Funding … and the face of Jesus

by Robert Bugbee 

In the devotional book What Jesus Means to Me, Herman Gockel writes of a Christian mother who visited her son in his university dormitory room. It grieved her to see the suggestive pictures he had on his wall. But she said nothing. Soon afterward the young man received a gift in the mail from his mother—a framed picture of Jesus. Proudly he hung it up in his dorm room. Before long he removed the suggestive poster closest to Jesus’ face. One by one he took down the photos that had so troubled his mother. Only Jesus remained.

His weakness was not overcome by motherly lecturing, though that must have been a temptation for her. And it certainly wasn’t the particular brush strokes or artful frame on the picture of Jesus. It must have been the Word of Jesus which the young man had learned—who He is; how He yearns for you and died for you—that broke through. The picture of Jesus’ loving face simply brought it all back to mind, I imagine.

Our congregations, schools, and the whole Synod struggle with lots of things. It won’t surprise you that some struggles these days have to do with money. When a lack of money makes it hard for a modest church to keep going, prevents a district from starting a new mission, burdens an educational institution or causes the Synod to decide we must cut back work in some fruitful foreign field, there are many ways of reacting to the grief we feel.

We can wring our hands and complain how the modern world is so awful, the way Archie Bunker used to do on TV. We can resort to endless fund-raising appeals, often bombarding the very people who are faithful in such matters. We can engage in motherly lectures (if you know what I mean) to shame folks into doing better. It won’t work. It might pressure somebody into doing more … for a while, but it doesn’t really change people. In addition, it can kindle resentment, sinful pride in comparing yourself with others, and a host of other poisonous impulses that don’t give glory to Christ nor help His precious body, the Church.

I’m persuaded that all the major problems we face can all be traced to a neglect of God’s Word

We learn something from the mother who sent a picture of Jesus to her son. Getting face-to-face with Jesus Christ can heal and restore so many things that have become weak and dislocated. I don’t mean for a moment that we will solve the specific problem of money (or the lack of it) in God’s Church simply by hanging framed pictures of Our Lord’s face in meeting rooms! But setting the face of Jesus before us happens when pastors and people look deep into the Word of Jesus and turn it loose on our shortcomings. That includes our shortcomings in financial support for the Lord’s work.

St. Paul was talking about a money matter when he wrote, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—He was rich, but became poor for you to make you rich by His poverty” (2 Cor. 8:9 AAT). He didn’t lecture the Corinthians. He didn’t act like the big motivation should be all the dreadful things that would happen if they failed to make offerings. He hung up a picture of Jesus where they could see it. He showed them the Jesus who had heaven’s glory, the adoration of angels, and who traded it all in for a cold manger-bed, the hatred of His enemies, the flogging and bleeding and unjust death nailed to a piece of wood.

That’s not all you see when God’s Word puts Jesus’ picture before you. You also see the incredible riches of sins being pardoned, your prayers—even the limping ones!—being heard, your Saviour guiding the affairs of your life from His place at the Father’s right hand. When God’s Word puts Jesus’ picture on your wall, you see life’s hours and days, your personal abilities, even your money as riches loaned to you for a while to give all the glory you can to the One who died for you and was raised again.

I’ve told people across the Synod how I’m persuaded that all the major problems we face can all be traced to a neglect of God’s Word. I don’t say that to make folks feel bad, but because it’s liberating to realize that the cures we need will come when we begin right there. When people dig deep into God’s revealed Word so we get a good look at Jesus’ face again, everything He did for you, the holy light He sheds on your resources and how you can use them in this needy world, a power is unleashed. It’s something like that power a young man took out of the box one day when a gift came in the mail from his mom, and when he began seeing the face of Jesus Christ in the room where he lived and did his work.

Rev. Dr. Robert Bugbee is president of Lutheran Church–Canada

Print this article