These are familiar words, what Jesus says, “¹¹If you ... know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ¹²In everything do to others as you would have them do to you.” I think these two verses say a great deal about what we are all about here in the church of Jesus Christ.  We come each Sunday to give thanks for God’s good gifts to us.  We come to ask God for help, in prayer.  And we come to share our own gifts with God and with one another, as we try our best to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

We’ve been talking a lot in this year, especially in this Stewardship season, about the way Jesus, our mentor in faith, calls us to SHARE.  And this “do unto others” Golden Rule is the ultimate lesson in sharing – as we exchange gifts with people we love, we do try to give to others what we would want to receive ourselves. We hope our gifts are “good gifts” and not the sort of thing that nobody quite knows what to do with.  We all have gotten some of those gifts, right? When John and I got married, we got 22 electric coffee grinders, because they were piled up on sale right next to the bridal registry computer at Macy’s. We had to return 21 of them!  Did you ever get one of those gifts that you couldn’t even figure out what it was for?  You know, one of those shiny thingies with knobs and handles and ... I mean, is it a Christmas decoration or is it supposed to actually do something? Open something?  Little kids have a knack for finding those gifts – parents wear them to church – you know, the Santa sweater with the big bows and bells, or the goofy Father’s Day tie with the lime green print of deer antlers and decoy ducks.

As a parent, I have to say, especially as my teenage kids get older, it gives me a lot of pleasure when I know I’ve been able to pick out presents they actually like – especially if it’s clothes.  I can’t tell you how happy I was this past week when my daughter Lela actually liked the big red purse I picked out for her birthday, and the coconut hand lotion.  Of course I couldn’t give her everything she wanted – no parent could afford to buy a kid everything.  And who would think it was a good idea to do that, even if we could afford it?  Sometimes we give our children good things that they didn’t ask for, like curfews and carrots, chores and checkups, dental floss and, yes, even a good Church School education. 

God’s good gifts are kind of like that too.  Some are exactly what we wanted – like a healthy body to carry us through life, a warm home, a good job, and a strong and beautiful family to share it all with.  Others of God’s good gifts are more unexpected, perplexing even, because like most good parents, God’s idea of what is good for us is often quite a bit different from what we would have chosen.  Do you know what I mean?  I’ve always liked to joke, “Never pray for more patience, or God might give you good patience ‘homework,’ like a hard day in line at the DMV.”  But it’s really no joke.  Another way people learn patience is through the experience of being a patient, waiting at the doctor’s office, waiting for test results, waiting for the pain to stop.  In the face of real human suffering, today’s text becomes a very tough scripture, because too many people we know have asked and have not received – at least not the answer they had hoped for.

Some of you have heard me tell this story of my friend Penny’s first year in ministry.  Her bishop assigned her to a Methodist Church near Birmingham, Alabama, where our own Liz DeLambert got married.  Like all of us in our seminary class, when we got out into our first churches, we became very grateful for what people like you out in the pews could teach us about real world theology.  Penny got one of God’s good gifts the day a frazzled mother with a baby on her hip dropped her 8-year-old daughter off for the afternoon at Penny’s church office.  She just said, “My daughter doesn’t believe in God anymore. Can you please talk some sense into her while I take the baby and go to the grocery store?”  And off she went.  Penny, then 25 years old, with no kids yet of her own, had no idea what to do next.  So she asked the little girl to tell her story. 

It seems the little girl had learned this “ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened” verse in Church School, and she had believed it.  Did any of you learn it too?  I remember the choir room at my home church had a big picture of Jesus knocking on a little vine-covered cottage door – you know the one?  She had been praying and praying every day for her grandmother to get well, but no matter how hard she prayed, her grandmother just got worse.  Finally, the grandmother died, and that’s when the little girl announced to her mother that she was through with God, through with church, and through with that whole phony religion thing. 

I know some of us have been in that place, the same spiritual place that little girl found herself in that day in Penny’s office – we just might not have been quite so honest or vocal about it.   Some of us have been praying for a very long time for something and still haven’t gotten it yet – praying for healing; praying for a job; lonely, praying for a friend or a life partner.  Maybe just praying for the faith to keep on praying, because of our hunger and thirst for God?  People of faith from around the globe pray constantly for peace on earth, but pick up your morning paper and you have to wonder – I mean, as the world burns, how can we keep believing in the power of prayer?

Well, one answer to that question – and the answer that came to Penny that day when she was trapped in her office with an angry 8-year-old atheist – was that sometimes, in some circumstances, there’s nothing else we can do but pray.  Having no easy answer to give to the little girl, Penny asked if she would mind if they could just stop and pray for a minute.  “Whenever I’m mad,” Penny said, “whenever I’m confused about something, whenever I’m sad, it always helps me to pray.”  And so, to her great relief, the little girl said, “OK” and Penny begin to pray.  She told God how sorry she was that the girl’s grandmother had died.  She thanked God for bringing the girl into her life to be her new friend at church and to tell her about the grandmother – who had so clearly showed the little girl a lot of love, like the unconditional love that God has for us.  She prayed about how hard it is to understand some things, especially when bad things happen to such good people, and when people have pain or sickness or sadness that just won’t go away.  And when she finished, she asked the little girl if she had anything she wanted to add to the prayer.  “Yes,” she said.  “Dear God, Thank you for our new Pastor Penny.  Thank you for making her so nice, even though she doesn’t know very much.  Amen.”

You see why prayer is one of God’s good gifts?  To paraphrase the Rolling Stones, we may not always get what we want, but if we pray, sometimes, we just might find, we get what we need.  Prayer brings us into relationship with God, and with one another.  And although it may seem that we are shouting into the wind for all the good it does to change God’s mind, sometimes prayer does change us.

This is our business in the church, putting people in touch with God’s good gifts —such as prayer and Bible study, worship and Christian fellowship, even opportunities we have to share with others – because what our church has to offer changes people. It transforms and heals human souls.  Our ministries provide all of God’s children more abundant and joyful lives through the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  We provide a place in worship each Sunday where hearts can open anew to the presence of the living God, where we can know Jesus Christ in the face of our neighbor next to us in the pews.  Church is where people go to share their faith and connect with God. 

It is rare and precious what we have here – it is the “priceless pearl” Jesus calls the Kingdom of Heaven.  So we mustn’t be tempted to undervalue what church gives us – or to “nickel and dime” God with our giving.  I invite you to think deeply and prayerfully this year about what you are able to give.  And then think about giving a little bit more than that – because our church needs your help to keep doing our job and changing lives. 

As you consider your pledge today, or consider increasing a pledge you’ve already made, do not scatter the pearls of your treasure where it can be devoured by the ravenous demands of our consumer society.  Invest your treasure in Christ’s Church where it can continue to make a difference, and change the world for the better.  Apply the Golden Rule to your giving and try to share as generously with God this year as God has shared with you.  For we have been blessed by the abundance of God’s good gifts.

Thanks be to God for this Good News.  Amen.

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Matthew 7:6-12

⁶“Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.

⁷“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

¹²“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.