October 15, 2006 Church of the Covenant
A Stewardship Sunday
Robert J. Campbell, D. Min., D. D.
Printer-Friendly VersionOn a Shoestring and a Prayer
II Corinthians 8:1-9
Mark 12:1-9"On a Shoestring and a Prayer," it was the title of an article on personal finance in an old Kiplinger’s magazine at the beach house. It talked about churches and giving. "Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, to open the doors it costs 22 dollars a person.” The focus was on how churches live from hand to mouth these days. By looks of the budget, that is the case with our Presbytery and General Assembly as well. Mostly due to cutbacks by conservative congregations who seem to be awash in cash, but withhold their support trying to force their agendas. Something contrary to anything I know about faithfulness, about the connectional church, and about our commitments to God.
Lots of churches are struggling. Elders in one church tell each other to kneel when passing the old boiler. After the bills are paid at still another large church, there is usually 27 dollars left for ministry. "Money is like a thermometer," says the Christian Research Organization, "Empty Tomb, Inc.” What a great name! That organization reports, "Giving in mainline churches has fallen like a deep freeze."
Giving in America, once proportional is now about the same as what people spend at a fast food counter. But it’s not something new. The Bible has over 2,350 passages that talk about money, possessions, and God’s priorities in people’s lives. That’s more than any other subject. It would seem God’s people have always had idol struggles; that is, struggles with what we worship.
I heard a story the other day about a minister who had a member who claimed to tithe; pledging $1,200 dollars a year. The minister knew that meant he only lived on $12,000, so he went to visit him. When he saw the lavish surroundings, the minister asked the man if he knew what a tithe meant. "Of course," said the man. "After the mortgage, food, clothes, car, money we need for the fall cruise, that leaves $1,000 a month of which I give 10%. The minister suggested maybe he ought to spend all of his money and then he wouldn’t have to give anything to the church.
Pretty pushy but it raises the issue, how do we figure what is appropriate? Truth is, as times get better giving usually goes down. The statistics are clear, poor people give more. A recent news magazine indicated that people earning around $10 thousand a year give about 5.2% of their income, people making $30 to $50 thousand give about 2.5% and people making over $100 thousand give far less, if at all.
Mark tells us Jesus told a story. There was this vineyard owner. He made his land secure, he made capital improvements, then he put some caretakers in charge. When it was time to count his return on investment, he sent one of his servants. Not a collection agent, mind you, but someone to simply receive what the owner had coming. The tenants beat him up. So the owner sent another and the tenants killed that one. Time and again, the Lord of the vineyard tried to simply get a return on his investment. Finely, he sent his son whom he loved. Surely, they would respect him. But the tenants had a committee meeting and decided that if they killed the kid since he was heir, they could then keep everything for themselves. What should the vineyard owner do? What would you do?
Charles Lane tells the story of a cold January night. In a warm church basement Reverend Johnson eagerly reported to his finance committee, "Stewardship was very good last year! We not only paid all the bills, we even had a little extra to carry over." Unwittingly, says Lane, Rev. Johnson had just become an accomplice in one of the most dastardly kidnappings ever known to Christiandom. Without intending, he had just kidnapped stewardship and replaced it with "paying the bills.” When churches see stewardship as meeting the budget, it’s called "crisis funding" even if there isn’t a crisis. It re-enforces in members the idea that our money is our own. I may be a tenant on this earth, but what is mine is mine. So let us be very clear, while Jesus talks about money a lot he never talks about the church’s need to receive it. He only focuses on the need of the giver to give. And that is how we keep stewardship from being kidnapped.
Everyone knows that a church needs cash to operate, but that kind of giving never reaches very deep, its minor league. If we give because we need something or want something or think we’re going to get something, that should tell us something about our values. If we give out of obligation or guilt or look at percentages, we haven’t gone very deep in our struggles with our priorities. The only way to understand any commitment is through a circle of grace.
Paul writes, "The abundant joy and extreme poverty of the churches of Macedonia have overflowed in generosity. They have voluntarily given even beyond their means.” One writer recently pointed out that in churches themselves the portion of income going to mission has declined almost 50%. Churches are more concerned these days with beautification projects than the least among the least. But that was not the case with those Macedonian churches. They were leading their members by example. They were not preoccupied with income or budgets and neither were their people. They all understood that wealth was the root of all anxiety and so they gave beyond their means and were filled with joy.
The circle of grace breaks the cycle of preoccupation with wealth, no matter how much or little we have. We give not out of abundance but out a sense of what is important and in so doing we pass grace along to others. That is Paul’s point when he says, "Before they gave their money, they gave themselves."
A member of another church once cracked, "Ya know the reason churches sing the Doxology after the offering is because they got the loot.” Not so! I love the way this congregation stands as the ushers bring the plates forward. It is each person’s opportunity to affirm praise to God "from whom all blessings flow."
A young Scotsman told his minister, "I’m fed up with Christianity. All I ever hear is give, give, give.” The minister replied, "Can you think of a better definition of your faith?” Back in the 16th Century Paris, there was a beggar who was near death. He was taken to the operating table where a group of doctors, speaking in Latin, discussed the case. "Let us experiment on this vile fellow," they said. To which the beggar replied in perfect Latin, "Will you call vile one whom Christ did not disdain?" That beggar would later be known as the renowned philosopher Muret.
The circle of grace, of which stewardship sits at the heart, is about compassion for others. It is about commitment to the one who has provided us with every resource. It is about our confidence in our God who is the only security there can ever be. If Christ did not disdain to die for any of us, who are we not to give of ourselves for every other person and especially those our society counts as least.
So, this morning we are not talking about paying the bills, although bills have to be paid. We are not talking about charity. The servants first sent by the owner of the vineyard did not say, "Let charity roll down like a mighty river,” and for good reason. While charity alleviates the affects of poverty, only justice eliminates the causes. The circle of grace, of which we speak, enables us to commit ourselves personally and corporately to justice coming down like a mighty river.
There was this vineyard owner who in the end sent his only son. "When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss. Were the whole world of nature mine, that would be a present far too small for love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all.” It ought to be a stewardship hymn. Give, give, give, what better definition of our faith?
This great church to which God has called you, to which God has so wisely placed on Euclid Avenue in the heart of University Circle; this congregation that has been summoned "to be out in front of her peers, leading them forward and Godward,” this place where the saints who have gone before us have so generously given, now is dependent on you and me if that legacy of doing justice is to be passed on to yet new generations.
A circle of grace called stewardship,
it’s not about shoestrings,
it is not about paying the bills,
it is about saying our prayers,
and then worshiping our God in proportion to what God has lent to you and to me!
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