A PUBLIC OFFERING

Scripture: I Chronicles 29:1-19; Luke 21:1-4

INTRODUCTION

Last May, I began to keep a file on the Google “Initial Public Offering” (IPO), starting with an article in Time Magazine which reported the following information and launched a frenzy of expectation many months ago:

“Should You Invest in Google?”

The worst kept secret in Silicon Valley is finally out: Google, the Internet search engine…will sell shares to the public sometime this summer. The crush of interest that has surrounded what will be a highly unusual initial public offering (IPO) of stock is in many ways justified. Google is that rare Internet success story – profitable since 2001, with revenue that soared nearly threefold since then, to $962 million last year.

As Google filed with the Securities Exchange Commission, the numbers were dazzling…”We were amazed,” said Kathy Smith, (a Wall Street analyst). “We never expected to see such a profitable company.” Google is used by more than 100 million people a month…and the visionary founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who started in a dorm room at Stanford University and are now headquartered in Mountain View, California, they anticipated that the company would raise $2.7 billion from the IPO, saying also in their filing that they “aspire to make Google an institution that makes the world a better place.” (From Time Magazine, May 10, 2004, written by Daniel Kadlec, with some sections paraphrased for this sermon)

I can’t say why, exactly, but this article caught my attention, and the subsequent news stories which I collected and filed tell a story of staggering dimensions. When Google went public on August 13 with an initial share price of $85, establishing the value of the company at $23.1 billion, by the end of the week, the stock had jumped 18%, making hundreds of Google employees and investors overnight millionaires and the co-founders two of the wealthiest people in America (Page and Brin are now worth roughly $6 billion apiece – reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, October 25, 2004, by Michael Liedtke).

The first quarter reports two weeks ago were also impressive – Google had revenue of $809.5 million, producing a profit of $52 million, more than double where they were last year. And co-founders Brin and Page said in an interview with USA Today just two weeks ago: “We’ve only just begun!” (From an article “Google Wows Investors With First Results Since IPO” by Jefferson Graham, USA Today, October 25, 2004).

Now you may be wondering what all of this has to do with you and with me and the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree. Well, for one thing, some of the information for this sermon comes from the Google search engine, including a report that John Buchanan, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, shared with his congregation this past September. The headline read:

“God, Googled, Exists – 59,000 Search Results Evidence of Deity, Experts Agree.” And the report goes on to say that “In the most conclusive evidence of a supreme being ever discovered, a Google search of God has proved once and for all that He exists”…’To those doubters out there who still don’t believe that God exists,’ said Dr. George Darlington of the University of Minnesota, ‘I have just one piece of advice: Google Him.’

Buchanan concludes, “It’s satire, of course. Apparently a twenty-two-year-old video store clerk made the discovery when he accidentally typed in ‘God’ and discovered 59 million sites, a discovery which he believes will wipe out atheism worldwide.” (From a sermon by John Buchanan entitled “Reasons of the Heart,” preached at Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, on September 12, 2004)

The real reason, as you might have guessed, why I have spent all of this time on the Google IPO is that we are here on Commitment Sunday to make a public offering of our own. In a few minutes, during the final hymn, each and every one of us is going to be invited to come forward and lay our pledge cards on the communion table, which is a tradition begun by Jim Philips and the Annual Giving Campaign Committee several years ago.

But before we do that, there are three things I believe all of us need to know and the first is this: the precedent for a public offering goes all the way back to the time of King David when he called on the people of Israel to raise the resources they needed to build a grand and glorious temple for the worship of God.

Part of the story is told in I Chronicles, chapter 29, as David stood before the congregation of that nation, declared to them that his son Solomon would see the project through, and then David made his own public offering with this commitment:

Having provided for the house of God, so far as I was able, the gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, onyx and stones and marble (all of which had been contributed and collected by the people) moreover, in addition, because of my devotion to God, I have given treasures of my own – three thousand talents of gold, seven thousand talents of silver, all for the walls of the house and for the work to be done by craftsmen. (Verses 1-4, paraphrased)

Now, although King David had never been to a Billy Graham Crusade, it was in the midst of that moment when he made an altar call, saying Who then will offer willingly, consecrating themselves to the Lord today? And the Bible says that the rest of the people, including all of the leaders, stepped up and came forward to lay their gifts before the Lord (verses 5-9).

So here’s the first thing we need to know before we come forward to make our own public offering today: for the past 3,000 years of our Judeo-Christian history and tradition, people of faith have been called by God to make tangible and financial commitments – commitments which reflect our gratitude for all the blessings we have received, commitments which will then be used to help people who are in need.

So you see, by God’s direction and design, we who belong to the community of faith have been making public offerings for a long, long time. And here’s the second thing we need to remember as we prepare to come forward following this sermon: all that we are, all that we have been given and all that we can ever hope to be – all of that is a gift from the Lord which has been entrusted to you and to me.

That’s what King David and the people of Israel believed, which is why they lifted their praises to God once the public offering had been received. And if some of these words from David’s prayer sound familiar, it is likely that the early church added them to the last line of the Lord’s Prayer. Listen again:

For Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty…For Thine is the kingdom…both riches and honor…and all things come from Thee…and of Thine own have we given Thee (I Chronicles 29:10-17, selected verses).

That’s what those ancient people believed – everything they had received came from God and whatever they gave was a response to His grace. The question is – Do we still believe that is true today?

Some of us say that we believe it, but we don’t actually follow through on it. You may remember the old story about a pastor who was talking with an Internal Revenue Service collector who mentioned that a certain church member had listed a contribution of $5,000 to further the work of the Kingdom. The IRS representative asked, “Has he donated as large an amount as he reported?” The pastor smiled and replied, “If he hasn’t, he will.”

Well, some of us don’t, perhaps because we actually think that what we have worked for, saved or inherited is all our own. That’s what the New Yorker magazine cartoon portrays, with a man driving up to the pearly gates in a fancy limousine laden with sacks of money and a set of golf clubs. St. Peter is there, with an astounded look on his face as the driver of the limousine frowns and tries to make his case, saying “You don’t understand. I am Harrison R. Bentley III and I can take it with me!”

The truth is, none of us ultimately “owns” what we have and all of us will eventually leave our assets behind. We can’t take it with us, neither can we send it on ahead. What God has planned instead is that we would be good stewards of the gifts He has entrusted to us during our lifetime, and that we will share those resources with people who have been knocked down, kicked around, left out and pushed aside.

So it was in ancient Israel, and so it still is now. Those familiar words from Bishop William Walsham How’s famous hymn say it well and leave the decision up to you and me:

“We give Thee but Thine own,

Whate’er the gift may be,

All that we have is Thine alone,

A trust O Lord from Thee.”

CONCLUSION

And that leads us to the third and final thing before we make our public offering today:

God sees and knows not only the amount that we give, but also and more important, the attitude which resides deep down in our hearts.

According to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21, Jesus watched carefully as people came forward and put their gifts into the treasury of the synagogue. Luke reports that A poor widow put in two copper coins, and in honor of her public offering, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all the rest. For the others contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all the living that she had.

You see, when all is said and done and when every pledge card is signed and brought forward, what matters the most to the Lord is the depth of commitment in our hearts. Some of us have the capacity to increase our giving by a substantial amount, while others with limited resources will give less in the final count.

That’s what happened in a rural church in Kenya years ago. A young woman, who had lost her husband and was raising her four children alone, came to worship one Sunday morning. When the offering was announced, knowing that she had no money to give, that woman bowed her head, said a quiet prayer, and when the plate was passed along her row, she put it down on the dirt floor and stood in it, offering all that she had and all that she was to God.

As we prepare to sing our final hymn and bring our pledge cards forward, let us remember and never forget that every gift is important to the Lord. And what matters most, in this public offering, is the sacrificial and faithful commitment deep down in our souls. For as Jesus said and what He wants all of us to know is that Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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