Weekly Sermon: Generosity with Purpose - 09/28/2025

Whenever we have guests over to our house for the first time,

I'd like to give them a tour of our Richardson home, especially the master bedroom.

The house was renovated before we bought it, and the renovator turned the adjacent

bedroom into the master bathroom and closet.

So we have two sinks, lots of drawers and cupboards, a tub that my long legs

fit into, and a walk-in shower that I could have a tea party in.

I've never done that, though. The closet, however, is what I really love.

I joke, although it is quite obvious, that my husband Dan has a quarter of the

closet for his clothes, and I have all the rest.

But then I quickly say, well, this is every season, you know,

so that it makes it look like I don't have too many clothes.

I'm not switching out summer and winter and all that.

I repeated this routine this past week when we had guests at our house.

But this gospel reading for this Sunday was on my mind.

And as I said, Dan has this much and I have all the rest in the closet.

I got this terrible pang of guilt in my chest and I thought, oh crap.

I am really flunking at giving all that I have to live on to God.

Like the widow in the Gospel of Luke.

Now, I already made a vow during Lent that I've continued to stop buying,

you know, just about everything that I don't need, clothes, earrings,

whatever it is, that isn't really a need.

I already truly have enough of everything.

And I've done pretty well at this except for a few thrift store purchases.

I've also been cleaning things out and giving things away, but all of this feels inadequate.

To make my shopping habits harder to break, I love to buy gifts.

Christmas is what, three months away?

And now I am blessed to have more kids to buy for,

a daughter-in-law whom we call our daughter in love, and a soon-to-be granddaughter

due on November 9th, and an engagement with another soon-to-be daughter in love.

But Dan convinced me to cut back on the Christmas stockings that I buy for everyone,

even though they're in their 20s and now two in their 30s.

I mean, they need Christmas stockings, don't they?

And he said, why don't you get them things that actually fit in the stocking?

Instead of also a whole gift bag full of more stuff as well.

And I think to myself, can I

cram all the love that I feel for each family member into just a stocking?

I'm not sure that the yarn will hold.

But that is the problem, of course, isn't it?

We think that gifts the stuff

communicates all of the love

and all of the devotion when really

all of my kids including my daughters in love know how much I love them without

gifts without more stuff but when I am shopping for them and counting to make

sure that each one has 15 items, so it's all fair and even.

I sometimes forget that, and I start to think that the gifts mean more than they really do.

And who am I dressing for with all of the clothes in my closet anyway?

We think we have to dress and look a certain way, live in a tony house,

drive a sleek car in order to be loved by others, to be valued and esteemed.

By whom exactly?

By the society that tells us that we're not good enough as we are?

The influencer who needs more advertisers and followers?

Or like me, when it's hard to let go of thinking, I always need to dress well

to be taken half as seriously as the guy next to me in a male-dominated profession.

You know, I always wanted to look great when someone came up to me and said,

you know, I don't believe that women should be pastors. I don't believe that

women should be pastors.

It happened the first time in 1987 on internship and as recently as my last church in St.

Louis. And thank you so much. It never happened here.

But how many of us want the stuff that we have, the money that we make or whatever

it is external to us to give us our value, our status or to help us feel loved.

You know, I love the wisdom I learned in an Al-Anon 12-step program which says,

what other people think of me is none of my business.

Jesus in the temple with his disciples sees all of these wealthy people gaining

status from their stuff, their big offerings, and their generous, generous giving.

No doubt their big offerings helped the temple run smoothly.

But while others ignored the widow dropping in her two copper coins,

she was for Jesus the paragon of faith.

Not because she gave a big amount. Not because she had great status in the community.

Most didn't even notice her.

Not because she was a big influencer who stood by the well and persuaded people

to faithfulness from her soapbox?

No. She was a great model of faith because she was all in with God.

Her two copper coins, which didn't even add up to a penny, were everything she had.

It wasn't much. she could buy a handful of flour or maybe a little oil and salt.

Enough to make maybe a small roll?

Yet she gave it all to God. She gave God her all.

The widow trusted God for her next meal before she went to bed.

She trusted God for her needs the next day and the day after that.

She didn't have a closet full of clothes. She didn't have a stocking stuffed with treasures.

She possessed no signs of external wealth, no acclaim, no signs of love or worldly affection.

She did, however, have the two things that God cherished,

the two things that created a deep and abiding relationship with God,

A heart full of love for God and a soul full of devotion to God alone.

She was all in.

She was all in with God. He was the recipient of her love and he was the source

where she received her love and her identity.

Charity, devotion, and source of love.

Everything that went out and everything that came in was focused on God.

When my husband Dan was first interviewing with a small church in Frisco,

which is what first moved us

to North Texas, the call committee took us to Babe's Chicken for dinner.

After eating their wonderful food, I went to use the restroom.

And when I came out, lo and behold, there was this awesome lineup of people doing the hokey pokey.

Well, being the dancer that I am, I joined the end of the line.

I'd never been to Babe's Chicken.

I didn't know it was just for staff. So Oh, what the heck?

You know me by now, right? I walk out of the bathroom. I see a bunch of people

in a restaurant doing the hokey pokey. I'm joining the hokey pokey.

You know how it goes. You put your right hand in.

You put your right hand out. You put your right hand in and you shake it all about.

You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around.

That's what it's all about. Okay, up.

Get up, we're doing the hokey pokey.

We're not going to do all the verses. I'm tempted.

Music.

Thank you. All right.

So this begs the big question. What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?

All right. Because guess what?

For us as believers, we follow Jesus, who was all in on the cross.

And the hokey pokey really is what faith is all about. It's putting our whole self in with God.

Jesus put his whole self in on the cross. And that's what the widow did.

She put her whole self in with God.

God is the source of her love, not the noise of the world.

God is the object of her devotion and trust,

not the new and improved wardrobe not

the shiny baubles of the world and that's

what stewardship of life really is all about

it's putting your whole self in with god and when you do that and you shake

it all about in god's holy love where do things land for you where do your values

and priorities and time,

talent, and treasures land.

And for me, I'm spending way less on wants for me and those I love and much more on needs.

And I'm working to be much more gentle and faithful to the earth and its resources.

So I bought a hybrid car and we're trying to find ways to consume less.

And my husband Dan and I are exploring ways that we can be more generous so

we can share more Jesus with the world because when we are putting our whole

self in with God life is so much more peaceful and it makes so much more sense.

In the last four months I've been invited to apply for two positions in synod staff. And guess what?

Guess what I said? No.

Okay? I didn't even apply. I didn't even engage in the conversation.

I mean, I talked to God, but not to them.

Why? Because I'm committed here because I want to grow our mission.

I want to continue to build on what God has already been doing with us,

through us, through you.

You know, you're an amazing, awesome group of faithful people.

And so with Michelle and the abundance team who have shared amazing things this

month and with the council and their great leadership, I want you to know that

I'm putting my whole self in. I have been for seven years.

I'm going to keep doing it. I'm all in with you, St. Luke's. And so guess what?

The hokey pokey really is what it's all about.

And I'm putting my whole self in with you and with our mission.

So Dan and I also have increased our pledge.

So I want you to know that I'm putting my whole self in.

Okay? So I hope you are too. And during our hymn of the day, here's my pledge card.

We're going to do the hokey pokey right up here.

And you can dance your pledge card forward, your time and talent sheet, whatever you got.

And for guests and visitors, your presence here is just a gift.

So put your connect card in because we're grateful you're here.

And just your presence is a gift of worship. And we're glad you're all in worship today.

So you can come up, put it in while we sing our hymn of the day and dance around

the outside. and we're grateful that we have the most awesome musician in the

whole state of Texas right here, Dale Dieter, to lead us through.

All right. So I'm all in. Are you? Let's say amen.

Amen. Go forth with vision, grounded in prayer, rejoicing in God's impact and growing in generosity.

Trust that your gifts matter, that every gift matters.

Share God's grace with purpose as you love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks be to God and we will. If you were inspired by this week's.