“What Awesome Stones!”
November 15, 2015
Mark 13:1-8
Friday evening, well over 100 people were killed and more than three hundred were injured in the
terrorist attacks on Paris. Thursday, at least 41 people were killed in two suicide bombings in
Beirut, Lebanon. Most suicide bombings occur in the Middle East, but we don’t hear about them.
The ones that strike Europe, we hear about and cry over. All victims of terrorists deserve our tears
and our help, whether the victims are Christians, Jews, Muslims or atheists. But, we fail to treat
all God’s children as precious to God and to us. That is something we should discuss and pray
about. You don’t need to hear a sermon about it. Not today.
You also don’t need to hear a sermon about the appropriate Christian response to terrorist
violence. You wouldn’t like what I’d be telling you, and I see no reason to irritate people any
more than they already are. But, I’ll paraphrase Dr. King: Hate does not drive out hate. Violence
does nothing but beget more violence. War only spreads more war. World War I, the war to end
all wars, led to WWII. Korea led to Viet Nam. The war to liberate Kuwait led to the eventual
invasion of Iraq, whom we had armed so they could fight the Iranians. The invasion of Iraq and
Afghanistan in retaliation for 9/11 has led to perpetual war with no end in sight. Why do we
continue to promote international violence as a cure for terrorism when it very clearly is not
working? Is there no alternative? Would Jesus not tell us to love our neighbor? To love our
enemy? Yes. That’s exactly what he tells us every day of our lives. Repaying evil with good is his
prescription, but that doesn’t feel right. There is catharsis in retaliation, but none in being loving
to our enemies. It seems hopeless to me. I have only my faith in God to support my desire to do
what Christ modeled for us and taught us.
As John Wesley said in his second sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, “Against hope, believe
in hope! It is your Father’s good pleasure yet to renew the face of the earth. Surely all these
things will come to an end, and the inhabitants of the earth shall learn righteousness.” In the
midst of all we are hearing, we must believe in hope.
I decided a couple of days ago that this sermon would be about the love of God and the gratitude
God’s love should inspire in us. Last week you heard about the hard times our church is going
through, financially speaking. You’ll get a letter today, explaining our current situation in some
detail.
But, having said that, I believe we need to see RUMC, not as a charity that needs our donations,
or a club that needs our dues, or as a business that needs our investment. We are an outpost of the
Kingdom of God, a local manifestation of the Body of Christ - much more important than a
charity, a club or a business. When we do our job, lives are saved, souls are saved. When we
cannot do our job, when we’re hamstrung by financial shortfalls, lives and souls are lost.
Ramifications are eternal, and felt all around the world.
Why do we give to church? It all started when God loved the world enough to send Jesus to show
us who God is, and how we might live in a holier and more selfless way. “We love, because he
first loved us,” the Bible tells us (I John 4:19). Everything good and generous that we do is in
response to God’s love for us, which we could never earn or fully repay, but that God gives us
freely.
Think about what God has done for you. What makes you glad you know God? What makes you
want to show God how much you love him? What has God done for you that makes you want to
share God’s love with everyone else?
Do you remember The Three Simple Rules? Do No Harm. Do Good. Stay in Love with God.
How do we stay in love with God? We pray. We study the Bible and the spiritual masters. We
worship God, listening for God’s voice to speak words of comfort and challenge to us. We stay in
love with God by staying in touch with God, and with God’s children everywhere. We love those
children of God because God first loved us. God empowers us to love everyone, even the
unlovable. And he gives us the courage and resources we need to bring God’s love into a world
that needs it so badly.
When a church heeds God’s call and strives to do God’s will, beautiful things happen. Beautiful
things happen in Remington and beyond because we do try to obey God’s will. But, we could be
much more effective, leave a much more profound footprint, if we could make more ministries
and missions happen through more generous giving to RUMC.
Generous sharing of resources has been part of the Church’s life from the very beginning. In Acts
2, right after 3,000 people are baptized after hearing the disciples preaching in all their languages,
in the very next paragraph, the author tells us that “All who believed were together and had all things in common, they would sell their possessions
and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”
Generous sharing has also been part of Methodism from the beginning. Methodist founder John
Wesley told his people to Earn all they can, Save all they can and Give all they can. The more
money Methodists had, the more he expected them to support all the ministries the Methodists
started: hospitals for the poor, orphanages, prison ministries, the building of Methodist chapels
across the United Kingdom.
Today, as a congregation along with millions of United Methodists across the US and around the
world, we can magnify our generosity by working with churches in our Fredericksburg District to
provide a Vacation Bible School to kids at the new Heartwood Center on Rt. 17; by making
donations to our Virginia Conference’s gifts of canned goods to local food banks wherever we are
holding Annual Conference, and to UMCOR by making health kits, school kits or other kits for
families around the world, along with the donations from the other 1200 churches in the
Conference.
We do many beautiful things for the community and the world. We have made a positive
difference in the name of God. But, is it enough? Should we not be able to pay our
apportionments to the district and the conference - funds we have not been very diligent in paying
for several years, funds that support UM educational institutions in the US and around the world,
as well as pay missionaries’ salaries and support the building of new churches, among other
ministries? Is there not more we could do if our members were more extravagantly generous with
their resources?
Let’s remember that we love because God first loved us. And we give because God gave to us
with unimaginable generosity. Pray this week about how generous we feel God would like us to
be towards his ministry church and wherever this church is connected in this community and the
world. Next in this weekend, we’ll hand out and collect your pledge cards.
As I said last week, Don’t give until it hurts. Give until it feels good.