Rich in Heart: Duty
October 23, 2016
Dr. Tom Pace
Luke 17:7-10

We continue our series that is focused on how we are rich in heart. We really look at two things. We’re looking at four values and how those values do two things in our lives. First, they motivate and undergird our generosity. So they’re the reason we’re generous.
And the second is that when we take hold of these values we really experience a life that is rich and full. Rich in heart. So the four values are gratitude, we’ve looked at that two weeks ago. Vision - we looked at that last week. Gratitude is behind our giving, we give in response to what God has done for us. Vision is in front of our giving. We give so that we can accomplish God’s purposes.
Today we’re going to talk about duty and next week we’ll talk about trust, that our giving undergirds our trust.
So our Scripture today can be somewhat troubling. It’s about a master and a slave. The first half of it I want you to note that Jesus asks the disciples, the audience of his teaching, to connect with the master. But as he closes, he shifts and tells the disciples that they’re to connect with the slave. Hear now the Scripture as is it read this morning:

“Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat?’ Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper?’ Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”
(Luke 17:7-10 The Message Bible)

It is my privilege as part of our generosity program to introduce to you the Turlington family. This is Kyle, and Cecie and I’ll let them introduce their kids to you, and I’ve asked them to share a little of their generosity journey this morning.
Mr. Turlington: Thank you Dr. Pace. This is my wife Cecie and our three children, Will, Reed and Kate. We are honored to share our testimony about generosity. I have bad eyesight so bear with me here.
My journey toward becoming more generous began in 2004 when my wife and I sat down to discuss our annual giving for St. Luke’s. I asked her to give me the dollar amount she wanted to give and she asked me to do the same. Neither of us wanted to go first so we both wrote our numbers down on a piece of paper and exchanged them at the same time. When I opened Cecie’s paper it was pretty much the same number I had written down, except for one tiny difference. Cecie’s number had an extra zero on it.
I was furious when I saw her number. I remember shouting, “No way! That is my money.” That was not one of my finer moments but I was stressed financially. Better yet, I thought I was stressed financially. We had just bought a new home and a new car and were on just one income and had two little kids running around in diapers. I had created an environment where margin of error was quite small. I spent way too much time worrying about finances. I soon realized that all that worrying about finances meant that I lacked faith in God. I didn’t trust that God was going to take care of my family. On top of lacking faith I also learned that it really wasn’t my money. I was just a steward of God’s blessings. Once I detached myself from my possessions I soon realized that it was easier to give it away.
I had to teach my self to be generous. I learned that by carving out a percentage of my income to be given away gave me peace. I also started to spend less money and certainly spent less money on silly things. I actually found that I started to save more. And most important, I found that being generous was actually really fun. Do you think I had more fun buying that new car in 2004 that added to my financial woes, or giving away our Suburban a couple of years ago to a friend in need. In good years and in bad, we pick a percentage of our money and set it free.
Mrs. Turlington: I grew up in a Christian home but wasn’t taught to tithe and never saw my parents do it. Tithing and giving away isn’t something that’s innate in us but something that is taught. When I worked on staff at St. Luke’s, I worked on the Stewardship Campaign one year. And I looked at the Scriptures and I saw God talking about God being good stewards of all we have. Money, gifts, talents, time. And I saw the 10% standard and realized that this church cannot survive without our dollars. I’ve been taking for granted the way our church operates, the salaries of the people who do more behind the scenes work than you will ever know. The lights, cameras and action, the resources of the Connections Center, everything that you see printed it will blow your mind to go behind the scenes of the church.
So it was like a light bulb went off and I realized that part of what God gives me is to be redistributed to the church. I’m thankful that God has given me the choice and the privilege to choose to whom I give. And that’s what Kyle and I let our kids do, too. They earn a weekly allowance and must give at least 10% in the give jar. They actually choose to put more than 10% in the give jar and they get to choose to whom that overage goes. The first 10% goes to St. Luke’s. Then they get to find places they’re passionate about to give the rest to. Children want to know about places that can use their help and when they have something to give, it’s an opportunity for their eyes, ears, and hearts to be open to the world around them. Our kids got to write a $50 check to Compassion International to help rebuild schools after an earthquake in Ecuador. They had the privilege to give 60 $1 bills to St. Luke’s this past June when they got excited about the Good for a Guitar program. They are finding, like us, that it really is a joy to give.
If you’ve not yet experienced that joy I encourage you to follow Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Thank you.

Dr. Pace:
They do such an awesome job. They’ve done this in four services today and I’m so grateful. You come behind the scenes at the church and you see the sausage making, too. But it does take a lot to make the church operate and we’re thankful for all of your generosity.
Four principles, values that we’re lifting up: gratitude, vision – next week its trust – but today we want to talk about doing our duty.
Let’s pray together. O God open us up, open our eyes that we might see, and our ears that we might hear. Open our hearts that we might feel and then, O Lord, open our hands that we might serve. Amen.
If you have a chance to go to Israel, to the Holy Land, I hope you will go. One of the things you’ll experience very quickly when you first get off the plane is that there are soldiers everywhere. Lots of soldiers, young shiny-faced soldiers who get on the city bus with you with their machine guns. They’ll step into the elevator with you with a back pack on one shoulder and a gun on the other. It’s a weird feeling, I have to tell you.
The reason is that in Israel, military service is mandatory for all young people when they reach the age of 18. The men do 2 years, 4 months’ worth of service. The women do two years. I have no reason why there’s a difference. But everybody, everybody, does two years of service. There are few very small exemptions but not many. It is mandatory – it is a duty.
When I was a kid I learned the Scout oath: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country.” Duty.
See, it’s become unfortunately kind of a negative word sometimes. It’s like a drudgery, inglorious. Something you have to do, not something you want to do. It’s a duty….
I think we’ve made a mistake. Duty is a noble thing! Let me tell you that as a pastor there is nothing that is more significant than that moment at a memorial service when you’re presiding at the gravesite when the soldiers – the honor guard – comes and folds a flag for a veteran. They kneel in front of the next of kin and present the folded flag and say, “On behalf of a grateful nation.”
This is someone who’s done his or her duty.
Our duty is not just about doing military service, but as Christians, we too, have a duty. You see, it’s funny, we have kind of made it like when you’re doing your duty, that’s really not faith, that’s religion – it’s legalistic. Somehow we kind of paint this picture that it lacks power if it’s an obligation. But, no, it’s supposed to be something you do willingly and gladly. It’s not under compulsion. But I would tell you that we miss the opportunity to do our duty.
As Christians it is our duty to serve. We serve inside the life of the church. You serve as an usher or a greeter – we need more ushers, always need ushers. Some of our ushers work four services on a Sunday. We need all sorts of folks. Sunday school teachers, and prayer partners and all sorts of folks to serve within the life of the church.
If you sing in the Pure Sound choir you do your duty to do a stint in the Pumpkin Patch. That’s just the deal. It’s part of the obligation – it’s what you do.
And there’s duty to serve outside the life of the church, too. You can be a Kid’s Hope Mentor, you can work at the Christian Community Service Center, you can coach a Little League team. You could coach a Little League team that isn’t your own child’s. I ran into a lady from the church on Friday afternoon and she said, “I don’t have time to talk long, I’m on my way…” And she used the term: “…To do my duty at the concession stand.” She needed to work Friday night football and she was supposed to work at the concession stand.
When we do that though, when we pursue our duty to serve, there is something noble about that. It’s our duty to give. You heard a marvelous testimony. The tithe, the ten percent standard, is found in the Old Testament. Some will say that it’s an arbitrary figure.
Here’s how it came to pass and it makes sense if you think about it. There are 12 tribes in Israel. One of the tribes was the Levites, the third largest tribe of Israel, and the Levites worked in the Temple. That’s what they did. They worked in the Temple. They were either priests or they served priests in Temple and kept the cultic and religious life of the community going. So if there are 12 tribes in Israel and one of them has no other job by which they make an income, how are you going to support that one tribe? Well, all the other tribes give one tenth – the first tenth of the fruit of their fields would be brought into the Temple for the religious life of the church.
The last tenth – the final tenth – of their crops were left in the fields for gleaning. The gleaners, who were the poor, would come behind them and take that last tenth. It’s kind of a win-win if you think about it. It’s the most difficult tenth to harvest, but it also provided a safety net.
The first tenth was for the religious life of the community and the last tenth was for the poor. It was a responsibility, a duty.
Sometimes we think it’s kind of Pharisaical to say that. Jesus says to the Pharisees: “Look, you tithe but you don’t cleanse the inside of you.” He doesn’t say, “Quit tithing.” He says, “Try and make your whole life match together. You do the outside and the inside.”
What I want to talk about today is how we do our duty as Christians. How we do our duty as part of the life of the church. There are three things I want to say about it. First, it comes out of covenants. A duty derives from covenants. Second, a duty is derived from our creation. And third, those duties bring us great joy.
So, a covenant. If you’re a note-taker here’s the definition of a covenant. A covenant is a mutual promise that binds two parties together in relationship. It’s a promise we make to one another that binds two parties together in a relationship. The difference between a contract and a covenant is that a contract is all about the stipulations, all about the things you say you’ll do. A covenant is about the relationship that’s formed by those duties, by those obligations, by those promises.
We all live in covenants. There are voluntary covenants. You decide to get married, that’s a covenant. As a responsibility when you get married there are certain promises you make to one another. And living those promises is a duty.
If you get a job, in that job you have duties, responsibilities and it’s because you’ve become part of a covenant, a community together. And you’ve made promises to one another. In fact we use the term when we define a job description when we say, “here are the duties…” These are the things you’re supposed to do.
If you join a church you stand here and you say “I will be loyal to St. Luke’s with my prayers, my presence, my gifts, my service, my witness. That’s my promise.” That’s the duty we perform for one another.
If you have children, it’s a voluntary covenant you’re a part of. You choose to have children and when you choose to have children there are certain responsibilities that you take on.
Someone between services said, “I’m going to go home and do my duty to clean out the cat litter box.” Well, that’s a good example. You get a pet and there are certain things you do. You’ve taken a certain responsibility when you make that choice – to be a part of a covenant.
Now there are also involuntary duties. We have duties to our parents. We didn’t pick our parents. We didn’t choose that, but we have duties, responsibilities to our parents. This week I took my mother to the eye doctor. She’s not driving, so I took her to the eye doctor. It’s what you do. It’s what you do, it’s that simple.
You probably – though there may be some exceptions here – you probably didn’t choose to be an American. You didn’t choose our country, you were probably born here. So it’s an involuntary covenant but it is a covenant nonetheless. We have responsibilities to our nation.
You know, less than 50% of the people who are in pews on Sunday mornings go and vote. Less than 50%. We may be unhappy with things going on around us in the electoral process. It might be disillusioning, but whatever you want to say, there is a duty we have to go and vote.
Look on television and see those people who wait in line for hours and hours with the potential of military attacks or persecution. They put their finger in the purple ink so that people will know that they’ve already voted. And the kind of sacrifice they’re making to be able to make an input, a vote into what goes on in their country. It’s an obligation, a duty; it’s what we’re supposed to do.
All of those are covenants, and here’s what I would tell you. When we choose to be a part, when we sign on for the Kingdom of God, what we’re signing on for is a duty to serve and to give. Jesus set the standard for us and that is when he said, “I come as one who serves, not as one who is served. I come as one to serve and to give.” Jesus gave his whole life away. We have responsibility to use what God has given us for God’s glory. It’s a duty. And it grows out of these covenants, these relationships we have with one another.
Now it’s possible you want to say, we grow up here in America and what we think is – somehow what’s gotten kind of into our minds – is this notion that if I’m free I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. That’s what freedom means. Not having to do what you don’t want to do.
That’s not what it means. We are free to do things, to vote. But this freedom comes with responsibilities, with duties. So when we sign on for the Kingdom of God we’re signing on to be servants and we’re signing on to be givers.
Here’s the second thing that I think is important. It comes from our creation. We were created; we were made to be servants. We were made to give.
There’s an old Indian proverb that I love. It says, “Does the stomach get special honor for digesting food? No, because that’s what it’s made to do.”
Rabbi Johanan ben Zakai was a rabbi at the time of the destruction of the Temple in Israel – that’s about 70 A.D. He’s really very influential because remember that Jewish worship in Israel was all about making animal sacrifices at the Temple. But in 70 A.D. the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem, and razed the Temple to the ground. So what was the Jewish faith to do? It moved from what was called the Temple Period (sometimes this area of time is called the Second Temple Period), to the Period of the Synagogue. And that’s where they began to focus on the prayer and not on sacrifice. This rabbi was one who helped them make that transition during the time of the destruction of the Temple.
He is absolutely crucial in Jewish history. Here’s what he writes: “Even though you have been faithful carrying out the law you deserve no special merit, for to that end you were created.”
Our Scripture today can be very bothersome to us because it’s about masters and slaves. We think that the whole idea of masters and slaves is just abhorrent to us; it’s against everything we believe in. But you have to understand that at the time of Jesus that was a key social construct. And what he’s saying is really very simple. It’s “Do what you were created to do. Do what your covenant calls you to do.”
Between services someone caught me and said, “You know what it made me think of? An old Darrell Royal-ism.” As you know Darrell Royal was a coach of the Longhorns. He would teach his players, “When you get into the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.”
I think that’s what this passage is trying to say. That’s a perfect example. Don’t get all excited like – how great I am! I made it to the end zone! Instead, just go in saying “This is what I’m supposed to do – I’m supposed to make touchdowns. That’s all I do. This is what I was made to do. I was made to make touchdowns.”
You and I were created to serve. You and I were created to give ourselves away. We were given life that we might give it away.
You know what I don’t like? I don’t like those white fluted coffee pots. You know what they are – they kind of bulge at the bottom and get skinny at the top and have a little screw lid. We put water in them or coffee and they have kind of a glass inside. We have them all the church. I don’t like them.
We’re not going to get rid of the all white fluted coffee pots because I say this, but here’s why I don’t like them. You try and pour from them and they don’t pour. Then you unscrew the lid a little bit and then you try again and it still doesn’t pour. Then you unscrew it a little bit more and then it trickles. Little teeny drops. Then you unscrew it a little more and then whoosh! It all comes out! All the coffee pours out all over the place.
Look, the coffee pot was made, was created, to pour coffee but it doesn’t. If you were made to serve and made to give, then when you don’t, something is askew.
The flip side of that is that when we do serve, when we do give, we get great joy. Not because our master goes, “Yay, you gave!” But because we are doing what we were made to do.
Two reasons I think we get joy. One is we find ourselves belonging. So when the soldiers in Israel have done their two years of service, they feel a different sense of belonging to the nation than they would if they didn’t. They’ve done what they were supposed to do.
When we go vote, there’s a sense of belonging. When you serve here at the church there’s a different sense of belonging. When you choose to be generous and give here at the church there is a different sense of belonging.
I’m a golf fan. I used to say I was a golfer but I don’t say that anymore. Now I’m a golf fan. I’ve always been a golf fan but I used to aspirationally call myself a golfer. Now I’m a golf fan.
I love to watch golf and you know the most exciting one – the ones that the golfers enjoy the most, is not any of the regular tournaments. It’s the Ryder Cup. This comes up every two years and between the United States and Europe, and if you’re lucky enough and good enough to be on the U.S. team or the European team, there is no money for you involved. It’s not about getting rich. No, it’s about being a part of something. Being part of a team. And those players have more passion and energy, and they lean into winning in the Ryder Cup far more than when they’re just playing for a million bucks. Because being part of something, when you give of yourself to something, you become a part of it and there comes incredible joy.
And second, when we do what we were created to do, we find incredible joy.
Some years ago my wife and I had the opportunity to go to New York City and while we were there we went to the Broadway play “Beauty and the Beast.” Maybe you’ve seen the movie, or you may have seen the play. And there’s a scene in it where if you’ve seen it, you know that the cups and plates and knives and forks and stuff dance. And the candlestick, Lumiére, whom I called Luminere at all the earlier services, then they sing a song “Be Our Guest!” You know the song. Here’s one of the lyrics: “Life is so unnerving for a servant who’s not serving, he’s not whole without a soul to wait upon.” Life is so unnerving for a Christian who’s not serving. He’s not whole without a soul to wait upon. We were made to serve, and when we serve it gives great joy.
I see some of you with kids here. I suspect you’ve been to Chick-fil-A. Now this happens at Methodist Hospital and businesses all over, but at Chick-fil-A they’ve trained them, and when you ask for your chicken sandwich and they give you your chicken sandwich, and then you say, “Thank you.” Then they say, “My pleasure.” See, you guys spend too much time at Chick-fil-A! That food is not healthy. It’s mostly all fried. Don’t spend so much time at Chick-fil-A.
But they say, “My pleasure.” They don’t say, “You’re welcome” – they’re saying “This is my joy to serve you. It’s my pleasure.” It’s like they’re saying, “I was made to serve.”
You and I were made to serve, made to give our lives away, and if we want to know real joy we do what we were made to do. We do our duty.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to preside at the memorial service of a nine year old girl. She had been struggling with a disease all of her life. She’d never really been out of bed. Her mother spoke at the memorial service. Incredibly courageous woman. She talked about what her life had been like for nine years. She said, “I changed every diaper.” For nine years, she was in diapers all her life. “I fed her every bite of food she ate. I got her out of the bed and into a chair, then out of the chair back into bed. I took her to the doctor. I did all those things.” As she closed, “It has been the most glorious nine years of my life. To do what I was made to do. To serve someone whom I loved.”
Friends, when we join in a covenant, we come together with people we love and it is our joy to serve one another. It is our joy to do what we were made to do, to do what is expected of us to do.
Our passage today says, “Look, this is what you do. If you do it you’ll get incredible joy.”
Gracious and loving God, thank you so much for giving yourself away to us and for coming to serve us. We pray, God, that we would understand our duty to serve others and to give ourselves away as well. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.