One Friday evening this past winter, it was a Holy Cross grade school basketball night, here at the church. During the basketball games, the basketball parents take turns serving in the concession stand down in the kitchen. It happened that Sherri and I were selling concessions on that Friday evening. And, there were some other parents helping out, too. As I sold concessions, I kept looking at the hot dogs, thinking, "Boy, that would be nice to have a hot dog!"

I reached into my pocket to get some money, but I didn't have any money in my pocket. And so, I scanned the cafeteria kitchen downstairs and noticed Sherri's purse, off in the corner. Without asking her, I headed over toward her purse. I found it, picked it up, zipped it open, and looked inside. I rummaged around a little bit and found what I was looking for - her coin purse. When I opened it up and looked inside, I saw something that I didn't expect to see. It kind of took me off guard, a little bit. There was someone else's driver's license in Sherri's purse! I thought, "What is Sherri doing with someone else's driver's license?"

Then, all of a sudden, it hit me! "That is not Sherri's coin purse! And, that is not Sherri's purse!"

I put the coin purse back in the purse, zipped it back up, and put it back where it belonged. And then, I looked around to see if anybody had been watching.

Which gets us to an adage of a church father who said this:

"If you open your heart to someone,

you open your purse to them as well."

Now, whoever's purse I had in my hand, had not given their heart to me, so certainly she hadn't opened her purse to me, either! But, Sherri has given her heart to me. She has opened her heart to me, and as a result, she has opened her purse to me. Everything in her purse, I am welcome to - the money that is in there, the credit cards, the checkbook - because when you open your heart to someone, you open your purse to them.

When you open your heart to someone,

you open your wallet to them,

and your checkbook to them.

That church father, when he said, "When you open your heart to someone, you open your purse to them," was really referring to this: Who is it that you have truly opened your heart to, more than anyone else in the world?

As a Christian,

you have opened your heart to Christ,

your Savior.

Jesus is your Savior.

That church father was saying, "When you open your heart to Jesus, you open your purse, or wallet, to Him, too. He is welcome and free to go in there and use that in a way that serves Him best."

Another church father once said, "The first thing that gets converted, when we become converted to Christ is our heart. The second thing that gets converted is our mind, and the last thing to get converted is the checkbook or the pocketbook."

That is something to think about, isn't it? Today's scripture reading talks about giving to the Lord. It talks about when you open your heart to the Lord, you open your purse to the Lord. And, in the Bible you will discover there are two particular types of giving to the Lord. I think, often when we think about giving to the Lord, we think about offerings that are given to church, that are given directly for the work of the Gospel. For example, the Bible tells us those who preach the Gospel should make their living from the Gospel. And so, one of the reasons we give our offerings is because God lays that obligation on a congregation. He says that if you have pastors or teachers, then it is your duty to see to it that they have food on the table and clothes to wear, so they can go about their work of spreading the Gospel. Often, I think, when we think about giving to the Lord, we think about that type of giving. We give to the church, so that we can have pastors, teachers, seminaries, colleges, and foreign missionaries.

But today's scripture reading focuses on a different type of giving to the Lord. Because our scripture reading is dealing with a particular type of giving, I want to talk about it in a little more depth. It is what we call, "Alms giving." I am guessing maybe a lot of the young people here have never even heard of that term, "alms giving or the giving of alms." It actually comes from a Greek word, "eleēmosynē." And if you kind of abbreviate that, it comes out sounding like "alms." The Greek word means, "gifts of mercy." Scripture calls us to give "alms or gifts of mercy" to people who are in need, physical need. The Bible calls us to give to those who are down and out, to those who are poor, to those who are oppressed, to those who are needy. The Bible, again, calls those "gifts of mercy," that we are to give to those in need. There are many, many passages in scripture that talk about the giving of alms. Let me read a few of them, for you. And, again, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In Deuteronomy, chapter 15, verse 8 it says,

"Open your hand to the poor."

In Isaiah 58, verse 7, it says,

"Break bread for the hungry."

In Luke, chapter 6, Jesus said,

"Give and it will be given to you."

Later on, in Luke, chapter 6, Jesus said,

"Give to everyone who asks."

Jesus also said to a rich young man,

"Sell everything you have and give it to the poor."

The giving of alms. Scripture tells us this:

And, from your first fruits, give to the poor."

Jesus said,

invite the poor, the lame, and the crippled into your house."

Jesus said,

should share with him who has none."

Jesus also said,

(if your enemy is hungry!)

give him something to eat."

Jesus talks about what He is going to say on Judgment Day,

I was naked and you clothed me."

Those are all what we call "the giving of alms," "gifts of mercy," to those who are in need.

Scripture even prioritizes, in a sense, "the giving of alms" to those who are in need. First of all, scripture tells us that we are responsible to give to family members, particularly, who are in need. There is a Bible passage that says,

he is worse than an unbeliever."

Even unbelievers know they should take care of their family, let alone Christians know that. Scripture tells us in the book of 1 Timothy that congregation members were particularly told that if they had a widow in their family, they were to make sure that if possible they take care of her. They should take care of her needs, her financial needs, so that the congregation can take care of other people who may be in need and don't have a family to take care of them.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they should not overlook taking care of their aging parents, by thinking, "Oh, I give my alms to other people." The first duty we have, when it comes to giving alms, is to take care of our own family members who may be in need.

Secondly, the Bible tells us that we should do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of God. And so, part of our giving of alms to those are in need is especially to our fellow Christians who we know may have some need for food, or clothes, or shelter, or whatever it may be.

Scripture also goes on to say that we should take care of strangers. It says,

"Give to the stranger in your land who is in need."

Scripture even goes so far as to even say that we should take care of the physical needs of our enemies. Jesus said,

"If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat."

Now, the reason I am particularly talking about the giving of alms, is because that is what was happening in our scripture reading. There was a great physical need of a particular congregation, or a group of congregations. They were the congregations that were in the land of Judea, particularly Jerusalem. (This was kind of where the church started. This was 'mother church'.) There had grown to be a great famine in the land, particularly in the area of Judea. They were very, severely hit by this famine. And so, the people in the congregations around Jerusalem and Judea were suffering hunger. In addition to that, many commentators say that to be a Christian in the land of Judea, which was primarily Jewish territory, could have brought a lot of other economic problems. If you were a Christian, you could literally be disowned by your family. And they could remove from you any inheritance rights to your land, or your property. You could also lose your job. And so, it is very possible that not only were these Christians in the land of Judea undergoing the famine that everybody else was undergoing, but maybe could not even hold down jobs, or have places to live. They were in severe need, just of financial help, so they could put food on the table, a roof over their head and clothes on their backs.

The other Christians, the other Gentile Christians heard about this. As Paul went on his missionary journeys, they heard about their brothers and sisters in Judea who were in great need. And so, we discover this great relief offering that sprung up among all of the churches that were part of Paul's missionary journeys. Those journeys take us over this great crescent of land. We start over in southern Greece (today), which then was known as Achaia, where for example, the congregation of Corinth was. Those congregations in that area all started to get involved in this relief offering, for their needy fellow brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. Then, you move up towards northern Greece (today), which was then known as Macedonia. Those congregations also wanted to get involved in this relief offering. That would involve congregations like Thessalonica, Berea, Philippi. Then, you go a little further east on that crescent and you get to Galatia and to Asia, the province of Asia, which would have contained churches like Ephesus, Smyrna, Laodicea. Then, you go a little further, and you get to the province of Syria, which contained congregations like Antioch.

Well, all of these congregations banded together and they wanted to collect a great relief offering to send down to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem – the giving of alms, to those who were in need. And, today's scripture lesson particularly focuses on the Macedonian congregations. It gives us some profound principals of Christian giving. First of all, it tells us something about the Macedonian congregations. Now these were people who wanted to be involved in this offering to the poor in Jerusalem, and again they would have been congregations like Berea, Thessalonica, and Philippi. Did you notice what it said about their financial situation? It said they were in "extreme poverty". Those are scripture's words. These Christians who were living in Macedonia were in extreme poverty. Nevertheless, even though they themselves were poor, and maybe they could barely put food on their table and a roof over their head, and clothes on their back, we find them pleading with the privilege of being able to give some money, to open their purse (you know, when you open your heart to someone, you open your purse to them). They wanted to open their purse, reach in and take what little they had, and give it to their poor brothers and sisters down in Jerusalem!

Now, what is it that motivated them, and what lesson can we learn from them? St. Paul says "they gave themselves first to the Lord".

"They gave themselves first to the Lord."

That gets back, again, to that picture that the church father painted when he said, "When you open your heart to someone, you open your purse to them." They had opened their hearts to the Lord. They had given themselves first to the Lord.

 They had learned from St. Paul, that they were sinners.

 They had learned that they deserved to be condemned.

 They had learned that God had sent His Son.

 They had learned that Jesus had redeemed them from their sins.

 They had learned that they were forgiven.

 They had learned that God saved them by the blood of Christ.

 They had learned that they had a home in Heaven.

 And they, in faith, gave their hearts.

They opened their hearts to Jesus, with the result that, as that church father said, "When you open your heart to someone, you open your purse to them." And, they wanted to reach into that purse and use it in service to Christ. It's very similar to what happened in an account from scripture. Do you remember the account in scripture, as Jesus and His disciples were sitting in the temple one day? They were watching people put money into the treasury. (Actually, from commentators, we believe that the treasury they were putting their money into was actually an area of the temple where people would give alms. So, the money that was being put into this treasury was money that was being put in their so poor people could have food to eat and clothes to wear.) It says that Jesus and His disciples sat and watched, as people put money into the treasury. And, it says some of them put in large amounts of money. Then, along comes this poor widow, who puts in two copper coins, worth less than a penny. Jesus turned to His disciples and said, "I tell you the truth. This woman gave more than everybody else, because she gave all she had." All she had! Here was a poor lady, in poverty, and what was she doing? She was giving to the poor! She gave herself completely to the Lord, completely, trusting that He would take care of her needs.

And so, the first principal that we learn from the Macedonians is that we give ourselves first to the Lord. And when you open your heart to the Lord, you open your purse to the Lord.

Secondly, we learn this from the Macedonians. It says that they urgently pleaded for the privilege of giving to the saints. Those are some pretty powerful words -

"they urgently pleaded with us

for the privilege

of sharing in this service to the saints".

They did not consider it a burden to reach into their purse, and give alms to those in need. They considered it a privilege! And, they wanted to have the opportunity to do that.

It reminds me of what another church father once said. He said, "Either you are going to serve your purse or, your purse is going to serve you." If you serve your purse that means you keep watch over it. You watch that money. You are careful who gets a hold of it. You are careful what people do with it. You are kind of a servant to your purse. You are guarding your purse.

Or, your purse is a servant to you. As a Christian, your purse should be a servant to you. You have opened your heart to the Lord, and we should open our purse to the Lord. That church father said that as Christian, you should use your purse to serve you and the Lord, by serving others in need. You look in your purse and you say to that dollar bill, "You go and give food to that person who is hungry." And, you say to your checkbook, "You write a check for that person over there, who needs clothes."

And so, we consider it a privilege, as God's people, to not serve our purses, but have our purses serve the work of the Lord.

The other great principle that we learn from today's scripture reading, when it comes to giving is what motivates us to give. In the days shortly after Martin Luther, during the Reformation, there grew to be a controversy as to whether Christians should give to the poor. There were some who were saying, "We should give to the poor because it helps earn our way to salvation." There were others who were saying, (the Anabaptists were saying), "We should not even have personal possessions. We should all just kind of put our money in a big pile and we all share. And so there won't be any rich or poor."

There was a Christian theologian, a Lutheran theologian by the name of Martin Chemnitz, who was known as the second Martin. He was a very deep theologian. He wrote a wonderful tract called, "Alms giving." He talked about how important it is for us, as God's people, to give alms, to give to those who are in need. He particularly impressed upon his readers the reason that we give. In today's scripture reading Paul says,

"You know, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

that though He was rich,

yet for your sakes He became poor,

so that you through His poverty might become rich..."

That is what motivates us to give. "You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich," and Jesus had riches far beyond the most fantastic billionaire that lives here on this earth, that would pale in insignificance compared to the riches that our Savior, Jesus, had in His throne in Heaven - all of the wealth of the universe. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for YOUR sakes, He became poor."

For you.

For you, He came down from Heaven. He wrapped Himself up in the body of a little baby. Was laid in extreme poverty in a manger, a feed trough for animals, wrapped in rags. His parents were poor. He went through this life having no place to lay His head. He lived off the alms that were given to Him by His supporters.

Ultimately, Jesus suffered the greatest poverty of all, the greatest debt that anybody could ever, ever imagine owing. That is the debt that can never be paid in millions and millions of years of suffering in Hell.

That is the debt of your sin.

Jesus took that poverty upon Himself, your sin, your debt. He paid the price for the poverty that you owe, because of your sin. And on the cross, there He suffered. He bled and He died. And, He washed away your sin, so that when Jesus hung on the cross He yelled out these words, the Greek word, "Tetelestai." We translate it, "It is finished." Technically, it can also mean this, "Paid in full."

When Jesus died on the cross, for your sins, your debt was paid in full. You became rich, rich beyond your wildest imaginations. Your sins are forgiven. You have a clean conscious with God. You have peace with God. You have a home, eternally, in Heaven. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you, through His poverty, might become rich..."

That is the motivation that causes us to go out and say, "I want to help. I have opened my heart to my Savior and I want to open my purse to Him."

I encourage you, all of us, to find opportunities to do that. Certainly, we give our gifts to church, but to those in need, whether it be in your own family, or here at Holy Cross, or in the community. Some examples are just recently, so many of you opened your hearts to the David and Lynda Meyer family who were at a time of severe financial need. That is the giving of alms. They were members here at Holy Cross. Some of you bring food for the Food Pantry. That is the giving to those in need. Some of you have signed up to give blood for the blood donation. Talk about those in need, and opening up your heart to those who are in need. Some of you give, so that the less privileged can actually send their children here to our school. Talk about opening your heart to those who are in need.

And so, when you open your heart to someone, you open your purse to them.

Amen.

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