“The Grace of Giving: Truth and Freedom”

The Festival of the Reformation

Fall Stewardship Series – Week 4

October 29, 2023

John 8:31-36

“The Grace of Giving: Truth and Freedom”

Last Sunday, I told you about my former neighbor, Tom Cruise – not the actor – which led into one of the movies that the actor, Tom Cruise, was in, “Jerry Maguire.” One more movie reference here, and then I promise to move on to other things. “A Few Good Men,” starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, and others, came to the screen in 1992. Great movie dealing with a court-martial of two Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine. The climax of the movie comes in the courtroom when Jack Nicholson, playing the Guantanamo Base Commander, explodes under questioning and exposes his own guilt in the murder. He utters the famous line: “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” What about us? Can we handle the truth? On this Reformation Sunday, Jesus’ words remind us: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Jesus speaks of truth that leads to freedom, and that becomes the theme for preaching today on this final Sunday of our Fall Stewardship series, “The Grace of Giving.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Our key Scripture verse for this stewardship series comes from Paul the apostle. Let’s read this verse together: “But since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you – see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7). Over these last weeks, we have considered Jesus’ parable of the tenants in the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-46), affirming the truth that Christian stewardship doesn’t begin with us, but with God, who is the Maker and Owner of heaven and earth. We are just the caretakers and tenants of what belongs to God. We have considered Jesus’ parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14), and the importance of responding to the gracious invitation that we have received from our King to come to the banquet which he has prepared. Our King even gives us the right clothes to wear – the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness (Isaiah 61:10a) dipped in Jesus’ own blood that covers all our sin. Last Sunday, we heard Jesus’ words about “rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). And it all belongs to God. This 4-week series concludes today on Reformation Sunday with our commitments for ministry in 2024 being dedicated to the Lord.

People often quote Jesus’ words in verse 32: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But they often overlook what Jesus says before in verse 31: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” If we want the truth and freedom that Jesus brings, it comes from abiding in his Word. The truth of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is what sets us free. The first – truth - leads to the second - freedom. The question is, do we really want to be free? That may seem like a dumb question. Of course, everyone wants to be free, right? But as human beings we like to keep our options open. For many, yes, we do want the truth and freedom that Jesus brings, but we also want to hold onto our old life. We have a hard time letting go of things that are not truth and do not lead to freedom. We don’t always welcome the truth because the truth will upend things in life, leading to hard decisions and difficult choices. We prefer to have our cake and eat it, too. The truth that Luther boldly proclaimed in God’s Word – that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, made known in holy Scripture alone – upended life in his own day, leading to seismic changes that continue to impact life today 500 years later. Can we handle the truth that “no human being will be justified in [God’s] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin?” (Romans 3:20). Can we handle the truth that all of our striving to justify ourselves before God is pointless? That all of our achievements and accolades, all of our awards and accomplishments, do not amount to anything apart from Jesus? The truth and freedom is that we are justified before God only through faith in Jesus, and that we ourselves bring nothing to the table. It is God’s doing alone, as that verse in today’s Epistle lesson states so clearly: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). This is the doctrine – justification by grace through faith – on which the Church stands or falls.

The truth is that we have been given an enormous amount of freedom in Jesus. Now what will we do with that freedom? Will we use it only for self-serving purposes while failing to recognize and respond to the needs of our neighbor, who is Christ in our midst? As Jesus makes clear in his parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), our neighbor is anyone who needs our help. The love of Jesus moves us to live in such a way that it reflects Jesus in our thinking, speaking, and living; in our values and priorities; in how we interact with and treat others. As St. Paul writes in a number of his letters or epistles in the New Testament: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27; see also Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12). This is the true meaning of freedom: less of us and more of Jesus. He must increase and we must decrease (John 3:30). This is what it means to let our light shine before others, so that people will see the light and love of Jesus shining in us and through us (Matthew 5:16). God’s gifts of ourselves, our time, and our possessions all have the great potential to serve as vehicles of grace and instruments of blessing in Jesus’ Name.

Stewardship is our way of life in Christ Jesus. It is an ongoing and life-long process to discern how ourselves, our time, and our possession can be harnessed for God’s kingdom work. We do this as individuals, and we do this as a congregation. Like our own households, our congregation sets an annual budget, and then strives to live within it, based on income and expenses. Our budget is dependent on the tithes and offerings that God’s people are moved to give for the work of Christ’s church. The support we give to mission and ministry, both here and throughout the world, together with staff salaries, facilities maintenance, and many other things, are all factored into our annual budget. By the grace of God in Jesus Christ, we have been blessed in so many ways, but the support of each member of our congregation is needed. As this stewardship series draws to a close, I encourage each of us to use our God-given freedom in support of Christ’s mission and ministry, beginning here with our own congregation.

If we were to go beyond that key verse about the grace of giving in Paul’s great teaching on Christian stewardship in 2 Corinthians, we would read the following: “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:6-8). May God make it so for each one of us as stewards of his bounty, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.