George A. Mason Wilshire Baptist Church Start to Finish Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost 15 November 2020 Second“Start in a series, TO Finish” Dallas, Texas

Exodus 16:1-3, 9-15; 2 Corinthians 8:9-15

It’s a good idea never to build a finish of it. The thrust of the house of thought on a poem is this: the real measure of preposition. Nouns are designed our life isn’t taken in how we for laying the foundation, start or finish—not just the first framing the structure and day or the last, butFor in ithow matters we attaching the roof. Verbs do the not,live allhow the much days we in own,between. the cars… As work of setting the nouns in the house…poem puts the it:cash. What place. Prepositions? Well, they matters is how we live and love just tell the verbs where to put and how we spend our dash.1 the nouns.

I’m going to violate my own grammar rules today and So today, I want to drill down construct a sermon on the beneath the tosymbolism of the preposition TO. We started a dash and the signaling of the Startthree-sermon to Finish stewardship series preposition to the substance last week with the word START. of life when things get hard and is our theme. We the challenge great. Since got started a week ago and we’ll prepositions give directions, I finish next week, but in betweento want us to think about how we the start and the finish is a space regain our bearings when we’ve taken by the little word . It lost our way, about how we might as well be an em dash as a persevere when we lose sight of word. the finish line. I want us to consider where hope comes And that reminds meThe of Dash the from when our hunger outruns poem people often read at our food. memorial services. , it’s titled. As in the dash on a This is where the Israelites tombstone that separates date of found themselves in our story birth from date of death, the from Exodus today. Last week start of a person’s life from the we saw them make a start for

1 By Linda Ellis, Copyright © 2020 Inspire Kindness, thedashpoem.com freedom. They had been slaves watching one of those TV in Egypt. Moses told them God survival shows.Naked Kim’s and made Afraid. me would fight for them against watch an episode or two. The Pharaoh. But they had to go show is called forward. They couldn’t stay After learning that the title was a where they were. They couldn’t tease, I was out, don’t you go back. know?! It’s a riff off the Adam and Eve story, where it says in We learned that faith is always Genesisnot that the man and the progressive because God is woman were naked, but they always calling us to a new future. were afraid. Well, in this Even Christians of a conservative case, they take a man and bent have to bend their necksthe woman out into a jungle or pastforward. is never What dead conservatives can swamp, make them take their teach progressivesit’s not even past is that clothes off so that they’re like the , as Faulkner first couple in the Garden of put it, . That is to Eden, and then they follow them say, the past stays with us, we to see if they can find food and carry it within us. And it’s best to survive for three weeks in the carry our fears and failures wild. It’s not pretty, and it’s lightly and our memories of definitely not sexy! Just saying. God’s faithfulness firmly. Nonetheless, faith forges The Israelites were in the wild. forward, or it isn’t faith. It The wilderness, to be precise. doesn’t stand still. It learns. It They were wandering there, on grows. It changes. their way to the Promised Land. Should have been about a two- The children of Israel are week trip. Took them forty hungry. All of them at once. They years. Mostly because they have reached that stage of life struggled to find their moral we all get to literally or compass more than their figuratively when the pantry is magnetic one. They were in basic empty and the stomach growls. training spiritually. They had to They believe they have come to learn how to live without the end. The body can only live masters. They had to learn self- for about 21 days without food. mastery—which included mastering their appetites, I know this, because my wife and trusting God to provide for them, mother-in-law have been and depending upon one 2 another rather than competing by inspiring those who have with one another. more than they need to share with those who have less. In the This brings us to the quail and wilderness, no one had anything. manna. The people are hungry. God had to prove the worst case There is no food. So, God in order that we would never provides quail in the evening think any problem would be too and manna in the morning for great in comparison. them to eat. We know what quail are. Some of you enjoy hunting In 2 Corinthians, Paul is telling them with dogs and guns. Not the church at Corinth that they sure how they hunted quail back must give to help feed the church then without shotguns, but let’s in Jerusalem. The mother church just go with it. The manna was was enduring a famine. The another thing. A layer of dew is Corinthians had an abundance of the best description we get. No manna to share. They had made one really knows what it was. a start in collecting an offering, WhatEven theyis it? didn’t. Which is why but for some reason they hadn’t they called it manna, meaning finished it.

We don’t know why they hadn’t The point of the story is that God continued to give, but we know provides what we need when we human nature because we know need it. We don’t always know ourselves. I think balance and how or where it comes from. But consistency are two reasons. ultimately, we’re supposed to take it as a gift from God with Paul says that it’s right for those thanksgiving. who have more to give more in order that those who have less The Bible sometimes gives us will have more. Sometimes those miracle stories like these to of us who give generously get demonstrate how God can tired of carrying the weight of deliver for us in the most giving in the church and we want extreme circumstances. We others to step up. So, we hold shouldn’t imagine though that back or give less, thinking we miracles are only God stepping have done more than our part. in when things are beyond It’s someone else’s turn. I get human managing. Most of the that. We all need to do our part. time, God provides for our needs But here’s the thing: we only 3 know our part. We can only enthusiasm. Maybe other things answer for our part. God will get in the way. The ox is in the judge others, but we have to look ditch and we have to pull him to what we have and simply be out before we can do anything responsible for doing with our else. Of course, here’s the thing: resources what we can. My duty there’s always an ox in a ditch, it is not changed by the extent of seems. The car breaks down. The your duty. And my privilege in roof leaks. The oven needs giving is not impacted by the repairing. It’s always something. level of your privilege. Which is why giving has to be a commitment to consistency. We don’t have a progressive tithing code in the church like A few weeks ago, I completed a we have a progressive tax table year-long exercise routine. Every in the country. A tithe is a tithe is single day for 365 days without a tithe. It’s ten percent of missing, I did sit-ups, pushups $30,000, $300,000 or and squats. I don’t usually brag $3,000,000. And if we all give on myself about things in according to what we have, as sermons, because, well, I usually Paul says, not according to what don’t have things to brag about. we don’t have, there will be a fair But I am excited about this balance. achievement. It’s not that I became a physical fitness expert Think of the church like a teeter- or got into the shape of my life. totter or seesaw, whatever you As my doctor reminds me, you call it. The goal is to balance it on can never outrun your fork. But I the fulcrum so that neither those did something every day without who have much have so much fail and it made a difference. that they throw off those who have little. Those with much who What I learned is that every day give much lighten their load so is the same in that we all have that they can relate to those who the same days to do with what have less. And in that way, they we will between the dash. But get to be part of the thrill of the things happen that make us balancing act of the church think we don’t. Some days are where we’re all in it together. harder than others. And doing the same thing every day gets The other thing that happens is boring. Which is why I played we get tired and lose games with myself about how 4 many I would do each month, along with how I would do them, that sort of thing.

Look, giving consistently can be challenging and it can be boring. But what I can tell you is that the benefits to you and the church are tremendous as you build your giving muscles.

God works miracles for us mostly through us. For and through: there’s two more prepositions to go along with to. As in Start TO Finish. So, what do you say? Will you get TO it, please? Amen.

5