“Dedication and Promise”
November 16, 2008
Ecclesiastes 5:4-6
James 4:13-17
Matthew 5:33-37
Last Sunday during the children’s message I was talking with the children about the new stained glass window over the front door. And I mentioned that at some point we would dedicate this window.
It was then that one child asked the obvious question: “What does dedicate mean?
Sometimes I think this is why congregations want a “time for children” in the worship service—just to make sure there’s someone who will keep the pastor on his toes and honest in his speaking, to make sure that she’s not just spouting pieties and meaningless phrases.
And while I think that child was satisfied with my answer when I told him that “dedicate” meant giving something back to God, his question sent me to the dictionary.
“Dedicate” comes from a Latin word meaning “to consecrate,” or “to declare.”
When we dedicate ourselves to a task, we announce that the activity is of vital importance.
When we dedicate ourselves to another person, we tell of our commitment to love that person and seek what is best for him or her.
When we dedicate ourselves to a cause, we indicate a whole-hearted involvement.
“Dedicate” carries with it a meaning of “to set apart, especially for a sacred purpose.” When we dedicate a window we are saying that its purpose is different from other glass, it helps us to remember and to see differently.
This brings me to the mail that you will be receiving a little over a week from now—a financial pledge card for the coming year.
It’s simple enough, really. We fill these cards out with a promise—or maybe several. It holds a promise to this congregation and a promise to yourself. And in some sense it is a promise to God.
Then we bring these cards with us to a worship service and “dedicate” our pledges. Through our prayers, those cards become something other than cardboard with numbers written on them.
They become something special, something “set apart.” They tell of our giving to support this congregation and the work that God is doing through us.
It’s simple enough. When you consider, however, that this act takes places in countless congregations across the country each year and provides billions of dollars for ministry and mission, it’s really quite astonishing.
When we dedicate our pledges, we speak of our intention to give, to be generous with all that we have received. We make a promise.
This church is a place of promises.
Here in this space we bring our children and in baptism promise before God to raise them so that they might become followers of Christ. Here in this place, youth claim the promises made for them in baptism as their own, professing their own faith and joining this congregation.
Here in this place each member has promised to live with the members of this congregation promise to “walk together in the ways of Jesus Christ, made known and to be made know to us.” (And I love those words because they connect us to the past as they lead us into the future.)
Here in this place, after prayerful preparation, couples promise to live faithfully together for as long as they shall live.
Here in this place I promised to “serve this church faithfully, preaching and teaching the word of God, administering the sacraments, and fulfilling the pastoral office according to our faith.” And you promised to labor with me in the ministry of the gospel.
And here in this place we offer our pledges, our promises of financial giving for the coming year.
The promises of countless men and women echo within this room. When our actions fulfill those promises, we create loving families. We create a vibrant congregation. We touch lives in this community and the world in countless ways.
A promise is an open and unequivocal statement about how we intend to live. One person put it this way: “When a person makes a promise, she stretches herself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: she will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be.” The ability to promise and then keep that promise is a central aspect of what it means to be human. A free self knows he becomes a genuine self by making commitments to other people—promises he intends to keep even when keeping them exacts a price.[i]
BUT WAIT A MINUTE!
Were we not listening to the warning from Ecclesiates? “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it.” God has no pleasure in fools—in those who think they can do everything themselves.
And didn’t James offer as an example of sheer arrogance the person who tries to say what they will do and what will happen in the future?
We can’t know. How dare the Trustees ask us to make the kind of promises that will make us liable before God?
Well, in addition to the wisdom and spiritual depth that Trustees are known for, they’re also responsible for stewardship here. They are concerned about helping us wisely use all that we have been given. They invite us to pledge because they care about our spiritual well being as it is reflected in our giving. Karl Menninger once said: “Giving money is a good criterion of a person's mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill.” I'm not sure if he is suggesting giving is the cause or the effect of mental health, but there certainly seems to be some connection.
And the late John Templeton, the financial advisor and zillionaire, said that in all his years of working with people, he never encountered anyone who was generous in their giving who didn't grow in both wealth and happiness. The Trustees are concerned about your happiness. If you’re unhappy, you might want to look at your giving. Growing in giving is one way that we grow spiritually. And those who pledge tend to give more than those who don’t.
Martin Luther once said that every Christian goes through three conversions in life—first, the heart, then the head, and finally the purse. For God to be really first in our lives all three are necessary. Many find out that the last to be converted is our wealth. Pledging makes the living God, not money, the God of our lives.
Our pledging makes God the God of our lives, not just the God of our church. Growing in our commitment each year gives external evidence of our internal priorities. We put God first. We make a pledge, we give in faith. We trust in God to provide. In so doing we are healed from addiction to wealth.
As one person put it: “Christian people love to give, and they will usually give what they pledge, unless something really bad happens.”
A pledge is a covenant. It is not a contract. That’s especially important for me to say and for you to understand in this time of economic uncertainty. If your life circumstances change, your ability to give may change. And that’s O.K. You won’t be hearing from our attorneys. Trustees will not be showing up at your door late at night.
All of our promises, then, are made with the provision that the letter of James suggests: “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this and that.” This is not simply to recommend a more pious form of speech. Rather it is a call to a profoundly different perception of reality.
By faith and friendship with God, we can see that the world is an open system—infinitely rich in resources.[ii] So we make these commitments not with faith in ourselves, but with faith in God. In God we do indeed trust. And because of that trust, we dare to promise, to commit, to dedicate.
A promise to God and to each other is always made in the knowledge of God’s giving and God’s grace. We are certainly forgiven if God does not provide. And even more, we are challenged if God’s goodness is greater than we could ask or imagine—and it usually is!
We make our promises, we dedicate our pledges, then, with faith and hope—trusting always in the goodness of God.
Dictionary definitions of “dedication” only take us so far. In the year ahead we become living definitions—men and women seeking to be faithful to the promises we make, even as we are open to the forgiveness and the strength of God.