"This Faithful Life"

Two years ago, when I was fresh out of seminary, I volunteered to assist my good friend who was the co-chair of the stewardship campaign. I offered to give the “minute-for-mission”, where I spoke to the value of stewardship as an act of worship.  But the other task was the follow-up calls that the committee does after Stewardship Sunday: (Please read committee- as “Patti and Emily.”) We ventured on three consecutive nights of 20-30 calls per night to all those who did not respond or turn in a pledge card during the year’s campaign.  Believe me, we had delightful conversations catching up with people and seeing how the church can continue to be of support to them. All was going on well, until this studious seminary graduate was challenged with this from a very disgruntled man: “Now tell me this,” he says. “Why is it that the only time I hear from the church is when they call to ask for money?”  I should have anticipated that question, it should have been on my “how to answer” check-sheet that I hoped would have magically appeared at that moment. Why does the church call only when they are asking for money?  My best pastoral response quickly fleeting from my mind left me with this: “That is a very good question, sir, a very good question.” None the less, the question lingered?

                Why Stewardship? Since the percentage of students who come out of seminary have had training in financial matters of the church is an abysmal 9%---it is nice to know that I have landed in a place like First Presbyterian that doesn’t have issues talking about money? Why stewardship? I want to make sure that in our time together we have a chance to speak of money. So if you would, I need your help a little bit this morning. I would like all of you to press your lips together and say the letter “M”, and relax. Very Good.  Now the O’Jays had a song about Money. It goes something like this…Money, Money, Money, Money, Money!!!!! Let’s try that together. Money, Money, Money, Money, Money!!!!! Thank you for convincing me that we as Presbyterians are not tight-lipped about our money!

When you read the literature about Christian stewardship, as I have in the past few months or so, you come across a famous quote by Dr. Clarence C. Stoughton, from 1949. When you search the Google site for Clarence C. Stoughton you come up with the same quote used by many church denominations to talk about stewardship. But he has something to say that I think we all need to hear. “Stewardship is what we do after we say we believe.” Therefore, giving to God is a lifestyle choice that recognizes that everything is a gift from God. “Stewardship is what we do after we say ‘Yes’ to Jesus.”

                Stewardship is about making choices, as individuals and in a community. It is more than giving money to the church. Stewardship is about being faithful disciples, caring for and managing all that God has given us.  Our denomination states that “stewardship is not just one part of Christian discipleship it involves every aspect of life in all stages of life.”

                Last week, the text we heard was ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ as a reminder of our challenge for spiritual growth in our discipleship, you remember the “Good News-Bad News.”  Moving through the stages of our spiritual formation, we are challenged to be closer to God by reducing our distractions of the earthly things that bind us. When we give to God and the church we discover the bond that brings us closer to God-to be the people that God most wants us to be.

                Maybe today in “Stewardship: Part Deux” we come to understand our giving to God as an expression of our faith? Giving out of gratitude and out of response to what God has given to us.  In our text this morning, we hear of the day laborers who wait for their shot to yearn a usual daily wage.” Some get to work a full day in the sun and heat, some are selected later in the morning, or the last workers selected even into the afternoon. All are sent into the fields, and at the end of the day, the landowner tells the manager to give them their pay, beginning with the last (the very workers who were selected toward the end of the day) and then paying the first workers from the beginning of the day (those who had worked the longest). Those who were selected early in the morning came in expecting something, maybe expecting something of a greater wage. When they saw those who had only been in the field for an hour, they were mad. They were hot, sweaty, grumpy-and they were mad! They grumbled (you can only imagine what 21^st century rhetoric they would be spouting) to the landowner for equal pay for an equal day.  Imagine if you were a day laborer-are you angry because of the supposed inadequacy of your daily wage? Do you grumble because you think you deserve more-or worked harder/longer than others? How you do feel toward the landowner who gives everyone the usual daily wage?

                The shocking thing I think for us to hear is the last verse where the landowner says: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?”  The landowner stops the grumblers in their tracks and changes the focus of their petition. “Are you envious because I am generous?” This startles them because they have their response all figured out.  But the landowner says, “NO! Not so fast.”  This scenario is not the bargaining issue that the landowner is willing to have. In essence the landowner says, it is not for you to know what that wage should be-I will decide. And that is hard for us to hear. The vineyard owner claims the right to pay his workers not on the basis of their merits (how long and how hard they work) but on the basis of compassion.  The landowner acts out of compassion-not on merits or on time spent laboring in the field.  Remember our OT reading from Psalm 145, underlying the parable is the OT concept of God as the Creator who is good, that is, generous to all (Ps 145:9) The gifts of God’s kingdom are likewise equally allotted. They never depend upon how much one produces. The emphasis remains upon how willing we are to approach God’s tasks, and not so much upon what we are due.[1]

                Mark Allan Powell, a New Testament professor from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, challenged an adult education class I attended. The topic was stewardship. When it comes to money, Dr. Powell, like Jesus, is relentless.  Both are animated and forceful in their tone of voice making the argument for greater stewardship. In his book, Giving to God, Dr. Powell explores, unapologetically, the ways in which giving to God is a worshipful, expression of our faith.  He says this about our passage-“God will give to us generously, and that’s all we need to know; beyond that, God can give to any and to all as God wishes and it is, quite frankly, none of our business if God chooses to give more generously to others than to us.”[2]  See what I mean-relentless? The challenge for us is to trust that God gives us all we need, and therefore we are called to give in gratitude.

                And if “Stewardship is what we do after we say what we believe,” we are called to live by faith.  A faith that is evident in all aspects of our lives: worship, prayer, church attendance, bank accounts; habits of spending, saving, sharing our money, wealth and possessions. We live in a world which depends on money for life and livelihood and we cannot hold conversations about money separate from our life of faith. In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the community about belonging to God: “All things are yours and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God” (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).   And maybe in the life that we lead, we need to be reminded of just this exact thing.  I have gotten better in my stewardship, once I began to figure out why I should give and give generously. There were some difficult times, like during graduate school and seminary, where making end meet was a job in itself.  Exploring issues of stewardship made me realize the importance of grateful giving and faithful living.

                While visiting Princeton Seminary for the Institute for Youth Ministry this past week, I heard many exciting sound bites about youth ministry, youth culture and the vision for the future of the church. None of it was separate from the faithful life that generations before us were called to, and yet sometimes we forget that. We forget that the stewardship of our lives is in fact watched by the younger generations. How we handle disagreement in our congregation is seen by those generations behind us? How we model stewardship of our lives is witnessed by those younger than us? Do our youth, see that we care enough to prepare for the challenges that they will face? Do our youth see us putting an envelope the offering plate? Do we have conversations about stewardship with our children and youth? Do we model what was modeled for us?

A very poignant comment came at our first evening plenary from Shane Claiborne, self-professed hill-billy, and ordinary radical from eastern Tennessee. He helped establish a community in North Philadelphia, called A Simple Way, committed to living simply and redirecting the message of Gospel into the streets. He could be one of the best representatives that could change the face of American religion and politics; and he comes with handmade clothes, long dreadlocks. He says this about the stewardship of our time and talent related to young people, “Young people need to see creative stewardship. If we don’t model that for young people, they will go somewhere else.” He was talking about the issue of relevance for our youth and for a community’s need to model the behavior they wish to instill in others.

I am reminded of a phone call my mother would make to me every year through college. “Hello, Emily. Sunday is stewardship Sunday and I am wondering how much I can put down for your pledge this year?” A bold and creative Presbyterian elder if I have ever seen one. I quite frankly hadn’t thought about it. I saw my parents give; I gave when I was younger in the children’s pew envelope…but I forgot about it! My mom wanting to keep stewardship on my mind would reply, “Would this amount be what you would want to give?” I would say yes and I would work to pay my pledge as I could, sometimes with help from my parents. My mother was relentless, each year-raising the question.  My parents modeled for me the act of stewardship of their time and their money, but I tuned the important point out, but not completely!

                Stewardship, when fully understood is living faithfully.  I would pass by this wall hanging in my friend’s apartment that read, “Faith is the place between the way things are and the good things that are sure to come.”  We are a part of living in that space of faith-aware of the challenges us before us and at the same time dreaming big about the good things that are to come. If you read the lectionary text in Revelation for today, you get a sense of this. That God is doing a new thing, calling a new heaven and a new earth.  I would encourage you to think of what the good things are to come for the life of this congregation? How can you be a part of it? How it takes all of us to hope for the future that is bright.  How it takes all of us to live into the individuals God is calling us to be and calling us to be as a congregation, a community of faith.

                Now I know full well that you may have already made your stewardship commitment or thought about how much you would increase or decrease your pledge this year. Maybe, you’ve written your pledge on the card, sealed the envelope and put it in the mail or are holding it in your hand.  I know that one Sunday or two Sundays may not convince you that you should give generously to the live and nurture of this community of faith. But maybe, just maybe-once you figure out why you give, it will be easier to figure out how?

Our Goal is to find the life that God wants us to have. That his life will be the best we could possibly have. “Stewardship is what we do when we say we believe.”  It is the hope that the cross is why you are here, to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ, to learn what a life of discipleship can really mean for discovering who God is calling you to be. You may be here for the fellowship, or the formational programs, or the ministry in the community, but let’s not forget the reason why we come to the foot of the cross. We are called to stand here-and look at the cross-remembering the faithful life that Jesus led. It makes us remember his faithful life so that we could have ours. 

On this day, when the table is set, we remember the fellowship meal Jesus had with his disciples. We come to the table today, some of us broken or hurting, in need of spiritual renewal, or longing for the reconciled relationship that keeps us from fully loving one another. Whatever it is, when we celebrate at the Lord’s Table, we have a glimpse of the heavenly banquet, and of the things yet to come.

Or maybe figuring out why we give to God, brings us to this font. On the day of our baptism, others promised to nurture us in the faith, the gathered community promised to love us and tell us the story of this faithful life.  But they also promised to be in a community of faith that would seek to follow the ways of Jesus Christ. The reason the font is here, central to our worship space, is so that we would remember the story that others passed on to us, and the commitment to be nurtured in our faith.  Being baptized, calls all of us into a life of thoughtful companionship, with each other and with God.  It is the promise that our parents gave to us. It is the promise we give to our children, and our children’s children. It is the promise we place firmly in the hands of God.

Stewardship when fully understood is living faithfully. “The real bottom line of Christian stewardship does NOT include just a dollar sign. The bottom line of all Christian stewardship is Jesus Christ.”[3]  Stewardship is what we do after we say we believe….

People of God, please stand as we affirm what we believe.