Sermon:  "Count Yourself Blessed"
Date:   October 2, 2011
Minister:  The Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson: Malachi 3:6-12; Luke 6:37-38

A week ago my wife said to me, “You’ve got to read ‘Blondie’ today.  It’s you.”  So Dagwood is sitting in his underwear on his doctor’s examining table.  Doctor asks him, “So how do you feel in general?”  Dagwood replies over the next two panels:  “Well, I’ve got this lower backache…and watering eyes, nasal congestion, swelling knee joints, sore feet and I can’t hear very well.”  Next panel Dagwood walks in the front door at home.  Blondie asks him, “What did the doctor say?”  Dagwood replies, “I’m completely normal.”

Well, yes, Peggy, it does smack a little too close to home.  But it got me to thinking.  I’ve got excellent medical practitioners I trust fully:  a family doctor, podiatrist, dentist (all three from this church), a cardiologist, orthopedic surgeon, dermatologist and ophthalmologist.  (I think seven is quite enough!).  I count myself blessed.  I am very fortunate throughout my career to have my churches provide good health insurance for me and my family—another blessing.

Instead of asking you to write prayer concerns on blue cards today, if I had asked you to list your blessings, I’ll bet it would take me the rest of my sermon time to read them all.  And in hearing others’ read, I imagine you’d say, “Yes, I should have listed that too.  I didn’t even think of it.”

Our theme for this fall’s stewardship campaign is “Count Yourself Blessed.”  This week, those on our mailing list will receive a letter from the church listing some of the blessings we experience here in this church and as a congregation.  The hope is that you will think of all your blessings, and make a commitment to return a portion to God for the support of the church in 2012.

In today’s passage from Luke, Jesus draws images, and perhaps a saying, from the marketplace.  The image is that of the sale of grain.  The buyer gets his or her money’s worth:  “a good measure, packed down, shaken, and running over, will be put into your lap.”  The Greek word for lap literally means one’s bosom, chest, or the fold of a garment.  Imagine, if you will, holding out one’s garment or robe, as if to make a basket, and having it filled with grain.  The principal Jesus was trying to make was to be merciful because God is merciful; be generous because God will use the measure of our generosity toward others (or lack thereof) when God judges us.

Jesus begins today’s passage talking about not judging, not condemning, being generous in forgiveness.  But I think such generosity extends beyond these matters.  As generous as we are in extending hospitality, acceptance, extending invitations to include others, we are all blessed by our own actions and the resulting feelings.

The notion of giving back to God in return for God’s blessings to us runs deep throughout the Old Testament.  It was an agrarian culture.  There was no stock market to worry about whether it closed high or low…or even lower.  There were no credit cards or checks to write in order to buy a product or make a gift to the Temple.  The way one exchanged services was through barter, through the exchange of goods:   livestock for grain, for instance. 

It was always expected that one would return a tithe—one tenth of agricultural produce, from both livestock and produce—to the Temple as an offering to God in thanks for the blessings of rain and sun, of fertile fields and productive livestock.  A series of other Old Testament passages attests to the economic and social ramifications of the tithing system with special importance to support of the priestly system and maintenance of the Temple.  Apparently responding to those who did not follow these traditions, Malachi spoke for the Lord, referring to them as “robbers.”  Instead, Malachi encouraged, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house; see if I will…pour down for you an overflowing blessing. … Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord.” (3:10, 12)

Nowadays, giving a tithe—or a tenth of your income—is foreign to many in the life of the church.  The Mormons do it.  Jewish temples do not invite freewill offerings, but charge dues.  Modern-day Protestants are not all that inclined.

In a chapter in This Odd and Wondrous Calling:  The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers (New York:  Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2009), Lillian Daniel tells about her experience as a young associate minister hearing the senior minister, a tither, tell about it from the pulpit.  She couldn’t stand to hear it.  She was paying off massive student debt, paying for full-time day care for her first baby and, while living in a lovely parsonage, was seriously underpaid by the church.  She felt her colleague, a widower whose children were grown and whose house was paid off, could well afford to give ten percent of his income to the church, but he would have absolutely no understanding of her situation.  She didn’t mention that at the beginning of his career, he was not likely able to tithe either. 

Later, after she was called to her second church, and with a second child, she and her husband met with a financial planner.  He helped them see how, over time, they could pay off their credit card debt and give a tithe to the church.

Lillian Daniel raised the question of pre-tax or after-tax to figure the tithe.  Two Saturdays ago I watched the final DVD of the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Course.  This question came up there too:  pre-tax or after-tax?  “Who cares!!” he exclaimed.  If people did either one, churches wouldn’t have any trouble paying their bills.

So I’m faced with the same dilemma.  If I figure pre-tax, I’m giving 8.4 percent to this church this year.  If I figure post-tax, I’ve made the ten percent tithe.  But like so many of you, we support other charities too besides what we give to this church:  Pilgrim Pines Camp, Pacific School of Religion, Precious Lamb Preschool, Christian Outreach in Action, South Coast Interfaith Council, and a select number of other appeals from the many that come into our mailbox.  It makes sense to me if you want to figure your other charitable giving is part of your tithe.

It has taken Peggy and me a number of years to reach that level of giving.  Like Lillian Daniel, I started out with a small salary in a small church that fortunately had a parsonage.  But over the years, we were able to increase our giving step-by-step.  While I do not know what anyone donates to this church besides the Ensleys, I am aware that some of you face financial difficulties, or live on a limited budget. 

The stewardship letter you will receive next week invites you to make a commitment to this church for 2012.  That will enable us to put together a 2012 budget proposal to present for your approval in November.  On the back of the letter is a giving graph showing how many people pledge at what level.  It doesn’t matter at what level you begin.  What we hope you might consider is to look at what level you give now, and see if you might move up a level, or even two if your finances permit.  As the years pass, you might be able to move to another level.

As you do that, I hope you take into account the blessings you have.  Even in the midst of them, I know there are difficult times.  A song-writer came up with these lyrics that were popular in the last century:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

(Count Your Blessings, Johnson Oatman, Jr. 1897)

Every day that you wake up, thank God for the new day, and count yourself blessed.  Look around at those with whom you live, those who care about you, those who would miss you, and count yourself blessed.  When you have a job to go to, when your paycheck or your Social Security check arrives, count yourself blessed.  When you see your doctor for medical care, no matter your pains or ill, count yourself blessed.  When you come into this house of worship—a place to sing praise to God, to pray, to hear the word spoken and sung, to be in the company of fellow believers on life’s faith journey—count yourself blessed.  And when you leave this place and enter whatever dwelling you live in, look around, and count yourself blessed.