Biting the Hand that Feeds You

A few Sundays ago we had a woman in church that only seems to come when she needs something.  Help with the rent, gas money, you name the need and she has needed it; when things are going ok we don’t see her.  During the “Time for Sharing” she stood up and said, “I don’t believe in ‘organized religion’ anymore, all they talk about is money.”  I find this to be an interesting comment from someone who turns to the church when she needs help.  True, Recovery Worship is far from organized but anyway, you get the picture.

My question to her, and I plan on addressing this question in an up-coming sermon is: “Why do we expect church to be free?”  When we go out to eat we expect to give the owner of the restaurant money in exchange for the food we receive.  Does she expect her waiter to work for free? I am sure when this woman buys a pack of cigarettes she doesn’t complain about the American Tobacco Company or Stop & Go for taking her hard earned (or given) money.   Yes, there is an exchange of goods and services in these two examples, but there is an exchange of services in what we give to God through the church.

In this woman’s case it is help with her recovery, but she also hears God’s Word preached and God’s grace “poured out for you” in the Sacraments.  I am reminded of the woman I met in Kenya who gave a bag of cow dong as her offering.  It seemed strange to me at the time but as a Kenyan pastor told me, it was a day wage for her.  She was a widow who lived on the edge of the village and her only income was the milk she was able to squeeze from her skinny cow and the manure that the cow also produced.  I wonder, is church worth the cost of a pack of cigarettes to the lady at Recovery Worship, apparently not based on her comment.

I believe that we get what we give.  I have a ton of personal stories to prove my theory, stories that I would have written off as “pastoral imagination” when I was sitting in the pew, but I know today that it is true.  When we give we open ourselves up to seeing God’s work in our lives.  

Pastor Ray