We’ve come to that time again when we’re asking for your pledges for the coming year so that we know how to budget for next year. This is the last time I will be delivering the annual stewardship sermon as your rector. And so, it’s my last opportunity to talk about my favorite topic and yours! And let me say right up front, I’m not asking you to do anything that I’m not doing. Linda and I have already made our pledge to Redeemer for 2020.
I say that it’s my favorite topic and yours with tongue in cheek, for after talking about stewardship for the 37 years of my priesthood, I know fully well how a sermon on stewardship is viewed by you folks in the pew. I’ve had people say to me things like this: “I invited my friend to come to church with me today, but if I had known you were going to talk about money, I wouldn’t have done that.” My answer to that is, “That’s why I didn’t tell you I was going to talk about money.” Or there’s this one: “All the church ever talks about is money!” My answer to that is, “Not so!” Or this: “You shouldn’t ask people to pledge. You should live on what people put in the plate and let it go at that.” My answer to that is, “How would they know what they should put in the plate if you never talk about it?” And then there’s this one: “When I come to church, I want to hear about Jesus, not about money.”
Well, I’m glad you said that. I wonder how Jesus raised money? He had to have enough money to support 12 disciples and himself for three years. We know they had money because we know they had a treasurer who kept it for the group, and the Scriptures tell us that they gave money to the poor. But there’s no account about the first pledge drive or fundraiser in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.
While we don’t have that information, we know that Jesus talked a great deal about money. He used it to teach about the kingdom of God, as in the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price and the Parable of the Lost Coin. In fact, 16 of the 38 parables deal with money and stewardship. He warned us that money could be a barrier to our salvation. For example, he taught us that where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. He actually told one rich young man that for the good of his soul he needed to sell all of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. And he lifted up as a virtuous example the widow who gave all that she had to the temple treasury.
Jesus talked a lot about money. Why? Because money is one of the most powerful forces in life. We all know it’s power. We know the stress produced when there isn’t enough of it, and for some persons there’s never enough. It can ruin friendships and marriages; it can destroy trust; it can become more important than anything else in a person’s life. It’s so crucial to life that three of the 10 Commandments deal with it, including the first and the last.
While there’s much negative power in money, it’s also a powerful force for good. It builds churches, hospitals, and schools; it enables the creation of great works of art and music; it helps those who are called to spread the good news of salvation; and, not to be overlooked, it enables the ministry that goes on in and through Church of the Redeemer, where day in and day out the sacraments are administered, the Word of God taught and proclaimed, the sick and shut-in visited, and the poor given relief.
It is this work that makes it necessary to have a pledge drive, but if we didn’t need to have a pledge drive, if all of our financial needs were met, we would still need to talk about money, because how we deal with this powerful force in life affects our relationship with God. If we don’t deal with it properly it can be a barrier to our relationship with God and, therefore, to our salvation.
Our stewardship theme this year is “Live to give.” I love that slogan because in three words it summarizes the Christian faith. It’s what Jesus’ earthly life was all about—giving himself to others through teaching, healing, and forgiving, but most of all, through the giving of his life on the cross for all of humanity. In that giving of himself, he became not only a sacrifice for our sin, but also an example of how a truly meaningful life is to be lived. The world tells us that the way to successful living is to get all you can, making yourself the center of your world. Jesus showed us that the way to true life is to give of your substance for the good of others. I remember reading that John Wesley, an Anglican priest and the founder of Methodism, exhorted to his followers: “Make all the money you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” Christian faith and giving are inseparably bound together. The Christian life is a giving life.
We are here today to receive what our Lord Jesus wants to give us, and that is himself, in his Body and Blood. Yet, he wants to give us himself so that we, in turn, may give ourselves to others, through the giving of our time, talent, and treasure. As one of our hymns puts it beautifully: “To give and give, and give again, what God hath given thee; to spend thyself nor count the cost; to serve right gloriously the God who gave all worlds that are, and all that are to be.”
Live to give. It’s the way of Christ.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
20th Sunday after Pentecost
27 October 2019