A Fourth Church Sermon by Dana Ferguson

October 21, 2007 | 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

Priceless

Dana Ferguson
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 116:5–19
Exodus 16:9–21, 35

“Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.”

Exodus 16:12b (NRSV)

You are asked in the time that you have
to use wisely what you have been given for the kingdom of God.
That means that you must consider not only how you spend your time
but how you spend your money, and how you use your talent as well.
The gifts that you have do not belong to you;
they are not yours to possess but rather they are yours to improve. . . .
If you give serious consideration to this use of your talent,
your time, and your treasure, then neither your church
nor the whole church of Jesus Christ need ever fear,
and for that let the whole church say Amen.

Peter J. Gomes
Sermons: Biblical Wisdom for Daily Living

We discover the people of God, in Exodus, at a pivotal time in their history. They have become a new people, but they haven’t yet recognized it. They are beginning to live into a new identity as together they find themselves in a new place with new challenges. The Hebrew description stresses them as a congregation. It is the first time the idea of Israel as a congregation versus a tribe has been introduced. The idea of their identity as a congregation has everything to do with God’s gifts and how they use those gifts.

All too quickly this young congregation has forgotten the great providence of God—the hand of God that brought them through flood and plague, slavery and oppression. They find themselves in the wilderness, hungry and afraid, and decide that maybe they were better off enslaved by Pharaoh. Maybe Egypt was better than the land to which they have escaped. They complain to God. First, in earnest, fearing starvation and abandonment; then they begin to accuse God.

God does not scold or defend. Instead God tells them exactly how it is they will be fed. And it happens: quail and manna from heaven. Bread raining down day in and day out. God’s gifts of life and abundance filling the lands of the wilderness. This gift of manna is significant. Not only does it fill a real need—the need for food—it makes a statement to the people of Israel about their God, whom they have come to complain against. It says to them that God is with them always, that God is present in the great miracles of life and in the everyday, ordinary occurrences of life, that good things that occur in life don’t come just by happenstance but at the hands of a loving, responsive, generous God.

God is a God of miraculous happenings: a burning bush, the Passover, pillars of cloud and fire, the parting of the Red Sea. And God is a God of the everyday, an every-day-involved-in-the-lives-of-the-people God, listening and caring, sustaining and guiding. God’s care comes in the ordinary, not just the extraordinary.

One of the great conveniences and annoyances in my life, I have decided, is credit cards. They make life simple—no cash, no checks, no cash stations, purchases whenever and wherever. They also seem to have mastered the ability to produce incorrect and misleading statements and, even more than an annoyance, to take advantage of millions of people. So I am reluctant to point out what they have done well, but because it really works for this sermon, I will. I think the MasterCard commercials that end with “Priceless” are masterful. MasterCard shows a magical moment in life and lists the cost for the tickets, refreshments, whatever is involved that you can charge to your credit card. But at the end, the total experience is equated to being priceless.

It seems to me it likens easily to what our fund-raising consultants have told us that you as a congregation want to hear: the stories of how Fourth Church uses its resources. John Buchanan shared with you a few weeks ago our great need in this church to change the culture of giving. For some years now, we have been dealing with deficit budgets. Much of that is due to the fact that our congregation has grown at a much faster rate than our giving. In fact, our congregation has grown by more than 25 percent in the last ten years while our total giving amount has remained the same. In response to the needs of a growing congregation and an urban neighborhood, our ministries have grown as have the costs of maintaining this building and sustaining programs.

So the consultants we are working with to help us remedy the situation tell us, “Make your case.” Make your case for folks giving to the church. Tell them what it costs. I would argue there are many things to which we can attach a dollar, just as MasterCard does. But there are many things that are priceless, especially when the spirit of God is involved.

Let’s give it a try, this attaching a cost to things that happen in the life of this congregation. And a note: these are my very rough estimates. They will probably make the accounting and stewardship folks squirm a little, for I have rounded numbers and made some assumptions.

For the youth the church year began this fall in this sanctuary. It began with a U2charist: a worship service and celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, with a real, live, loud—and I mean loud—look-alike U2 band complete with a dark-headed, sunglass wearing, Bono-like lead singer. It was spectacular and ended with folks literally in the aisle dancing and singing. The rough cost: $1,700 for the band and the setup in the sanctuary. About $500 for the use of the space; $1,000 in organizing and promoting, which includes staff time. The message to the youth and their celebration: Priceless. The message to our youth that Fourth Church and, more particularly, the youth committee, leaders, and pastor, John Vest, were willing to take a risk to make this happen; the message that the youth of this congregation are important and valued and that folks are being thoughtful about how to encourage them to be a part of this congregation and to both worship and serve—on that no price can be put. And youth and parents, young and old literally dancing in the aisles of this stately, solemn sanctuary: Priceless.

It’s not unlike the children’s musical that happened here over the weekend. It has become an annual tradition, and it highlights, too, the great importance of young people in the Christian community and lifts up the gifts and talents they have to share. The cost: $6,500. Plus use of the sanctuary and staff to set it up for the practices and performances: about $2,500. Time of those directing and promoting the event: around $1,500. The value: Priceless. Priceless to be a part of these young people retelling the great stories of the New Testament and proclaiming the good news of the gospel in their version of song and acting. They are absolutely amazing moments, watching the kids share their gifts and talents and proclaiming the good news of the gospel.

When we think of our everyday economic lives, credit cards have made life simpler in many ways. I no longer carry a checkbook with me. But there are parts of the old days that I miss. I miss the sound that the check made when my mother quietly tried to rip it out of her wallet in the middle of church and put it in the offering plate. Sometimes she wrote it on Sunday morning and sometimes on Saturday afternoon and put it in the envelope to be placed in the offering plate the next morning. Whenever she wrote it, this is what she said to me about it: “Make it the first. Make it the first check you write every month. Make it the first dollars you spend.” That’s how it worked in my household. The first and most important dollars to be spent were those that went to church. They were given to God. Then the others could be written—to the grocery store, the cleaners, the drug story, the clothing shop. Yes, I grew up in a small town where households had house accounts at the local shops. No cash passed hands. Only bills paid at the end of each month. In the midst of those everyday, ever-important bills to be paid, one was always the first: the pledge made to the church. I still love remembering the sound of my mom ripping that check out of her checkbook—of recognizing the amazing ways God has and continues to work in everyday life and of responding with faithfulness and gratitude. So a couple more stories of God activities in the life of this congregation.

A couple of weeks ago, a member of this congregation lost her father. I would say that there is never a good time to lose a parent, but this was a particularly bad time for this member. Her father was diagnosed with cancer, and only a couple of short weeks later his death came. It came in the midst of great personal challenge for her. Many of her friends made calls and emailed her as she was out of town and with her family. They wanted to know if they should come. “No”, she assured them. They would have time when she returned to Chicago. So they did just that. They made time. They set aside a special time to celebrate her dad’s life. They gathered last week at one of their homes for dinner and a “Memorial Bonfire.” The Bonfire turned into a fireplace fire due to rain, but all the same, they gathered around the warmth of a fire and shared stories about her dad. Is there a way to put a price to that? We could. These good friends had met years ago through the auspices of what we now call Common Connection groups. The budget for these is not significant. They are meant to be self-sustaining sorts of entities. And yet there is much staff time in coordinating, publicizing, and organizing expended to support our groups. Very roughly you could estimate $10,000 annually. But really it must go into the category of things without price—the support and thoughtfulness and care of good friends, the proclamation of a life well-lived serving God and caring for family, the laying claim to the great gift of the resurrection the life. These are indeed priceless moments, and they happen again and again in this great community of faith.

This week at staff meeting, during the time that we talk about pastoral concerns, Hardy Kim gave his report of having been the pastor on call. You see, if you call Fourth Church late at night, you will discover that on the recording there is a special number to call for pastoral emergencies. It is a cell phone number, and we pastors trade off carrying that cell phone for a week at a time. The phone is intended to be used exactly for what it says on the recording—emergencies, times in life when, unfortunately, crises set in or death comes. So you might imagine that Hardy Kim was surprised to be awakened on Saturday morning by a phone call on the emergency phone from the concierge at the Four Seasons. It wasn’t a wrong number. She had exactly who she was looking for. You see, here was the emergency. There was a guest of the Four Seasons, a Catholic priest, who was readying to board a bus for the Boston College–Notre Dame game and discovered that he had forgotten his clerical collar. There are a lot of ways this conversation could have gone. A response from Hardy like this: “This phone really is for the purpose of emergencies and at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning from my home miles away from Fourth Church, I’m not able to respond to your request.” But, it didn’t. Hardy went to work. He finally found Ali Trowbridge here at work, who conveniently had an extra clerical collar in her office, which was delivered to the priest. So to put a price on this moment, we could figure the cost of the staff time of the pastor on call along with the cost of the phone answering service and even add in the salary time of the Four Seasons concierge. But for the sake of simplicity, we’ll simply figure in the cost of a plastic clerical collar and the attached lovely, polyester black shirt collar. Total cost: $48. Now I suspect that there are a least some of you who would like to argue that this story doesn’t belong in this litany of priceless kingdom vignettes. But I suspect that the priest who wore that collar to the game and cheered on a winning Boston College team would deem it priceless. And where else would you find the circumstances that would facilitate the situation and a church equipped to respond as we did? Just the story itself is priceless in my mind.

As rich as these stories are, they are just the tip of all that happens in the life of this great community and in your individual lives. It’s only a day or two worth of the great manna come from heaven to remind us of God’s great love for us, to exhibit God’s great care in the everyday, day-to-day, day-after-day of our precious lives. Yet in these stories is the same thing that was contained in the manna that rained down from above: the message that God is active in this world, that God is involved in the everyday, day-to-day moments of our lives and calls us in our everyday lives to live out that same love. And yet that isn’t all there is to this story of manna. There is also the part about responsibility.

God instructs the people to each day gather as much as they will need but no more, except on the day before the sabbath. They are to gather two-days provisions so that they don’t have to gather on the sabbath. But some don’t trust God, and they gather more than their fair share. What happens? It spoils. When they take more than they need, the gifts of God rot and attract insects. There’s a message here for the people living in the Exodus and for us now. There is responsibility in being the recipients of God’s good gifts. This story tells us that God has a stake in how we use God’s gifts. And that intent is not about our storing up and hoarding gifts. We are called to be responsible, to use the gifts for the benefit not only of ourselves but for the whole community. When the people of Israel stored the gifts, they became useless. Not only that, they became a nuisance, becoming sour and attracting worms. Developing self sufficiency—storing up and hoarding—reflects greed and has no place in God’s kingdom. And so you see how this is a pivotal time for the people of Israel in understanding themselves as a congregation, a people joined together in God and called to serve one another.

I have one last story to share with you today. I’ve been planning to use if for some time now. You see, there has been a lot of talk about the importance of preaching in the Stewardship season last year. And as you have heard, we have a big goal this year: $4 million, an increase of more than 30 percent from last year. And the boss is here. I don’t mean Springsteen. (That comes tonight at the United Center, the reward for preaching three times this morning! Sorry—I figure if John can work the Cubs in three Sundays in a row, I can mention Springsteen.) The boss I’m referring to is John Buchanan; he is here. You see, normally we Associate Pastors preach when John is away but not today. I guess you could say I’ve been feeling a little pressure. So I started some time ago to think about this sermon. I knew for sure one of the stories that I would tell you this morning. And the best part was that John didn’t know the end. He was out of town. So it was all mine. That is until someone told him the end and he told you a couple of weeks ago. But all the same, I’ve decided to keep a little competition going. Lord knows that’s not something John Buchanan wants to let die. The competition is “The one who can preach it first or who can preach it despite it having been already used.” We’ve been at this for a little while. I think it started a couple of years ago when I first used a Sports Illustrated story, the Perry Reese story, when John had been planning for some time to use it. He used it again after I did. So to close today, I’m going to tell you again about our faithful member Duke Foxx, whom John told you about a couple of weeks ago.

We came to know Duke through the Social Service Center. He found himself down on his luck, which led him here and to the Center. Duke and his partner, Vicki, became well-known faces around this place. I first came to know of his love of art and poetry through a Sunday Night Supper volunteer who was putting together a piece for the Mission Benefit. Duke was one of those he interviewed, and Duke shared for the video that year some of his drawings and poetry. Duke began to attend worship, and after some time, he joined the church. He was found here faithfully Sunday after Sunday, often sitting on the couch outside the sanctuary waiting for the next service. You see, as he would tell it, he loved worship so much he often attended two services straight. In between, he would sit on the sofa in his dark suit, looking pensive and content waiting for the next service. It was there that I often had my favorite interactions with him.

Duke was diagnosed with cancer some time ago. Members of the clergy would visit him. Donna Gray knew he loved crossword puzzles so she collected them and then would faithfully deliver them to him. Duke’s cancer progressed, and near the end of his time, he made the decision that his ventilator should be removed. Fourth Church clergy and David Murad, the director of the Social Service Center, gathered round. On that morning they shared scripture and prayed with Duke. The following day, a nun who worked at the hospital where Duke was being cared for visited him. She later called David to let him know how Duke was doing and about their conversation that day. “He wanted to tell me about Fourth Church,” she reported. “He wanted to tell me about how you all had cared for him and the wonderful things your congregation does.”

David and others attended Duke’s funeral and there met members of Duke’s family from which he had been estranged for years. They were so thankful to meet people who had been involved in Duke’s life. And they were overjoyed to know that he had been a part of a community—serving, worshiping, and being cared for in the many years that they had been separated from his life. His sisters asked David if he could collect stories from those who had known Duke and send them to the family so they might know more of so much of Duke’s life they had missed. The story I sent this week was of the day that Duke served as the Beadle, the one who leads the procession into worship carrying the Bible.

Most Sundays Duke was in his signature black suit with his dark hair slicked back. He reminded me of a cross between Johnny Cash and the thinner years of Elvis. He started at the back of the sanctuary, tall and lean, reverent and proud carrying the Bible and leading the procession for the day. Priceless. You could estimate some costs: an hour a week that Duke spent with the Social Service Center and its programs: around $5,000 a year. The cost of a weekly Sunday Night Supper for a year: about $50 for one person. Attendance for one at worship for a year: around $1,000. Yet, it was a priceless moment in the kingdom of God and one where it was clear that God cares for our every days—our every days and our everyday moments. It was a priceless moment in the life of Duke Foxx and Fourth Presbyterian Church.

The people of Israel were at a pivotal time in their history. And we, too, the congregation of Fourth Church, find ourselves at a pivotal time in our stewardship life, in the ways that we express our faithfulness to God’s bounty to us. If indeed we were to answer the question of “What shall I return?” in a new way, if we were to reach the goal of 100 percent stewardship participation instead of only 30 percent of the congregation pledging, which is where we have been, imagine what the stories would be, imagine the manna that would be evident in the kingdom, imagine the ways that we might reach out in the name of an ever-present, ever-loving God.

So now is the time for us to claim for ourselves a new identity. This season, this year. Not next year, as the Cubbies are want to say now, but this year. This is the year to ask the question “What shall I return?” and answer in a new way. A new way that may just find you giving up some extra luxury in your life or writing the check first, trusting God and claiming with great joyfulness and thanksgiving all that God has rained down in your life and in this world. Claiming with boldness and great trust in a loving God that works in our lives in the extraordinary and the ordinary day-to-day in priceless ways. What will you return to the Lord for all of God’s bounty to you? It is the question before us all. Answer now to God’s glory and honor and praise. Now and forevermore. Amen.