“Credit to Whom Credit is Due”
A sermon by Sid Burgess
for Edgewood PC, Birmingham, AL
First Sunday in Lent, “Time and Talent” Sunday, February 25, 2007
Text: Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Three particular songs have been much on my mind this week. Two hymns, one jazz number. The hymns, “America the Beautiful” and “Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ.” The swing music, “Stars Fell on Alabama.” I know it is a stretch to consider these three songs in the same breath but, as usual, I beg your indulgence.
Everyone knows “America the Beautiful,” the nation’s lovely, patriotic hymn composed in the late 19th century. “Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ,” is a much more contemporary piece. The Calypso tune is an adaptation of a Jamaican folk melody.
Tune and the text were first put together for a World Council of Churches meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1975. By contrast to the two hymns, “Stars Fell on Alabama” is a secular jazz song from “big band” era of the 1930’s. It is not the official state song but the title has graced our license plates since 2002.
I’ve been thinking of “America the Beautiful” this week because of our Older Testament text, which describes the land of our ancestors in faith as “a land flowing with milk and honey.” “America the Beautiful” says we’ve got that and much, much more:
. . . spacious skies,
. . . amber waves of grain,
. . .purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
(all of this stretching) from sea to shining sea.
This American hymn is also an earnest prayer: America, America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood It even has a good Presbyterian vein—conceding our need for repentance--God mend thine ev'ry flaw; urging self-discipline--Confirm thy soul in self control; and calling for God’s justice--thy liberty in law!
From time to time we sing “America” in worship, but you will likely never hear “Stars Fell on Alabama” in a church service. This song is directed not to Holy God but to “all the crooners and swooners!” “Stars Fell on Alabama” is about personal romance—one lover singing to another, “My heart beat like a hammer, my arms wound around you tight . . . .” But these lyrics, composed by Mitchell Parish, do make a connection to the natural beauty of our state, describing “moonlight and magnolias,” “fields of white” and sand dunes. The song is set against the backdrop of a remarkable meteor shower visible here back in 1833: “And stars fell on Alabama that night.”
These two songs bring to mind our good fortune as Americas. Our nation is protected, east and west, by two vast oceans. Ours is a huge expanse of land, abundant in natural resources and ripe with incredible beauty. Friendly nations boarder us on the north and the south. Here in Alabama, we have an extraordinary network of rivers draining to our outlet on the Gulf of Mexico; a mild climate; abundant wildlife; and resourceful people. First time visitors to Birmingham are always surprised at how pretty our city is. They comment on the abundant greenery, the trees and shrubs, the lovely neighborhoods, schools, and churches.
All of which, to me, begs the question: why us? Was it just the luck of the draw? Just fate? Maybe the initiative of our ancestors? The Founding Fathers—and Mothers, all the patriots who died to set us free. Or perhaps, it was just the misfortune of the native population, or maybe the blunders of the colonial powers? How did we come to inhabit this “land of the free and home of brave?” Some would credit Mr. Lincoln, who freed the slaves and brought a “house divided” back together. Some say our good fortune today—our relative comfort, and safety--are the result of the sacrifice and determination of the Greatest Generation, those who saw the nation through the Great Depression, to victory in the Second World War, and then to a post-war period of unprecedented prosperity. Some give credit for their good fortune to family inheritance; others, to their own ingenuity, hard work, and wise saving.
In a time long ago, and in a land far removed, some of our ancestors asked similar questions. They, too, wanted to know how it was that they had come into such a “good and broad land.” Listen to the answer they have given:
8 The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm . . .; 9 and God brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Deuteronomy 26)
Imagine that: this land, “America the Beautiful . . . .” And this state, where, “We (have) lived our little drama, we (have) kissed in a field of white (a)nd stars fell on Alabama that night . . . .” Imagine all of this, from sea to shining sea, from the mountains to the Gulf, God’s gift to us. Imagine my country, my state, my city and town, my house, my apartment, my little backyard---all that I have and all I own, not mine by blind luck, not mine by my own merit, by my own initiative, but by the gracious mercy of God. “The Lord brought us out . . . .” God “brought us into this place.”
I concede to that this is a radical claim. You will hear it neither from the history books nor the mass media. You will hear it neither in the market place nor on the campaign trail. But you will hear it, again and again, in Holy Scripture: the bounty you enjoy is the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house (v. 11b).
Now, I know most of you, and I know that you were “raised right.” Your mama’s taught you to say thank you, to show your appreciation for the gifts you have been given. Sometimes its hard to know how to do that.
Every Christmas some thoughtful soul in this congregation slips a gift certificate onto my desk. It’s an incredibly generous gift. But it is anonymous. Melissa and I don’t have a clue about to whom, or how, we can express our appreciation.
This is not the case with Holy God. Our divine benefactor has given us explicit instructions: “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 . . . ”(v.1). And that is where we are, my friends, in the land the Lord our God has given us. “When you have come into the land . . .’
2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground . . ., and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for God’s name.
“Some of the first of all the fruit” means offering up to God a portion—the first portion— of every crop, every payday, every extraordinary benefit. But how much is some? How much is enough? Well, if you insist upon a number, scripture answers, a tithe, 10%. Not much considering all that God has given to us— the land, the food, clothing, and shelter. Access to education and health care, not to mention safety and security. Not to mention, the incomparable gift of God’s own son, that we might have life and have it abundantly, that we might have relationship with God, now and forever.
How can we possibly ever show our appreciation to God for the hope we have for life everlasting?!! We start, but do not stop, with “first fruits.” Because of God’s abundant mercy and grace . . . . Because of God’s steadfast, never stopping love, we go beyond a portion of our income. Good Christian men and women go on to “talents and tongues employ.” Beyond our pledge of money . . .
Let us talents and tongues employ,
Reaching out with a shout of joy:
Teaching people to live to bless,
Love in word and in deed express.
In a few minutes you will be given a “time and talent” survey. It offers a number of ways you can use your gifts here at Edgewood Church to show your gratitude to God. Ways you can “reach out” to share the good news of Christ and him crucified. Ways you can teach and live and love. For as the hymn will remind us, “Jesus calls us in, sends us out, Bearing fruit in a world of doubt.”
We are in the season of Lent. Ancient custom says give something up, sacrifice something meaningful in your life to help you remember the sacrifice of Christ our Lord. A more contemporary tradition urges us to take on something new, to add a spiritual discipline during Lent. Or, perhaps add to your ministry. During these 40 days of devotion, by whatever approach you choose, I encourage you to support one another in “giving credit where credit is due. That is, to Holy God, who brought us into this “good and broad land.” And to the Son, by whose great mercy we have hope for more than we have yet seen.
Now to the One who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine, to God be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Ephesians 3:20, 21