Newsletter

Celebrating New Years is a celebration of the past and the future. We take stock of the past with thanksgiving and sometimes even relief (that it’s over), and we look to the future in the hope and anticipation and perhaps even worry of what it holds.

The point is that New Year’s celebrations remind us of who we are as opposed to who we would like to be; what we have done in comparison to what we want to do. It reminds us of our accomplishments, but mostly it reminds us of our failures. What we’ve lost. Who we’ve lost.

New Years is our own version of Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. And we all play Scrooge. We are visited by the ghosts of our pasts, presents, and futures.

St. Paul writes: “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’ He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God” (2 Cor 9:6–15).

St. Paul tells us that the Lord of all will both supply and increase what you need to give to the church for its work in and for the world. He tells us that this work that God is doing in us will enrich and bless us in every way and through this it will produce thanksgiving to God. With this in mind, here is some practical advice to help you take stock of your giving of years past, which will help you to change what needs to be changed, improved, or done away with altogether.

First, attend the Divine Service to receive God’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. If you’ve not been faithful in attending worship to hear the preaching of God’s Word, to receive forgiveness, and feast of the rich food of our Lord’s body and blood for the eternal benefit of your body and soul, then repent and come to receive the gifts God freely gives. God doesn’t want your money. He wants you—all of you (Matt 22:20–22).

Second, pray for the Lord’s help. Your right as a Christian is to speak with your Father, the King of all creation, freely through His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Go to the throne of grace and ask for strength and wisdom to follow His bidding faithfully (John 15:1–16).

Third, consider what the Church is and what the Church does. The Church is a mercy place. It inhales the mercy of the Father by the death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son through the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments. It exhales this mercy in love toward the neighbor. You are a member of the Church, of God’s family. Thus, you are not only a recipient of God’s mercy, but a bearer of that mercy for the life of the world. You spread that mercy in showing mercy through the generous giving of your income to support the work of the Church in and for the world, as the Israelites did in the Old Testament (Lev 27:1–34).

Fourth, take stock of your current giving in light of the New Testament’s teaching on supporting the work of the Church. Are you giving of your first fruits, taking it out of your paycheck first, or does God get what’s left over? Are you giving voluntarily and cheerfully? Are you giving proportionally and generously? The Old Testament required a tithe, ten percent. The New Testament gives freedom to be generous, to give more for the Church’s work. Are you relying on God’s promise to provide and increase what you need to do His work? If your answer is no to any of these, repent. If God gave you His only Son, will He not provide for you all things, even physical things? Trust Him, His Word, and heed it.

So, don’t let your past define your future. Rather, commit for the year a generous proportion of your income, which is God’s gift to you for this body and life.

Every Christmas present that sits wrapped under your Christmas tree will wear out.  It will break or go out of style.  This fact was there, somewhere, in the back of your mind even as you bought them, but you bought them anyway.  For you love the person you bought them for, you wanted to see that look of joy it brings to their face.

So also God gives to you.  But greater.  What He gives will never wear out, break down, or go out of style.  For what He gives is His eternal and only-begotten Son, wrapped in your flesh, and placed upon the tree of the Cross.  He gives His Son for you.  He gives that you may have everlasting joy.  He gives because He loves you.  This is why the Word became flesh to dwell among you.

And that is who is given to you.  The Word who is God yet was with God from all eternity.  The Word through whom all things were made.  The Word who is the only-begotten Son of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, being of one substance with His Father.  The One who called all things into existence, the One who spoke to Moses from the bush that burned yet was not consumed, the One whose glory filled the tabernacle to dwell among His people, God Himself, has taken on your flesh.

Even though the Word is made flesh, even though God became Man, His Divinity is not lessened.  His Divinity is not changed.  His Divinity remains, pure and unchanging, but your flesh, your human nature, is exalted.  Your flesh and humanity is assumed into God.  God became man so that you would become like unto God—holy and righteous, without sin, without death.

And so it is that the Son given to you wrapped in your flesh is placed upon the tree of the Cross. And no tree was ever adorned more beautifully.  Its ornaments were nothing less than the Blood of God, poured out as an atoning sacrifice for your sins.  Its garland the Body of God, hanged in death that you may have life.  Its light the incarnate Light of the world, strung up to call you and all men unto Himself, to enlighten you, to make you His own.  He gives you His life;  He gives you joy and peace—peace with God in heaven and peace with one another on earth.

And from the tree of the Cross the Lord Jesus places another gift for you upon the Altar.  It is the Fruit of the Cross, His crucified and risen, living Body and Blood, the Fruit of the Tree of Life, wrapped in bread and wine and given to you.  He fills you with His Glory.  He makes your mouths and your hearts His manger.  He abides in you and you in Him.

The Word became flesh to be placed under the Cross for you.  You are forgiven.  This is why we give.  We give because He has first given to us.  And just as it was a joy for Him to give all He had to us.  It is a joy for us to give to one another and His church so that this message of forgiveness, life, and salvation may be proclaimed.

“O give thanks to the Lord for He is good.  His love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1).  The love of the Lord does endure forever because the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is risen from the dead, lives and reigns for all eternity.  He was crucified for our transgressions, but He is raised and lives forever for our justification. We are acceptable to God in Christ Jesus.

This is indeed something for which we give thanks.  We give thanks in our prayers. We give thanks in the hymns we sing in church.  We give thanks by talking about it with our friends and neighbors and teaching it to our children and grandchildren. And we give thanks by giving to the church a generous, first-fruits portion of the income He provides us.

Giving is giving thanks.  It is one of the concrete ways in which we thank God for all He has done for us.  This includes not just what He has done for us here in time, but what He does for us for all eternity.  He provides for all that we need in both body and soul.  He is more ready to give than we are able either to receive or even ask.  That is who He is.  That is His character.  He is good and His love endures forever.

Let us then give thanks in all these ways, not in one way or the other.  But rather in all things, everything that we do and say, whether it be in word or deed, in prayer and praise, in teaching and giving, let us give thanks to God for He is good.