Giving the Firstfruits (Genesis 28.20-22, Malachi 3.8-10, Luke 18.9-14)

Introduction

If you have been coming to this church since the beginning of September, every sermon you’ve heard so far has been about giving! You might be wondering to yourself, “is this actually all they ever preach about at All Saints’?” And let me reassure you that the answer is yes.

We preach about God giving us his Son, about his Son giving us his Spirit as well as all spiritual blessings and gifts; we preach about us giving thanks, about giving up sin, about giving help to those in need, about giving our best in worship and giving Satan hell. Giving covers just about everything.

Actually, from next Sunday the theme is living by faith. But giving and faith are closely related. A couple of weeks ago I heard a true story about a pastor who was asked to take on the leadership of a large church in a big city that did a lot of welfare work. And for all that social action the church engaged in they received from the Council the sum of £120,000 a year - which kept a lot of Christian mission going.

The pastor himself, I won’t name him but some of you will have heard of him, came from an upper class and wealthy family and had a private income from that so he didn’t take a salary from the church. But one day, the Lord said to him “Give away all your money. I want you to live by faith.” So he gave away his share of the family fortune. He didn’t tell the church about it though. They still thought he was well off.

So it was challenging to his faith; even more so when he later married and had two children, and he still didn’t let on that he was basically penniless - but he proved God’s faithfulness and provision. The Lord supplied all his needs.

Sometime later, the Council asked the church to extend the nature of its social work by opening its premises for a Gay club. The pastor said “I’m very sorry but we can’t do that.” The Council said, “If you refuse, we will withdraw the £120,000 annual grant for all the other welfare work you do; the drop in, the ministry to the homeless, the rehab for alcoholics, the support for pregnant teenagers, the youth outreach, the lunch club, the days out for the disabled...”

So he spoke to the church and said “A few years ago the Lord told me to give away every penny I had. I’m still alive and I’ve got enough; enough for my family and some to give away. Now the Council are going to take away most of the income for our work here. But we’re not going to stop any of it. We’re going to trust the Lord. I’ve proved I can do it and now we’re all going to do it.”

The church didn’t cut a single thing – and now they are free from all the strings and conditions and limitations that the Council insisted on.

It’s like Hudson Taylor said: “When God's work is done in God's way for God's glory, it will never lack God's supply.”

Harvest

Today is Harvest Sunday and, you know what, God is a God of harvest. Did you know that there is a harvest coming and we are going to get to reap it? I believe that. And I believe that the more we sow and plant, the more we will harvest and reap. It’s a biblical principle.

The harvest of answered prayer comes after planting prayer.

The harvest of loved and healed people comes after planting kindness towards everyone we meet.

The harvest of souls coming to new faith in Jesus and discovering they’ve got a new family in Christ comes after planting invitations to Alpha and to church to find out more.

The harvest of a properly resourced church making an impact in the community comes after planting financial giving.

There was a prophetic word at prayer breakfast yesterday about muck spreading. “Money is like manure; pile it up and it stinks, but spread it around all over the place and it makes everything grow.”

New shoots, new growth, new life, only come after we sow in faith. There’s no harvest without sowing.

Here’s a courgette, or is it a marrow? I don’t know, but it was given to me this week by someone at Saint Mary’s School in Long Newton. It was grown in the school garden. We can admire it and marvel at it. But we all know that it would not be here at all if someone hadn’t planted in the earth many months ago a seed smaller than your fingernail.

The Tithe

Today, I want to talk about the principle of tithing. Tithing means God gives me this (giant marrow) and I respond by giving back this (modest courgette) for his work.

Tithing means I give back to God, as an acknowledgement of his prior provision, the first tenth of what I have already received from him.

Right from the first book in the Bible, there people giving a tithe, 10%. And every time they do, it is a spontaneous response to some kind of prior blessing from God.

So Abraham, in Genesis 14, right after the Lord gives him victory against his adversaries, and is blessed by Melchizedek the priest, gives a tenth of everything he has.

In Genesis 28, Abraham’s grandson Jacob has a spiritual experience, an encounter with God. There’s a vision, and the presence of angels. He says “Surely God is in this place!” Then he makes a decision right there and then about how he is going to live his life from now on. “If God be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely home, [in other words, if I can see blessing in my life] then Lord… of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

The Law of Moses mentions tithing a lot. Leviticus 27.30, for example, says: “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord: it is holy to the Lord.” So the first tenth of the harvest wasn’t the people’s to keep. It was set aside to share.

What was tithing for? Deuteronomy 14 explains it was for three reasons; firstly it was a way of thanking God for the abundance of his provision. Secondly, it was to give an income to the Levites who served the Lord in worship and had no land. And thirdly, it was to give emergency relief to the poor.

All the way through the Old Testament, this was the basic, standard benchmark for giving.

In the last book of the Old Testament, which was written about 450 years before Christ, it is still there. In Malachi 3.10 God says “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.”

Malachi lived at a time of low rainfall and failing yields. The harvest was becoming an annual disappointment. Every year it was Groundhog Day. Wheat fields were patchy and dusty with dry, withered plants. Cattle and sheep were becoming bonier and scrawnier. Why were things not going right?

God said, speaking through Malachi, that it was due to spiritual neglect. All through the Bible there is this simple principle: when God’s people honour him and put him first he provides and blesses. And the reverse is true. When God’s people don’t honour him and put themselves first, he is silent, his presence disappears from worship and he withholds his blessing.

In Malachi’s day, worship had gone stale. Everyone just went through the motions. God’s people were drifting into foolish relationships with partners from pagan nations. Marriages were falling apart. The most vulnerable people (widows, orphans and immigrants) were being overlooked and forgotten. The nation was becoming disconnected from God and poor harvests followed.

But God speaks about opening up the floodgates of the sky and tipping down rain on the land to bring about a harvest so abundant that the people wouldn’t have anywhere to put all the grain.

What single solution does God prescribe to lift the curse on the nation and bring it into a new era of blessing and abundance? “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse," he says, “that there may be food in my house.”

God actually says in v10 “Test me…” Time and time again God says in the Bible, “Don’t test me.” But here, he makes an exception. God stakes his reputation on his competence to provide. “Come on,” he says, “you can try me out for size.”

Do you want to do an experiment to see if God can be trusted or not? Here it is. Step out in faith. Give him back the first tenth. See if he disappoints you.

Tithing has been a useful rule of thumb for many Christians – and it has at times in my own life. Kathie and I have only been in the red at one time in our 33 year marriage - and that was the time we weren’t tithing. Otherwise, we have never lacked for anything and have always had some left over.

How does this work? I don’t know. But my personal testimony is that it does.

I have never met anyone who told me they tithe and are broke. Let me quote three wealthy men, each of whom gave away most of what they accumulated before they died.

John Templeton, Christian stock market investor: He renounced his US citizenship, to allow him to release an additional $100 million to charity that he otherwise would have paid in income tax. This is what he said: “I have observed 100,000 families over my years of investment counselling. I always saw greater prosperity and happiness among those families who tithed than among those who didn’t.” 

John D. Rockefeller, Christian oil tycoon: widely considered to be the wealthiest American of all time. He said, “I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.”

Robert Gilmour Letourneau, Christian engineer and inventor: On his grave there is the inscription from Matthew 6.33 – Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. This is what he said: “I shovel money out, and God shovels it back ... but God has a bigger shovel!”

Not Under Law

Having said all this, I need to say that the tithe is part of the Law of Moses and, as such, is as voluntary for us under the New Covenant as circumcision or eating kosher food. Tithing may be beneficial, but it is not binding. It may be commendable but it is not compulsory. Some churches make tithing a condition of membership. I don’t think they have any right to do so.

When Jesus came, the religious leaders (in Luke 18) made painstakingly sure that they gave away one tenth of all their earnings. They would have been mortified by the idea of giving any less (even down to 10% of their herb garden – so they were going round with a ruler and pair of scissors to give exactly 10%, not 11, not 9, of the herbs in the window box. And they were absolutely sincere in their prayer “I fast twice a week” (they did) and pray every day (that’s absolutely true as well).

But Jesus said (v14) that it was completely useless because, when they talked about their good spiritual habits, they were exalting themselves.

There was a famous Rabbi in the first century called Simeon bar Yohi. One of his prayers has been recorded and it’s very similar to what we find in Luke 18. His prayer goes, “Lord if there are but two righteous men on earth, it is my son and I. But if there is only one, it is I”.

Look at the Pharisee’s prayer in v11-12. His prayer was basically “Lord, I’m fine. I’m great.” The most common word is “I”. It was all about him and how good he was. He was really talking to himself… And he didn’t get an answer to his prayer either. Why not? Because he didn’t ask for one.

Jesus fulfilled this Law of having to tithe because he gave, not 10, but 100% at the cross and in doing that he abolished forever the mandatory 10% tax on faith. That’s Old Testament living. You are not to be oppressed and burdened under the weight of that law. You are under grace.

But the New Testament still carries a promise of blessing to those who faithfully give back to God their first fruits, not their last fruits.

A study from Duke University recently found that more than 40 percent of actions people take every day aren’t actually decisions but habits.

When I was learning to drive, every manoeuvre I made was a decision. Mirror, signal, turn, clutch down, gear change, clutch up, accelerator… But after a while, all that became automatic. I never think to myself now, “Brake, clutch down, gear change, clutch up…” It’s almost subconscious now. It’s a habit, not a series of conscious decisions.

It’s the same with giving. 2 Corinthians 9.7 in the New Testament says “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

God doesn’t want gifts given resentfully or grudgingly. There is no pleasure in receiving a Christmas present from someone who complains about how much it cost as they hand it to you!

In the New Covenant, God doesn’t set the standard rate and apply it across the board; instead everyone decides in their heart what is right to give.

Then 1 Corinthians 16.2 says “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income...” There it’s gone from a decision to a habit. It’s the first day of the week, or of the month, or whenever, but notice it’s the first day.

So it’s not; “Let’s see what’s left for a nice tip for the Lord after I’ve covered all the bills.” Some Christians think that everything we have is ours and we choose how much of our stuff we give away – if anything. But the Bible teaches that, if Jesus is Lord, everything we are and have is already his.

Christians are incredibly generous people. In 2012, the most recent figures I have, Anglican churches alone (not including other churches in this country) donated more money to outside charitable organisations than was raised by Children in Need. According to the 2012 National Church and Social Action Survey Christians offer 98 million hours of unpaid volunteer work on social projects every year - and that’s outside of church-based activities like lunch clubs and youth groups.

Ending

Let me end with a lighter story.

The old Southern Baptist Wally Criswell once talked about an ambitious young man who told his pastor one day that he'd promised God a tithe of his income. They prayed for God to bless his career. At that time, he was making $40 per week and tithing $4. But after a few years his income increased and he was giving $500 per week. 

So he called his pastor to see if he could be released from his tithing promise. It was getting a bit expensive. The pastor said, "Look, honestly, I don't see how you can be released from your promise. You made a solemn vow to God remember. But, I’ll tell you what. If you like, I’ll ask God to shrink your income back to $40 a week, then you'd have no problem tithing $4 would you?!”

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25 September 2016

The Grace of Giving (2 Corinthians 8.1-15)

Introduction

It came to the knowledge of the Salvation Army in a certain city that it had never once received a donation from the city’s richest and most successful lawyer. So a volunteer offered to pay the lawyer a visit in his plush office.

He started off by saying, “Our research shows that even though your annual income is over £10 million, you don’t give a penny to charity. Wouldn’t you like to give something back to the poorest in your community through the work of the Salvation Army?”

So the lawyer thought for a minute and then he said: “I’ve got three questions for you. Firstly, did your research also show you that my mother is dying after a long and painful illness and that she has huge medical bills from treatment in the USA?”

Embarrassed, the volunteer said, “No, he hadn’t realised that.

“Second,” the lawyer said, “did your research discover that my brother is a war hero who came back from a tour of duty blind and confined to a wheelchair, and that he is now unable to support his wife and six children?”

The volunteer, red faced, started to apologise, but he was cut off again in mid-sentence.

“Thirdly, did your research reveal that my sister’s husband died in a terrible car accident, leaving her penniless with a mortgage and three children, one of whom is disabled and another of whom has learning difficulties, requiring an array of private tutors?”

The volunteer was completely humiliated. “I am so sorry,” he said, “I honestly had no idea.”

And the lawyer said, “So… if I didn’t give any money to them what makes you think I’d give anything to you?”

All through September, we’re going to be thinking about what the Bible has to say about giving, and the title we have given this series is “Giving is Worship.” It absolutely is. Jesus said, “As much as you clothed, fed, watered, welcomed, visited and nursed the least, you did it to me.” Rachael Phillips started us off last week, speaking on that very passage.

She was converted, totally unexpectedly, whilst on a tour of duty as a British Army Captain in a shipping container in Afghanistan. They have no awkwardness at all talking about money in that country. Rachael was telling me that the first question they ask you there, after your name and where you’re from, is “And how much do you earn then?” So if a sermon about giving makes you feel uncomfortable, I’ve got a couple of tickets for a fortnight in Kabul if you prefer...  

Background to 2 Corinthians 8

We’re looking this morning at one of the classic New Testament passages on giving. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are all about a collection that was organised by churches all over the Roman world to bring emergency relief to Judean Christians facing starvation.

Let’s me give you a bit of background. In Acts 11.28 a prophet called Agabus says that a serious famine is going to blight the entire Mediterranean world.

This is actually one of the most documented historical events in the New Testament. It’s mentioned in Acts 11, in 1 Corinthians 16 and in Romans 15, besides here in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Independent records outside the Bible also mention it and confirm that it happened in the year 47, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius. When God speaks, what he says comes to pass and nothing can stop it.

Some areas of the Roman Empire had enough reserves to survive these food shortages, but others, in particular the province of Judea, (that is to say the area around Jerusalem) did not. They were severely hit; food prices skyrocketed, and many people very quickly faced hunger and starvation.

So the apostle Paul, because he travelled widely and visited many churches, brought news of this pressing need everywhere he went.

Let me tell you something about this that I find really moving. In Acts 8, this same Paul, then called Saul, was persecutor in chief of the church, and he operated around Jerusalem. So those Christians he was harassing, threatening, rounding up, imprisoning, and even murdering were these very same people he was now collecting aid for to save their lives.

Only God can change a human heart like that. God takes bitter, hardened, hateful, unforgiving hearts and softens them with the sweetness of grace.

In the days of Apartheid South Africa, a woman was invited to a poor Zulu church in deprived Natal and was very conspicuous as the only white person there. They welcomed her like royalty, and made her feel at home.

They had a collection to help build a new Zulu church down the road. Then later in the service they had another collection for Zulu Christians who had no shoes.

She felt really embarrassed when they announced a third collection. Her purse was empty and she had nothing left. But the service leader said “this offering is for petrol for our white sister in Christ.” Zulus had suffered so much at the hands of the white minority. But Jesus takes the rancid vinegar of our experience and turns it, through generosity, into the fine wine of his blessing.

So, back to 2 Corinthians, Paul writes about churches in Macedonia (that is to say Philippi, Berea and Thessalonica) and he says that they had already been contributing to the needs of these famished Jerusalem Christians even though they themselves, like that Zulu church in South Africa, were suffering acute hardship.

Verse 2 talks about “their extreme poverty in the midst of a very severe trial.”

We know a bit about that. In some ways, Macedonia was the Roman Empire’s North East of England or South Wales; it was a region with run down infrastructure, underinvestment, unemployment, child poverty and all the rest of it. It had suffered a devastating civil war just before Caesar Augustus took power several decades earlier. There was heavy loss of life, and it cast the shadow of death over the area.

Then the Romans exploited Macedonia for its natural resources; zinc, lead and precious metals, plundering its wealth, and then deserting it once it was no longer economically viable.

On top of that, Acts tells us that the Christians in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea endured harsh persecution. Riots and angry mobs unleashed violence against the church. Paul says to the Thessalonians, “You welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” In Philippi, Paul himself was beaten with sticks, flogged, and thrown in jail. Anyone associated with him was in trouble.

These were the three churches in Macedonia that, v3, “gave as much as they were able” which sounds really generous. In fact, it was more than that, as it goes on to say, because they gave “beyond their ability.” Some had lost their jobs because they were Christians. They really were in extreme hardship.

Eagerness

There are three words in this reading that give us the key to understanding what it means. The first is “eagerness.” It says in v4 that they “urgently pleaded” (in another translation it says “they begged”) for the privilege of being able to give. People usually use the word “beg” in the context of receiving. Beggars badly want to get something. These people badly wanted to give something. In v11, he talks about their eager willingness to give.

Before he became the 26^th President of the USA, Theodore Roosevelt was New York City’s Police Commissioner. There’s an old story, probably apocryphal, that he was interviewing an applicant for a police officer job and he asked him a question, “If a mob started to gather and you had to disperse it, what would you do?” Quick as a flash, the guy said, “I’d pass round the hat for a collection, sir!”

That’s natural. But begging to be able to give what you barely have yourself is supernatural. It’s miraculous. It is clear evidence of the grace of God touching a human heart.

Mother Teresa was canonised last week. Actually, everyone who has faith in Jesus is a saint, so she already was one but the point is that she once told a moving story about a six-year old orphan boy. The sisters had found him on the filthy streets of Calcutta where he had been dying of a fever. They took him in and lovingly nursed him back to full health. On the day he was to leave their care, they gave him a small packet of sugar, which was a very precious commodity amongst the poorest of the poor. 150g of sugar equalled roughly a day’s wages.

As the little boy walked through the gates, he saw some sisters carrying another child in, obviously in great need. He walked straight over to him and he handed the sugar to the sisters, saying he wanted the sick boy to have it. Mother Teresa asked him why he did that. And he looked up at her and simply said, “I think that is what Jesus would have done.”

How do you become as generous as that? It’s very simple. Verse 5 says “they gave themselves, first of all to the Lord.” This is what I mean when I say “Giving is worship.” When you give yourself to God, everything else flows from that.

So Paul writes to the church in Corinth. He says, “look at the Christians in Macedonia. They’re amazing. Be like them.”

So what was life like for the Corinthians, the recipients of this letter? Well, Corinth was a prosperous commercial city, with a busy port and a booming economy. It was vibrant, and it was infamous for its excesses, both sexually and financially.

Unlike in Macedonia, Paul suffered very little opposition there; a bit of personal abuse but nothing much, and he was able to stay longer in Corinth than anywhere else. The church had it easy. No riots, no beatings, no imprisonments, no economic hardship. In 1 Corinthians 1 he tells them “You have been enriched in every way.” They were spoiled.

But he has to point to Christians living below the bread line as models of eagerness in giving to Christians living a life of ease with no material worries!

It struck me this week that the Bible rarely mentions rich people as an illustration of generosity. Somebody once said, “The poor know how to give because they know what it is to want.” It’s almost always the poor in the Bible who are held up as examples of what giving should look like; supremely Jesus of course, who had no place to lay his head but gave everything, including his very life for others.

Excellence

The second key word is excellence. Twice in v7 Paul uses the little word excel. “Since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.”

These Corinthians were spiritual gift champions. They spoke in tongues (a lot, and all at once), they prophesied, they were passionate about the gift of faith and zealous for words of knowledge and wisdom. All that is great. I want to see more of the ministry of the Holy Spirit here actually. But the message here is: ”Whatever you’re good at as a church; social action, musical worship, children’s ministry, preaching, prayer, technology, welcome, hospitality, youth work, pastoral care… don’t stop there. Put the same level of passion you have for whatever you excel at into giving.”  

If you’re about my age or older, you’ll probably remember the TV chef Graham Kerr. He hosted a show called The Galloping Gourmet and he was the Jamie Oliver or Rick Stein of the 1970s. He was a worldwide star and became very wealthy.

But then he and his wife Treena had a series of accidents and health scares. At one point, Treena was given a year to live. She began to suffer with mental health issues and became addicted to painkillers. And then, the Lord broke in. One day, someone laid hands on her and prayed that she would be made well in the name of Jesus and she was completely healed. They were both converted.

Soon afterwards, they felt God speak to them through the story of the rich young ruler where Jesus says “sell everything you have and give to the poor.” They felt they should give away everything they owned. And they did; their plush home, their fancy cars, their sparkling jewellery, and their bank account with millions in it. They gave it all away to bless the poor.

What was surprising was the criticism they received from some Christians because of their obedience. Some said that they weren’t good stewards. They could have maybe invested their money so they could give away even more.

Do you remember the woman who broke an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, pure nard, and poured it over Jesus’ head? People muttered, “What a waste! This money could have been better spent.” And they rebuked her harshly. Jesus said “Leave her alone. She has done a beautiful thing to me!” Giving is worship.

See that you also excel in this grace of giving. Give yourself. Give your all. Give the very best.

Equality

And the third word is equality. What kind of equality does God want? Verse 13 says, “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality.”

Equality is one of the buzz words of our age. What does it mean? It doesn’t mean that everyone should earn the same wage, no matter what job they do.

The verse quoted at the end of the passage is from Exodus 16. It’s about the manna, the bread that fell from heaven, to feed people in the wilderness. Some gathered a lot, some gathered only a little. Those who collected lots of manna didn’t have so much left over that it was wasted. And those who collected only a little had no lack. All had enough. Equality means we should try and ensure that everyone has enough.

When our son Nathan was about 5 or 6, we were on holiday in London one day as a family. And very spontaneously, all of a sudden, Nathan gave all his holiday spending money, every last penny, to a beggar we passed in the street. I can still see him doing it in my mind’s eye. I remember how we all walked past, and then Nathan stopped, and emptied the contents of his pockets into his little hands, turned back, and tipped the lot into the man’s tin cup.

His heart was moved. It wasn’t much by my standards, but he gave all he had. I think he just felt, “It’s not fair. I’ve got everything I need; a home, a family, toys, food to eat, I have all this cash. And here is this beggar in dirty clothes not even knowing if he’s going to have breakfast today.”

Ending

That’s one of the most precious memories I have of our children growing up. Because it reminded me of Jesus. In v9 it says he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor. He was rich beyond compare. He was waited on by servants in heaven. He had 12,000 private angels that he could have called upon at any time. But he gave everything; he became poor, a baby born in a stable, he became a refugee fleeing for his life, a carpenter’s boy, a homeless preacher in humble clothes; he laid down his life in humiliation, in shame. He didn’t even have his own grave; he didn’t have enough to pay his funeral costs, it was a pauper’s burial.

He became that poor to raise you up to the throne of the heavens, to be seated in heavenly places and reign with him.

How poor does our giving make us? How rich does it make those we’re giving to?

One last story as I end. Paul Freed was the President of Trans World Radio which broadcasts the gospel in lands where it is impossible and illegal; communist and Muslim countries mostly. One day he visited Poland when it was still under communist rule. And he visited a Christian widow in a one-room shack in a small and soulless village near Warsaw. She told him how she had been invited to a friend’s house to listen to the radio.

 She said, “For the first time in my life I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. My boy and girl listened too. I cannot tell you the joy we all had as we dropped to our knees at the end of the broadcast and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour that night.

As he was leaving, she touched his arm and said, “Why is there only one broadcast a week for 30 million Poles who did not know Christ?” He said, “Because we don’t have the money.”

She walked over to the corner of the room, pulled an envelope from a crevice in the wall and offered it to him. It was all the money she had. He refused it. He just couldn’t let her do that.

And she looked at him with all the dignity of a queen and said, “Sir, I am not giving it to you, I am giving it to Jesus Christ.”

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11 September 2016

Has the Rubicon Already Been Crossed?

It feels like something changed this summer.

Until this summer, I thought that the Church of England would hold to its received, biblical understanding of marriage, and would patiently and firmly resist calls to bless same-sex relationships of any description or allow its leaders to live in such relationships. 

At least, I thought it would hold out up to the time I am due to retire; about ten years from now.

Pressure from the media, politicians, secular lobby groups and vocal minorities in the church has of course been relentless for years, but the sheer volume of cries for 'inclusivity' (meaning the endorsement of sinful behaviour as good rather than the acceptance of people as loved) is now deafening.

I have changed my mind. I think the dam is about to burst and it will lead to a permanent split in the Church of England, such as has already happened in the USA. Since the split there after 2003, the established Episcopal Church haemorrhaged spectacularly in membership whilst the breakaway Anglican Church in America has grown healthily.

Alexander Griswold writes: "Every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership. In 2003, Gene Robinson became the first openly gay, noncelibate man to be consecrated as a bishop of the Episcopal Church. In the wake of his consecration, entire dioceses severed ties with the Episcopal Church, eventually creating the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). But the Episcopal Church continued to liberalize its sexual teachings, lifting a moratorium on any more gay bishops and creating a "blessing ceremony" for gay couples in 2009. In 2002, the number of baptized US members of the Episcopal Church stood at 2.32 million. By 2012, that number had fallen to 1.89 million, a decline of 18.4 percent. Meanwhile, attendance has fallen even more steeply. Average Sunday attendance in its U.S. churches was 846,000 in 2002, but had fallen 24.4 percent by 2012 to only 640,000. Other signs of congregational liveliness have fallen even further. Baptisms have fallen by 39.6 percent, and marriages have fallen by 44.9 percent. As for the ACNA? It's seen its membership rise by 13 percent and its Sunday attendance rise by 16 percent in the past five years. Since 2009, the ACNA has planted 488 new congregations. In 2012, the entire Episcopal Church managed to plant four new churches."

I have long set out the acceptance and promotion of same-sex relationships as a theological line in the sand. It is an absolute spiritual dead-end. It cannot produce life and will lead to decline and church closures.

We have, all of a sudden, from nowhere, come perilously close to crossing the Rubicon. We may already have crossed it.

This looks like a slow motion train crash. Things may come to a head and get settled with some decisive action and unequivocal leadership by senior clergy in the Church of England. Or not. It may get much worse. I may feel I have no choice but to resign my orders and vacate my home. Or find alternative oversight in another church structure. 

All's Well that Ends Well (Ruth 4.1-22)

Introduction

We don’t want life to be complicated. What we’re looking for is life that is straightforward, simple and trouble-free. We want life to be like driving with nice scenery, on new tarmac, straight to your destination, with empty overtaking lanes and no Sunday drivers in the way.

But in reality, for most of us, life is more like driving on an obscure, winding lane in the middle of nowhere. The satnav, if it' snot broken, is sending you down blind alleys, there are potholes, tractors in the way, there’s fog, sometimes snow, there are uncut hedges scratching the paintwork on your car and herds of sheep stepping out in front of you every other my mile.

Yes, I have driven in Wales before...

A lot of the time, you’re getting nowhere. But for Christians, all along this narrow, winding road, there are signposts that say things like, "My grace is sufficient for you" and “I am with you always” and “those who persevere to the end will be saved.”

The book of Ruth is like a tour guide for this journey. If you are confused or weary, the message of Ruth is that, however hard the road seems, it is absolutely not a dead end. In every turn of your life, God is at work, and the final outcome is fullness of joy.

Many of you have been away for much of this series, so let’s review the three preceding chapters.

The Story So Far…

The story so far is a series of tragedies, disappointments and setbacks. In Chapter 1, Naomi, her husband and their two boys leave their home town of Bethlehem because of a famine and relocate to an unholy place called Moab. The head of the family, Elimelek, dies. The two sons meet Moabite women and marry outside of God’s people. For ten years, neither couple is able to have children. Then the two sons die, leaving Naomi with her two daughters-in-law, all three now destitute widows.

And even though Ruth loves and stands by her mother-in-law, Chapter 1 ends with Naomi saying she has become bitter and cynical. "I’m coming home empty handed” she says. “Thank you God for nothing.”

God’s Sovereignty

We’ve called this series “Ruth: The Invisible Hand of God.” All the way through the book, you can see God at work through everyday events, weaving them into the narrative of his greater purposes.

We believe that God is all-powerful. He is almighty. He can do whatever he wants. God is sovereign. Nothing takes him by surprise. We also believe that God is absolutely good. He abounds in love, is kind, compassionate and patient.

But this raises a big problem. People ask “If God can do anything, and if God is always good, why doesn’t he do something about everything that’s wrong in the world? Why does he allow evil to flourish?

People ask, “Why did God kill whole families in that earthquake in Italy this week?” But no, God is a loving Father, not an assassin. He can do anything but that doesn’t mean that everything that happens in our lives is God’s will and pleasure. The Bible shows us that he gets angry, he gets upset, he feels pain. Bad things don’t happen because he wants them to, they happen because our world is broken and messed up, ultimately because of human rebellion against God.

So how does it work that God is both sovereign and loving? It means that in the end, God works all things, even bad things that are not his will, into a greater, grander, overarching purpose which is his saving plan for the world.

Jesus has already written the last page of the book of world history. It says that everything works together in the end and he will triumph, finally defeating evil.

The Story So Far… Cont./

Anyway, in Chapter 2 Naomi begins to wonder if there is perhaps some hope after all because this kind and Godly man with a good job, who just happens to be single, called Boaz turns up and he is so kind to Ruth that Naomi begins to hope against hope that Cupid’s arrows might start to fly.

In those days, your personal significance and self-worth were secured by one thing only; ensuring your family line continued.

Naomi is now past childbearing age but Ruth isn’t, and even though she had not managed to conceive for ten years with her first husband, there’s a tiny chance that just maybe it was he that was infertile and not her. If - and it’s a big if – if Ruth could marry and have children, Naomi would have a grandchild and thus a name. That’s what she’s desperate for.

But Boaz, kind and considerate though he is, is no Casanova. There is a bit of suspense in Chapter 2. Is he, or isn’t he, going to show any interest? Has he got eyes for Ruth or not? Ruth wonders to herself, “Should I risk forcing the can-we-define-this-relationship conversation”?

But the chapter ends tantalizingly with tension and uncertainty. We don’t like that, do we? We want to know. We want answers. It’s hard to trust God when you just don’t know where you stand.

In Chapter 3, Naomi and Ruth throw caution to the wind in an audacious move that I personally wouldn’t advise any young woman to try at home.

Ruth puts on her best dress and perfume, creeps into Boaz’s room when he’s asleep at night, having had a few drinks, and she snuggles up by his feet. He wakes up. She startles him. Who’s this lovely woman lying down at the end of his bed? “I am your servant, Ruth” she says. In the circumstances, that sounds perilously like “Anything I can do for you Boaz?”

But Boaz is a godly man and he doesn’t take advantage of her at all. "Protect me as my husband” she says. “I am not asking you to marry me. That would be weird. But I am asking you to ask me to marry you." This is amazing. Even in our culture of equality, it’s usually men who initiate courtship and propose marriage. In those days, and in that culture, even more so; this was totally not done.

Then, interestingly, Boaz says to Ruth not how presumptuous she is, but how kind she is. He says, “You haven’t gone running after younger men.” So Boaz is an older man. He calls Ruth “my daughter” so he’s probably old enough to be her dad.

Why would an older man with property and a good income be unmarried? Was it just that he hadn’t yet met Miss Perfect? Did he have some physical disfigurement? Was his personal hygiene a bit iffy? Was he just not the marrying type? None of the above.

Here’s the reason; no girl wanted to marry Boaz because of who his mother was. Matthew 1.5 tells us that his mother was Rahab – that’s the same Rahab we meet in Joshua 6; a prostitute who betrayed her own people. For some reason, none of the girls in Bethlehem want a double-dealing retired sex worker as a mother-in-law!

Boaz is a nice guy, and he’s done well for himself, but he’s got baggage and no one wants to marry into his family - except Ruth, who sees his heart and accepts him, and loves him for what he is. No wonder Boaz says to Ruth in 3.10 “The Lord bless you for this kindness.”

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Many people have a poor self-image, even Christians. But the Lord looks deeper into your heart.

Here’s how special you are: when your parents conceived you, there was 1 chance in 350 million that you were the outcome, because that’s how many sperm cells race towards each unfertilized egg every time a baby is made. (On average, that is. I haven’t actually counted…)

You are chosen by the Father. You are the focus of his affection. You are the apple of his eye. You are his son, his daughter, by faith. He has lavished grace upon you. You were once cut off from mercy, but now you are part of a chosen people, a holy, treasured possession.

Shifting the Last Obstacle

But just when Ruth and Naomi see light at the end of the tunnel, just as their long and winding roads straighten at last, an almighty landslide blocks the highway.

There is someone else who, according to Jewish custom, is first in line to redeem Ruth and marry her. It’s complicated. So again chapter 3 ends with suspense and uncertainty.

But in Ruth 4.1-13 Boaz removes this last obstacle.

Here's the problem in three sentences.

1) The law said that if someone lost his land, for whatever reason, his immediate family had the right to redeem it (that is, to buy it back and keep it the family).

2) If a man who lost his property died before having children, the nearest of kin had a duty to marry his widow and have children to perpetuate the name of the deceased. The name had to be preserved at all costs.

3) If this new couple had children, it was the children who inherited the land, not the nearest of kin who had redeemed it.

So Boaz discusses the situation at the city gate, with this nearest of kin. We don’t know his name. Boaz calls him “friend” so let’s call him Mr. Friend.

Boaz tells him that Naomi is selling some land. It’s not worth much. Otherwise Ruth wouldn’t have been gleaning like a beggar in the field. Naomi needs to sell her one small asset just to have food to eat. So Boaz says “You have first refusal; it’s yours if you want it. If not, I’m next in line.”

Now, Mr. Friend is a waste of space. He is the redeemer. He has a moral obligation to look after Naomi and Ruth after their husbands’ death. This is his job. What has he done for these widows so far? Nothing. He hasn’t called round, he hasn’t provided for them, he hasn’t protected them - he doesn’t care.

In v4, it all goes pear-shaped. Mr. Friend does want to buy the land. So Ruth, this sweet, loyal, hardworking, godly woman is going to get landed with a guy who doesn’t love her and doesn’t care and Boaz is going home empty handed.

So Boaz ups his game and what he does is brilliant. “Oh yeah,” he says. “Did I mention the small print? The land comes with a Moabite woman (a foreign migrant, on benefits) whom you’ll have to marry. She’s been married before, she doesn’t seem to be able to have children. And she has a bitter mother-in-law who’d have to live in your house as well. The two of them are inseparable. Still interested?”

Mr. Friend’s jaw drops and he says, “I would love to, but I just can’t. You do it.” Boaz, under his breath, says, “Yes!” and they shake hands on the deal.

And so in v9, Boaz becomes the family guardian and redeemer. He doesn’t have to, remember. He is under no legal obligation at all. Just like Jesus didn’t have to redeem us. He chose us out of pure grace.

There are so many parallels.

Boaz was eligible to redeem Ruth - Jesus was eligible to redeem us.

Boaz was willing to redeem Ruth - Jesus was willing to redeem us.

Boaz paid a price to redeem Ruth - Jesus paid the highest price to redeem us; his own blood.

Boaz overcame obstacles to redeem Ruth - Jesus overcame the greatest obstacle to redeem us by rising again.

Boaz was under no obligation to redeem Ruth. Jesus didn’t have to redeem us either. It was pure grace.

In this part of the story, Ruth is in the background, and doesn’t say a word. Her redemption is a free gift to which she contributes nothing.

We don’t bring anything to our redemption either; no good works, no religious performance, no persuasive arguments, just ourselves, as we are.

So, v13, Ruth and Boaz marry, make love and have a child. In that order. They don’t shack up together for a couple of years to see if they’re compatible. A dozen studies from the 1970s into the early 2000s showed that, on average, couples who cohabit before marriage have a 33% higher chance of divorcing than couples who move in together after the wedding.

Ruth and Boaz commit to one another, for better, for worse, then they consummate their marriage, and then they have a little boy called Obed which means “servant worshipper.”

After all the darkness; the famine, the funerals, the poverty, the homelessness, the low-paid jobs, the misery, the bitterness - here is Naomi, tears running down her face, with a grandson in her arms; a little boy born in Bethlehem who makes everything right. Who does that remind you of?

And I love it in v15 where they say to Naomi, “your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth.” In other words, she has given you a name, she has made you a somebody from a nobody.

In our world, even in our day, especially in places like China and North Africa, people often say that boys are worth more than girls. In fact, we don’t even have to go abroad to find this.

In 2012, two doctors in Birmingham and Sheffield were filmed in an undercover investigation offering to abort babies because they were girls which thankfully is illegal.

The Crown Prosecution Service had sufficient evidence to prosecute these doctors, but decided it was not in the public interest to do so. So someone launched a private prosecution and the doctors were summonsed to answer charges in Manchester Crown Court. 

The CPS refused to release the footage, so the judge could not allow it as evidence. The case collapsed and the court ordered the brave young woman who brought the case to pay these doctors who offered gender-targeted terminations £36,000, plus £11,000 costs.

So in the UK we have state-sponsored abortion by healthy mothers of healthy babies because they are girls. I cannot tell you how disgusted and ashamed that makes me to be British.

God’s word says that godly and kind daughters, like Ruth, are more valuable than the perfect number of sons.

Ending

I’ve spoken about Boaz, and how, as a redeemer he foreshadows Jesus. But I want to end by looking at this young woman, Ruth, who had nothing, but through faith became the great-grandmother of King David.

You look at Ruth, and:

·       You see one who left the comfort of her father’s house to became poor in a strange place

·       You see one who loved the loveless

·       You see one who considered a man’s heart, not his background

·       You see one who gave her life for a bitter, hopeless woman and became her salvation

This laughing stock, this family tragedy who had no name, became, through faith, the ancestor of the one whose name is above every name.

Because when you look at Ruth, you see her greatest descendant, the Lord Jesus.

The invisible hand of God; may we have faith to trust that it is at work in the everyday ups and downs of our lives to bring outcomes we could scarcely dream of.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 28 August 2016

The Kindness of Grace (Ruth 2.14-23)

Introduction

So we continue our journey through the delightful book of Ruth. If you have been away for any of the last three Sundays, you’ll have missed some, or all, of the story up till now, which is why I’m going to spend the first half of this talk reviewing what we’ve looked at in the last three weeks, and the second half on today’s reading.

Ruth is set in the days when the Judges ruled in Israel, a time of national spiritual decline, when no one sought the Lord, and everyone did, not as God requires, but as they thought best.

The story begins ominously with a series of tragedies; a famine in Bethlehem, the relocation of a distressed family to a strange and godless land, the death of the breadwinner Elimelek, the intermarriage of his two sons with women who didn’t know God, and then the sons’ deaths too, leaving three destitute widows including Naomi, who now changes her name from Pleasant to Bitter.

But then one of the younger widows, Ruth, converts to faith in the God of Israel and, in an act of breathtaking devotion, holds fast to her ageing mother-in-law. They both journey to Bethlehem, which by this time has returned to agricultural abundance.

Kathryn spoke last week about how it just so happens that Ruth ends up in the field of a good man named Boaz, and she is allowed to glean (that is to say to harvest the edges of the field and gather the leftovers that everyone else missed).

This was a kind of benefits system; this was basically the equivalent of a Social Security cheque or welfare stamps or a foodbank and it was legislated for in the Bible to save widows and orphans and foreigners from starvation.

God is still at work today in foodbanks. About four years ago, a group of Christians acting on Jesus' words to feed the hungry, began a foodbank and drop-in in Halifax.

Many vulnerable people, often with chaotic lifestyles, started coming to collect a free food parcel. There were homeless people, there were destitute single parents, there were asylum seekers, there were people in debt getting ripped off by loan sharks, there were young people on drugs or already alcoholics.

And something started to happen. More and more of these people started to ask for prayer. They began to see those prayers answered, one by one, many came into a relationship with God and a new church was started called Saturday Gathering.

Their strap line is beautiful, listen to this: “We believe that everyone is significant, nothing is impossible, everything was accomplished at the cross, and we are loved with an extravagant, everlasting love.”

People keep coming to faith. They’re seeing the restoration of hope where there was no future. They’ve baptized over a hundred new believers in Jesus in the last two years. They worship noisily and exuberantly. This is Jesus, this is what he does, this is what he’s like.

Providence

You’ll notice that from 1.6 onwards, there have been several “twists of fate” as we might see it. “As it turned out” the Bible says in 2.3. It just so happened that

(1) it was harvest time when Ruth and Naomi arrived,

and that (2) Ruth ended up in Boaz’s field, and that

and that (3) he passed by that day,

and that (4) he noticed a hardworking young woman he didn’t remember hiring

and that (5) he asked about her,

and that (6) the guy he asked knew her story; that she was a penniless foreigner who had shown amazing kindness and devotion to her mother-in-law Naomi,

and that (7) he told Boaz the whole story.

And it just so happens… that Boaz is the best, kindest, most Godly boss you could work for. He comes into work with a big smile on his face and says to all his employees, “The Lord be with you!”

Remember this is the godless time of the Judges. Nobody is interested in spiritual things. Nobody wants to talk about God at work. But Boaz does. His name means “strength” and he is a spiritual giant in a time of pathetically weak faith.

He notices the new girl and he assigns good, mature, supportive women to look after her and help her settle in. He introduces the world’s first zero tolerance sexual harassment at work policy to protect her. He sees to it personally that she gets all the refreshment breaks she needs.

If you’ve got any kind of responsibility at work, learn from Boaz. Everyone wants to work in his field because he’s fair, he’s generous, he takes a personal interest in his employees, and they know he loves God.

Now then, we need to understand that divine intervention happens in two ways. Firstly, God sometimes does an amazing miracle. He gives dreams and visions, he heals the sick, he inspires accurate prophecies, he answers prayer in incredible ways, he changes the weather, he sends angels…

In many and various powerful ways God sometimes breaks into our experience and visibly changes outcomes.

But most of the time, God works invisibly; weaving the natural, unremarkable, routine circumstances of our lives into the overarching narrative of his sovereign plan and purposes. Someone has called these kinds of coincidences “God-incidences.” The story of Ruth is full of them; it shows the invisible hand of God at work and we call this providence.

On the reverse side of both realities; of miracles and providence, is prayer.

The author and pastor John Ortberg talks about his Uncle Otis who was a legend in prayer and saw many signs and wonders. He once prayed for a man who told him that he suffered from constipation. So he laid a hand on this poor man and closed his eyes and prayed earnestly, “Lord, heal this man immediately!” Thankfully, that particular prayer went unanswered…

But God does work miracles in answer to prayer. And God weaves his purposes into the fabric of our lives through prayer.

Thus far in Ruth we have encountered two prayers. The first is found in 1.8-9 and it says “May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

The second comes in 2.12; “May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

By the end of the book, both prayers are answered in every last detail.

The Story Continues…

So we pick up today in chapter 2, verse 14.

It’s lunch time and Boss of the Year Boaz is ready to tuck in. What I love about Boaz is that he notices this outsider, with a foreign accent, all on her own, without a friend in the world and invites her to his table.

It’s her first day at work, she hasn’t got a penny to her name; she hasn’t brought a packed lunch, she doesn’t know what to do. He notices – and welcomes her to join him for lunch. Look how he bestows honour on her.

I used to be a trainee manager for a large retail outfit that you will all have heard of. And I was shocked to learn on my first day that the management team and the workers ate at different tables in the canteen. So my first lunch break I put some food on my tray and went over to sit with some guys I’d been working with that morning. One of the managers came over and has a word in my ear and pointed to the management table. “This is where you belong, not with the riff-raff.” I prefer what Boaz does.

Boaz is the big cheese, remember. He owns the whole field. He hires and fires the workers. He’s a man of stature, of wherewithal. He’d expect to be waited on by servants. But look, v14! Who is serving whom? Boaz is serving Ruth, this nobody on her first day. Here is a courteous man who honours and serves a woman; he sits her down, he offers her all that’s on the table.

She eats her fill, and in fact has more than enough because there’s plenty left over to take home to Naomi. Boaz, in other words, supplies abundantly more than Ruth can ask or imagine. This looks like grace.

Is Boaz starting to remind you of anyone? Who said this? “The one at table greater is than the one who serves. But I am among you as one who serves.” Jesus. Boaz is like Jesus. There is a striking resemblance, a family resemblance in fact because, as we’ll see in two weeks’ time, Boaz is actually an ancestor of Jesus.

The book of Ruth, though written over 1000 years before Christ, is all about Jesus. Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures [i.e. the Old Testament] because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” (John 5.39). In Luke 24.27 it says “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

There are shadows of Jesus here, all over the book of Ruth.

Boaz, like Jesus, sees Ruth’s heart. He sees how loyal she has been, how she pours out life for others. He sees that she’s hard working; she’s not expecting something for nothing. He sees her humility, she’s not above menial work. He sees her heart for God, how she gave up on her false gods in Moab to seek refuge under the wings of the God of Israel.

Boaz could have looked at all Ruth’s baggage instead. She’s a foreigner, she’s penniless, she’s on welfare, she’s not a virgin, she’s dirty and sweaty from working in the fields all morning, picking up the leftovers, she’s got a bitter mother-in-law…

Ruth has very little going for her. But Boaz is like Jesus. He sees past the baggage.

I heard this week a true story from about five years ago about a single mother with crippling debts whose young child had a serious illness. She lived in a large American city and health care is expensive there. She didn’t know what to do. She found her way to a church and heard the gospel and was converted and got baptized, and they helped her to get her life sorted out.

One young couple in the church, who had good jobs, and who were doing OK, heard about this woman and her son and their hearts were moved with compassion. They had just bought a nice shining 4x4 but they felt the Lord speak to them about it. So they took the car back to the showroom, cashed it in, and took this woman and her boy under their wing.

They fixed her up with somewhere to stay near the hospital and paid all the bills. They paid for her little boy’s health care. And he got better. They helped her find a job and wrote references for her and she got her life on track. This is the church. This is who we are.

When God looks at you, if you have faith in Jesus he doesn’t see your baggage at all. He doesn’t see any sin, he doesn’t see your failures, he doesn’t see your darkness, he doesn’t see your unworthiness – he sees only the perfect record of Jesus.

So Boaz (v15-16) tells his men to be kind to her, to not treat her harshly, or make her cry, and give her all the breaks she needs.

Ruth works hard until sundown (v17) and in one day, according to the commentaries, she makes the equivalent of six week’s wages. At that rate she will have earned a year’s wages by the end of the barley harvest.

She gets home (v18-19), gives Naomi the doggie bag from lunch and shows Naomi what she earned that day. Naomi can’t hide her amazement. “Wow, how did you glean all that in one day? What field were you in? Who’s the boss? This is amazing!”

I want you to notice something: Naomi, this woman who said, “Call me bitter” in chapter 1 has started to taste the sweetness of grace and her heart is warming. A smile is returning to her mouth. “The Lord bless him” she says. Not “Wow, that was lucky!” She sees the beginning of the answer to her weary prayers. Look, she’s becoming a worshipper again! “He has not stopped showing kindness” she says.

It’s the Lord’s kindness that leads us to repentance says Romans 2.4 and Naomi is starting to repent of her bitterness towards God, her hard heart, and her foolish, prayerless choices.

By the end of chapter 2 Naomi and Ruth have shelter, a good income, food and security and prayers are being answered. They haven’t got everything they hope for, but through the kindness of God’s grace they are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Ending

As I close, notice this; Boaz invites Ruth to his table to eat and drink, and there was bread and wine. She has nothing to bring to the table, nothing to offer, just herself. And she sits in the presence of this kind spiritual giant, who is full of grace.

Jesus invites us to his table this morning. There is bread and wine. Like Ruth, we have nothing to bring to the table, nothing to offer, just ourselves. We can all feast on the abundance of the Lord’s grace today, and bask in the presence of the one who can change our spiritual rags to heavenly riches.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 14 August 2016