"How Much Does It Cost?"
By Dr. Mickey Anders
First Christian Church
Pikeville, Kentucky
April 7, 2002
Text: 2 Samuel 24:18-24
"How much does it cost?" How many times have you asked that question? Ours is a society and a culture that is obsessed with the price of things. When we see a big house, we ask, "How much does it cost?" When we see a fancy automobile, we ask, "How much does it cost?"
And a big part of shopping is the attempt to find the right price. We are willing to drive two hours in order to save a few dollars on the price. We feel badly about paying too much for something. Did you ever purchase an item, and then the very next week find it at a better price? We want the right price for the things we purchase.
We don't want to pay too much for something, and I believe we don't want to pay too little. Our first impression is that a person who gets something for free has the best value of all. But that may not be the case. There is such a thing as paying too little for something just as there is such a thing as paying too much for it.
Here is someone who gets their room and board for free, but we are not envious because they are residents of a homeless shelter. We don't find people standing in line to get that kind of bargain. In fact, there is a certain pride in being able to pay a fair price for the things we get. It is more honorable to have a job and be able to pay for what we get. What we want out of life is not a handout, but a fair deal. We want to pay the right price for what we get.
The question I want to ask today is, "How much is the right price to pay for our Christian faith?" How much should we be willing to pay for the spiritual resources and tools which help us find meaning and fulfillment?
I don't know if it is possible to pay too much for our faith, but I know it is possible to pay too little. Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give to the poor. Zacchaeus had dinner with Jesus and then proclaimed, "Behold, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor." But generally the rule of thumb in the Bible is ten percent. And again, there is a certain honor in being able to pay the right price for our religion.
There's an old story in the 2 Samuel 24 that can give us some guidance. God had inflicted a plague on the people because of the misconduct of David, their king. David's religious advisor had explained that the only way to end the plague was for him to make a sacrificial offering to God. To accommodate such a sacrifice, a man named Araunah offered the king his threshing-floor, the oxen needed for the ritual, and the wooden threshing implements for the fuel. He offered all the necessary things for free.
If David had been a smart shopper, he would have said, "That's a bargain I can't pass up." But there was something in David, just as there is in our church members, that said, "No, I don't want it for free." Then David said, "I'll buy these things from you... I will not offer burnt offerings to my God that have cost me nothing."
Once we come to know God, there seems to be a natural impulse within us that makes us want to give to God a worthy gift, one that cost us something. David knew there was something inherently wrong with making a sacrifice that cost nothing. So David paid the farmer 50 shekels of silver, and proceeded with the ritual. In the end, as the story goes, God averted the plague.
For all of us involved in the faith, we too want to pay a fair price for what we get at church. First, we want to pay the right price in terms of money. Jesus was never shy about talking about money. In fact, many of his parables pivoted on financial concepts. Jesus talked more about money than he did heaven and hell. Jesus recognized that money has some kind of symbolic significance for us. In Paul's correspondence with the churches he established on his missionary journeys, he was blunt about money. He pointed out that the church community has an essential economic dimension, and that money is a significant part of mission.
Furthermore, at our church, there's no way to avoid the subject of money. If our church is going to proclaim the good news of the Gospel in this community and beyond, there'll be money to pay. The church needs the money to do our work.
One of the ironies of the Christian faith is that it is completely free and yet it cost us everything. Coming to Christ is free; we don't pay an entry fee to get into the church. We want to emphasize that the Christian faith is free. Nobody ever sends a bill to church members.
But once we get in the door and start worshipping God, we find it a natural impulse to want to give something sacrificial to God, something that cost us something. We always come to the place where we want to make an offering to our God that is not for free.
We find ourselves wanting the right price in our faith. Every year, church members sit down and determine what the right price is for their offering to God for that year. Members decide on their own what they want to give and just how much they can increase their giving to the church. Then, miraculously, we have enough money to run the church. We can't run the church without money. We can't have the air conditioning, the heat, the beautiful building, and pay salaries without talking about money.
The question is always, "How much?" Like David, everyone of us asks, "How much is the right price for me this year? I don't want to have it all for nothing. I want to make a worthy gift." When we give money it represents giving ourselves to God. Our money is part of us; it represents our labors. When we give money, we are giving something worthy to God.
How much should we give? Where should we give? Some people answer, "Not much." "Not all." "Not here." or "Just enough." Such people have a small vision for the church. A small vision is not expensive.
Sometimes people have a vision that is too large. I have seen people of faith who had an inappropriate vision, a vision that was too large for the resources available. In the first church I served as pastor we had a lot of small farmers and people without much money. We were just getting by in the church budget, but some people had great faith. One lady went on a crusade insisting that the church needed to hire a full-time youth director for the church, even though there seemed to be no way to pay for it. She said we needed to step out on faith and the money would be there. I've seen Christians who wanted to attempt something unreasonable.
Personally, I don't think that is what God usually wants us to do. There may be times when God wants that, but not usually. I think God wants us to have an appropriate vision for the church. God calls us to have a vision that is large enough to challenge the resources we have available.
I think it would be sinful for a church to have such a small vision that it doesn't cost much. Can you imagine a church saying, "Let's have the smallest vision we can possibly have so that it doesn't really cost us much." Imagine that the church were to decide to cut down on expenses so that we could make it a bargain for the church members. We would no longer have to talk about the tithe as a rule of thumb. In fact, we could say, "This month we have enough money that we don't want anybody to give to this church. But down at the Baptist church, they are building a new building, they have hired a new staff member and they have a new program for children, so we want all our members to give down there instead of here for this month."
Do you think that would be what God would have this church to do? Personally, I don't want to belong to a church that has such a small vision, and I hope you don't. I am not campaigning for an unreasonably large vision, but I don't want us to have a small vision. We need to have a vision that is the right price for our church. A vision that will challenge our church.
We always struggle with the right price. Many of you know that we were $5,000 in the red for our church budget last year. We must not have had the right price and the right giving. But in spite of that, we have enlarged our vision for this year. We have hired a youth director for the summer. That may be a modest vision, but it is a challenge to the financial resources of our church. We didn't have that salary last year. How big a vision can we support? I hope you will join me in helping our church to have the right kind of vision, that we will attempt worthy things for God, that we will challenge the resources that we have in our church.
There are other aspects of stewardship. One is the commitment to prayer and worship. All of you have made some commitment today. You remembered to set your clocks forward so that you could be on time for church on this time change Sunday. Some people didn't bother. I am always concerned about people who don't commit themselves to prayer and worship. When we don't make it a priority, we suffer spiritual malnourishment.
When you join the Rotary club and miss more than 10% of the time, they will kick you out. We have lots of members that miss more than 10%. But we have many members who have decided, "I will not have a faith that cost me no time." Just as true Christians find that impulse to give to God, they also find the impulse to want to be a part of worship.
Another commitment is that of service. Jesus talked about servant ministry. The Church of the Savior in Washington DC requires members to make commitments to service in the community. Every member is required to serve through various local service organizations in their community. I wish that our church could have that kind of expectation of our members. I wish we would have the kind of faith that says, "I don't want a faith that cost me nothing in terms of service."
Back in Arkansas, the high school had a program where students could get an hour of credit for volunteer work in the community. The schools were trying to teach students that volunteering is a part of good citizenship. I believe it is equally important for Christians to have that service attitude. Church people ought to be involved in Habitat, Helping Hand, service organizations, and many other ways to make our community a better place. Every member should commit to a ministry beyond the local church. True Christians are not self-centered, self-absorbed, and only concerned about "me, myself and I." The basic nature of the Christian is to reach out and serve others.
Some people are proud that their faith cost them nothing. Can you imagine someone saying, "I'm so happy that I go to that church, and I don't give a dime." "I'm a member of that church, and I don't go but 20% of the time." "I'm a Christian, and I don't serve anybody but me." "I give burnt offerings to God that cost me nothing." Is that the kind of Christian you want to be? I don't think so.
During a college commencement address, author Stephen King spoke about money and life:
"What will you do? Well, I'll tell you one thing you're not going to do, and that's take it with you. I'm worth I don't know exactly how many millions of dollars – I'm still in the Third World compared to Bill Gates, but on the whole I'm doing Ok – and a couple of years ago I found out what 'you can't take it with you' means.
"I found out while I was lying in the ditch at the side of a country road, covered with mud and blood and with the tibia of my right leg poking out the side of my jeans like a branch of a tree taken down by a thunderstorm. I had a Mastercard in my wallet, but when you're lying in the ditch with broken glass in your hair, no one accepts Mastercard…
"We all know that life is ephemeral, but on that particular day and in the months that followed, I got a painful but extremely valuable look at life's simple backstage truths. We come in naked and broke. We may be dressed when we go out, but we're just as broke. Warren Buffet? Going to go out broke. Bill Gates? Going to go out broke. Tom Hanks? Going out broke. Steve King? Broke. Not a crying dime. And how long in between? How long have you got to be in the chips? 'I'm aware of time passin' by, then say in the end it's the blink of an eye.' That's how long. Just the blink of an eye.
"For a short period of time – let's say 40 years, but the merest blink in the larger course of things – you and your contemporaries will wield enormous power… Of all the power which will shortly come into your hands – gradually at first, but then with a speed that will take your breath away – the greatest is undoubtedly the power of compassion, the ability to give. We have resources in this country – resources you yourselves will soon command – but they are only yours on loan. Only yours to give for a short while. You'll die broke. In the end it's the blink of an eye."
In what will we invest our lives? Will our lives be devoted to giving or only to taking?
(From Generation to Generation, A Publication of the Christian Church
Foundation, Vol. 6 No. 1 March 2002.)