St Paul’s Canterbury , 11^th August  2013, Pentecost 12

Second Stewardship Sermon in Series of Three

The Rev'd Jonathan Chambers

Luke 12: 32-40

Watchful Slaves

It looks like we will meet our budget this year – first time for years. So if we are tracking alright  – you may well ask

“Why would you want to be bringing up the unseemly subject of giving and money?”

What I want to talk about this morning is not about fund raising or what the church needs to make ends meet. It’s about Spirituality and what it means to be a Christian.

I’ve been reading a book called “Radical Hospitality” – about Benedictine spirituality and our need to be hospitable to strangers. Written by an American Benedictine monk and a lay woman in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Centre, the book acknowledges the anxiety of being attacked again but clearly tackles the spiritual dangers of living in fear. 

“Fear is a thief. It will steal our peace of mind and that’s a lot to lose. But it also high jacked our relationships, keeping us sealed up in our plastic world with a fragile sense of security.

Being people who fear the stranger, we have drained the life juices out of hospitality….Benedictine hospitality is not about sipping tea and making bland talk with people who live next door or work with you. Hospitality is a lively, courageous, and convivial way of living that challenges our compulsion to either turn away or turn inward and disconnect from others” P.9

So what’s this got to do with Stewardship and giving to the Parish? ……Everything.

What stops us from reaching out and offering acceptance or hospitality to the unknown stranger?

What stops us giving sacrificially to our church and others???

FEAR . FEAR that we won’t have enough for ourselves. Fear that what we do have may be taken away.

The book goes on

“Hospitality is not optional for a well balanced and healthy life. It meets the most basic need of the human being to be known and to know others. It addresses the core loneliness that we avoid with the bustle and hast of our hectic lives. There is the big loneliness at the centre of every person. It is universal. There’s a reason for the loneliness. It’s meant to lead somewhere. Even if you are unconscious of it, the big lonely is driving you homeward”

The big loneliness is that empty feeling, which can persist; even when we are surrounded by a room full of people or a house full of all the gadgets and creature comforts imaginable.

Stewardship is most importantly about our spiritual journey and our need to give, in the same way as the “big lonely empty feeling can only be satiated by giving of ourselves in a relationship to God and our Neighbour.

You may or may not recall ….that at your baptism you or your Godparents promised on your behalf

 “..by God’s grace I will strive to live as a disciple of Christ, loving God with my whole heart, and my neighbour as myself, until my life’s end”

Stewardship is about living out that promise. It’s not about the church needing money, but about your need to give, if you are really serious about satiating that big empty feeling at your centre.

Three weeks ago the Men’s Spirituality Group had a weekend away at Toolangi.  Fr John Stewart led us on Saturday for a quiet Day and talked about God who loves us unconditionally  – who continually takes the initiative to enter our lives and transform us , if only  if we are open to listening and seeing.

He started off with Leunig cartoon and story about Daffodils and Transformation

(See Pew Sheet)

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE - He had heard of near death experiences and their transforming power, but he had never had one. It seemed to him that much of humanity was near death - the way people watched so much television! The living dead, he thought. While he was out walking, it occurred to him that modern existence itself might be a constant, near death experience. A flower truck turned a corner and a load of daffodils spilled from the back and buried him. He lay bewildered for a moment under the glowing yellow heap, and then poked his head out into the sunshine. He saw his reflection in a shop window. He smelled the daffodils. How lovely! He thought. It was a near life experience, and already a transformation was in progress.                        Leunig

 

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So you might say what’s the  evidence of Transformation here at St Pauls??

Well that fact that the number of people pledging has increased from 63 to 84 in the last 3 years is great and to be celebrated. On the other hand the average weekly giving at St Paul’s is $25 per week.

Frankly this doesn’t seem to be much, and it suggests that there may be a lot of fear around.

Stewardship and giving is about our relationship with God and our neighbour. How much are you able to risk? Giving of ourselves in relationships as well as in our possessions can be  scary. But in today’s Gospel Jesus says

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

The Kingdom of God is the place where God rules. Being part of the Kingdom and receiving the Kingdom is only achieved by following Jesus and taking the risk- that’s what “living by faith” is actually about. Like Abraham, taking God at his promise and setting out into the unknown. Its about putting your trust in Jesus and seeing what happens.

The passage goes on

“Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys”.

So what does this mean in today’s context? Do I have to give everything away? Is the Datsun up for gabs again this year? What about my family and responsibilities?

How much you give is between you and God to talk about. God doesn’t expect us to be stupid, but God does expect us to give sacrificially, regularly and as the first priority from our income – not just what’s left over.

If 100% of all that I have comes from God, how much am I willing to give back? The Bible talks of a tithe or 10%; which is  a fairly confronting starting point.

You may say “what about my family”- God wouldn’t expect them to miss out?

I’m sure God wouldn’t, Gods wants us to love and care for our families,  however for all of us there is a difference between what we need and what we want. What messages are we giving to our children about where true values lie, if we are consumed by consumerism?

The values of the Kingdom are so contrary to all the messages I hear in the media - particularly advertising

 "You’ve got to have this Big TV, car, spa, pool, GPS, Home Theatre, Coffee Maker, Ipod, Ipad, Lounge suite…or to win Lotto to be happy"

It’s very difficult to resist isn’t it?

Yet I know that my regular giving to my church is the best proof that I have to myself that I’m not consumed by consumerism.

It also helps deal with the deluge of demands I receive from so many other worthy causes.

(Like the people who try to sell me ballpoint pens over the phone at tea time)

When I know that I have a regular commitment to my parish that is then used for local ministry and beyond, then I know that I’m doing my bit. I’m doing what God wants and I can say No to others without those languishing feelings of guilt.

By giving regularly and sacrificially I know that I’m engaging life. I’m doing something to overcome the excesses and inequalities of our society. As a Christian I’m not just a passive victim who feels overwhelmed by the enormity of the problems; I can say- to the extent of my ability  I’m contributing to the solution - and thank God I can. In this there is real freedom.

Stewardship and sacrificial giving isn’t however just for your own good in enabling you to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Importantly it’s also about doing justice and including others.

By giving, you enable ministry in the Canterbury area. We are the church charged with the awesome responsibility of giving voice to the unspeakable, of providing rituals which enable healing; of conducting the funerals and giving hope to the frightened. We are called to be light and salt- a people that bring hope and affirmation of all that is good.

Each year in UFTG we invited the CFA Volunteers with their trucks and the community to Church. We have a thanksgiving service, put on morning tea and provide a place for the Community to come and to say thanks for the selfless work of the CFA members. We bless the volunteers and their trucks recognising that they are contributing to the “commonwealth” of our community; that they too are part of the Kingdom of God

As the Anglican Church here we have a responsibility not to look after ourselves but primarily,  to provide for the spiritual care of this community. In a society obsessed with wealth creation and individualism, which leaves such an aching wound of loneliness, you are called to bless, affirm and celebrate all that is good. In a society which is primarily driven by “the market”, you are called to advocate for those who are marginalised by it.

This is a place of Transformation where people have ‘near life experiences’ and are regularly released from a life of ‘near death experiences”.

If I think of the new comers in the last 3 years who have visited St Pauls and who have made this their home,  and have been transformed. I think of Henrietta who has found a home and care here,  at a time when her other home has been in turmoil. I think of the trust and transformations that have been experienced  in the Men’s Spirituality Group as it meets fortnightly.  We had one member who said after the weekend away that… he’d..” been to church camps all his life and this was the first one that he wasn’t required  to bring his Bible; and yet it was as though Jesus was present with us,  in a way that I’ve never experienced at a camp before”.

Three years ago when we talked about stewardship Eric Jensen said, I’d love to give more, but I expect that like many others, I’m asset rich but income poor. He said “It struck me that we could encourage people to consider a bequest to St Pauls in their Will when property is sold”. And so we now have a brochure about Bequests and Eric has indicated  that he would be happy to talk to anybody else about Bequests and share his thoughts if you would like.

 These are stories about transformations – of growing to wholeness and seeing things in a new way … that enables us and those around us to live in Hope.

At a Diocesan level, contributing to the parish enables money to be spent in speaking the prophetic and countercultural voice like the  banner on the cathedral which instead of

vilification says, ”Lets welcome Refugees”

Stewardship and giving is not about fundraising so that the church can keep going. It’s about your spiritual survival and the spiritual survival of our community. May God bless us as part of this community in the activity of Transformations and wholeness.

“Do not be afraid… for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”.