. When my Dad asked her if she was happy with price the land brought, she said it had brought more money than she would have ever hoped for. She only had one regret about selling the farm that had been in her family for three generations: “I just wish you could’ve gotten some of the benefit,” she told my Dad. “That’s okay,” he ...

An audio version of this sermon is availabe at http://www.christsiouxfalls.org/media/sermons/2012-10-21.mp3 The Worship of Mammon by Evelyn De Morgan Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To their credit, Pastor Nix and lay leaders of this congregation have rightly made the point that Christian stewardship is not just about money or only about what happens in the Church, but that it is about the management of all of God’s resources in our whole lives.  So it’s somewhat unfortunate that today our message will be about money.   It could give the mistaken impression that regardless of what has been said, this stewardship emphasis is really about increasing offerings.      That’s one of the advantages of being a liturgical church.   None of us picked our readings.   They are part of a three-year lectionary, a collection of Scripture readings arranged according to the Church’s calendar and use...