Truth vs. truth

John 18:33-37

Typically the weekend after Thanksgiving begins a new church year and the season of Advent, a season of preparation leading up to Christmas.  Once and awhile Thanksgiving falls early, like it does this year, and then we don’t begin Advent right after Thanksgiving.  So, today we celebrate Christ the King and the end of the church year.  Technically, maybe this means we should hold off on the Christmas decorations and music just a few more days.  Maybe we should take time to celebrate that Christ is King and hold off on the Christmas preparations.

            So who should we listen to?  What should we follow?  The ways of this world or the ways of Jesus?  Our text today is typically read on Good Friday.  It is part of the longer story leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion.  I don’t think it is surprising at all that we are hearing this Good Friday text, just days after Black Friday.  Good Friday is of another world.  Black Friday is of this world.  Jesus is much more than a this world king.  He makes that clear as he answers Pilate’s questions.  His kingship extends much further than the nation of Israel.  He is not just the King of the Jews.  His reign is much larger than that.  It passes over borders dividing nations and over cultures dividing people.  His kingship is of another world.

As I read our text for today I imagined that Pilate and Jesus were playing a game.  It looks a lot like the game of Truth or Dare, which was typically played at sleepovers with friends when I was growing up.  I think Jesus and Pilate are playing their own version of the game and it is called Truth or truth.  Truth with a capital letter T versus truth with a lowercase letter t.  Good Friday is a Truth with a capital letter T.  Black Friday is a truth with a lowercase letter t.

            Christ the King came into the world to testify to the Truth.  That is Truth with a capital letter T.  Our world is filled with a lot of  truths with a lowercase letter t.  One such truth is that the Christmas season begins after Halloween or at least immediately after Thanksgiving.  The dishes haven’t been washed and the turkey hasn’t even all been taken off the bone and we begin moving on to the next holiday.  We start looking at the shopping ads.  We begin making our shopping lists and our Christmas lists.  The tree goes up inside and the outdoor lights are hung.  The Christmas card list is made.  The preparations are in full swing.

As soon as Thanksgiving is over we move on to Christmas.  The biggest shopping day of the year follows Thanksgiving.  But this year Black Friday didn’t even wait until Friday, it crept into Thursday, too.  The retail world is giving us the message to eat our turkey quickly and then hit the shopping centers.  Now, I will admit that I love to shop and thoroughly enjoy Black Friday shopping, but I was a bit disappointed to find out this year that it would be starting on Thursday evening.  This move to Black Thursday allows people that work in retail even less time with their families on Thanksgiving.  It rushes the Christmas season even more, allowing for only part of a day committed to being thankful for what we already have, before moving on to all those things we want.  And this year, because of the way the calendar falls we skip right over Christ the King.  In doing so, we fail to remember that if Christ wasn’t King then his birth on Christmas wouldn’t even really matter.

I think Jesus would say the same thing that he says to Pilate in our Gospel lesson to the retail world of Black Friday.  Jesus proclaims, “my kingdom is not from here.”  The retail world’s influence on the consumerism of Christmas is worldly.  It is not of the kingdom of God, which Jesus talked about.  Jesus testifies to the Truth, with a capital T, while the rest of the world tries to fill us with things that they believe to be truths with a lowercase t.  The commercialization of Christmas pulls us in and most of us actively participate in it.  We do so because we have been convinced that things will make us happy.  That is a lowercase truth.

            Christ the King’s message stands in opposition to that of the world.  He says, “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Listen to the voice of Jesus.  Be silent.  What is the truth he is sharing with you this day?  Jesus tells each one of us that we are enough.  We are perfect just the way we are.  We are loved by God.  Nothing we can purchase on Black Friday or any other day of the year can make us any more loved.  Nothing we can do to change the color of our hair or the wrinkles on our face will make us any more loved.  Nothing we can do to lose weight or get a promotion at work will make us any more loved.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, will change the King’s love for us.  We are enough.  We are worthy just as we are, as people created in the image of God.  So, we can stop trying to be something that we aren’t.  This isn’t love that we can buy or earn.  It is love that is freely given by the king.  We are loved just as we are.  That love is the gift of a King.  A kingly gift that is given freely every day of the year.  That is the Truth, with a capital T. 

If we can believe that Truth and I sure hope we can, then we are freed to love others as we have been loved.  We don’t have to buy all the new gizmos and gadgets.  We don’t have to cook enough food to feed an army.  We don’t have to have decorations that keep up with the neighbors.  We don’t have to change our appearance.  We don’t have to do more.  We don’t have to buy more.  We don’t have to be more.  We just need to be ourselves and know that we are loved children of God.  And in doing that we will have more – more love, more peace, more joy, and more contentment this holiday season and always.  That is also the King’s Truth, with a capital T.  Amen.

MITE

Mark 12:38-44

A young girl got her first steady job.  She was playing piano at her church for worship, albeit not very well, but they enjoyed having music in worship.  The church paid her ten dollars every week, even though she didn’t really want them to pay her at all.  After she was confirmed she got her first offering envelopes.  She decided that was her chance to start giving back to the church.  She could start showing them that she didn’t really need to be paid to play piano.  So every week she would put a five dollar bill in her offering envelope and take it to the church.  Instead of giving ten percent, she  gave fifty percent.  At a young age she learned what it meant to give and to give generously.  Sure, they didn’t expect her to give that much, but it taught her a lesson.  She was blessed to have job and therefore she was called to respond by giving faithfully back to the place that had raised her in the faith.

This week our stewardship theme is “Give as you have been blessed.”  This theme lines up well with the story of the widow’s mite from our Gospel lesson.  Each copper coin that the widow gave was called a mite.  Each one was worth about six minutes of an average daily wage.  She gave two mites.  She gave twelve minutes of an average daily wage.  The widow give out of poverty.  She gave everything she had.  Jesus claims that this woman has given more than all the other people that have given.  How is that possible?  Others were putting in large sums of money.  They wanted others to see the large gift they had given.  They still had money in the bank.  They didn’t choose to give it all away.  Jesus’ point here is that giving isn’t so much about the amount given, but the reasons for giving or the reason for keeping the remainder of our money for ourselves.  Now, I don’t think Jesus is asking us to give everything we have to live on.  I think he is asking us to consider why we give, what we give to, and what we do with the remaining money. 

The widow gave everything away.  She kept nothing for herself.  In having nothing; she had everything.  There are other stories we encounter in the Bible where the characters have nothing.  The women at the tomb found nothing.  The disciples as they headed out to follow Jesus took nothing with them.  When Peter steps out of the boat to walk across the water there is nothing holding him up.  Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s and then we are left with nothing.  In these moments of nothing that we realize we have everything.  We indeed have been blessed.

So how are we being called to respond to the ways in which we have been blessed?  How are we going to give in the upcoming year?  A few weeks ago you received your stewardship packet in the mail.  You were given a faith promise card and asked to return it to the church telling us how you are going to give in the next year.  Whether you have returned that card yet or not, today I would like to give you some ways to think about how you can give in the upcoming year.  I would like to do that by using the word mite – M I T E.

First, M – “my resources are given.”  The first part of stewardship is sharing your resources.  Are you able to give some of your time to the ministries of this congregation?  Are you able to pray for the ministry of South Canyon Lutheran, including its members and staff?  Will you attend worship regularly and participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion?  Will you share a portion of your financial resources with God to be used through this congregation?  However you go about it, find a way to share your resources.

Next, I – “in the interest of God.”  All we have belongs to God.  We are simply managers of what we have been given.  Therefore, we are called to give in the interest of God.  What would God give?  Our giving should reflect God’s interest.  I really think that is why the widow gave her last two coins.  She understood that she was simply a manager of what she had been given by God.  She wanted to give back to God what first belonged to God.

Now, T – “to be a blessing.”  We give because we have been blessed.  We give to be a blessing to others.  I recently read on another church’s sign a quote from Winston Churchill.  It said “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”  It struck me and has stayed with me for several weeks.  Sure the money we make allows us to put a shelter over our heads, food on our table, clothes on our backs, but does making a living really give us life.  For the first time in my life I am making a living.  Yet, just making money doesn’t make me feel complete.  I think the ability to share what we have been given with others gives our life meaning.  We make a life by what we give.  We make a life by being a blessing to others.

Finally, E – “earthly reality of the kingdom.”  Sharing our resources is a blessing to others, but it also creates an earthly reality of the kingdom of God.  Over and over again Jesus talks about the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God is not a place where we solely take care of ourselves.  It is not a place where we hoard what is ours.  It is not a place where we flaunt our riches.  The kingdom of God is a place where we share our food with the hungry.  It is a place where we care for the widow and the orphan in our midst.  It is a place where we clothe the naked.  It is a place where we share the good news of Jesus Christ.  It is a place where we pray for the enemy.  It is a place where we love the unlovable.  All of this cannot be done without our resources of time, talent, and treasure.  Our giving can help to create and earthly reality of the kingdom of God that Jesus spoke about.

If we put all of that together the acronym MITE stands for “My resources are given In the interest of God To be a blessing and an Earthly reality of the kingdom.”  I hope that as we think about what our giving of time, talent, and treasure will look like for the upcoming year we can make this our mantra.  May we like the widow be able to give a MITE.  Amen.