Pastor s Column: Fake or real
By GAYLORD GOERTZEN
Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church
(The following was reprinted from May 2004.)
In March of 2004, Alice Pike went to her local Wal-Mart store and loaded $1,675 worth of merchandise into her shopping cart. When the cashier rang up her bill, Alice pulled out a Wal Mart gift card and handed it to the clerk. The clerk swooped the card and deducted the value of the card which was $2.32. She still owed $1,672.
So Alice pulled a million dollar bill out of her purse, handed it to the cashier, and asked for the change. The only problem was her million dollar bill was fake. The U.S. treasury doesn't make million dollar bills. The cashier called security, and Alice Pike was arrested and charged with first degree forgery.
When I read the story in the news, I wondered, "What was Alice Pike thinking? Did she really think the clerk was going to turn on her flashing light, pick up her microphone, and say, 'I need tens and twenties on aisle five.' Did she really think the cashier was going to give her $998,325.00 in change?"
What was Alice Pike thinking? Did she even think how much change that would be? If she took the change in twenties, it would have been 49,916 twenties. That many twenties would have filled five shopping carts.
What was Alike Pike thinking when she used fake money instead of real money? Did she really think nobody would notice that her money was fake? None of us would even think of using a fake one million dollar bill to try to purchase something from a store. We know that the cashier or the owner of the store would immediately know that it was fake.
Yet, we try it with God. No, we don't try to put fake one million dollar bills in the offering but we often try to offer him fake worship. God's people tried it. They went to the temple very week to worship the Lord. They said the prayers and they offered the sacrifices. They kept the Sabbath, celebrated the feasts, and followed all the rules. They thought that what they were doing was pleasing God and honoring Him.
But God, through the prophet Isaiah said:
"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men." (Isaiah 29:13).
God's people did all the right things, but there was no love or devotion for God behind their actions. God's people were offering the Lord their God worship that was as fake as a million dollar bill. And God noticed.
It's easy for us to do the same. We pray and read God's word. We go to church and hear God's word. We sing and praise the Lord. But what are we thinking about as we do all these good things? Are we really thinking about the Lord our God to whom we're praying and reading, hearing and singing, or are our minds thinking about something else or someone else? Where are our hears and our minds?
Yes, God wants, He desires, He deserves, our honor and our worship. The Lord our God wants us to obey His word. But He wants us to do all we do with hearts filled with gratitude and love.
If all we do is not motivated by a deep love for God and gratitude for all He's done for us, then we're just offering God fake one million dollar bills instead of real money.
God notices and God weeps.
