November 13 - Proper 28, Year A (RCL)
Preached by the Rector, the Rev. Canon Dr. Raewynne J. Whiteley, and the Stewardship Chair, Duncan Marshall.
It all begins at the very beginning, when God created
the world.
In the beginning,
there was nothing,
or at least, nothing
that we would recognize.
Just God.
And then God spoke, and there was light, and sky and sea,
and land and trees and plants,
and sun and moon and stars
and animals and birds and fish.
And finally, human beings.
And then God did something that God
had never done before.
God spoke to the things he had created, but not to all of them,
only to the humans,
and God said.
“I have created all this. And I give it to you, I give it to you
to take care of and use and enjoy.”
Way back at the beginning of all things,
God made us stewards
of all of creation
and God blessed us.
Stewards. If you look in the dictionary, the primary meaning of steward
is “a person who manages another's property or financial affairs; one who administers anything as the agent of another or others.”
We manage this world
for God.
So all that sounded great. I’d even convinced myself,
right up to the point
where we got the dictionary definition.
And the idea
that everything I have
belongs to God,
and I manage it
on God’s behalf.
“Hang on,”
I want to say,
“I work hard
for everything I have.
Yes, God might have created it
way back at the beginning,
but I’m the one
doing the work right now.
It’s mine.”
“No, it’s God’s.”
It’s mine.
It’s God’s.”
And yes, I sound like a two year old.
“Mine.”
As human beings
we struggle with this.
It seems crazy to say,
after we work so hard,
that everything we have
doesn’t actually belong to us.
But crazy or not, as Christians
it’s what we believe, or at least
what our faith considers an essential.
Everything we have
comes from God.
Everything we have
belongs to God.
God gives it to us
to look after, even to use,
but in the end
we’re still accountable for how we use it
to God.
When Raewynne and I decided to share a sermon to discuss the topic of Stewardship in our human lives, I thought I would have the easy part of it, as after all, Raewynne would handle all of the “God Talk”, from the pulpit no less, and all I would have to do would have to do would be to put together a few pious-sounding statements about our duty and our responsibility to share and that would be about it. And I could even do this from the relative safety of the lectern, no elevated pulpit for me! Yet the more I thought about the question of what does God really expect from us as a faithful people who endeavor to do good in his name, the more complicated the question became, especially when we think about it through the prism of our human foibles and frailties.
So if everything we have comes from God,
are there any guidelines
for how we should be using it?
Actually, there aren’t many.
And the very first one comes
not as a law
but a story.
Abraham - you remember Abraham, the one who left his homeland
in search of the promised land -
Abraham
had settled
in what we now call Israel.
And there had been a battle,
Abraham rescuing his nephew
from some local tribes who kidnapped him.
And afterwards, he went back to where he was living,
and a priest came out and blessed him,
and Abraham offered up
a tenth of everything he had
in thanksgiving to God.
And that was the very beginning of the tradition of the tithe,
giving a tenth of everything we have, everything we earn
in thanksgiving
to God.
It became encoded in the law; this is what you should do,
but at its heart
the tithe is an act of stewardship,
a giving back to God in thanks
a portion
of what God has given us
as stewards.
And the tithe is still the standard
for what we should offer back to God.
the other 90 percent, even though it belongs to God, God lets us keep.
It’s a sign of our thanksgiving
it’s a sign of our faith.
All we have, all we are,
is because of God.
Why? Why should it be difficult to give to our church? The case is clear, we have a budget to meet, we have missions and projects to sustain, and we have a clear base of support, after all, we’re just asking for a little more than last year, a mere percentage increase, just send that envelope in and enjoy a smile of sweet satisfaction…….and get on with the holidays and of course our holiday shopping.
Let us try to expand our thinking to consider that our first and most important act of stewardship is to turn over and turn back to God a portion of what he allows us to have. We have often heard the expression “those dollars just slipped through my fingers.” Usually we say this with regret, often when we do something foolish, or when we spend money unwisely. Think of this act in a different way, not by clenching our fingers and holding on with all of our might to what dollars we have, but to let them flow through us, pass through us, touched by us, but directed on to a greater good that only God really sees. So the act of giving to God is not a priority that we can check off on our “Do Good” list, or a good cause we fit in or even elevate to a higher place on our list of charities; it is a fundamental act that draws us to God and closer to him in our human understanding of his plan for us.
Consider with caution the story of Ananias and Sapphira, as it was written by Paul in Chapter 5 of the Acts of the Apostles. Ananias tried to give only a portion of his bounty to God, holding back part of his wealth for himself. In effect, he thought he made a shrewd bargain, keeping part of “the deal” for himself, but leaving the impression with God and the community that he had done so much more. Peter caught him in this treachery and when Ananias realized that he lied not only to his community, but more importantly to God, he fell down and died on the spot…. And the story continues to unfold, as his wife, his co-conspirator, met the same fate. Is this far removed from another notorious couple in the headlines recently, Bernie and Ruth Madoff?
Lest we think this story has perhaps too much “fire and brimstone” for our taste, consider Jesus’s words in Matthew, Chapter 6, where he instructs us on how to live and how to be comfortable in a pious life and to be liberated and secure in a way that only can come from trusting and following God. “Do not be anxious about your life,” Jesus said, “or what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body or what you shall put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, and the lilies of the field.” In other words, trust that God will provide. We need not worry, God will provide and meet our true needs…..not the needs we think are true.
Stewardship is a response of discipleship,
an ordering of life that puts all we have under Christ’s rule—our time, our money, our relationships. Jesus is not interested in just ten percent. Jesus wants one hundred percent of our lives. The essence of stewardship asks: How do we respond?
At its General Convention since 1982, the Episcopal Church has affirmed the tithe is the minimum standard for giving and encourages its members to tithe or be working toward a tithe.
A tithe may sound like an unattainable goal to begin with, but if you start with a certain proportion of your income and increase the percentage each year, you will be tithing in a short time. You could start with 5%, a half tithe. Another option is 2½%, which is equivalent to pledging the first hour’s pay of a 40-hour work week.
So, as you think about what you can –and should- do for our church community this year, do consider that what we think we “own” is really not ours to give but to transfer back and forth to God in a cosmic and divine transaction that we are lucky to be a part of. Consider your acts of stewardship privately in conversation with God and if we engage our minds and hearts in this type of reflection and conversation, we will be further along the road to true understanding than we ever thought we would be. Have a good journey and from one fellow traveler to another, I will see you on the road. God bless you.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2010