[AI translation] In this sermon today, I'm not going to say anything new that you haven't already heard, perhaps several times, here in this church. Bread is not a new concept in our lives, it is not something we have never heard before, yet it is relevant to all of us every day. Now, the old truth that I would like to bring out and emphasize again from the Word: the idea and practice of sufficiency.I don't like this word very much, because it is old-fashioned and not without some further meaning. Today, we understand it better if instead of "safarist" we say "trustee", "accountant", that is, someone who manages the property and goods belonging to others in a responsible way, as if by mandate, and who once he has done so, he accounts for them. But it is not the word that is important, it is the meaning that it expresses, and it is precisely the mere word, the concept, that we must strive to make a living practice in our lives. For in the concept of saintliness, in saintliness, there is the whole practice of the Christian life, and there can be the renewal of our whole Christian life, if we once take it seriously.
For to be a Christian is nothing other than the intentional and conscious giving of myself and all that I have in the service of God for the benefit of our fellow human beings, in gratitude for the redeeming love received in Christ. I could almost say that this definition, which is the very essence of charity in Christian churches around the world today, is something we should learn and say to ourselves several times a day, so that we can realise anew what it means to be a Christian in practice. So, once again: a planned and conscious dedication of myself and all I have to the service of God for the benefit of my fellow human beings, in gratitude for the redeeming love received in Christ. So let me explain what this is all about.
The first and most important thing about the fact of being a saint is that the giving of myself and all that I have is done out of gratitude, and that is gratitude for the redeeming love received in Christ. The whole practice of charity is a response, a response to an invitation. God addresses us, and he addresses us with the Word who became flesh on this earth, the person of Jesus. Anyone who has ever heard of Jesus should know that he was addressed by God, who said to him, "Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine" (Is 43:1).
A Christian is a wonderful person who, even in this material world, sees the ultimate reality of his life in the mercy of God. He is astonished that he can put all his wickedness, his filth, his sin into the hands of Jesus, that He is willing to take it upon Himself, to take it to the cross and die on it. Instead! Instead of sinful man! The Christian man is a strange one whose greatest assurance and joy in the world today is that Jesus has stood by him, taken solidarity with him, and has obtained for him grace. A Christian man is someone who knows what it means to be a sinner before God and yet to receive grace. What it means to be delivered from a deserved harsh judgment. What it means to have a clear path before one to eternity. A Christian is someone who knows that he owes everything to Jesus, who sees in Jesus' death that he has received from God, as it were, a second gift of his whole life!
Well, that is the call. And there is only one answer to this divine call, and that is what our beautiful old hymn says: "Here is my heart, I give it to you, Lord, to you who made it." I cannot emphasize enough that Christian existence begins when one's heart is penetrated by the joyful realization, which, by the way, begins our ancient Reformed creed (the Heidelberg Catechism), that "In body and soul, in life and in death, I am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour." This is why the apostles also warn and remind us over and over again in their epistles that "you do not belong to yourselves... for you have sinned for a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your soul, which belong to God." (1 Cor 6:19-20) And, "Dedicate yourselves to God" (Rom 6:13).
This is a truth that is true even without Jesus. Because look: our lives are really not our own. None of us gave life to ourselves, earned life for ourselves. But we have all received it from the Lord God, who holds the secret and the possibility of the conception of each new life in His hands today, and we will all eventually have to give it back into His hands. So we are certainly God's! But the Christian man takes note of this fact as the great gift, joy and task of his life.
The Christian life begins by crossing out the word "mine", which is no longer valid, and writing "Jesus'" instead! Everything that I have said is mine, I rewrite in Jesus' name. So many things are like that: my body, my soul, my hands, my feet, my head, my health, my job, my strength, my time, my plans, my skills, my special opportunities, my qualifications, my thoughts, my will, my feelings, my house, my money, my family, my children, my spouse... No! It all belongs to Christ! I acknowledge it and I give it to Him! I place it at His disposal. I always say, again and again, Lord, all this is Yours, You are in charge, I am only the steward of it all - I want to serve You with all this, I want to use it all for Your glory!
Ok, I give myself and everything I have to God - but what does that mean practically? Well, it means that from now on I will live with it, manage it in such a way that it will serve the good of my fellow human beings. Let us remember this very well: the altar on which I can offer myself to God is always the affliction, the misery, the cause of a particular human person. God always says: you can give me your love by helping someone in need around you. You can serve Jesus not only in words, but in concrete ways, by visiting a sick person, by feeding a hungry person, by opening my door to a knocker, by making a material sacrifice if necessary, by standing by the side of a wounded person in life. For "if you have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me", says Jesus. (Mt 25,40) Yes: whatever man wants to serve God, whatever man wants to give to God, to sacrifice to God, God immediately transfers to the address of a specific human person or human cause. If a man truly loves Jesus, the people around him will always see the benefit and enjoy the benefit. Here again, the Word says: "As each one has received a gift of grace, so use it for one another, as good stewards of God's manifold grace," says our basic hymn.
But what are all the things that we have, what are the manifold gifts of grace that we can use for the good of one another? And since we have just said that everything we have belongs to God, not to us, then, very concretely, our ability, our time and our money, however much we have, belong to God! So it is not a question of how much of it I can give to God, but how much of it I can use for myself. So the focus should never be on how much of my abilities, my time, my money I can give back to God - but because it all belongs to God, how much of it I can keep for myself. Everyone has some ability, some talent, some expertise. None of us is without talent. We all have at least one. So all of us, great and small, are committed and sufficiently equipped to be used by God for the benefit of others. There are people around you: colleagues, co-workers, friends, acquaintances, family members, neighbours, children, grandchildren, church members. Do you think about your responsibility to God for them: how do they benefit from your being Christ's?
At times like this I am always reminded of a young student member of our congregation who I once asked to visit a very sad old woman and try to have a conversation with her. That was years ago, and that young man has been going to the old lady regularly ever since, almost becoming her pastoral care giver, but also helping her with all her other everyday chores. He wrote letters, took care of her affairs, acted in her stead in the offices, so he took care of a little Jesus, an old woman, so that in the bitter life of this old woman this young man became a comfort, a ray of light, a tangible warmth of God's love. - I often think: in fact, every believer should take responsibility for someone in this way, there should be someone - old or young, believer or unbeliever - for whom he takes care, for whom he takes the burden of prayer and charity, for whom he can give an account at any time.
Of course, it takes time. But time is not ours, it is the Lord's! Every day that God wakes us up is a precious time of grace, a gift and a task. God gives you 168 hours every week. Can you say, "Oh, but you don't have time to be quiet before God, to talk to Him through the Bible, and you don't have time to care for other people's problems? If something is very important to us, we can always find time for it. And can anything be more important to God's prophet than not to let the time in which God wants to talk to him go to waste, and not to let the opportunity that God has given him to serve his fellow man go unused. A great lord of time, a terrible tyrant. Indeed, its power can only be broken by placing it at God's service. It is not a question here of how much of it to devote to the Lord, but how much of it to keep for yourself. Because it is not yours! It belongs to God!
Your money belongs to God! Even if you've worked for it. You got it for an account, for service. You must also bring glory to God's name. And here, in particular, we should not understand charity as: how much of my monthly income should I give to the Lord, but: how much should I keep for myself? And once you have weighed this, you will see how selfish you are. How much all your material thoughts revolve around your own self-interest. How much you keep it all for yourself (and what is the same: for your family), almost, and give only pennies like charity to God, when it is all His! There are many people who could have put our church up for auction this year, even though they come to church here.From now on, when you open your wallet, let this be your guide: how much of this can I keep for myself and my family - the rest I leave in God's hands. And by putting it down, I am expressing, as a symbolic gesture, that behold, the Lord owns my whole life, like this amount of money! All this is just a visible sign that I am the Lord's sheep. It is a test of my being the Lord's prophet. A test of how seriously I can take the devotion of practically my whole life.
This is being a saint. That is: a planned and conscious dedication of myself and all that I have to the service of God for the benefit of our fellow human beings, in gratitude for the redeeming love I have received in Christ! So then: 'As each of you has received a gift of grace, so use it for one another, as good stewards of God's manifold grace'!
Amen
Date: 3 September 1961.
Lesson
Lk 12,35-48