“Strength on behalf of God’s house” may strike you as an unusual way to think about what the church needs today from its members. Things like generosity and good-heartedness and loyalty may be a lot more likely to come to mind and those things are important for the church. But, today I want to suggest that a basic strength on our part in being for the church is essential if the generosity and good-heartedness and loyalty are going to flower and enable the church to go forward. The weak in spirit are not able or prepared to sustain God’s house in an age when many are questioning whether the church really matters. Only the strong can provide the undergirding and the empowerment which God’s house and God’s cause require in our day.

This is hardly a new idea. It was true 3,000 years ago in ancient Israel in the reign of King David. At that point in history the people’s faith in the one God they called Yahweh was becoming more clearly defined in contrast to the pagan idol worship all around them, but until then no house of worship had been built as a home base for their faith. God had no house then. In today’s reading from I Chronicles, King David tells how he had planned to build a temple, until he got word from God that this responsibility was to go to his son Solomon when he became king. Note the wording of David’s charge to Solomon: “Take heed now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary; be strong, and act.” Now why did David find it important to include that phrase “be strong?” Why didn’t he just say, “do it?” I think David understood that without being strong in spirit and resolve, Solomon would not do it. He would not have the willpower and dedication to undertake such a venture, which would cost him something in terms of time, money, and energy. First he must have the strength of spirit, and then he would be prepared to build.

Where would Solomon gain that strength of spirit? David is clear about that as well. Commit yourself to seeking out God and God’s will for your life. Serve him with single mind and willing heart. In so doing, you will find God, and with God the strength to build the house that God calls you to build. Now that formula shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us: spiritual strength grows out of a meaningful relationship with God. As we know God’s love and care for us, we grow in our awareness of God’s purpose for us and in our commitment to living it out in our lives. This produces a spiritual strength in us for living on behalf of God’s cause in the world.

Now if we’re honest about what brings us to God’s house -- the church, we have to recognize that that involves more than a single-minded concern for helping God’s work get done. For one thing, we come for the personal inspiration we find here to lift our spirits and comfort our stressed souls. The Staff-Parish Committee’s report on its recent series of congregational meetings takes note of how important the music program of this church is in the life of this church. We rejoice that our sanctuary is a place of beauty; and we count on worship, including the spoken word, to nourish our minds and hopefully warm our hearts. In a word, we come to be fed in worship, and so we should, for worship is meant to do that. Many of us come here also for the social connections—the friendships we find here, the support and encouragement we gain from being in Christian fellowship. We need to share our lives with others, and what better place is there for doing that than the church. Parents are drawn to the church out of a concern for the kind of values and moral guidelines they want their children to have; and hopefully they are seeking this kind of guidance for themselves as well. And yes, we know that church potlucks and coffee hours are not just an incidental feature of church life for many of us. The church is a good place to eat! The staff is sure to hear about it if the food offered in the church hasn’t been up to snuff lately.

These are all reasons we and others have for being part of the church and they are valid reasons for our being here. However, note they focus primarily on what we get from the church, not what we give to it. By themselves they may not lead to our being strong on the church’s behalf. When we focus on what we’re getting, we’re basically in a consumer mode; and we are likely to measure the worth of the church in terms of what we get back from it. If we’re not satisfied customers, you know what happens: we cut back on our support of the church. I have a cartoon in my files of a pastor and a church official looking into a collection plate containing only three small coins. It seems evident the pastor has just preached a prophetic sermon on some current issue and the pastor’s words are, “Well, it’s back to the glittering generalities!” Well, that kind of voting with our pocketbooks is a very human way of responding. But friends, God asks more than that of us in the church. God asks us to be givers as well as takers, in the faith that the church is here to serve not only us but the whole community of God’s people around us and across the world. God’s work goes on apart from the satisfaction level we find for ourselves. When we take that seriously, we have another whole reason for our giving.

And that brings us back to King David’s counsel to Solomon. If you’re going to be strong enough to build a temple, David told him, you’ve got to have a vital relationship with God. When that relationship was strong, then what God wanted for his life would matter. Solomon would then have the inner conviction that God’s cause in the world was worth the investment of his time, money and energy. And so it is for us as well. When our commitment to God is in place, then we find the inner strength and motivation to invest ourselves in God’s work through the church—even at those times when we may not be fully satisfied with what we’re getting in return.

Mark’s story of the poor widow is the story of a woman who had that kind of strength on behalf of her church. She was so poor she had almost nothing to give—and yet she gave it all. And Jesus’ comment is that she gave more than all her more affluent fellow temple members. Now we know the temple didn’t operate for very long on her small gift. The generous gifts of others were essential. But what Jesus is commenting on is the strength of commitment of that poor widow. Why did she give it all? Not likely because of what the temple was doing for her; nothing is said of the temple giving her food or clothing or even comfort in her dire poverty. The only reason that makes sense is that she was a woman who loved God and believed that God’s work in her community mattered above all else—even above her own basic needs. That gave her a strength on behalf of God’s house that Jesus can only marvel at. Very few of us are likely to be graced with that level of commitment. But the closer we come to it, the greater will be the strength the church has to carry on its God-given ministry in the world.

In two weeks we will be asked to make our decision about the amount of our giving to the church in 2004. I would suggest that another equally important decision is at stake at the same time; and that decision is, how strong in spirit do we want to become as members of this church? You see, the first decision has everything to do with the second. If our church as a body is to get the financial undergirding it needs for its ministry, it will be because we its members are developing the spiritual strength to give it what it needs. It will mean we are growing in our love of God and our commitment to God’s work in the world. More than religious consumers, we are moved to become co-workers and investors in God’s enterprise and that equals strength on behalf of God’s house that really counts.

And the good news about becoming spiritually stronger is that it brings us blessings at the same time. Several years ago I was coaxed by my wife Jean to begin a regular routine of physical workouts at a gym—ostensibly so that we could share swimming together as an exercise activity. Up to that point my lifestyle had been pretty sedentary, and I felt some resistance to this whole proposal—it sounded to me like a lot of effort and sacrifice. But I agreed to give it a try. This many years later it still amounts to effort and sacrifice—but I’ve learned it brings a big payoff as well. I am not only physically stronger but healthier, more energized, and I believe more positive in my outlook on life. The effort is more than worth it.

By the same token I’m convinced that spiritual strengthening also confers significant rewards. The sense of being in an alive and positive relationship with God has not gotten the press it merits; but those who’ve taken that seriously testify to the measure of inner well-being and confidence they have gained. You don’t need to go far to hear that kind of witness in this congregation. Knowing how much one is loved and cared for gives a real boost to living well in a threatening world. Surely one of the greatest blessings of spiritual strength is having a sense of purpose in one’s living and the meaning that comes from contributing to the well-being of others. The spiritually strong are those who reach out to address the needs of those around them and in so doing they experience the joy of knowing that their lives count for something. And that is no small consideration.

Some of you know that I’m going to Nigeria in January as part of a Conference team working to build relationships with our fellow United Methodists in that country. There is a possibility that our congregation could establish a sister-church relationship with one of the Nigerian churches. So our team is going to get better acquainted with the churches and the people of Nigeria and to try to discern what a useful bond between us and them might look like. Now I’ve been warned that Nigeria is hardly a tourist destination. Even in January it’s hot and humid and it’s a very poor country without most of the amenities we take for granted here. I’m not going because I think it will be an easy or comfortable trip, but I believe it will be an experience of spiritual strengthening for me as I learn about the faith of Nigerian Christians and try to discern how God is at work in that country. So often I have found that when I risk reaching out to new arenas and situations, my own spirit grows stronger as a result. So I go in the hope that God will use this experience for my strengthening, and in the expectation that I will find blessing.

In this stewardship season the question that confronts all of us is, what kind of strength will we have to offer God’s house? With that comes the question, what will we do to grow the strength of our own spirits, for our own sake and for the sake of God’s work? I commend these questions to you for your own prayerful pondering, in the trust that God will keep faith with our caring and searching with God’s own blessing. Amen.