A God of Promise

Brothers and sisters in Christ

Grace Notes 11/2011

The last week has seen some of the most beautiful weather so far this autumn. Clear skies, low humidity, cool breezes, and bright sunshine augur the approaching winter solstice, with its accompanying shorter days, chill evenings and, sometimes even in Richmond snow. I enjoy the changing of the seasons because it reminds me that Time itself is a gift from the Lord, and a gracious one, at that. Its reliability is unassailable (even while the calendars that civilizations throughout history have used to measure its passing have changed and been revised). That reliability has not always been assumed; some ancient peoples genuinely feared the winter solstice, when the life-giving sun seemed to retreat to its farthest remove. They invented annual ceremonies and rites to assuage the gods, hoping to curry favor by their sacrifices and offerings, and to win the return of the sun. The people of Yahweh, however, harbored no such fears. They knew that God was not capricious, but was always, always faithful even when His people were not. Israel knew that they could count on God, on His sovereign rule, and on His purposes for His Creation (cf. Job 38:12, e.g.). He is a God of Promise a God Who sees fit to share His intentions with His people, so that they may live not in fear, but in the life-giving confidence of His gracious and sovereign will (John 10:10). He promises protection upon Cain, even after he murders Abel (Gen. 4:15ff.). He promises restraint, sending the sign of the rainbow after destroying the earth with the waters of the Flood (Gen. 9:12 ff.). He promises blessing when He calls Abraham to leave his country, his people, and his home, to go to the place that God will show him (Gen. 12:1 ff.). He promises never to leave us (Matt. 1:23; 28:20). And He promises a place with Him in eternity after we have shed our mortal coils (John 14:3). As certain as I am that God will be faithful to His promises, so am I certain that the coming months will bring colder weather and that the months that follow those will see the return of the sun. Aside from God, only humans can make promises. Among Gods creatures, only humans have been given both a consciousness of the future and the will to plan for it. A promise is the expression of a commitment and commitments are often the consequence of love. The vows of marriage are the expression of a commitment that a man and a woman are moved by love to make to one another. A woman promises to commit herself to military service because of her love for country. A man answers ordination questions with his promises to serve because of his love for Jesus Christ and His Bride, the Church. Another word for promise is pledge. (Id love to know if any of our members said the words I pledge thee my troth at their wedding-!) It signifies a future commitment. In the case of pledging to the church, that commitment is born both of love for God and trust in God. The essence of faith is trust, and there are few ways of living out that trust as concrete or as real as promising to make a gift of something that one has not yet received. Of course, the world says

this is folly (and recent events in the finance industry have shown us how foolish, indeed, such promises can be when they are based on human speculation). But the Christian knows that God chooses what is foolish in this world to shame the wise (1 Cor. 1:27). A common complaint by non-believers about the church is one of hypocrisy i.e., talking the talk without walking the walk. Pledging is a direct a refutation of that charge. When we pledge, we are not just saying that we trust God, but we are showing that we trust Him by making a promise a commitment to return to Him gifts that we havent even received because we know that He will be faithful and that we can depend on Him. This is the basis for Gods Word to His people in Malachi 3:10, where He says, "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. For the Christian, pledging is simply living out ones faith. It requires relatively little faith to take from what one already has each week and give a portion to the church. One has the money in hand, and can balance ones immediate needs with ones immediate resources. A pledge, however (like the marriage vow), is a commitment to an unknowable future or, more accurately, a commitment to the God whose hands hold your future. Only by pledging do we give God the opportunity to show us personally how faithful He is (i.e., put Him to the test) in caring for our financial needs. By the same token, we can never know that aspect of Gods faithfulness and never grow in that aspect of our faith apart from making that future commitment, that pledge that is dependent upon God faithfulness. There is another aspect to pledging, apart from ones individual faith. That is the aspect of faithful stewardship on the part of the churchs leaders. Your ruling elders are charged with leading the congregation faithfully and responsibly, which necessarily entails the responsible oversight of the churchs income and expenses. That oversight involves the creation of a budget every year in which projected expenses do not outstrip projected revenues. Pledges from members and friends of Grace Covenant constitute by far the largest portion of projected revenues. Therefore, after all pledges have been received, your elders pray and confer about what expenses those revenues will support. As has been published several times over the past year, 95% of our expenses go to personnel or building and property costs. Accordingly, a drop in pledged income will require the Session to make personnel and building maintenance decisions accordingly, be it the deferral of important maintenance or renovation, the delay in hiring a replacement staffer for the now-vacant Christian Educator position, or even the laying off of staff. I am aware that some people do not intend to pledge. One reason people give is theyre afraid that, should their income unexpectedly decrease, or needs unexpectedly increase, they will not be able to fulfill their pledge, and their standing in the church will somehow be adversely affected. To this, I say that there is absolutely no basis in our Book of Order for any retribution of any kind for failing to fulfill a pledge. And certainly there is no basis in Scripture otherwise Christs sacrifice would have no meaning, for certainly we fall all short every day in our lives

(Romans 3:23), and depend utterly upon Gods gracious mercy and forgiveness. The Church can be no less gracious in its dealings with its members. I have told a number of people that I have never in my life felt as grateful for the blessing of paid employment as I have this past year. I would be very surprised if there were anyone here who didnt know someone who had lost income or employment in the past year, or suffered such a trial himself. If anything, a downturn in ones fortunes is an occasion for the Churchs support and encouragement, not for judgment and condemnation. A fear of retribution, or any manner of negative action, should have no basis in this congregation. I have also heard that some intend not to pledge as a means of registering their disagreement with certain policies approved by the Session. I am deeply grateful that we live in a society that tolerates (and protects) dissent. Im also deeply grateful that we belong to a Body composed of different members, where the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the ear say to the foot, I have no need of you where the open, humble and prayerful sharing of different perspectives is lifted up as essential to discerning the mind of God. Indeed, this is fundamental to the Reformed Tradition, which eschewed the top-down authoritative rule of an appointed cleric in favor of rule by a body of elders elected by their peers. And yet, you ordain these people as Ruling Elders because they are the ones to whom you give the responsibility and authority to govern and the church, by ordaining them, agrees to abide by their governance. It disturbs and saddens me to hear that there are those who would choose to impede the faithful efforts of our Ruling Elders to govern our congregation (i.e., in the establishment of an operating budget) because they do not agree with a decision they made. I am not talking about people who are unsure of pledging. I am talking about people who know that they will give, and yet intend not to pledge intend to keep their plans secret from the churchs governing body, and deprive them of the information they need to develop a faithful budget because they disagree with a decision. It is one thing to voice ones disagreement but intentionally handicapping the Sessions attempt to steward faithfully the churchs finances is not only mean-spirited, but also jeopardizes the ministries of the church. It would be regrettable indeed if an intentional withholding of pledges, and concomitant reduction in projected revenue, forced the Session to approve a budget that eliminated a ministry or a staff position, when in fact the actual giving would have funded that ministry or position. My earnest hope and prayer is that no one will refrain from pledging, that everyone will step forward in faith to make a pledge, to make a promise, to make a commitment to the God whose commitment to us is unfailing and unconditional. Put God to the test Give Him a chance to show you, in an area of your life that is probably pretty important, that He is faithful. For when you do that and when God comes through your faith will necessarily grow. Its no different from giving someone an important job. Maybe youve had the experience of being given a new task at work that youd never done before. Your supervisor may have had some doubts about your ability to succeed, but decided to trust you anyway. She made a commitment to you in giving you the responsibility for that task. And when you successfully completed the task, how did your relationship with your supervisor change? Didnt you earn a deeper level of confidence? Didnt you enjoy a fuller measure of trust of faith? Or maybe youve been the

supervisor, giving to someone a responsibility you hoped they could handle, but werent completely sure about. When that person came back successful, how did your attitude toward that person change? Didnt your confidence in them grow? Didnt your trust in them your faith increase? God yearns for that kind of confidence in Him. Because that confidence that trust is the essence of faith. A woman may set herself a fitness goal at the gym and, two months of disciplined workouts later, achieve that goal. A man may set himself a weight loss goal and, six months of disciplined eating habits later, achieve that goal. While these goals are pledges to oneself, and the pledge to give is a pledge to God, the effect is quite similar. The woman might never have known how fit she could be, had she not set that goal and made that commitment to work out. The man might never have believed he could lose that much weight, had he not made a promise to himself to change his stewardship of food and body. In both instances, the result is not only fitness and weight loss, but a new confidence in oneself, a new realization of ones strength and abilities. By the same token, you may never know how truly reliable and worthy of confidence God is, should you not take advantage of this opportunity to test Him. But do so make a pledge based not on your strength, but on His faithfulness and give yourself the chance to realize how reliable and real Gods providence is for you. In Christs service,