A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 9:9-13, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Most parents have felt the disappointment of having a carefully chosen gift spurned. You give a gift you hope will bond you together or re-create a particular joy of your own childhood—the thrill of your first fishing rod or the warm feeling you got from your Cabbage Patch doll—only to have the gift barely glanced at and quickly tossed aside. In such cases, even a polite “thank you” brings little comfort. On the other hand, few things delight parents as much as having a child so excited and thrilled with a particular gift that he abandons the remaining unopened gifts to start playing with it. I remember the year that Andersen got his first combine. The joy in his face and whole body said it all. No formal “thank you” was necessary. The gratitude was evident in the joy and excitement. So, ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “As you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you also excel in this act of grace also” (2 Corinthians 8:7). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “This act of grace”… now that’s an interesting phrase. For many a person sitting in the church pew, few things stir up as much emotional friction as the word “stewardship” or talking about tithing and giving offerings. When church leaders begin asking for financial commitments to help set the next year’s budget, you can be sure there will be hearts that whisper, “What’s mine is mine,” and voices that declare, “All the church ever talks about is money. How come the church is never interested in me unless it needs money?” Perhaps there have been times when some of those accusations have had some validity. Often, they’re just a smokescreen for selfishness or an immature faith or a misunderstanding of b...

"The Widow's Mite" by James I Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus watches the offering. He sees the offering made by the rich people and He watches the poor widow put in her offering. He sees who puts in a lot, and who puts in a little. He knows who has an abundance and who lives in poverty. But more than that, Jesus sees what is in their heart as they give those offerings. Jesus sees the motives for giving and the faith or lack of faith behind the giving. That should probably give us pause: Jesus watches our offering, too. Dear Christian friends: You all know the story, but you don’t know all the story. Our text that we’ll examine together this morning (evening) is the familiar story of the widow’s mite. We’ll look first at some of the things everyone knows about the text, then at something you may not know, and finally at one thing nobody knows. We’ll start with some things...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “[Jesus] called His disciples to Him and said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on’” (Mark 12:43-44). Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! When I started out as a pastor, the congregation I served published a list of giving, breaking it down into the number of anonymous family units giving at various levels: those who gave nothing during the year, those who gave 1 to 100 dollars, 101 to 200 dollars, 201 to 300 dollars, and so on. Because they had been doing this for many years, the list came out before I had a chance to offer any input. During the next year, I had a number of opportunities to discuss with the church’s leadership some of the stewardship implications of such a list. On the positive si...