What It Costs Us

2 Samuel 24:18-25

October 22, 2023 • Mount Pleasant UMC

About the only movies we go to the theater to see anymore are the Marvel movies. I know Pastor Rick doesn’t get it (he tells me that quite frequently), but I have always loved superhero stories. I was a comic book nerd when I was a kid and as an adult, I love the stories of ordinary people who are transformed into superheroes with superpowers. Whether it’s Spider-man with his web-spinning abilities or Ant-man with his shrinking skills or Captain America with his super-strength, I love it all. In the inevitable battle that comes at the climax of every movie, it’s the super power that makes the difference.

As Christians, we also have a superpower. It’s not great strength or changing shape or climbing walls. Our superpower is gratitude (cf. Traux & Campbell, Love Let Go, pg. 154). As people who have been forgiven and reconciled with God, gratitude should be second nature to all of us, and it is a superpower that has the potential to change the world. So, I have to wonder, why don’t we use our superpower more often or more effectively? What would the world look like if God’s people practiced more gratitude?

This morning is what we call Generosity Sunday, that time each year that people seem to remember the most because you often hear that all the preacher does is ask for money. So, today, yes, you will have a chance in a little bit to fill out a pledge card for the coming year. But generosity is about more than money. Generosity should be a way of life, which is an idea we’ve been exploring in this “Love Let Go” series. So far we’ve looked at Abram and Lot and their choice between stories of scarcity or abundance. Then we considered Moses and Miriam and the ways we get distracted from being generous people. And today we turn to a story a bit later in Hebrew history that points us toward activating our superpower.

I have to tell you, I read this story differently on the other side of Covid. 2 Samuel 24 is about an epidemic that hits the people of God and wipes out a large part of the population—a story that hits a bit too close to home these days, doesn’t it? So here’s what happened in ancient Israel: God got mad at the Hebrews. The author puts it this way: “Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel…” (24:1). We’re not told why. We’re not told what the people or the king did to cause such anger. We’re just told that God got mad at the people (again) and then, through a series of circumstances, a plague is sent upon the people for three days. Seventy thousand people die because of the plague—and we don’t know why. Because that’s not the point of the story. The point of the story, the focus of the narrative, is the place where the plague stops (cf. Goldingay, 1 & 2 Samuel for Everyone, pg. 183).

This is not really a story about Jerusalem. It’s not really a story about David. It’s a story about the Temple and how the main center of worship for Israel ended up where it did. We’re told that the “angel of the Lord” stopped spreading the plague when he arrived at a place called “the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite” (24:16). A threshing floor is the place where farmers would sort out the good grain from the “chaff” or the useless stubble. Today we have machines for that, but in those days, a farmer would establish a threshing floor on a high spot, up where the wind blew, and he would throw the grain up in the air. The good, heavier grain would fall to the ground and the worthless chaff would blow away. In David’s day, the city that came to be known as Jerusalem was situated on a small ridge; you can still see the remains of what is called the “city of David” today, just below the Temple Mount. At the top of that ridge was a threshing floor owned by Araunah. There, overlooking the city, is where the angel of the Lord stopped. And because the angel stopped there, that’s where David decided to build an altar. And not just any altar. This would be the altar that, ultimately, David’s son Solomon would make the center of Israel’s Temple (cf. Goldingay 183). Today, that location is still known as the Temple Mount (at least to the Jews, the Muslims calls it the “Noble Sanctuary”) even though there hasn’t been a Temple there for generations.

Now why would David want to build an altar here? Throughout the Old Testament, there are different reasons to build an altars. Sometimes they were built to honor something that happened in a particular location, like an angel appearing. Other times, altars were built because the people had faced a crisis or had some need to call on God. An altar was meant to call people to prayer, and to be a place where they could offer a sacrifice to God. Burnt offerings and prayer often went side-by-side (Goldingay 184-185). It seems that David has several if not all of these ideas in mind when he goes to Araunah and offers to buy the threshing floor. He’s doing it in response to a command from a prophet, so he approaches Araunah with an entourage and asks to buy the hilltop (24:18-21).

Araunah offers to give it to David, all of it. Not only the land, but also the wood and the animals for the sacrifice. Basically he says to David, “You’re the king, so just take it all” (24:22-23). Some think this might have been a negotiating strategy, like Araunah was appearing to be generous when really he was holding out for a high offer, but there’s no indication in the text that he’s doing that. It reads like a genuine offer. And yet David is not taking it. He insists on paying a fair price for the land, and then he says something that not only applied in his day, but still does in our as well, and it’s the verse I want to focus on for the rest of our time today. David insists on paying Araunah because a true offering always costs us something (cf. Goldingay 185). There, on the hill that will eventually become the holiest site in Judaism, David says, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing” (24:24).

If you know much about the Old Testament, one thing you probably know is that sacrifice was central to the worship of the Hebrew people. There were various sacrifices prescribed to help the people deal with various kinds of sin. You offered bulls or goats or grain, depending on the need, on the altar as a way of atoning for your sin, as a way of making things right. Sacrifice was central, and the Temple is where the sacrifices took place in the Old Testament. But the idea doesn’t stay limited to the Old Testament. The concept, if not the actual practice, carries over into the New Testament, to Christians. Paul tells believers to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). So what is a sacrifice? What is it that David is referring to here?

At a basic level, a sacrifice is something you give up, usually something precious or valuable, and you give it up in order to accomplish something or to honor someone. Most if not all of the ancient cultures had some form of sacrificial system, and whether it was the Romans or the Canaanites, the sacrifices were generally made in order to get something from the gods. If I do this, the gods have to give me that. You gave what you had so that the gods would give you what you wanted—good crops, good fortune, whatever. Israel’s sacrifices were different. They were done in order to satisfy a debt created by sin or they were a demonstration of thankfulness for the faithfulness of God. And so when David says he will not offer a sacrifice that doesn’t cost him anything, it’s because he knows how much God has done for him. He doesn’t believe in cheap praise. He has a heart of thankfulness, and he wants to express that fully. If Araunah gives him everything, then it’s not really his offering; it’s not really a sacrifice. It’s the same in the Paul’s understanding in the New Testament. We offer all that we are as “living sacrifices” in thankfulness for all that Jesus has done for us.

He did that on a smaller hill, not that far away from the one David purchased, about a thousand years after David (cf. Vannoy, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: 1-2 Samuel, pg. 431). It was a hill (a small rocky rise actually) known as Calvary or Golgotha—“the place of the skull” (Matthew 27:33). That’s the hill on which Jesus gave his life so that we could be saved from our sin. Paul would later describe it this way: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And the overarching response called for in the New Testament is gratitude—saying “thank you” by giving all that we are and all that we have to his service. How can we do any less? Jesus gave his all, his very life, which calls us to give our all in response, in gratitude. That is, as Paul said, our “true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).

But in our culture, we have gotten comfortable with sacrifices that cost us nothing. I think of a story from Jesus’ final week, where Jesus was watching the rich people give their offerings, and that was all fine and good, but the one who captured his attention was not one who gave the largest offering, but the one who gave the smallest. We would celebrate the big gift, but Jesus celebrates someone who gave only two small copper coins, the smallest coin in the nation. He says the rich “gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:4). Her last two coins were given in gratitude to God. Today we’d call that crazy. You don’t give away your last two coins. Current statistics are that on average, American Christians give 2.5% of their income. A hundred years ago, during the Great Depression, they gave 3.3%. We make more, have more resources and give less proportionally. And depending on who you ask, that 2.5% is not necessarily going to the church. In some studies, that shows up as “all giving to all charities.” The Biblical starting point has always been a tithe, which is 10% of our income. That’s what the word “tithe” means. We give nowhere close to that today. One research firm says if American Christians tithed, churches would have an extra $139 billion every year. We have become comfortable making “sacrifices” that cost us nothing.

And I think that’s because we see our giving to the church as “just paying the bills.” Certainly there is that element to it, but our giving is actually much more important and significant than that. As David reminds us in our text today, and as Paul reminds us in the New Testament, our giving is an act of gratitude for all God has done for us. Our giving is an act of worship, of saying “thank you” to the God who has given his all for us and continues to do so each and every day. Our giving reflects our heart, the depth and amount of our gratitude. It's a way of saying “thank you,” and that’s something that is actually good for you; it’s “one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.” Stanford University found that practicing gratitude “gives us more restful sleep and less physical pain. Saying thanks lowers our blood pressure and cuts our risk for depression by a third” (Truax & Campbell 153). But is it really gratitude if we give to God that which costs us nothing?

When someone becomes a member of this church, they are asked to promise five things: we pledge our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. And I always say that not only are those things we expect of members; those are things we expect of everyone and anyone who is a part of Mount Pleasant Church in any way. We give our prayers—praying for the church and the ministries that happen here, that they will continue to reach others with the good news of Jesus. We give our presence—that one’s pretty simple, we show up. Unless we are sick or out of town, worship in particular is a priority. We give our service—we find ways to serve others, in the church, in the community, in the world. We seek out places where our gifts and abilities can be used to make a difference. We give our witness—we live for Jesus in every place and every moment, wherever we are, shining his light into the world. And then there’s that one I skipped over: we give our gifts. We give of our resources to support the ministries, the outreach, the witness of God’s church here at Mount Pleasant. We give because we are grateful people.

So let’s come down to the practical. Our proposed budget for the coming year is $476,000, and what that represents is a lot of hopes and dreams for the coming year. It represents youth group meetings and Vacation Bible School and Celebrate Recovery small group studies and worship services. It represents Trunk or Treat and Easter Jam and Jingle Jam—all the jams—Grace Gala and funeral meals. It represents youth going on mission, making a difference in Jesus’ name, and Grace Unlimited serving here in Terre Haute as well as in other places in the country. And yes, it represents staff and what you might call “the cost of doing business,” all of which is in place to provide leadership and administration, much of which you never see but without which so much could not happen. It represents new members and confirmation class and baptisms and small groups and everything this church is known for. But it also represents possibilities, things that we aren’t even aware of yet that God will bring our way in 2024. Your Leadership Council has been engaged for the last several months in a study called “Growing Young” that is designed to help us be more aware of and focused on reaching the next generation. We’re involved in a group of churches from across the Annual Conference that are all trying to discern what’s next in God’s call on the church. We don’t know yet what that looks like, but we’re asking a lot of questions. This budget represents everything God is leading us toward.

So the question is, then, this: as a church, are we ready to move in God’s direction? What will be your participation in these hopes and dreams through your giving? And what will it cost you? I remember my first encounter with the idea of tithing. I had worked for the first time on my own that summer and had earned way more money than I had ever had in my name before. It honestly wasn’t much, especially for how hard of work detassling corn is, but to me at that point in my life, it was a huge amount. And then Pastor Amos did what I’m doing today. He preached about giving. And the math wasn’t hard; I knew how much 10% of my income was. So I had a choice. And while I’d like to stand here and tell you that the heavens opened up and light shone down as I walked to the front to give my offering—I don’t want to lie to you. I closed my fist and held onto what I have. I lived the story of scarcity. It wasn’t until many years later—when I was in seminary, in fact—that the Holy Spirit finally got ahold of me and convinced me of my need to tithe, to give at least the first ten percent of my income back to God. Part of me figured if I was going to teach the Bible, I probably ought to do my best to do what it says. And I also realized I needed to give more than God needed to get. Giving releases the power that money has over a person; it certainly did that for me because we had very little while I was in seminary. Giving ten percent was a huge piece. But I began writing those checks, and God was faithful. There were times it hurt, then and now, but God was faithful. And ever since then, we’ve tried to be faithful in giving the first ten percent of whatever God entrusts to us back to the church.

We called this series “Love Let Go” because of an image I shared with you two weeks ago, the first week in this series. We have a choice in life, to be closed fisted or open handed. Do you remember this? When we are closed fisted, we can’t receive anything else. We can’t grab onto the things God wants to give us. But when we live life open handed, when we let go of what we think is ours, then we are open to receive even more blessings from the one who loved us first. And we can only do that when we truly comprehend just how loved we are, how much God has done for us and in us and what he wants to do with us. He calls us not to hold onto the love we have been given, but to spread it around, to let it go and see what it will do in the world.

David bought the land, built an altar and gave an offering. And 2 Samuel ends with this word: “Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped” (24:25). What, do you think, might happen in our community if we were giving like David, if we gave not just what was comfortable but what might cost us, what’s beyond easy and safe? Not because we’re trying to convince God to stop a plague, but because there are people who are living in addictions that need to find healing in Jesus’ name. There are people who are outsiders and overlooked who need to find a place they can know hope and love and welcome in Jesus’ name. There are people who appear to have it all together but inside are falling apart, and they need to know there is a community that will love and accept them just the way they are. What could happen in our community if we, like David, give in such a way that our love can go into the community and change things for the better? What part will you play so that we can live out “love let go”? And what will it cost you? Because “offerings always cost” us (Goldingay 185).

So here we are. We’ve arrived at the moment when I’m asking you to take out the pledge card you picked up on your way in this morning; if you don’t have one, raise your hand and our ushers will be glad to bring you one. I’m going to walk us through the card and give you a few moments to fill it out, but as you’re pulling it out let me address a question I get asked every year: why do we make pledges? Why does anyone need to know what I give? There are a lot of reasons from the church side why we invite you to make a generosity pledge, one of which is so that our finance people can have a reasonable idea of how much money we will have in the coming year and whether or not we can do things like give raises to the staff or increase the amount we spend in various ministries. But on the personal side, the reason I make a pledge is not just because I’m the pastor and it makes me look good. No, the reason I make a pledge is two-fold. One, I’m making a promise to God that I will give even when things get tough. When I’m tempted not to give this month and instead buy the new iPhone, I remember that I have made a promise and I intend to keep it. (By the way, I do not have the new iPhone.) The second reason I make a pledge is so that the church knows they can count on me. It’s a way of saying, “I’m all in on the mission. I want to be part of loving God, loving people and loving life.” That’s my “why.” And I hope you’ll join me.

So, now, let’s walk through the card. At the top is our theme and our vision statement. It’s why we do everything we do. Why don’t we say that together again? Love God, love people, love life. We put that in front of us all the time to remember the reason behind all of our ministries, all of our actions, all of our everything. Then the first line asks for your commitment to the general fund. This is the place where your tithe goes, and you can indicate how you’re giving—every week, every month, or once a year. Just check the appropriate box. And if this is the first time you’ve filled out a generosity card, please check that line that says, “This is a first-time pledge” because we want to celebrate with you! Then there are three other lines that are available for giving beyond the tithe. The first one is for our mortgage reduction. We still have around $700,000 to pay on this building, and that’s lower than what it should be because we were able to make some extra payments this year due to the generosity of some folks. So far, we have been able to keep mortgage payments out of the budget because of your generosity. So if you can continue to help with that or start to help with that, you can fill that in on that line. The next line is for missions giving. All of the missionaries that we support are outside the budget, which is why the Missions team has regular fundraisers. Some of you also give directly to missions. By the way, if you give for a specific missionary but you do it through the church, it will actually get to them more quickly if you give directly to their organization. Just an FYI. And then there’s an “other” category. If you have a ministry that has captured your heart and you want to give to that specifically above the general budget, you would indicate that on this line. Rest assured everything you give goes directly to that ministry.

And that’s it, except for making sure we have your name, address and all that good information. If you can fill that out with your current information, that would be very helpful because some of you change phone numbers and email addresses more frequently than your socks. So help us make sure we have accurate information.

So…gratitude is your superpower. How will you exercise your superpower through your giving to God in 2024? As we prepare to make our pledges for the coming year, let’s hear again David’s declaration, and let’s make it our own this morning: “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing” (24:24). Let’s pray.