Pentecost 12
24 August 2025
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
Gregory Pope
SANDWICH BAGS, OREO COOKIES, AND AIRPLANE DREAMS
Psalm 24. Acts 4.32-35
Before we get started, I want to ask a favor of you – it’s a big ask for some of you, but I have faith in your ability to do it. The favor is this: I want to ask you to make sure you are sitting beside someone not in your household. If that is not the case, would you please move from where you are sitting so that you are beside someone not in your household? If you are afraid it may cause undue stress, don’t worry – we have medical personnel in the house! And for the excessive introvert – no worries – you’re not going to have to say a word to the person you sit beside. So if you would just go ahead and take your stuff and make that switch now I would very much appreciate it.
The early church was a radical group of people who seemed odd to the culture around them. As followers of Jesus they sought to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. One of the most radical ways they were transformed that led to their great witness in the world had to do with their understanding of and relationship to their stuff.
Luke describes that radical transformation in the Book of Acts: All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own, but they shared everything they had. There were no needy persons among them for from time to time persons who owned houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet and it was distributed to anyone who was in need.
Do you hear how radical that is? No one claimed that any of his or her possessions was their own. That sounds pretty crazy to us Americans, who’ve been taught the very opposite from the very beginning of our lives. If you’ve spent much time with pre-schoolers you soon learn their favorite four-letter word: “Mine!” As we get older, we don’t say it out loud as often, but we still think it and live it and vote it. Our sense of ownership and possessiveness expresses itself in all kinds of anxiety and greed.
The miraculous thing about this community in Acts is that they were not forced to share or give up their possessions. They still owned stuff, but they didn’t possess it, or should I say, it did not possess them. From time to time, somebody who owned something – land or a house, for example – would voluntarily sell it and bring the money into the church so it could be given to those in need. They put their theology into practice, or as we sometimes say, they “put their money where their mouth was.”
Their theology went something like this: “It’s not my stuff. It’s God’s stuff. And God wants God’s stuff used to make a difference in people’s lives. God doesn’t want anybody going without the basic necessities of life. So I’ll give to help. Because everything I have belongs to God anyway.”
Israel was taught that lesson when they were on the verge of entering the Promised Land as Moses warned them: When you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud. . . . You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is the Lord who gives you the ability to produce wealth.
The first step toward becoming a person of generosity is coming to grips with who owns the stuff. Deciding whose stuff it is and who gets what money changes everything at a profound level.
To help you understand your relationship to stuff, I want you to take out your wallets. If your wallet is in your phone, then take out your phone. For many of us: Our wallet is our best friend. We know it well. We keep it close by. We know where it is at all times. Now, take your wallet or phone and hold it for a second, rub your hands over it. Get those warm fuzzy feelings going, those feelings you get when you’re with your best friend.
Now, hand your wallet or phone to someone beside you who does not live in your household. Come on, you can do it. It’s okay, we have a police officer present in case someone tries to make a run for it. Now: How does it feel having someone else in possession of your money? How does it feel being in possession of someone else’s money? At this time our ushers are going to come forward and we’re going to take up a special offering, and you’re going to be able to be that generous person you’ve always wanted to be!
Okay. Now everyone give the wallets and phones back to the ones to whom God has loaned them. And let’s all take a deep breath. But don’t put your wallet or phone away. Hold onto it for the rest of the sermon.
Now let me ask you a question: Do you really believe the contents of your wallet belong to you? Or have you come to the humble realization that the money you hold in your hand really isn’t yours after all, that it all belongs to God, and that God intends for you to share what you’ve been given with others?
That’s why we take up an offering every week. It’s why we shape a budget and distribute our offerings among various ministries in and through this good place: so that we are always mindful that everything we have belongs to God given to us in order to share the love of God. The psalmist sings: The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. If the truth be told, most of us have a problem with the ownership issue and it controls our attitudes and behaviors in ways that are not always pleasing to God.
In the prominent theological journal Reader’s Digest, I came across the story of a woman at an airport waiting to get on a plane. She had purchased a small bag of Oreo cookies and was sitting in the waiting area beside a man she did not know, Oreo cookies perched on the armrest between them. Without saying a word, the guy sitting next to her reaches into the bag, takes out a cookie and starts to eat it. She’s flabbergasted. Not wanting to make a scene, she reaches into the bag, takes out a cookie and starts to eat it. The man just smiles and nods at her. It seems he doesn’t speak English. So she continues reading her paper. A minute or two later there is more rustling. He’s helping himself to another cookie. Because she was growing angry she didn’t allow herself to say anything, but she reaches in to take another cookie. And before long they’ve come to the end of the package, and there’s only one cookie left. The man reaches in, takes the last cookie, breaks it in two, pushes half across to her, eats the other half and leaves. Still fuming some time later when her flight is announced, the woman opens her handbag to get her ticket. And to her shock and utter embarrassment, she finds her pack of unopened Oreo cookies.
Here she thought someone was eating her cookies, when in reality she was eating someone else’s cookies and didn’t even know it! Many of us have a lot of cookies that we think belong to us. But in truth, they belong to God and to all God’s children throughout the world, and many of us who’ve read and studied scripture all our lives don’t even know it.
I am aware of one twelve year old girl who knows it. Several years ago while living in Jasper a twelve year-old girl showed up at the door of my house. She had heard our church was involved in a ministry that provides mosquito nets to people in Africa to protect them from malaria while they sleep. She had in her hand a sandwich bag full of money – $60 she had retrieved from her very own piggy bank. She gave me the bag of money to give to our church so that we could help protect lives in Africa.
In my life as a pastor I have witnessed people who gave large sums of money for purposes of ministry. But I do not believe I have ever been as moved as I was that day by such an act of unselfish generosity.
The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, says the psalmist. It all belongs to God: God’s wallet. God’s phone. God’s cookies. God’s coins. God’s clothes. God’s 401K. God’s house. God’s car. God’s church. God’s world. It’s all God’s Stuff.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to think my stuff is mine. I tend to think I’ve earned it or I’m entitled to it. It becomes a source of pride. I start to believe there’s security in it. At times I even become anxious about it. But it’s all God’s stuff: God made it. God created it. And God grants me breath every single second to live and work and enjoy God’s stuff in order to provide for my family, share with those in need, and use it to make the world a better place.
Pastor John Ortberg received the following email from a church member of his: Dear Pastor, Because I fly, I’ve always had a dream of owning an airplane one day. I got to the point where I could actually buy one. I also serve on the Board of Directors for a Christian ministry to street kids in Brazil. We had two facilities for boys, but none for girls. An opportunity arose to purchase a piece of property for a girls’ home. There wasn’t time for a capital campaign. We had to do something immediately, and it involved a significant amount of money. The only way I could help was to stop dreaming about my new airplane and give the airplane money to this ministry. So that’s exactly what I did. I still don’t have the airplane, and I never will. But the joy I receive watching the girls’ ministry take off has more than made up for the absence of my airplane. Today there are more than sixty girls who would be living on the streets of Brazil now living in a home with people who love them. So, it really wasn’t a sacrifice at all – just a redeployment of funds.
Here’s somebody who says, “Here’s something I want. But God, I’m going to give it up because I think there’s something else You want me to do with this.” And when he gets to the end of his life, I don’t think he’s going to look back on his decision and think, “You know, I wish I hadn’t given the money for that girl’s home. I wish I had bought that airplane instead.”
It might be an interesting exercise for us to ask ourselves: “If I were to die today, would I have any regrets about what I’ve done with my stuff?” The time to shape a life with no regrets regarding your stuff can begin today.
Generosity is the way to shape such a life. Generosity almost never leads to regret. Generosity enlarges our souls and expands the reach of God’s love. I believe most people want to be generous. But fear, or the experience of losing everything, or just good ole personal comfort and security keep us from becoming the generous persons we want to be. We move toward becoming a generous person by understanding that all we have belongs to the God of extravagant generosity, given to us to meet our basic needs, to share with others in need, and to make the world a better place. We are able to share generously when we keep our wants from becoming needs and learn to sacrifice our wants for the meeting of others’ needs.
I hope you now have a better understanding of the sandwich bag you hold in your hand. I want to encourage you to keep it somewhere prominent in your home where you will see it often. And when you see the Oreo cookies, after fighting the temptation to eat them, remember the woman in the airport who thought she was eating her own Oreos, who was angry because she thought someone was eating what belonged to her, but in reality she was taking what belonged to someone else, someone who willingly shared what he had. And when you see the penny in the sandwich bag, remember the generosity of a 12 year-old girl who gave money she had been saving for who knows what and decided to use it to save lives in Africa. And when you see the paperclip airplane in the sandwich bag, reflect on the dreams you have for spending what you think is your money and remember the business man’s redeployment of funds and imagine 60 girls living in safety off the streets of Brazil.
Imagine how your money could save lives. Imagine how your money could help the lives of the homeless in our city or make the world a better place by shaping the lives of children in this place, nurturing Christian relationships, forming faith in the way of Jesus, inspiring us all through worship to give our lives fully and completely to God. Think about this large facility in which we are sitting at the corner of Vineville and Pierce that belongs not to us but to God. What might God want us to do with what we’ve been given to transform the lives of people in our community?
I believe in this community of faith. It’s not a perfect place, but it’s full of some wonderful people. And I have people share with me how grateful they are for the welcome they find here. I have people share with me how the music of worship here opens their hearts to God’s love and grace. I am blown away by the conversations I have with the magnificent children of our church. I feel so privileged to work with Angela and Leigh as we pool our gifts together for the sake of the church and its work, seeking to do what we can to make our church a Christlike community. I trust the lay leadership of our church who deeply love this place, whose hearts are in the right place and who seek the responsible and faithful way forward for our congregation. I sincerely believe you can trust your resources to God’s work in this place. You can feel good about being generous and supporting the ministries of Vineville Baptist Church.
Sometimes the past “success” or largeness of a congregation can be its worst enemy. We focus on what we once were and we focus on going back there and we fail to see the beautiful and plentiful gifts we have among us now.
All that we have, all that you have, all that I have, belongs to God. The question is: What are we doing – what are you doing, what am I doing – with what we’ve been given?