this was the final stewardship sermon on All Saints day. From the outset, it was decided to tie the two together, so it was not a surprise. But, it was harder to do than I anticipated. I used the word "spinster" in the sermon, which I discovered has a negative connotation for some people. When I researched it, I discovered that in this time, the word does seem to carry that negative connotation of making unmarried women seem worth less than married women. That was a new thought to me, and I apologize to any who read it and find the word offensive. The woman whom I described with the word was a wonderful woman, and I held her hand as she died. She was a remarkable woman who taught me much, so in describing her as I did, it was not meant to show any disrespect to her.
“All Saints, All In” Stewardship series; November 1, 2020, SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp; Revelation 7: 9-17
Revelation 7: 9-17 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 singing,
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and might
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15
For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16
They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
17
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Introduction: Final stewardship sermon; next week we go back to “crosses we wear,” although as I mentioned earlier pledges will be dedicated next Sunday in worship
All Saints Day and with it a Scripture lesson from Revelation that has a heavenly vision.
All Saints has us thinking about how we are all in.
Hope you had a chance to see this week’s video.
Three thoughts about being all-in on All-Saints Day
Move 1: We begin with the reminder that God is all in for us.
a. The passage from Revelation gives us a heavenly vision.
1. the multitudes are gathered before God.
2. They are joined to tether with God.
b. And with the vision of heaven, we receive a vision of who God is and how God acts.
1. God provides for God’s people so that no one will hunger or thirst.
2. God will lead us to the springs of the water of life.
3. God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
4. God will have made us white through the blood of the Lamb; that is, God redeems and saves us through Christ.
b. God is all in for us.
1. Our call to be good stewards is not based on owing God.
2. Or based on buying God’s favor.
3. Our stewardship is a response to what God has already done and continues to give.
4. We go all in for the God who has already gone all in for us.
Move 2: Second thought - all in is about all of us.
a. Imagine you are one fo the churches to whom John’s vision is shared.
1. You are probably a persecuted community.
2. Feeling alone and vulnerable.
3. And then you hear this vision - a vision of heaven in which the multitudes will gather.
4. People from every tribe and every tongue.
5. Those were not just words fo future hope, but also a reminder that God was at work in the world, bringing about the multitude http://www.aplainaccount.org/revelation-79-17-3/ Dean Flemming TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27 2020
6. Suddenly, these early church communities could see themselves connected and find hope that they were not alone in the world.
b. As we consider what it means to be all in, we recognize that it is about all of us.
1. Stewardship is not just an individual effort, but the task of the whole community.
2. We are all in, bound together in Christ, and called together to work to shape our world toward that heavenly vision.
We are all in, together.
move 2: Final thought - actually a story about one of the people who comes to mind when we remember those who have come before us on All Saints Day.
a. her name was Clara, and she was a spinster school teacher and member of the church I served in KY.
She taught me lots of lessons. She was the one who decided the church should have the new blue hymnal, so she informed, cajoled, pushed, and prodded until the congregation grudgingly adopted the new, blue hymnal.
She also taught me lots of stewardship lessons. In fact, when she died left the church close to $1 million dollars in her estate. that whole process was full of stewardship lessons, including how she had so much money in her estate in the first place. But, that’s another story.
The story I share this morning took place several years before she died; several years before her will revealed that she was quite wealthy;
the church was in a capital campaign, and was doing what is called a dual campaign. Members were making pledges for both the next year’s annual budget and for the capital campaign.
You perhaps know the drill. Visiting stewards went out with pledge cards for the members to fill out and return, much like the pledge cards you received in the mail this week.
Clara was in an out of the nursing home, and it so happened that when the campaign Sunday hit, she was in the nursing home.
A decision had been made that we were not going to bother people in nursing homes or in the hospital dealing with medical situations by giving them pledge cards.
Clara was getting visited by me and others, but no one brought her a pledge card.
After a week or two, she returned home and I stopped by to see her one afternoon.
she did not want to talk much about her health. She wants to talk about why everyone else in the church had been asked to make a pledge, but she had not.
I explained to her about not wanting to bother her in the nursing home.
She was not thrilled with my answer. In fact, she seemed offended.
I told her she could still make a pledge if she wanted, and she told me she knew she could (as if I was trying to stop her).
so she asked me to get her checkbook and give it to her. She was going to send a check just in case I never got back to her with a pledge card!
She filled out the check and gave it to me. It was not a huge amount, but it seemed okay for the spinster school teacher that she was (Later I realized that she had no concept of how wealthy she had become because of her brother's inheritance).
As she gave me the check, she had tears in her eyes, and she told me that she was so sorry she didn't have more money to give, but she was sending that check because she wanted to be a part of what the church was doing.
When I think of Clara, my first thought is not the money she left to the church, but a person who wanted to join with all the others in her church community and give back to God for the work of God’s people.
Conclusion: Inspired; invested; innovative; indebted; involved; included;
All saints, all in.
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