STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY
We can talk about money in the Church - as long as we drive in first gear. Moving beyond that speed puts us in danger. Somehow we can discuss the stewardship of time and talents all year long with no repercussions, but when we pull the string on the pocketbook, we have hit the sciatic nerve.
But let’s just take that chance and throw caution to the wind. Indeed let’s depend on the wind of the Spirit to blow through here for a while as we traverse this treacherous territory.
We have a budget that will enable us to provide the material tools necessary to do our Mission. The question is, how will we meet that budget?
The answer lies in three parts. Part one is that WE will accomplish it by OUR sacrificial gifts.
Fund-raising projects can be a lot of fun and fellowship, for the family and the community. And they can help the treasury of the church. No one is suggesting they be disbanded. But the point is we cannot look to the community to pay our bills. Finally, no schemes, no gimmicks, no projects are going to do the major part of fulfilling our goals. The task is OURS; it is YOURS and it is MINE. From OUR hearts and OUR pockets.
Part two is that we will reach our goal by sacrificial giving. Some of us know something of what that means. But I think it is safe to say many of us do not. Now is the golden opportunity to begin.
It is time to seriously examine our blessings - our family, our education, our income, our cars, our houses, our health and every other gift of God in our life.
And to ask ourselves if we are really returning a sacrificial gift to the Giver of all good gifts.
Where do we begin our thinking about how much is a generous share? Obviously each of us must answer for himself. But let’s remember God required the tithe, that’s 10% of our income, from the OLD Testament Israelites. In the New Testament, there is no set requirement, because it is assumed that Christians who live in the New Age in the fullness of Jesus the Christ will begin at the tithe of 10% and move up!
Someone remarked the other day that it doesn’t matter how much we give, but how we give, in what spirit we give. To back him up, he then quoted the passage, "For God loves a cheerful giver." Certainly God is concerned with our motives, but this statement is a large half-truth which has spawned a lot of casual stewardship in the Church.
Because what I give of what I have is a measuring stick of my convictions and a measure of just how important my faith-relationship with my Lord Jesus and his Church really is. Stewardship is an issue of the heart. It is not only giving cheerfully - after all, I may well be more cheerful in giving a nickel than I would be giving a dollar - stewardship is giving as a measure of my love and my commitment.
But how can I afford to give more? That’s part three, the most imporant part. We can afford it if we are willing to do something as old as Abraham. If we are willing to trust our God and take him at his word.
It comes down to trust. It is that simple. We are either willing to take God at his word or we are not. And his word is, from Malachi, the prophet, "Bring the full tithes into the storehouses, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing."
"Thereby put me to the test," God says. And that’s what it is about. Many of us have woven an elaborate network of reasons and excuses and rationalizations why we have felt we are unable to give more back to the Giver of all. But when we stand before our God in light of Malachi’s words, all the ifs, ands and buts are gone. It all comes down to the matter of trust and taking God at his word.
Stewardship is not knocking heads and breaking arms. It is not devising schemes for wringing dollars out of pockets. It is not planting a huge thermometer by the pulpit and making a weekly sideshow of our progress. Stewardship is deciding to trust - to test God out-taking him at his word - that when we are returning a sacrificial offering, ours will be an overflowing blessing.
Of course, taking God at his word is not a completely blind leap in the dark. Abraham trusted God, Jacob trusted God, David trusted God, Moses trusted God - and God kept his word to them. And Jesus trusted his Father, even through the excruciating hour of his death. And Jesus rose from the dead!
Stewardship is wiping out the cobwebs of reasons and rationale for not trusting and getting down to the nitty gritty - we take him at face value or we do not.
It is like a mother who nurses and nurtures, caresses and cares for, cooks and cleans, speaks to and prays for her child as he grows up. But there comes a time when that child must leave the nest she has carefully and lovingly built, and he proceeds to build his own life.
At that point Mom must let go. She has helped prepare and create the foundation, and now she must allow her child to move on his own. The bird must fly by himself.
At that point of separation and departure every Christian mother wonders how it will go with her child. What will be the future for her child now matured? Her only resource is trust. Trust in God to be the close Father for her new adult, but also trust that the foundation home she has helped to build will be sufficient to sustain this new adult in his new world.
It’s that kind of mother’s trust we require to be faithful stewards of our God. To know we do not know what tomorrow brings. To know we do not know if we’ll be here next week. But to decide to take God for what he says and promises: "Return the full tithes into the storehouses ... put me to the test ... and the windows of heaven will open for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing."
It’s that hard. It’s that simple. When we consider the promise of return, we really can ask for no more. Amen!