Community Church Sermons

The Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost – October 13, 2002

Trails Through Tellico:

Golden Cows vs. Sacred Vows?

Exodus 32:1-14

 

When thinking about the story of the Golden Calf, it is easy to visualize the scene.  Moses, playing the role of Charlton Heston, is in a high level meeting with God at the very summit of Mt. Sinai. The mountain is covered with clouds and smoke, and there is thunder and lightning and fire. But after forty days and forty nights have passed and Moses doesn’t come down from the mountain, the Israelites in the valley below figure he is a goner. And without a leader, and the God he represented, the people are up a creek without a paddle. So they convince Moses’ brother Aaron to help them make other gods, like the people all around them have, to protect them and guide them.

 

So Aaron convinces the women and the kids to turn in their golden earrings, and these are melted down, and formed into the shape of a calf. Archaeologists tell us this golden calf was only an inch or two high. Just a little cow. Not half the bull of the local Baal worshippers. But at least it was in the same bovine family. And they begin to worship the golden calf.

 

But then Moses finally breaks free of his mountaintop experience. Descending from the mountain with the engraved tablets containing the ten commandments in his arms, Moses hears the people singing and dancing and carrying on as they worship their new god – this midget golden calf.

 

And you know the rest of the story. Moses, playing the role of Charlton Heston, throws down the tablets of the ten commandments, and there are all sorts of Cecil B. DeMille pyrotechnic special effects as the golden calf blows up, the people are excoriated, and the divine point is loudly made:

 

“YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME!”

 

And this little story from Exodus is one of the reasons some of us who come out of the Protestant tradition sometimes get a little nervous when we go into a Catholic church and see statues of the saints. We wonder if we are crossing the same line the Israelites crossed, and failing the requirements of the very first of the ten commandments. No graven images. No other gods.

 

But let me assure you, we are not. Artistic renderings of faithful people are not what this story is concerned about. No, this is not a story about whether we should allow statues in church. This is a story about a much more practical matter. This is a text about the dangers of Stewardship Sunday here at Tellico Village Community Church!

 

Today, we are launching our annual Trails Through Tellico stewardship campaign. Our congregation has been divided up into some fifty-odd trails of 10 or 12 families. For each trail, there is a Trail Leader, and at the close of today’s service, each Trail Leader will receive a notebook to circulate among the families on their trail. No one will come to visit you and pressure you into making a promise to financially support our common work. No one will tell you how much you ought to give. You’ll simply have the opportunity to browse through the notebook and be visually reminded of some of the important things we do together. There is an incredibly inspiring letter from me. You’ll find a budget projection of what it will cost to fulfill our ministry in the coming year. There’s some material for you to fill out in response, as the Lord leads. Then you’ll pass the notebook on to the next person on the list. And if you’re smart, you’ll do it sometime around dinner time and maybe get invited to supper! And that’s it! In a couple of weeks, we’ll collect all the books, add up all the commitments, and begin planning for next year.

 

It’s a very simple thing. But extremely dangerous.

 

You see, as the Trail books circulate through your neighborhood, you just might be tempted to confuse the sacred vows of being stewards of God’s gifts, with being folks merely driving a herd of golden cows.

 

You may have noticed that many, if not most, Christian churches have managed over the years to accumulate quite a good-sized herd of golden calves. On the surface, they seem to be good things, and – in fact – kept in proper perspective, they can be very useful. But all too often, these golden calves become the focus of our attention and devotion. Our attentiveness to them lessens our ability to focus on God and to go where God wants us to go and do what God wants us to do. These sacred cows become the gods we serve.

 

Church buildings. How many times over your lifetime have you been told that it’s important to increase your giving this year because it will cost more to operate the building? And you know what? It will cost more to operate the buildings next year.

 

But that’s not the reason to give your support.

 

Church programs. Church staff. The cost of utilities. The beautiful music program.

 

You probably know the story about the church that gave the Music staff a huge salary increase, but the Pastor got nothing. So he went to the Music room, and asked about the discrepancy. Why did they think a Music Director, Organist and Pianist was worth much more than a Minister? And all together the Music Director, Organist and Pianist said it was because…“There’s no business like show business, like no business I know…!”

 

Well, it is costly to have great programs, and to pay utility bills, and to support outstanding staff people like those in our church.

 

But those aren’t the reasons to give your support.

 

More parking. More seating. More missions. Bigger budgets.

 

Over the years, you’ve heard many voices telling you these are the things your gifts are needed for. Why, the typical Stewardship sermon is simply a reworking of this text: Bring your earrings next Sunday, and we’ll pool them all together, and melt them all down, and make for ourselves a golden calf…or two…or three.

 

People of faith from the very beginning have reported that one of the most challenging aspects of walking with God…is walking with God! Walking with God! We humans very quickly transfer our loyalties from the God we cannot see to tangible things we can see. So the work of the church becomes less and less an exciting journey following the living God to the places He has promised. And more and more it becomes managing a budget, operating a facility, developing staff, and running programs. And the more we focus our attention on supporting the golden cows – these tangible objects we replace the Lord with – the more the character of our faith changes. The less and less risk we take. The less and less daring we become. The less and less committed to truly loving others as Jesus loved us.

 

Oh, Stewardship time is a dangerous time in the life of a church!

 

A number of years ago, I met a man named John. He was a simple man. Not very well educated. Not very attractive on the surface. Probably wouldn’t fit in here in our community, although I like to think we would work really hard to make him feel at home and one of us. John owned his own small business. A pest control company. J and J Pest Control it was called. John and Jesus Pest Control to those of us who knew. John didn’t make a whole lot of money with his business, but he gave more to God’s work than anyone I’ve ever known. He gave his money. He gave his time. He gave his all. John used to laugh and say, “You know, you can’t outgive God!”

 

I think the chemicals that John worked with every day probably caused the cancer he developed.  But John trusted the Lord, and went about his life, going into the world every day to spread joy and love and the Good News about Jesus. I don’t know if his wardrobe contained more than one shirt, but I do know he’d give you the one he was wearing if you needed it. Generosity and grace  simply flowed through him.

 

One day, I asked John why he did the things he did. Why did he share his money so freely, his possessions, his time, his talent so profusely? And this is what he said.

 

“Butch,” he said – because that was my nickname back in those days – “I owe my life to God. He came and loved me when I couldn’t even love myself. He fills every day with beautiful gifts, and friends, and sights and sounds. The Lord gives me strength to fight this cancer, and even to help other cancer patients up at the clinic. And all I want to do with my life is to give back to God as much as I can of what I’ve received. You know, you can’t outgive God!”

 

Well, John passed away a short while later, and people are still talking about him. You see, he really made a mark on the world. He really made a difference.

 

And to be honest with you, the story from Exodus is telling us this: it would be better to be a church with two or three John’s in it (I don’t mean that to be funny!), than to be a church with 1100 members or more whose primary focus is maintaining buildings, producing programs, supporting staff, and otherwise melting down people’s earrings to form little golden calves.

 

Do you know what I’m saying?

 

As Trails Through Tellico begins this year, don’t pledge your support because utilities are up, the stock market is down, the minister’s union is on strike, and the  choir needs new robes.

 

No give your support as an expression of thanks to the God who has saved your life. Who loves you when you can’t even love yourself. Who walks with you every day in your living and will walk with you even in your dying.

 

Give not to support things, but to glorify God through preaching and music and worship.

 

Give to glorify God through caring for each other with Christian love.

 

Give to glorify God through faithful service to others.

 

Give because you can’t outgive God!

 

Oh, this is a dangerous time in the life of our church. A time to choose wisely between golden cows and sacred vows.

 

Which will it be for you?