"THE GREATEST GIFT"
a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens
Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.
March 9, 2025
Deuteronomy 26:1-13 NRSV
1 When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, 5 you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. 11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.
12 When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year (which is the year of the tithe), giving it to the Levites, the aliens, the orphans, and the widows, so that they may eat their fill within your towns, 13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: “I have removed the sacred portion from the house, and I have given it to the Levites, the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows, in accordance with your entire commandment that you commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor forgotten any of your commandments.
Dreams play a powerful role in Scripture. A couple of weeks ago, Pam reminded us of Joseph’s dreams. At Christmas we always read about the dreams of Mary and another Joseph. Jacob dreams of climbing a ladder to heaven, and Peter in the Book of Acts reports his dream of God showing him there is no outsider in God’s vision for the world. What if God dreams? Have you ever wondered what God’s dream might be?
This morning we are beginning a three week look at God’s dream for us and how we can fuel the success of that dream, that vision, by our commitment to mission and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. The theme for this series is “Dreaming God’s Dream, no gift to small, no dream too big.” There’s a lot of room to roam around in such a theme. I believe God’s dream is focused on the vision God has for us, and for our world. I believe God’s dream is about the gifts God gives us. This morning this reading from Scripture lifts up God’s greatest gift to the people of Israel.
The passage is the retelling of the origin story of the Hebrew people. They were “Arameans,” a wandering band of nomads who ended up in Egypt. They grew in number there, yet they ended up as slaves to Pharoah. But God had a dream for them. This is a story meant to be told in worship, to remind them of God’s love and God’s dream and God’s gift to them. The land that God brought them into was a land of blessing, of milk and honey. This was God greatest gift to them, a sign of God’s love for them, God’s provision for them. We call this grace. The free gift of God’s everlasting love. As the land was a gift to them, they in turn were to bring the first fruits from that land in each year as an offering to God. This is of course the origin of Biblical tithing, the return to God of a portion of what the land that God gave them as a sign of their gratitude. The center of this story is giving. God gave them a land and in return they give back to God a portion, to be used to provide for all the people.
Moses continues to announce God’s grace for more than just the Hebrew people. Every three years the Israelites were to set aside a tenth of the land’s produce and deposit it locally. This was so that the powerless among them could have access to it: the resident aliens, the orphans, the widows. This was God’s vision for God’s people. I believe it is still God’s vision for us and for all nations.
So this morning I want to invite you to consider what you believe about God’s vision for your life, for this church, and for our world. I believe that what we call Stewardship, or caring for what belongs to God, but is shared with us as a gift, is a time to think about what matters to us. It is a time when we can consider the values we hold, and how we live them out. Someone once said show me someone’s calendar and someone’s checkbook and I can tell you what is important to them. These days I know most of us it would probably be the things on our phones because even our banking and appointments seem to be on these wonderful, infernal devices! The point remains: how we spend the time we have been given by God and the money that our God-given abilities earned point to our values and priorities.
I believe most of you are here, and keep coming, and give to support this church’s mission and ministry because the values we stand for, the work we do, is an important value to you. You are here because you believe that God is Open and Affirming of all people regardless of age, ability, nationality, race, gender, or who they love, or any of the other categories that way too many churches reject. I believe you, like me, care about people who struggle with mental health issues, and you believe God has compassion for us and seeks to help us heal when we face those challenges. I believe you are proud that we helped over 75 people last year who needed help with fuel or food to make it in this expensive place to live. I suspect you are as proud as I am that we make it possible for adults with diversabilities to have a place to use their gifts and enjoy community with others because we host the MARC house. I bet you are glad we help new parents with needs for diapers, car seats, guidance and other support when they cannot do it on their own as we host provide space for and support Healthy Start. I could go on and on, but my point is the gifts we give from God’s gifts to us make these things possible and they change lives for the better. We literally touch hundreds and hundreds of lives each year with your giving for our ministries and missions.
Stewardship is about the future. As we stand at a most challenging time, we have a choice to make about the future. There have always been Pharoahs, Emperors, and Kings trying to take away our power. But “we the people” have all the power unless we let someone take it from us. So as stewards of the future we have the power to shape the future of our church, and our church has the power to shape our community, and from there we can decide the future of our world by our faith.
There’s an old story from the 14th century that preachers love to use about the builders of the great cathedral in Milan. A traveler passing through the city stopped to ask three stonemasons what they were doing. The first replied, “I’m cutting stones.” The second said, “I’m earning a living.” The third, looking up toward the unfinished walls, answered, “I am building a cathedral.” The difference wasn’t in the work itself—it was in the way they saw their place in it. Some people see only the task in front of them. Some see the system that sustains them. And some—some see the future they are helping to create. [Rev. Cameron Trimble, “Piloting Faith,” March 6, 2025. ]
I believe in the power of God’s dream, because it is rooted in God’s grace. And there is nothing more powerful than God’s grace. There are those who would put chains on others, but I believe in a God who breaks chains. I believe in a God who sets us free to live, and to live with the power of God’s grace to keep building the cathedral of God’s dream. By God’s grace, let us build the future together here. AMEN.
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