The following sermon was presented by the Rev. John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on Stewardship Sunday, November 24, 1985. The title is, The Lord Has Need of It, and the scripture references are Daniel chapter 7, verses 9 through 14, and Mark chapter 11, verses 1 through 11. 

I want to look again at the lesson which we heard read at the beginning of our service from Daniel 7. I think you'll find it on page 769 of the Bibles in your pews there. There's really a remarkable tension between the two scripture lessons that are assigned for this morning.

And interestingly enough, they are assigned. I didn't pick them. They're The first one from Daniel 7.

As Mary Carlin said to you, it was part of a vision, a series of visions that were given to Daniel. There's great similarity between what he saw and what Ezekiel saw and what we find once again in the book of Revelation, having to do with end times and final things. Daniel 7, and we were looking at verse 9 and following.

The very throne room of God. God Himself is called the Ancient of Days. And He's surrounded by not only cherubim and cherubim and angels and archangels, but by thousands of thousands, tens of thousands of the redeemed who are standing before Him and bowing before Him and worshiping Him and praising Him.

And it says that the court sat in judgment and the books were opened. These are very serious and weighty matters. And then it says in verse 13, I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man.

You probably know that this is the title that Jesus took for himself. This was the title that he found most pleasant, most convenient. This was the one that he was happiest to use about himself.

Out of all the various titles that he might apply to himself, he called himself the Son of Man. And sometimes people misunderstand that. They think that there's some sort of a contrast between Son of God and Son of Man, and that in choosing this title, He was denying or minimizing the fact of his sonship of God.

No, that's not at all the case. What it means for him to take this title, the Son of Man, is that he takes a messianic title. And what it says is, Messiah will be born a human being.

It in no way minimizes the fact of his divinity. But to call him Son of Man is to lay claim to everything that the Old Testament says Messiah, coming as one born of mankind, but with remarkable difference from the rest of us. In fact, if you compare this vision with what we find in the book of Revelation, you find that the Son of Man does what no one else can do.

Angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven cannot come near to the throne of God. They worship from across the crystal sea. But they can't come near to the throne itself.

And this one comes right up to the Ancient of Days. And receives from Him that which is His alone. Did you notice that?

He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. Verse 14. And to Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom.

Hang on to that for just a second. Let me remind you that every time we say the Lord's Prayer, we end it with the phrase, For Thine is what? The kingdom, the power, and who are we praying to?

Our Father. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. The kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to the Father who is here called the Ancient of Days.

But do you see what's happening? That which is His, He gives to one like a Son of Man. To Jesus is given the kingdom, the power, and the glory, the dominion, the splendor, the majesty that we've just been singing about.

All honor, all praise, all adoration belongs to Him. Daniel, inspired by the Spirit of God, foresees a day which Ezekiel also saw, which John saw in the book of Revelation, a day on which the Father turns over to the Son all of that majesty, all of that splendor, all of that dominion and authority and glory. to Him was given dominion and glory and kingdom that all peoples, all peoples, nations, languages, should serve Him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in His kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. That's the Jesus that we come to worship this morning. Do you understand that you and I are among those who see right now what one day all of creation will acknowledge?

We're privileged to see it now. One day all creation will see it. Every knee will bow.

Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. The Father glories in our acknowledging the Son as King of kings and Lord of lords. And one day, every knee will bow.

Some out of great joy. And some perhaps reluctantly because they'd rather be boss themselves. but every knee will bow and every tongue will confess what you and I confess today that Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven and earth and of all that is seen and unseen and that's to the glory of the Father I wonder if it's ever struck you that up on the mount of temptation when Satan dangled as it were dangled the kingdoms of this world before the Lord Jesus and said, to you I'll give all of these if you'll bow down and worship Me.

Did it ever occur to you that what He was offering Jesus receives in the end as the delight of the Father? Only He receives it not because He compromised, not because He worshipped Satan, but because he was obedient to the Father. Satan doesn't have anything to offer that he hasn't stolen in the first place.

And the Father delights to give it to the Son. To Him shall be an everlasting dominion and a kingdom that will never pass away. The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever.

Amen. Hallelujah. Now I trust that it's clear to you that the Lord Jesus doesn't really need anything that you can give Him.

You do see that. I mean, He's got it all, right? He is no man's debtor and He owns it all.

The cattle on a thousand hills, the wealth in every mine, it's all His. all things come of you oh lord and of your own have we given you and yet with that very much in our mind you turn to the gospel of mark and you hear the story of that that ride that we so poignantly call the triumphal entry into jerusalem and you see Jesus sending out two disciples to borrow somebody's donkey. And if they ask you, why are you doing this?

Say to them, the Lord has need of it. Do you get the tension? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and yet he has to borrow somebody's donkey to ride into the city of Jerusalem.

Of course, he didn't really need to. Not really. I mean, he could have walked.

Or he could have had a legion of angels transport him like that. Right? But you see, instead, He gave somebody, and we don't know who, some unnamed person, some man, it might have been a woman, we don't know, somebody.

He gave somebody the incredible privilege of having his or her donkey used for that bittersweet descent down the Mount of Olives and across the Kidron Valley and up through the Golden Gates into the Holy City on that first Palm Sunday. Don't you wish it had been yours? I mean, really, don't you wish that it had been your colt, your donkey?

if you had been there would you have lent yours to Jesus or put it another way if he came to visit you this afternoon and said I'd like to borrow your car to drive into the district would that be alright would you lend him your car to drive into the district you see that's really the issue of stewardship He doesn't need it, not really, not ultimately, not finally, but He makes Himself by choice dependent upon us to a very significant degree so that we can enjoy the privilege of sharing with Him that which He's given to us in the first place, Make it available back to Him to do with as He sees fit. I want to remind you of three things. I trust these are just reminders that you already know this, but I want to remind you anyway as we come to Stewardship Sunday and to this time of making pledges of our life and labor back to God this morning.

I want to remind you of three things. Number one, God expects us to tithe. Somebody prayed over on this transept that we would all come up to the full 10% this morning.

That's a great prayer. Except that from God's point of view, that's required. I mean, you haven't made it.

Now you can relax when you got all the way up to 10%. We don't even count that. One-tenth off the top gross income given back to God is the law.

We're not even talking about gifts and offerings until after that's been given. The book of Malachi puts it in incredibly strong terms. You are robbing me.

But you say, how are we robbing you? In your tithes and offerings, you are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you, and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.

There's a law and a promise there. The law is one-tenth off the top. The promise is, do that and watch me provide blessing.

And some of you are saying, yeah, but that's the law, and we're not under the law, praise God, we're not under the law, we're under grace, right? That's right, we are under grace, but let me explain what that means. Being under grace means that keeping the law is not what's going to save you.

What's going to save you is the gift of God. It is by grace through faith that you are saved, not of works lest anyone should boast. But being under grace and not under the law does not mean that God has relaxed His standards.

Look, not committing adultery, not murdering, not stealing isn't going to save you either. But God hasn't relaxed His standards on that. It does not mean, oh, praise God, we're under grace, we're in a new covenant, now I can go out and murder and kill and commit adultery.

No, no, no. As a matter of fact, people love to quote Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount when He says, You have heard it said, but I say something different. Jesus came along and set aside the law. Have you heard that?

Not so. Go read it for yourself. Matthew 5-7.

Every single time Jesus does that, what He in effect is doing is He's raising the standard, not lowering it. You have heard it said, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say to you that if you even look at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery.

Whoa, I'm in deep trouble. You've heard it said, thou shalt not steal. I say to you, if you covet, you've stolen.

I'm in deep trouble. You've heard it said, thou shalt not commit murder. I say to you, if you hate your brother, you've murdered him in your heart.

Jesus isn't saying these laws don't apply anymore. He's saying the standard is infinitely higher than you ever expected. Now what are the implications of all that for tithing?

He's not setting aside the tithe. He's saying we assume that and the standard is much higher. All things come of Thee, O Lord, and of Thine own have we given Thee.

It's all Yours. Not ten percent. A hundred percent.

You get it? At one point, Jesus castigated the Pharisees. Listen to His words.

He said, Woe to you hypocrites! For you do tithe. See, they were tithers.

The Pharisees were tithers. He said, you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and yet you've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith. The tithe isn't the most important thing, you see.

There are more important things. Doing justice, extending mercy, having faith in God is more important than tithing. You've done the tithe and you've neglected the more important things, but listen, listen.

These you ought to have done without neglecting the others. Without neglecting the others. I assume the tithe and then whatever beyond it.

God expects us to tithe. People are astonished when they hear about Turo's budget. Maybe some of you are astonished.

I know that other churches are. We're looking at a budget for next year of $2,165,000, and people shake their heads. They say, we don't understand how one church could have a budget that size.

But let me tell you something, friends. The median income in Fairfax County is $45,000 for a family of four. And as of this month, we have 1,089 families in this parish, which means that our combined income, believe it or not, is something over $49 million, which means that if we all tithed, our budget would be just under $5 million, and we're looking at slightly over $2 million.

We're not even halfway there. not even halfway we haven't even begun God expects us to tithe and if you're not tithing he says you're robbing me and a curse is upon you that's very strong isn't it people will always say at that point does the whole tithe have to go to the local church? You answer that with the Lord for yourself.

Personally, I believe that's what He wants. The tithe goes to the local church and then your gifts and offerings are above and beyond that wherever you want to give them. But that's between you and the Lord.

I don't care if you don't give one blessed penny to Toro. But I do care if you don't tithe because God says you're under a curse. And I really am not very faithful as a pastor unless I tell you about that.

Some of you may not be able to get there in one step. Most of us didn't. When we really took seriously what God says about tithing and then we looked at the incredibly paltry amount that we were giving, we said there's no way I can do that in one step. And so we worked out a plan to get there in two or three or four or five steps.

And I commend that to you. This word is not spoken in judgment. It's spoken in encouragement to you.

God says, I expect you to tithe. And when you do, just watch what happens. I'm going to open the windows of heaven and pour down upon you an overflowing blessing.

You believe in the scientific method? He says, put me to the test. I mean, it's incredible.

You say, I've never seen a miracle before. Okay? He invites you to see one.

Put me to the test. Bring in the full tithe and watch what happens. Every year I say this, and so far nobody has ever corrected me.

I have yet to meet somebody who has committed to tithing and who then has backed away from it because God failed to keep his word. It does not make any sense. Here I am with all these bills and I can't pay them with 100% of my income.

Now I give away 10% and I find I'm able to pay my bills. It does not make any sense. But neither does God.

that's number one number two is God loves a cheerful giver Joe Kitts loves to remind us that James Moffat's translation of that phrase is God loves a hilarious giver. The worst thing in the world would be for you to hear what I've just said and say, Oh, no! Oh, God!

You know, that's... No. God wants you to be full of joy in doing this. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he put it this way. He said, the point is, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

And he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his own mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And mind you that biblically, you don't even begin giving until after the tithe.

Wouldn't it be exciting to get to the point of saying, I am so thrilled to be giving away this money that I want more so I can give away more. That's the real purpose of wealth. Read through 2 Corinthians and see for yourself.

the purpose of wealth is that we might bless others that we might glorify God's name the more you get the more opportunity you have to give away and I think that what many of us have begun to learn both individually in our families and also as a parish is that you really can't out give God the harder we've tried to give money away to others the more we found God doing among us And blessing us both materially and in other ways. The real secret, though, is that it's the giving itself which becomes the blessing. It's not what you get because you give.

It's the giving itself which is the blessing. God so loved the world that He gave. God loved, so He gave.

Do you? well finally I just want to remind you what it is we're about we've spent a very long time this year considering what it is God has called us as a parish to be about equipping the saints serving the community renewing the church we're about nothing less than changing the church that's what we're about we're bringing Episcopal Renewal Ministries here to Fairfax to change the church we're planting a new congregation out here on Route 50 in 1986 or somewhere out in the Route 50 corridor west of here to change the church first new mission in 13 years in the Diocese of Virginia we're about serving the community we're about serving in the district through the STEP program we're about a witness for life through Noel none of this friends is our mission this is Jesus' mission and we believe that He's spoken to us and He said this is what I'm calling you to do and the bottom line is that He can do it without us and if we fail in our obedience He will do it without us but you see He's given us the privilege of offering back to Him our donkey for Him to ride into the Holy City on our donkey. What an incredible privilege.