"Stewardship--It's a Response"
Rev. Thomas J. Kok
Sept. 21, 1997
Text: Genesis 14
In the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, there stands a stately old church
which is known to the residents of that city simply as "Gray Friars". During
its 380 years of existence, Gray Friars has seen a variety of things take
place. At one time it was a monastery for Franciscan monks. A short time
later it was a meeting place for those who were involved in the Protestant
Reformation. It was a place that is well know, a place draped in history,
a place that once was the boyhood church of Sir Walter Scott. Gray Friars
is the very essence of history and dignity. Yet for all of its history
and dignity, Gray Friars is the scene of a most unusual story about a dog.
The story goes like this.
In the spring of 1858, a rather unimportant citizen of Edinburgh by
the name of John Gray died. Since he was a member of the parish of Gray
Friars, John Gray was buried in the graveyard right next to Gray Friars
church. Among the many mourners at John Gray's graveside was his faithful
companion, Bob, a sky terrier. Even at the time of the funeral, it was
obvious to those who were gathered at the graveside that John Gray's death
was the hardest on Bob, as he sat there slump shouldered and his head bowed.
Yet even the most perspective at the funeral couldn't begin to guess how
Bob would express his grief. Following the funeral, Bob refused to leave
his master's graveside. He refused to leave it, not just for the rest of
that day, not just for that night, but he refused to leave that graveside
for the next 14 years. Allowing himself only an hour or two a day to be
away from the graveside in order to find the food he needed to exist, Bob
remained at John's side. Indeed his presence became so well know, his loyalty
became so widely known that he became an early form of tourist attraction.
People came from all over, by the thousands to gaze and wonder about this
dog who refused to leave his master's side.
Even the caretaker of Gray Friars wasn't terribly thrilled about having
a dog in his cemetery was won over by Bob's loyalty and gave him permission
to stay. So Bob did until on one cold January morning in 1872, he was found
dead laying on his master's grave. In order of Bob's remarkable loyalty,
there now stands a statue in Bob's likeness at Gray Friars church. But
even more remarkable, in honor to his loyalty, Bob is buried in the church
yard next to his master. Now Bob didn't do what he did out of a sense of
duty. He didn't stay at his master's side after death night and day, rain
or shine, month in month out, year after year because he thought he ought
to be there. Bob, after all, was a dog and I'm not quite sure that dogs
have a sense of duty. Rather the reason Bob did what he did, the reason
stayed at his master's side was love. It was the response of this simple
animal's heart to the heart of his master.
As we continue our series on stewardship this morning, we're going to
talk about the response of the heart. Not the response of a dog's heart
to the heart of his master, but the response of our hearts to the heart
of God. Thus far in our series on the subject of stewardship, we have said
that stewardship is a command, something that we need to do, something
that we ought to do because it's built into the very fabric of our humanity.
We've also said that stewardship is an attitude. That God wants to come
to the whole matter of giving and using of our resources in the right frame
of mind. More than being a command and more than being something that we
ought to do in the right attitude, stewardship is a response. It's a response
of the heart.
We see an example of that response of the heart this morning in our
text from Genesis 14:18-20. I'd like to take
the next few moments to look at this story with you from the life of Abram
under the heading of "Stewardship, It's a Response".
The story contained in Genesis 14 is one that is apt to stay in our
minds simply because it is a story that is so out of character for Abram.
After all when we think of Abram, we usually think of sheep and tents and
long quiet talks with God under the stars. We don't think of weapons. We
don't think of warfare. We don't think of stunning military victories.
This is a rather strange episode in Abram's life. But even more strange
than the thought of Abram as a warrior is the appearance of this man named
Melchizedek. In the historical references of scripture, Melchizedek is
neither mentioned before or after this incident. He simply appears and
disappears and yet in the short time that we see him, he comes across as
an extremely important individual for he blesses Abram, the one whom God
has just said "will be a blessings to the nations" and he receives an offering
from Abram. That very fact has caused people that have read chapter 14,
"who is this man?" The answer is, we really don't know. We get some hints
from our text as to who Melchizedek might be.
First of all he's identified as the king of Salem. Scholars have guessed,
and I think rightly so, that Salem is another word for Jerusalem. In Psalm
76:2, Salem and Jerusalem are used interchangeably to refer to the same
location. So Melchizedek is an early king of the city of Jerusalem, a city
that was to become the holy city. The city of David. The fact that he was
a king is supported as well by his name. Melchizedek means king of righteousness.
Another hint that our text gives to us is the hint that Melchizedek was
priest of God most high. Somehow, some way, Melchizedek knew about the
one true God. Melchizedek knew the one true God and he worshipped the one
true God and more importantly or just as important, he led others in worship.
He was a priest. He wasn't just a worshipper. He wasn't just a follower
of the true God. He was a priest. He was someone who helped others in worship.
All of these clues added together, the name, king of righteousness and
the fact that he was a king of Jerusalem and the fact that he was a priest
of God most high, led the ancient Jewish people to see Melchizedek as a
figure or a forerunner of the Messiah. The Messiah, that one that God promised
would come and rule over his people and lead his people back into the proper
worship. The Old Testament Jews looked at Melchizedek and they said, this
one gives us an idea of what the Messiah is going to be like. In fact,
in Psalm 110, where King David writes about
the coming Messiah, he writes this; "The Messiah
will be ordained as a priest in the order of Melchizedek".
That whole idea of the Messiah/Melchizedek connection is picked up again
in the New Testament book of Hebrews 7. There the writer or the author
identifies Jesus as the King of Righteousness, as that priest of the most
high God, as that king who follows in the line of David, the King of the
holy city and he says, Jesus is the fulfillment of what Melchizedek foreshadowed.
The discussion of Melchizedek/Jesus parallel is much more complicated
than I just said and we could talk about it for a very long time. But for
right now it's just important that we see that parallel. We see that there
is this recognition that in Melchizedek there is more here than a simple
human being. There's more represented here for as Abram responds to Melchizedek,
we are not seeing Abram overwhelmed by a personality. We are not seeing
Abram impressed by an individual. What we are seeing is Abram looking at
Melchizedek and thorough Melchizedek seeing God. When Abram responds to
Melchizedek, he doesn't respond to a man, he responds to God. That explains
his actions. Abram doesn't say, wow, Melchizedek is a really neat guy.
I think I give him a tenth of everything I just won in battle. NO. This
man is a representative of God and as an expression of my relationship
with God, I am going to give to him.
We are told in the text that Abram's response to Melchizedek was rather
generous. He gives a tenth of all the booty that he captures to Melchizedek.
Abram's generosity arises out of a sense of his relationship with God.
Abram recognizes that he is in relationship with God, not because he's
so wonderful, but out of grace. Remember, if you will, that Abram was chosen
by God out of all the human race to be God's special possession. To be
the ancestor of a very special people. That choice was not made because
God looked down on the earth and said, of all the people here, Abram is
the best choice. I guarantee there were probably more moral people than
Abram. There were probably people of sterner character than Abram. But
God determines out of His own love, out of His own grace to chose Abram
for His own and to draw him into a relationship and Abram understands that.
Abram knows that he lives with God by grace and he responds with gratitude.
That's exactly what we see happening in our text.
In verse 20, as Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth
of everything, what he is doing is he's expressing his gratitude to God.
He is responding, it is his heart responding to God's heart. Responding
in gratitude, not just for the victory he's just won, but responding in
gratitude for God's presence and God's grace in his life. Melchizedek reminds
Abram of how incredible it is that he has the privilege of living face
to face with the almighty God. Abram in joy and celebration gives, not
because he thinks he ought to, because he thinks God deserves a certain
amount of the booty that he has won, but because he wants to give. Therein
lies the secret of true stewardship. Not in how much we give. Not in how
we see the action of giving, but in the desire to give that is born out
of an understanding of God's grace.
Abram understood how great God's grace was in his life and because he
understood how great God's grace was, Abram responded with generosity that
overflowed out of his heart. If we are going to engage in true stewardship,
if we are going to become the stewards that God has called us to be, then
we as well need to first come to an understanding of grace. Unfortunately,
in our world it is very hard to come to an understanding of grace because
we live in a world, in a society that has what you might call an entitlement
mentality. That is, we human beings tend to believe that just because we
live and breath and walk around this earth, there are certain things that
are owed to us. There's a great deal of talk in our society about rights
and what we deserve and what we ought to get and what we forget in all
of this talk and all of the noise that's being made, is that when you boil
it right down, we human beings deserve absolutely nothing. We are rebellious.
We are sinful. We are faithless, even to ourselves. There's nothing that
we deserve. The world doesn't owe us anything and God certainly does not.
If God were to allow us to go on our merry way to Hell, no one could call
him unjust.
God does exactly the opposite. In an incredible movement of love and
of grace, what God does is He says to us, I am going to save you. I am
going to pour out my love on you, not because of who you are, not because
you deserve it, but because of who I am. God looks down on us in compassion
and He gives us exactly what we don't deserve. He gives us His attention
and He gives us His love and that's where stewardship begins. It doesn't
begin in looking at my money and saying, it all belongs to God. It begins
by my saying, how do I stand in relationship to God and looking at the
amazing things that God does for us especially in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the embodiment of God's love for you. The fact that Jesus
Christ was willing to come to this earth and die on your behalf not because
he found something worthy in you but because He loves you simply because
of who He is, we get a full understanding of what grace is all about. We
come to recognize that where we stand in God's grace is not because we're
nice people, but because Jesus Christ was willing to sacrifice himself
on our behalf.
In her book, "FirstFruits
, Managing the Master's Money", Lillian Grissen
defines grace as our good God's flawless goodness. I want to stop right
there. That's a great definition right there. Our good God's flawless goodness,
but she goes on and she says, "our good God's flawless goodness is unconditional
and inclusive in love and mercy". Unconditionally God loves us. Unconditionally
God pours out His mercy on us and what happens then is it makes it so that
I no longer need to fear death and Hell. I no longer need to fear my own
sin and my own shame. I no longer need to be afraid of anything because
God is with me by His grace. Once I understand that, once I understand
how much I have been freed from, once I understand how much has changed
for me in Christ, no one ever needs to tell me again how much I ought to
give because I want to. I want to respond, my heart wants to sing and respond
to the heart that poured itself out upon me.
One passage of scripture that always strikes me is found in II
Corinthians 8. There the apostle Paul is speaking about the offering
which the Macedonian churches, which were mostly Gentiles, gathered for
the church in Jerusalem, which was mostly Jews, and he says this. "For
I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their
ability". Entirely on their own they urgently pleaded for the privilege
in sharing in the service to the saints. When was the last time you heard
of a church giving more than it can give? When was the last time the deacons
pounding on the door saying, "we want to give more!" That's exactly what
happened with the Macedonians. Their desire to give as much as they gave
did not arise of the fact that they really loved the people in the church
in Jerusalem. Most likely they didn't even know these people. They may
have loved them as brothers and sisters in Christ, but it's a strong possibility
that they couldn't pick those people out of a crowd. Their generosity didn't
arise out of a love for the saints in Jerusalem. Their generosity arose
of an understanding of God's grace. These people knew the depths of their
lostness and the height of their salvation in Jesus Christ and they wanted
to give.
The question this morning is, have you ever urgently, passionately wanted
to give in the service of the kingdom? Whether that be of your time or
your talent or your treasure. Have there been times when you've said, "man,
I can't wait to give". If not, it's time that we pause and consider all
that Christ has done for us. Think of yourself as pauper who is lying in
the gutter amongst the filth and the refuse of your sin and who suddenly,
unexplainably has been lifted up out of that gutter, cleansed completely,
placed in the palace, not just as a retainer, not just as a servant, not
just as a friend, but as a child of the king. You know you've had absolutely
nothing to do with it. If we look at our lives in Christ that way, how
can we remain selfish? How can be possibly think that what we have, what
we hold, we have a right to? The very dynamics of God's grace, the very
dynamics of gratitude compel us to be generous. God's heart is so generous
what it triggers in our hearts is generosity in return.
One interesting affect of this kind of gratitude is that it shatters
our conventional understanding of giving. Many of us here have heard of
the tithe. The ancient Israelis were required to tithe their income. That
means they were required to give a tenth of all that they earned, all that
they had. Abram gives a tithe, he gives a tenth to Melchizedek. The tithe
down through the ages of the Christian church has been used as a standard,
a bar, if you will. Those who are good givers or even those who are exceptional
givers are the ones who give a tenth. If you have anybody in a congregation
who give a tenth of their income, the deacons really appreciate it. They
are the good givers in a church and people say that's the goal that I'm
going to achieve. I'm going to try to get over that bar of the tenth. But
you know what? The understanding of gratitude, the understanding of God's
grace makes the tithe obsolete. It makes it obsolete because when we understand
how much God has given to us by His grace, giving becomes not a matter
of how much must I give, it becomes a matter of how much may I give? How
much can I give? How much can I pour out for the one who has poured out
so much for me?
It's interesting in talking about giving in I
Corinthians 16:2 the apostle Paul says simply this. "Each
of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income".
That's not very specific and it's not meant to be because Paul is saying,
I want you to think about what God has done for you and I want you to allow
your heart to open up. Give as your heart responds to God. So we're called
to do today is to take a little time to think about God's grace. I want
you to think for a moment where you would be without Jesus Christ. I want
to think for a moment where this world would be without God's grace. I
want you to think for a moment of the fact that all sin has fallen short
of the glory of God and without Jesus Christ we would all be on the road
to Hell. Take time to consider the height of God's grace and then let your
heart respond because once you do I'm sure that the question of what you
must give will never trouble you again. AMEN.
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