Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Gospel lesson (Luke 8: 1-9), especially the first 3 verses about Jesus' entourage. ����������������

This text, these verses in Luke have amazed me for the past several years. Luke reports earlier that Jesus has been traveling about, doing miracles, preaching sermons and parables, choosing disciples. Then, rather out of the blue, Luke mentions that some women were traveling along with them, some women who had benefited from Jesus' love and compassion and his power to save and heal. They had been healed from evil spirits and illnesses: Mary from Magdala, who had had 7 evil spirits cast out, Joanna, the wife of an apparently important and well-known manager in King Herod's household, and someone named Susanna and others. It apparently was not just the 12 who formed Jesus' entourage from city to city, but some well-known, distinctive women as well as many others who were probably not so well-to-do. Because of what Jesus had done for them, these women were following after them as well, not as unwanted "groupies", but as an integral part of the group that brought attention to Jesus, who testified on his account wherever they went. ����������������

But the first time I really paid attention to these verses, I remember thinking "Why?" Why did Luke plug these names and these statements in between Jesus' miracles and teachings, teachings that continue with the parable of the sower? I propose to you that Luke had two primary reasons for including this in God's Word: First to record and teach about the support these women were giving to Jesus, his disciples and their ministry, and second, to prepare readers for the witness that these women were to be of Jesus' death and resurrection. ����������������

First, the recording and teaching about their support. Luke writes "These women were helping to support them out of their own means." When I first really paid attention to this verse a few years ago, I remember thinking again "Why?" Why did Jesus and his disciples need such support? Couldn't Jesus have simply fed himself and his disciples miraculously? Couldn't Jesus have simply paid their way by finding more money in fishes' mouths as he and Peter did in Matthew 17? Certainly Jesus didn't need human financial support to fulfill his ministry around to all these towns and villages. But yet these women responded to Jesus' love and healing by providing financial and social and personal support to Jesus and his disciples. Their support did fulfill a need, but it wasn't Jesus' need. Their support fulfilled a need these women had, a righteous and faithful need to respond not just with their words and thoughts, but with their purses and time and actions as well. Their Lord knew of their sincere faith in him, but yet they were acting out their faith by providing their financial support. ����������������

In much the same way, our support, our financial stewardship, our monetary giving back to God a portion of what he has given to us, is truly not needed by God. The Lord could have miraculously built this building and other church buildings around the world, at no cost, and simply escorted us in. He could miraculously provide our lights and heat and water for the building. The Lord could miraculously provide for me and my family and for our professional teachers and other pastors and church professionals around the world ("Pop! There's your food! There's your home"). But yet He chooses not to. He instead gives us all the opportunity to faithfully act our love for Him and what He has done for us in Christ Jesus. He gives us such opportunities just as Mary Magdalene and Susanna and Joanna were helping to support out of their own means, means that God had provided for them in the first place. ����������������

Our special stewardship Sunday, Consecration Sunday, is coming next week. As we prepare for that important spiritual decision, each of us will be reflecting on the question, "What is God calling me to give as a percentage of my income and resources?" In 1 Corinthians 16: 2 Paul instructs the Corinthian and Galatian church members to set aside a sum of money in proportion to their income to give to the poor and for mission work. I hope you have noticed that this stewardship emphasis has not been about paying our bills or making our budget. When asked to do those things, many of you have given generously. But this stewardship emphasis is about the spiritual question "What is God calling me to set aside?"

Some people answer that question by saying, "I feel God is calling me to give a tithe, 10%, of my income to the Lord's work. I have been thinking about tithing for several years, and I want to begin that spiritual journey this year." A tithe of 10% is the Old Testament teaching of what God's people were to give to the support of the temple and priesthood. It is not directly taught or commanded in the New Testament, but is often still used as a guide for giving back to God.

Another kind of person responds to the question like this: "Eventually I want to begin tithing, but I am not ready to do that this year. I feel God is calling me to start somewhere � to drive my tent pegs in the ground at 5% or 6% or 4% -- knowing that God will bless that decision by helping me increase my giving in coming years."

A third kind of person has been tithing for many years. For example, one couple said years ago when they were just getting started, "We'll tithe now; later we'll do more" The years rolled by and now they say, "Wow, Do we ever have more! So much more that we cannot fathom how we arrived at such a high annual income that 10% does not even come close to a sacrifice for us. We feel God is calling us to give 15% or 20% of our income to the Lord's work." Forbes magazine (December 15, 1997) tells about Hugh and Nancy McFarland who have been giving away 70% of their income for nearly 20 years, since Hugh was 39 years old. Should the McFarland's pastor limit stewardship teaching to a 10% concept? Probably not! (previous 5 paragraphs modified from New Consecration Sunday Program Book by Herb Miller, 2002) I do think it proper to let you know where my wife and I are in this financial stewardship. My salary is publicly known; it seems proper for my giving to be publicly known. Throughout our adult lives we have been tithers, giving 10% of our income, although when we were younger we generally only tithed on net income, that is after taxes had been taken out. As we matured and gained income, we began giving 10% of our gross income, income before taxes were taken out. For many years we tithed on a limited teacher's salary while living in an urban area with much higher living costs than in Junction City. But a few months ago another pastor asked me this simple question "Do you give a percentage on your benefit package?" I am embarrassed to say that this had never even occurred to me. For years my family and I have received thousands of dollars in medical and retirement benefits, and it had never occurred to us to give back, to sacrifice a portion of that blessing to God's work as well. To that end, my wife and I decided to take the step beyond tithing, giving a few percentages more than 10%. We have decided to start giving an even greater portion, more than 15% of our income not including benefits, just over 12% of our gross income including the benefits package. I share this with you not as a challenge, but as your information toward your spiritual decision-making, as your knowledge of my confidence in our joint ministry here together. But I said there were two reasons why these verses about Mary and Joanna and Susanna were included in Luke. I want to get to the 2nd, even more important one, because it has to do with our reason for giving. You see, these women do come up again in the story of Jesus, as witnesses to his crucifixion. After Jesus had died, after he had allowed himself to be sacrificed for the sin of this world, Luke records their presence (23: 49) "But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things." Then these supportive women become the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection (Luke 24: 1-3) "On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus." These same women, Mary Magdalene and Joanna identified by name, were among the first witnesses of the greatest healing of all time, the healing that affects, infects you and me as well, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. These women were part of Jesus' entourage after he had healed them, but before he healed the world of death and sin through his crucifixion and resurrection. This entourage not only supported Jesus and his disciples during his earthly ministry. They were witnesses to his death and resurrection proclaiming to us and the rest of the world how Jesus has healed us all from the powers of sin and death. Praise be to God for those supportive, witnessing women. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7)