Trevor’s world is a tough one.  His abusive, alcoholic father moves in and out of his life in painful ways both coming and going.  His mom is a bar girl in a Las Vegas nightclub and an alcoholic, too.  Trevor’s life is lived somewhere in the tension between avoiding his father, taking care of his mother and just trying to be a little boy.  Mr. Simonet’s assignment captures Trevor’s imagination.  His idea for changing the world is to do something helpful for three people, something that is hard to do and something they can’t do for themselves.  The only rule is that they cannot pay him back.  In turn, they have to repeat the process with three other people.  They can’t pay him back.  They can only it pay it forward. 

Without spoiling the end of the movie for you in case, like me, you’re still catching up on good movies from three years ago, I can tell you that Trevor’s idea takes hold and explodes.  Suddenly, people all over begin imitating his idea and paying it forward.  The rest of the story is about people’s lives being changed far and wide because one little boy came up with an idea that would change the world and put it into action. 

The apostle Paul lived, like we do, in the tension in time between Jesus’ first coming and his second, between his first acceptance of God’s grace in Christ and his final, complete redemption in eternity future.  Paul’s assignment was to find some way of helping Christians learn to live in that tension.  You can hear the tension between past and present tense experiences of God’s grace in Paul’s words, “you were marked . . . for the day of redemption.”  Someone did something for us in the past, something that was hard and that we could not do for ourselves, that insured our future “day of redemption.”  Paul’s strategy for living in the tension between past and present tense redemption experiences would change the world.  Because we are still living in that tension in time, it’s an idea that is still ours to complete.  You could call it, paying Jesus forward.

There is nothing in scripture about paying God back, is there?  That doesn’t keep us from trying, of course.  We’ll try being better and failing that, we’ll offer up our bad feelings about ourselves for not being better and call it repentance, as though some present goodness or feeling bad about not being better can eliminate past sins we cannot erase but that God can forgive.  All of it in the name of paying God back.  In the end, God doesn’t want us to pay him back for something we could have never done for ourselves.  God wants us to pay it forward.  “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us . . ..”  Those who would be disciples of Jesus must study his life, his words and his ways and make themselves apprentices of grace in the flesh, the presence of Christ where we stand. 

This text defines very specific ways of being Jesus’ apprentices.  We are to be tellers of the truth, not just the Truth, big “T,” about God, but tellers of the truth, little “t,” about ourselves and others.  We’re given permission to be angry but not licensed to unbridled anger that expresses itself without regard to how it affects others.  We’re to think of our resources as tools for helping others, not just helping ourselves to whatever we want.  Why do you think Paul would have to write words about avoiding thievery to Christian people? 

Maybe he was thinking about the prophet Malachi who was reporting the word of the Lord when he said, “‘Will anyone rob God?  Yet you are robbing me!  But you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’  In your tithes and offerings! (Malachi 3:8).’”  Very few of us would think of stealing our neighbor’s car or walking into their unlocked house and taking what we want or walking into a bank and demanding all the money.  But, if we are helping ourselves to what God says is rightly his, our tithes and offerings, resources meant to help this church be the presence of Christ in this world, well, what would you call it?

This church is a non-profit organization.  The financial bottom line is not the bottom line for non-profits.  In our case, that means we offer our services to all who ask without charging a fee.  Aside from the fact that summertime is rarely the best time for any church’s budget, like most non-profit organizations in this economy, we’re facing a budget deficit.  But, we are more than just another non-profit.  We are the church of Jesus, the family of God, with an eternal mission on this corner.  However, this church’s budget deficit will be addressed not by giving out of fear that our beloved Temple will have to close its doors if we don’t give.  Fear giving never honors God.  This church’s deficit will be answered and then some out of the generosity of those who, believing in its eternal mission, have apprenticed themselves to the Lord of the church who, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited (translation: as something to which he was entitled to use as he saw fit no matter what it costs others), but emptied himself . . . and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).” 

Our motivation for giving should be gratitude to our savior who did something for us that was hard and that we could not do for ourselves.  We’ve been commanded to follow his example of generosity with all of our resources.  We couldn’t pay Jesus back if we owned the world.  We can pay Jesus forward. 

A good example.  We committed ourselves to initiating an after school ministry designed to impact the lives of latchkey kids who live in the immediate neighborhood around this church.  Latchkey kids are children who have no adult supervision from the time they get home from school until early evening.  They are not only at risk of being pulled into high-risk behaviors, most often, they have no one to help them with their homework.  The latchkey population is, among other things, the breeding ground for the unacceptable number of students who just give up and drop out of school altogether by the ninth grade.  It’s a profound need, within just a few short steps of our church’s front door.  Children who have access to after school programs make marked progress in academic and social skills.  This is a need we must at least try to address.  There is no way of knowing how it might change the world if we just try.

The after school ministry is not currently in the budget.  It is not a proven program.  It has no track record.  There are no guarantees that it will actually be effective in helping us reach latchkey children not only with a helping hand but also a gospel word.  It’s a risk.  Yet, the only way it and multiple other ministries like it will happen is if we decide that we are willing to pay forward on some new opportunities that don’t yet exist but that do express our church’s mission of Sharing Christ Through Caring Relationships.  Jesus gave himself for you and me even when he knew some would reject the offer.  The Bible says, imitate that kind of giving.  Give without any present proof of future payoff.

Folks, as important as this building is, this building is not the church.  The church is the family of God gathered in this place.  If an F-5 tornado blew this block clean tonight, tomorrow morning Cliff Temple Baptist Church would still be alive.  The future of our ministry in this place will not be secured by insuring that this building is always here no matter what.  The future of our ministry in this place will be secured only by paying forward into ministries that do not yet exist but that will directly impact the lives of people with the gospel of Jesus.  Over twenty years ago this church made a conscious decision to stay physically located in this community.  That was a good decision.  It’s not good enough anymore.  To stay physically located here is one thing.  To actually get our wallets out now and pay it forward into ministries that will touch people’s lives now and lead people now to become disciples of Jesus is altogether another.  Will we pay it forward?

Here is one question worth pondering.  If you gain benefit from this church in any way, if there is anything at all about this church that enriches your life on any level, but you are not supporting this church with your financial resources, have you ever wondered who is making it possible for you to enjoy those benefits?  Someone is.  Could it possibly be Mission Central, our Hispanic mission?  I’m holding a check from Mission Central for $200 their pastor gave us last Sunday.  Mission Central took up an unsolicited offering for us last week.  Someone gave to them.  They’re paying it forward.  Should we pay them back?  Or, should we . . . pay it forward?

That’s the bigger question.  The most significant question is not whether or not we’re letting anyone else pay our way.  That is a good question.  It’s not the most significant.  The most significant question anyone who would be a disciple of Jesus must ask with regard to financial stewardship is this.  Are we so grateful to God for what he has done for us that we are now willing extend it to others, pay it forward, make it possible for others to experience what we have?  If we will be obedient to the command of scripture to “be imitators of God, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us . . .,” not only will this church never have to worry about paying the light bill, our greatest challenge will be finding ways of being responsible with the surplus of financial resources we face every year no matter what the economy is doing.  Indeed, if all of those who call Cliff Temple their church home and who gave nothing to this church’s ministry last year only matched what Mission Central did for us last Sunday, not only would our budget deficit be eliminated overnight, we’d have a surplus.

Sometimes, talking about money at church is very uncomfortable.  It’s something we want to happen quietly, behind the scenes.  But, in reading the gospels, we’ll discover that Jesus sees a direct connection between how we manage our material affairs and the true condition of our hearts.  If Jesus, the lover of our soul, keeps bringing money management to the forefront as an indicator of our spiritual health and that makes us uncomfortable then perhaps we ought to ask ourselves what that discomfort is trying to tell us.  Like a physician’s probing hand finally discovers the illness when his fingers touch the point of pain, what illness has been discovered if, every time God’s word touches our wallets, it hurts?

This text identifies multiple other ways of apprenticing ourselves to Jesus.  Again, we are to tell the truth.  We are to be encouragers.  We’re supposed to keep the garbage disposals of our souls clean, in good working order and not clogged with “bitterness” from the past.  We are to relate to each other in the ways of kindness and tender-heartedness, which simply means thinking of others with a heart of compassion because we are dealing with people.  People, like us, who have feelings and needs and dreams, not robots who only need rusty parts replaced when they malfunction.  Finally, a willingness to forgive, no matter what.   Even a willingness, like Jesus when he prayed, “‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34),’” to give people the benefit of the doubt even when it kills us to do so.

How would it change our marriages if we practiced those principles?  How would it change our families, our work environments, our church, the world we live in if we told the truth, fought fairly, encouraged others and treated them with kindness, thought of others first before committing our resources, were compassionate, forgiving and, even at our own expense, gave others the benefit of the doubt even when they were at their very worst?  We can’t pay Jesus back, but we can pay him forward by being his presence like that in the world he’s given us to live in.

This is not an easy assignment.  It means being different, swimming upstream against the current of human nature.  Thus, the admonition to “be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.  Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  Do not get drunk with wine . . . but be filled with the Spirit.”  Only people who intentionally, thoughtfully and empowered by the presence of God within, the Holy Spirit, can be apprentices of Jesus, his presence in their world, paying Jesus forward instead of trying to pay him back. 

What if all of us identified three people we need to forgive, and actually forgave them?  What if we identified three people this week and did one act of kindness for them?  What if we said a word of encouragement to three people this week?  What if some who are not giving at all to this church committed to give something, anything, for three Sundays in a row?  What if?  How would that change our families, our church, our world? 

OK.  I take it back.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I may ruin the movie for you by telling you how it ends.  You have had three years to see it.  In the end, Trevor, the eleven-year-old 7^th grader, pays with his life in order to pay it forward.  Two schoolyard thugs keep beating up a smaller boy whenever they get the chance.  Finally, Trevor can take it no more and steps in between to protect the innocent one.  One of the thugs pulls a knife and Trevor dies rather quickly.  It’s not a happy ending, in a sense.  Except for all those whose lives were forever changed by one little boy who was willing to do something for others they could not do for themselves, something that was hard and something for which they could not pay him back.  He took what little he’d been given and paid it forward.  He never knew how he changed the world.  We all have to die.  It’s only a question of why we’ll die, on what altar we’ll sacrifice ourselves.

Play It Forward isn’t a Christian movie.  There is not one prayer offered, not one sermon preached or scripture quoted.  It is the way of Christ, nonetheless, to take what God has given us in Christ and pay it forward to those who need it from us.  This is the word of the Lord, “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”  Now we know the word of the Lord. 

Will we?  Will we pay Jesus forward? 

Well?