“Holy Recklessness”

Romans 12:13

At last week’s Wee Kirk Conference one of my fellow participants in a stewardship workshop spoke of the need to be reckless in the use of our resources. What he meant was that we sometimes have to exercise some holy recklessness in the pursuit of that which is of God. Sometimes we have to go against the grain of our culture’s conventional wisdom in spending ourselves and our resources.

The words that I spoke during this morning’s Stewardship Moment are inspired in part by some holy recklessness. Listen to them again: “We can be content with things as they are, all of us drifting together toward a comfortable, non-challenging, unexciting future. We can close our eyes and our hearts to the Spirit-driven vision of what Grace can be as we maintain the status quo. We can closely guard our time and energy. We can bury our talents under a bushel of insecurity or indifference. We can keep our money way down deep in our pockets. We can settle for a safe mediocrity, or we can trust God and follow his vision into the future.”

Paul urged the Christians in Corinth to give generously and cheerfully. In his letter to the Romans he included contributing to the saints and practicing hospitality in a list of essential Christian attitudes and practices. Just prior to that, as he shared a list of spiritual gifts, one of those gifts was generosity. Hospitality, which is a form generosity, is held up by Jesus in Matthew 25 as a measure of true righteousness.

In Romans 12:1 through 15:13 Paul lays out an ethical framework to guide the Christians in Rome in their lives together as a community of faith. Generosity and hospitality are key ingredients of that framework. They arise out of a growing non-conformity to the world – not conforming to the surrounding culture’s notions of how to live life. Not buying in to its so-called conventional wisdom. This non-conformity is made possible as individual Christian’s minds are renewed in ways that enable them to discern the will of God: what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In both Romans and Second Corinthians Paul is exhorting his fellow believers to be generous within a context of taking care of one another within the church, both locally and within the wider Body of Christ. Such care is still required of Christians: in local congregations and within the wider Church. But this isn’t First Century Corinth or Rome. Today’s Church is much larger and more complex. While the local congregation’s ministries of charity and compassion within and among its membership and the wider Body of Christ remain priorities, if we are to be faithful to the whole of Scripture such ministries must be offered to the un-churched.

More than that, in keeping with our Lord’s final commandments, we are required to be his witnesses in the wider world by way of sharing the Gospel and making disciples. We are called to bring people, including our own children, to Christ and then teach them how to faithfully follow him.

If we are to practice biblical hospitality, visitors must be welcomed. That welcome includes providing clean and attractive facilities, along with worship that is energetically, creatively, and competently led. We must offer everyone who steps through our doors the opportunity to faithfully worship God. New members must be fully integrated into the congregation. That requires opportunities for fellowship, Bible study, and Christian education for all ages. Such provision is part and parcel of Christian generosity and hospitality.

Missionary efforts must be financially and otherwise supported. Those courageous folks doing ministry in the name of Jesus out there on the missionary frontier need to know that we support them with our money and our prayers. When they are able to visit with us we must be lavish in our expressions of generosity and hospitality.

All of the above mentioned areas of ministry require our ongoing, intentional, and sometimes sacrificial gifts of time, energy, talents, and money. God’s grace is free. Following in the footsteps of Jesus comes with a cost. Discerning and doing God’s will, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, requires a major investment, both individually and as a congregation, in prayer, Bible study, education, fellowship, worship, and even that bane of my existence, meetings. I’d much rather give money!

Ooops! There I’ve said it, that dirtiest of all dirty words ever spoken in church: money. Some of you may be thinking that I talk about money and other aspects of stewardship too much. The truth is that I don’t preach about them nearly enough. Stewardship is not a season; it is a lifestyle. Following Jesus requires the faithful, and sometimes painfully sacrificial, stewardship of all that God has entrusted to our care. Stewardship and discipleship are inseparable.

I can’t preach about discipleship without preaching, at least implicitly, about stewardship. I can’t preach about generosity and hospitality without mentioning stewardship. And there’s no way to honestly discuss stewardship without mentioning money. If the discussion of money in church offends us, we need to spend some time prayerfully

examining why we are offended.

In today’s Stewardship Moment I mentioned the temptation to put my ministry on auto pilot and peacefully cruise toward retirement. I could do that. I could become a maintenance minister. Being a caretaker of the status quo is much easier than being a visionary pastor. It’s safer. It’s less controversial. I could easily drift through the remaining years of my ministry without rocking the boat. Y’all might like that. I could easily rationalize it, maybe even find a way to convince myself that I’m happy.

Ain’t gonna happen. First of all, God would not be pleased. Deep down in my heart of hearts I would be miserable. Furthermore I’d be a lousy pastor. And in the long-run Grace would suffer and maybe even die. I really don’t want to retire knowing that I was the minister who killed Grace Presbyterian Church.

As I ponder my developing vision for what this church can be and do, and as I have listened as some of you have shared your vision for Grace, I am on the one hand overwhelmed, maybe even scared. But on the other hand I am energized by the challenges of such visions, especially as I remember that with Christ all things are possible – if we’re willing to trust him and step out in faith toward those future possibilities that he holds before us, if we’re willing to practice some holy recklessness.

Our present economic climate is not conducive to the discussion of holy recklessness. We are living through an economic recession, brought on by greed, the immature unwillingness of many of us to delay gratification, and the inexplicable lack of competence on the part of government and business leadership – in other words a systemic failure to practice good stewardship. Asking people to give more money to the church right now might appear to be unwise, maybe even un-pastoral.

It isn’t unwise or un-pastoral. Nor is it unbiblical or theologically unsound. Scripture tells us to practice generosity and hospitality and not to be anxious about the future. Tithing is not only encouraged it is expected. It is obvious that the poor widow in today’s Gospel reading is practicing holy recklessness to the max. She didn’t just give a percentage; she gave it all.

Reformed Theology excuses neither greed nor excess consumption. It encourages thrift and non-ostentatiousness. A good Presbyterian is not someone who dies with the most toys. And just for the record, the per-capita percentage of income given to the church during the Great Depression was higher than it is today, a time when we have much more disposable income.

Our church budget should be driven by a faithful vision for mission and ministry. Like 99% of the churches around us we allow our budget to dictate our mission and ministry. No offense, but that’s bass-ackwards. That’s conforming to the world’s conventional wisdom. That’s living out our church life from a perspective of scarcity rather than abundance; you know, that abundance we sing about with those words about praising God from whom all blessings flow and giving him what’s already his. The budget of Grace Presbyterian Church does not reflect a high degree of holy recklessness.

Well, it’s high time that it did. We have been blessed, and blessed abundantly. Membership is up. Attendance is up. Giving is up. And in some ways we do bless others by way of generosity and faithfulness, Community Café and Warm Nights to mention two specific ministries in which we’re engaged.

In no way discounting such ministries, we still have a long way to go if we are going, as individuals and as a congregation, to let go and let God by way of practicing holy recklessness. We don’t have to do it immediately. Nor do we have to do it all at one time. But at some point faithful discipleship will require it. Amen.