10/7/07                                                                                       LUKE 17:5-10

“PUT AWAY YOUR TIP CUPS!”

Rev. James Singleton

(Place Styrofoam TIP cup on pulpit with money in it). This is just in case anyone would like to give me a tip today for preaching.

Actually, these little tip cups are becoming one of my pet peeves. You see them everywhere anymore. You order a cup of coffee and the person behind the counter turns around, pours a cup of coffee and hands it to you and for that we are expected to put money into the tip cup. Go to the food court in the mall and every thing you order, from an ice cream cone to a slice of pizza is handed to you over a tip cup making you feel guilty.

Maybe I’m just becoming crotchety but I can remember when people did all of those things and never expected a tip because that was their job. I’m not against tipping, especially when people go out of their way to provide good service. It’s just that we live in a time when we seem to be more interested in receiving rewards than in doing our duty.

I heard about a major league pitcher a couple of weeks ago who said that he didn’t think he should have to go out and pitch the final week of the season since his team was no longer in playoff contention. It was noted, however, that he did sign a contract complete with the obligatory bonus or tip for signing that was in the millions of dollars. He was into the tip, just not into doing his duty.

Country music singer John Paycheck summed up many people’s feelings about doing jobs where you are given orders and expected to do your duty. You remember the song which contained the line: “Take this job and shove it!” In other words, we are not servants. Before I give you what you want or do what is expected of me, first I expect a tip. I need more. Give me an increase before I do what I am supposed to do.

Jesus has just finished telling his disciples that they must forgive someone who hurts them as many times as that person seeks their forgiveness. In addition, He has to told them previously to care for the poor; do good to those who hate them; pray for those who abuse them; love their enemies until finally the disciples cry out, “Lord, increase our faith!”  

In other words, they are saying that before they can do what Jesus commands them to do they need their tip cup filled up. They want more. They are convinced they don’t have enough to do what is being demanded of them. They want more faith or they won’t act. 

I have to admit, I’m with the disciples on this one. Following Jesus is not easy. He calls upon us to forgive people who hurt us; to seek to reconcile with people who don’t like us; to care for people we don’t even know; to give even when we feel like we don’t have enough for ourselves.  

It’s a whole lot easier to accept the Christian label than it is to live the Christian lifestyle. But we have a good excuse—we don’t have enough of what it takes to be good disciples. We need more.

We need Jesus to fill our tip cup up with goodies—more faith, more patience, more wealth, more love, more of things going our way. If we only had more we might be able to do the hard things Jesus expects us to do.

The only trouble is, Jesus doesn’t buy our poor mouth excuse. He says that if we only have the faith the size of a mustard seed we could say to the tree in our back yard, be rooted up and planted in the middle of Lake Erie and it would happen. 

First of all, a mustard seed is so small that it can barely be seen with the naked eye. Apparently we don’t even have faith that size, or at least I don’t. Since my oak trees are about to drop their cuzzillion leaves and acorns into my yard, I’ve tried telling them to be uprooted and cast into the neighbors’ yard, but it doesn’t work.

But even though we don’t have faith the size of a mustard seed, Jesus tells us we still have enough faith to do wondrous things. It’s just a matter of doing them.  

He asks us what we would do if we were the owner of Stan Hywet or the Biltmore Estates and our servant came in from doing what we had ordered him to do and we were hungry. Would we tell him to go ahead and eat first because he has worked hard all day, or would we order him to get our meal first because that’s his job and then he can eat?

We would order him to prepare our meal because that’s what he is obligated to do as our servant. Well, guess what? Whether we like to think about it this way or not, we are God’s servants and we have jobs to do. 

Instead of sitting around making excuses for why we can’t or won’t do something we should do until we have more, it is our Christian job to simply do it. Jesus doesn’t give us a tip for doing what God demands of us. Nor does He accept our excuse that we don’t have enough faith. Granted, we may have precious little faith, but still we have enough to do amazing things.

We live in a world that is being bloodied by violence every day, and it’s easy for us to be overwhelmed by the challenge of working for peace and reconciliation. We don’t know how to respond to war in Iraq, gang violence in our cities, murder and mayhem in high schools, colleges and universities. The hostilities of the world make us cry out, “Increase our faith! We need more in our tip cup: more wisdom, more understanding, and more power before we can do anything important.” It all seems so big and we are so small.

And yet, I can’t get out of my mind a small group of Amish who live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Last year the world watched as they suffered the slaughter of five of their young girls in a hostage situation that took place in one of their school houses.

A Christian response was demanded and rather than claiming that they didn’t have enough faith or enough compassion or enough strength to love their enemy, they simply did what Christ commanded. They reached out to the dead gunman’s family with compassion and forgiveness and it was amazing.  

Greg Jones, dean of Duke Divinity School wrote, “Such exemplary acts of witness stir the imaginations of the larger world. We need our imagination to be set on fire by stories that show that what we think is impossible or unrealistic is indeed possible—if we have the courage to cultivate habits of reconciliation.”

They didn’t have enough faith to throw trees around, but they had enough faith to show that compassion was greater than hatred and they did it, not because it was easy or because they wanted to do it. They did it because it was what God expected them to do. They did their Christian duty without waiting for more to be given them.

British writer and theologian G. K. Chesterton once said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” We saw in those Amish what can happen when we try the difficult.

But most Christians today seem more interested in what Christ can do for them than what they can do for Christ. Christians today are big into church shopping until they find a church that meets their needs, promises to solve all their problems, and gives them a God who will answer all their prayers, increase their wealth, and bring them promotions.

In other words, many Christians today are into Tip Cup Christianity. Fill me up first and then I will consider doing my Christian duty.        

But Jesus isn’t offering any tip money today. He is calling us to live up to our responsibilities, regardless of whether the church or God has given us all that we think we need. We have a job to do: minister to those in need, weep with those who weep, care for the forgotten, bring peace where there is turmoil, forgive those who hurt us, overcome our differences, give to those who are in need, do what is right.  

And if we feel overwhelmed with it all, He reminds us that even the smallest of acts done in faith will have tremendous power and consequences.

There are millions of children in this country who are living in poverty. It is easy to feel overwhelmed and to say, fill our tip cup with more money and we will help. But this summer our church gave money to the local charity organization FISH earmarked for the purpose of buying new clothes for high school youth whose families can not afford to buy new clothes themselves.

Forty families took advantage of the offer. That doesn’t sound like much. It’s a mustard seed compared to the overall problem. But did you read your latest Caller? In it was this letter: “I want to thank everyone in the event at Kohl’s, and I want to thank the entire church for sponsoring this event. I have never had that many new clothes at once; I always had hand me downs from my cousins. Thanks again, and your ministry shows the love of Jesus Christ. Through Him, Kyle.”

We did our job with what we had and a wondrous thing happened. The point is that it is not faith as quantity that matters. It’s what we do with the faith we have.

Nike’s famous slogan, “Just do it” is an apt description of Jesus’ response to the disciples today. Don’t wish for more of whatever it is you think you need before you do what God demands from you. Just do it. Just reach out with what you have. You will be amazed at the power of the faith that is already in you when you put it to use. 

What is God calling you to do that you hesitate doing because you don’t think you have enough of what it will take to do it? What do you think you need more of before you do the right thing or the hard thing? Today, God takes away your tip cup and says you don’t need any more than what you already have inside of you.  

You are not asked to save the world, just do what is right, forgive those who need forgiven, help those who need help, give what you can, care for those within your reach, love the sweet and the sour.  

Today is World Communion Sunday. World Communion Sunday is not simply about millions of people coming together around the world to eat and drink a meal at the same time. World Communion Sunday is about exchanging our tip cups for communion cups and being reminded that we follow one who did not ask for more, but who gave his life for others because it was what God demanded.

This table is the place where we are forgiven for what we have failed to do and recharged to do what we are called upon to do. It is the place where we reclaim our identity as servants of God.  

Put away your tip cups. You don’t need anything more to do what God requires of you. Do what you can with what you have and if every Christian around the world does the same, we will all be amazed at the wondrous results.

AMEN.