Sermon on sharing

Dear Friends in Christ -

Yesterday, I gave a sermon on the importance of doing "show and tell" with our faith, being a living example for the benefit of our children. I also talked about sharing (yes, it's true that it's harder as we get older and not easier!) - and the fact that "Christianity is not a spectator sport."

I also mentioned that someone in the congregation (NOT the treasurer or collector! :-) ), asked me to preach again soon about money. I might just do that. But in the mean time, I read the following in yesterday's Forward Day By Day, felt inspired by it, and wanted to share it with you.

All blessings on your continually blossomin Easter journey.
Faithfully,
Janet+

Acts 4:32-35. Everything they owned was held in common.

Having experienced Easter, the early church lived Easter. Possessing the Risen Christ, they happily concluded that this saving reality made all other possessions irrelevant.

As one who preaches and practices tithing, I once only half-jokingly proposed in a stewardship sermon to my 225 congregants-the professional and intellectual elite of our county-seat college town-that all 226 of us do three things: quit our jobs; go to work at McDonalds; and then based on that new income level prayerfully commit to tithe, to giving 10 percent of our pretax income to God through the church.

If we did that, the annual giving of our 96 pledging units would increase from $188,606 to $293,800. As we did that, not only would our congregation's needs be totally met, but also our church could build two Habitat for Humanity houses in our town every year. Just imagine what we could do if we gave God not what is left, but what is right.

Easter invites us to greater hope-and generosity. The early church wasn't filled with kooks, just filled with faith.