PROPER 23A 2008

First in our Stewardship Messages

In the Episcopal Church,  every fall we have what we call a pledge drive. During this time we usually have a few sermons that talk about Stewardship of money,  a pot luck or two,  some mailings about the life of the church, and then we ask those who belong to make a pledge to the operating budget for the next year. The operating budget pays for staff salaries, heating and lights, keeping things clean,  programs – in general, keeping the coummuity in existence.  . In our church,  this budget does not pay for the mortgage on this building. We pay for that out of our building fund.

Well,  that is what we are beginning today. With the state of our economy,  it does not seem like a real good time to start,  but you know what,  I have been doing this for a long time,  and for some it never is a good time to talk about giving money away. Just one year ago,  the stock market was at its highest point ever,  and the economy was moving right along,  and yet for many, talking about money even then would still have made them uneasy, and, for some, a little angry.

But I learned very early on in my ministry that one of my central jobs as a pastor and preacher and teacher was to challenge people to be generous with their wealth.  There is two central reasons for this.

First,  giving is good for us. The more we learn to give,  the healthier we are spiritually.  The more we learn to give,  the happier, or blessed we will be.  The more we learn to give,  the less money has power over us. A key spiritual truth to a blessed and fulfilled life is living a life of radical generosity. As Jesus said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  

 The second reason that I have not been afraid to challenge people in their giving is that the church uses money for good. We can use our wealth to help build the kingdom of God. We can sustain healthy Christian communities, in which lives are changed, children are nurtured in the faith, and we are taught to reach out and care for the poor and needy of the world around us. We can share God’s great love for the world. My old boss Dean Perry used to say that the church can stretch a dollar farther than any other organization or institution, and I believe he was right.

There are two central components that are involved in the process of giving. Let me talk about them for a moment.

The first is the spiritual component. When our lives are touched by an encounter with Jesus something happens in our hearts.  One of the great examples in the gospels is the story of the sinful women who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears.  In her encounter with Jesus she was both broken and healed,  and her experience of love and forgiveness forever changed her life. From this point on her relationship with God was not one of duty or obligation, but one of gratitude and love.  

The foundation for a healthy spiritual life is thanksgiving. We realize that we have not deserved God’s love,  nor have we earned our deserved what we have. :Which one of us chose our parents and the country in which we were born. Why were you born in this country and not in a village in Honduras or Brazil? Why have many of us grown up with food and shelter while others live in garbage dumps or on the streets of the worlds big cities? 

The second component of giving is that we must feel that what we are giving to is worthwhile. We give to what we value. This is the basis for trade. We give money in exchange for a product. Of course now we just use credit cards and such,  but the principle is still the same. In the church world,  we are not going to give to a church or organization that we feel is going to misuse our money. We give where we feel our money is going to produce that which we think is good and healthy.

So when we as leaders of this community stand up here and ask you to give,  we are aware of these two components. People don’t give radically and generously unless they are very thankful – thankful for God’s love and thankful for all that they have. We also have to feel that Faith Church is a good and healthy place that will use your money wisely and that it is contributing to the growth of the kingdom of God in the world.

I asked Sharon to speak this morning,  and we have asked three other people over the next few weeks to speak,  to represent the truth that this congregation is making a difference in the lives of people,  as well as the world around us. As we have shared many times over the years,  we have no desire to build a nice church with nice people. What we are about is striving to be serious about the Christian faith. We are about creating an environment in which children and youth and young adults and middle aged and we older people can grow in our faith, be challenged in our faith, be encouraged in faith, be supported and cared for when needed,  so that we can follow Jesus in some sort of serious way.

A few years ago I sat in the choir seats during Evensong of a magnificent Cathedral.  As the men and boys choir sang I looked around at this beautiful building. These church buildings are incredible. And they represent the faith of ages past,  and as I sat there I thought of the tremendous history that this building represented. With all that we know of human sin and folly in the church, we also know of the faithfulness of Christians down through the ages. I am thankful for the faith and the traditions of the church.

As I sat there I also thought that what we are trying to do here at Faith Church is good and right. While we are shaped and molded by our tradition and history,  we are not looking back. The truth is,  the Episcopal church in this country is losing membership every year. As a church, we are not meeting the needs of the world as it now is. If we are going to be relevant,  we have to use the best of who we are while at the same time reaching out in meaningful way to the world around us.

In a real sense, starting this church was an experiment.  We wondered if we could be who we are as Episcopalians and still grow and be relevant. While we have a long way to go,  I believe that we are accomplishing this. There are so many amazing people in this community of faith,  striving to learn and live the Christian faith. So many of you are giving and serving both in the church and in the community. Many of you are in small groups learning about your faith. So many of you are giving to the lives of our children, so they have a foundation upon which to build their lives. And our worship is both traditional and modern.  While, just like you, I might not always like a song, or even like my own sermons,  by and large I feel, like Sharon,  that our worship allows me to come into God’s presence and be encouraged and strengthened and challenged.

As we go through these next few weeks,  and we talk about giving,  be aware of the two components of giving. First,  giving is spiritual and has to do with your personal relationship to God. The struggle really begins and ends here. The issue is not the church asking you for money. It is really God challenging you.  As Jesus said:  “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar and to God the things that are God’s.”

Second, if you value this community of faith,  struggle with your giving to support it. We do not exist on air.  We have to pay bills just like everyone else. If you feel that we are not doing what we should,  and there are other churches that you value more, then by all means give to them.  But if you value what we are doing,  then struggle and pray and then make a pledge to the future of our life together.

Seventeen years ago this month we began meeting in our house to plan and dream about a new church. At that time, I said I would not be afraid to ask for money,  for I believed in what we were doing. Well,  here we are. What you see happening in the community happens because people have given faithfully.  Our challenge today is the same as it was then. May God give us the grace and the vision and the courage to share our wealth so that we may do our part in building up the kingdom of God for ourselves,  and future generations.   AMEN!