Latest / Belin Memorial UMC / Rev. Will Malambri - "Blessed to Be a Blessing"
Transcript
- Sanctuary 10 18 26: You know this reading from first Peter chapter four. I actually don't hear it yet. I want to set it up. We'll get there, believe me. Before I read it, I want you to think about what Dr. Stenson read for us. I want you to think about Genesis. About how God pulled Abram and Sarah from their homeland, their family, the world they knew, and sent them on an adventure that changed their names to Abraham and Sarah. But just as significantly, maybe more so, changed their lives and the direction, the trajectory of their descendants' lives forever. They could have stayed in Ur. People still lived in Ur. Abram and Sarah could have, Sarah A could have made a life there, but God invited them into something more. Something that enhanced their lives. Something that enhanced the lives of those around them. Something that enhanced the lives of those who would come after them for generation after generation. When God pointed to the stars and said to Abram that his descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the sky, childless Abram could never have anticipated that you and I would have been part of that. Part of the far reaching ripples. Of their obedience. Rebels. Ripples come from a stone, a pebble hitting water, causing them to flow out. We we we never see how far they've spread. We might see the immediate reaction, the immediate response to a a stone hitting the water, but we never see how far they go into places hidden from our own sight. Places, effects that go long after the stone has been tossed. When God called Abram and Sarah into an adventure that they did not ask for and could not have anticipated, God made it clear that they would be blessed. so that they would be a blessing to others. They were blessed to be a blessing. It's never God's intention to simply be blessed themselves. That continues. It is never God's intention for the blessings we have been given to stop with us. We are blessed to be a blessing. It's true in good times. It's also true in difficult times. What I'm going to read to you from Peter, he was writing to Christians in the midst of great struggle, and he never suggests to them that they have been through enough, that they've done enough, they've suffered enough to be absolved from the responsibility to bless others. Peter wrote: Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse, but on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called that you might receive a blessing. Being a blessing is not something we do once we feel like we've been cared for well enough that we owe something back. It is a way of being that acknowledges that we are always being well cared for because we serve a God who is with us, whether we are going through the valley of the shadow of death or sitting beside the still waters. The God who gives us a community of faith, who blesses us and who we get to bless. So Peter tells us. We don't get to withhold our blessings until we feel sufficiently blessed. He tells us that often it's by blessing others that we become additionally blessed. I know you can hear in that what people have twisted that into. Peter's not talking about a prosperity gospel, this idea that claims that the more money you give, the more you can expect God to give you in return. He's not talking about purchasing. He's talking about giving. This is not an investment strategy. Contributing from what God has given you is a response. It's no attempt to put God in your debt. Recognizing the gifts that God has poured into you, be they material, relational, spiritual, the gifts that God has put into your life have come from God, and therefore you are called to steward them. That is to be responsible in how you use them for the glory of God. Or as Peter wrote. The end of all things is near. Therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. Above all maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God. Whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things. Through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Imagine having lived three years of your life as Jesus right hand. You were as close to him as anyone. Hearing his teachings, watching how he treated people, getting insights about his relationship with the Father. You witnessed his approach to life and to the kingdom of heaven that he was ushering in. You saw and heard what Jesus was working toward, what he knew would one day fully come. You learned from him the habits, the practices, the ways that would mean. His kingdom had come on earth as it is in heaven. And that formed you. And it reformed you. And years later, as Jesus' followers are trying to figure out how it is we live without Jesus right by our side, you dictated a letter. You wrote it because you felt sure that He would be back any day, and you wanted, because you loved Jesus. And because you sought to honor him, because you saw such a compelling vision and what he had to share, you wanted his followers to live like the kingdom of heaven was arriving among us. The way Jesus lived. So he told his followers. Discipline yourself. Maintain constant love for one another. Be hospitable. Serve. Steward the manifold grace that you have been given. You recognize that God's grace has been poured out on you and on the lives of others, blessing upon blessing, and the only faithful response is to care for it, to treat that grace like the precious gift that it is. Only unlike precious gifts that are rare and fragile and locked away for safekeeping, this grace is manifold and strong and to be put to daily use for God's purposes. So it's your duty. but also your joy to do so because you have been blessed in order to be a blessing. These gifts you've been given. are not yours. They were entrusted by God for you to use. Use them for God. Use them for others. Use them to enhance your life and to enhance the lives of those around you. Use these gifts to cause ripples of grace that you can see and ripples of grace that go well beyond what you will ever see. Now stop imagining. And realize that Peter's words are just as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. The gifts entrusted to us by God. The spiritual gifts, the material gifts, the relational gifts, they don't help the world look more like the kingdom of heaven when they are locked away for safekeeping. No, it's when they're released, set free. That they become like a stone skipping across water, creating immediate ripples, then waves of ripples, long-lasting and far-reaching ripples. They're what happens when a church opens its doors for children to safely enjoy dinner, a show and crafts, which is the pebble. That creates the ripple of children knowing that this is a place where they are welcomed by and belong to a loving God and his people. It's the ripple that comes from youth at a lock-in where there's lots of silliness, but also a place that creates that trust, that space in their lives so they can wrestle with what does it mean to follow Jesus and gives them the resources and the support they need as they're working through that. It's the ripple that comes from book clubs and pickleball and bridge and mahjong that serve as an introduction to a place that sees a need and seeks to fill it. So it offers an Alzheimer support group and Stephen Ministry and raises thousands of dollars to assist local neighbors in their emergency needs and repairs homes for neighbors who live within miles of this church and builds homes for neighbors who live in Guatemala. The ripple effect of worship. Is wanting to know God better and to serve God more fully, often leading to taking classes and being part of small groups and studies, Sunday school. And the ripple effect of those classes and those studies leads people to want to worship and serve God more fully. All of it enhancing lives, the lives of those participating in, and the lives of those who are being engaged by those participating in life together, because disciplining yourselves. And maintaining constant love for each other and being hospitable and serving and stewarding the manifold grace given to us is living out what it means to be blessed, to be a blessing. Recognition. That by God's grace every gift enhances life. I appreciate how people are being creative in finding ways to give these days. Several weeks ago, a couple approached me thrilled about qualified charitable distribution. And once they explained to me what that was, I became thrilled about qualified charitable distribution. They love that giving that way allows them to. Have the win of reduced tax liability and allows them to help the church have the win of greater gifts. They have, since they discovered this, more than doubled their giving to the church. If you're 70 year older, talk to your financial advisor about how to thrill the church and yourselves more. While you're at it, talk to them about estate planning. Two different families have come to us recently to talk about how to include Blame Memorial in their plans. They want to continue blessing and supporting the ministries of the church after they are here to do so personally. They want their gift to help us to continue to bless and support our neighbours near and far. Here's a creative idea that we can all be part of. A couple in the church has been excited about seeing us reduce the amount of debt we owe on the Oliver's Lodge property. They recognize that by taking the money to purchase that property, we reduced what we had invested, and therefore we've reduced our investment income. And they also understand what a valuable property it is to us now and will be for many, many years ahead. And so they've challenged us. If at least 50 giving units in the church will do two things, they will contribute fifty thousand dollars to help un help lower our Oliver's lodge debt. And these are the two things. Those 50 or more units need to have our total 2027 financial commitment be more than our 2026 financial commitment. And we need to include a financial commitment that would reduce. would go to pay down the Oliver's lodge debt. So it's two things. Give more overall and include the land debt as part of your total giving. So I hope you will join Sally and me in meeting the challenge. When we do, we'll help Blaine's ministries overall, we'll reduce the Oliver's Lodge debt, and we'll undock an additional fifty thousand dollars to go to that. I feel confident that together we can more than double the generosity of that family. What I know is that everything we share, everything, our financial gifts, our spiritual gifts, our relational gifts, enhance lives. And it happens here every single day.