First Fruits: It's Professional

from Feb. 2, 2014, from Numbers 18:8-15a

It was Tuesday night, 8 p.m., when Cathy and I were watching TV, that I got the call on my cell phone.  It was my mom.  "I am in the Heart Hospital in Lubbock.  I have an angiogram in the morning."  My mom is a very private person.  She is the kind who will have something major happen in her life, and it will be weeks or months later that I will learn about it.  "I thought I should let someone in the family know.  Now don't tell your brother or sister."  Gee, thanks mom.

Wednesday morning, I called her early. "Still haven't gone in for the procedure.  I haven't heard when it is scheduled.  I called my mom's United Methodist Church in Lubbock.  I got hold of their visiting pastor. He said that he would check in on her.  I left my cell phone on.  During staff meeting, about 11:15 a.m., I got the call from him.  "I'm here with your mom and her nurse.  She came through just fine.  She had one stent put in, and she needed one anglioplasty.  Her heart is not at 100%; it's at 98%."  I thanked him.  And then I went ....big relief...It was great to have an objective professional there to tell me exactly what was going on.

Then it hit me. This is what I do all of the time.  I have been there 100's of times, maybe 1000's of times with a family in crisis, helping with communication.  Mostly what I do is represent the fact that Christ is with them.

That's what priests do, represent the presence of God.  We re-present.  We are bridges to God.  As a professional I do this all of the time.

You do too.  You re-present God.

Our key verse in this stewardship series has been Proverbs 3:9, Honor the LORD with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce.  We give to God our first in time and our first in quality gifts, realizing that all we have comes from God.  In the scripture we had read today, these gifts were to be presented to the priests in the Temple in Jerusalem.  These gifts were the only income of the priests. When the Hebrews entered the Promised Land, all the other tribes were granted a portion of land, but the Levites and priests were not.  They were totally dependent upon God, upon what was given.  They represent that we are dependent upon God too.

Our giving of our first fruits helps us have a looser grip on all the stuff we have.  We realize that it all comes from God.  We are dependent upon God too.

I am a priest, one who re-presents God.  But so are you.  All who profess Christ do.  Martin Luther said that we are the priesthood of all believers.  Not just the clergy or paid staff, but every follower of Christ can make a big impact on others.

I saw an example of this over this past weekend when 8 of our members volunteered to be small group leaders at Created by God where we taught about human sexuality for 5th and 6th graders and their parents. Talk re-presenting God.  Talk about depending upon God.  They did.

I see it in our Stephen ministers, 3 more who begin their training today. They learn to listen and to love with those undergoing some difficulty in their lives.

I hope that you can see that you are a priest too, one who re-presents God.  That is your calling.  Sometimes you call me and say, "I wish you could have been there, Pastor Lynn, for this family in need."  I will say back to you, "That was your turn to profess your faith, to live into your calling."  We will never be able to hire all of the staff to do all of the work of ministry.  Christ depends on you.  You depend on Christ.

Our giving of our first fruits reminds us that we depend upon God as we re-present God to others.