It is a distinct privilege to be speaking with you on this occasion because the theme is stewardship and the subject is money. These are difficult topics for us. I suppose there are many reasons for our squeamishness but for myself it is because money sets my hypocrisy in stark and measurable terms. The gap between the priorities of our beliefs and the priorities of our lives are made painfully clear when we look at the Prayer Book on one hand and our check books on the other. This theme and subject set us on ground that is delicate and holy at the same time. I am honored to be asked to explore that ground with you. With that in mind let us get on with it and begin where every sermon should, with the lessons for today.

In the Gospel for this morning, Jesus has just dropped the first hint about the events that we have come to know as Holy Week. The disciples don’t get it. As they walk on into Capernaum, Jesus seems to want to know how his little bomb shell about being killed and rising again has impacted his followers. So he asks them, expecting or at least hoping for some wrestling with what Jesus has said is in store. He is disappointed to get an embarrassed silence. It seems that they quickly gave up on the crucifixion and got into a discussion about which one of them would be Secretary of State in the new kingdom.

Jesus always had an ear for the teachable moment, even when his frustrations were being strummed. Clearly no one was ready for the kind of heavy lifting required to take on some thing as inconceivable and dense as the passion of the Messiah. Go back to the basics. Remind people of the core message of Christian life, the central principle of citizenship in the Kingdom of God. Life is meant to be lived outward not inward. It is not about getting but giving. The way to be the greatest is to be the most generous. That point is so basic and so hard, so simple and so subtle, so applicable and so avoidable. It is the central tenet of Christian living and the point of this sermon.

To consider that basic truth, lets look at the theme itself: Stewardship. It is an old word for management and the thing to know about managers is that they are not owners. Managers are accountable to owners. God is the ultimate owner of all things including us. We are the managers of our calendars and check books and as such we are accountable for the kind of managing we do. What we do about priorities and promises, getting and giving tells what kind of managers we are. And that matters to God and to us.

All of the imagery about Judgment Day is meant to convey a simple and obvious truth. What we do now matters later. That is the same point we know about every other aspect of life. We tell our children that if they do not do their homework they will not get good grades. We know that what we have for lunch affects our weight. Whether or not we exercise today affects our health tomorrow. It is true about saving money and building relationships. Some may ask exactly what difference these things will make and we must answer that we do not know. But we know it matters. Now I am certainly not saying that people go to hell for not pledging. I am saying that what we do as managers, what we do about giving matters in this life and the next. You can see the difference it makes in this life. Think of the happiest people you know, those who are most content, those who made the biggest difference in your life and in our world. I am willing to bet that their lives were characterized by generosity, that they lived outwardly for others and not inwardly for themselves. How we apply or do not apply that principle in our own lives defines us, shapes us and determines whether we are merely filled full or wonderfully fulfilled in this life and in the next.

These are good reasons for giving but I hope you will not be stunned if I tell you that I have a narrower purpose than general generosity. I want to think about why one might give here, to Christ Church while there are so many other worthy causes around us.

Consider what we do when we gather in church on a Sunday morning. You obviously have your own personal and important reasons for being here today. I cannot comment on those but I can look at some of the general reasons this Sunday morning worship is so unique and vital.

People are like small dogs in tall grass, we have to jump up every once in a while to see where we are and where we are headed. That is what a worship service is for us.
• It is God centered and God focused. That is important because every place in life reminds us of the need to look out for #1. This is the only place we come to that reminds us that we are not #1. Creation is God centered and life is God focused. We are precious creatures and children of God. We will never be anything less nor will we ever be anything more. As one person said, “The good news is that there is a God and it is not me.”
• Here we listen to the wisdom of our spiritual ancestors reminding us in scripture, music and liturgy to live outward not inward. Where else do we hear that vital message?
• Then we move to the very vortex of human experience as we join in the prayers. Through prayer we are in touch with the joy and pain of life: weddings and illnesses, births and deaths, wars and celebrations. We touch the powerful and the powerless, we enter recovery rooms and living rooms, we stretch from heights of heaven to the depths of earth. It is an amazing reach.
• Then we take up an offering, giving money that follows the prayers out into the world. Most of it stays here and provides response to people we know. Some of it goes to the diocese where it goes into the inner city, reaches through chaplaincies into schools and hospitals, and where it supports congregations. Some of it goes to the national church which sends it to work on Indian reservations, in Africa, in prisons and veterans hospitals. It supports our chaplains in Iraq and Afghanistan. It fulfills the wisdom of the Hindu poem: If you would give your flowers to the god on the altar/Give your flowers to the man on the street/And the god on the altar will get them.
• Then we move into the Eucharist where we are confronted with the mystery of God and Life. If you watch NBC News in the evening you know they have a feature called “In Depth” It usually lasts for two minutes. That is our world’s idea of depth because it knows nothing of mystery. Karl Barth once said that theology is pausing at the mystery. That is what we do here in the Eucharist. We pause to be reminded that life does not fit between our ears but is full of wonder and mystery.
• Finally we conclude with the blessing and the dismissal making it clear that we are blessed in many ways and that we are accountable for how we manage them.

No place else does that!

You are at the center of a great truth. You know the heart and face of God because Jesus has shown us. The God he shows us is the beginning and the end and as the hymn says “pure unbounded love.” God lives outwardly, generously, and God created us to do the same. That is not a complicated fact, not a secret yet people are literally dying to know it. You know people whose lives are staggering under the burden of trying to be what God already is. They are trying to save themselves, prove themselves, find respect, get power, get control, get even, be safe, be successful. But we don’t have to go looking for any of those things because it is all here. It is built into our creatureness and our child-of-Godness. But people keep looking for these things in the strangest places – in drugs, sex, falsified youth, 70 hour work weeks, gossip, the fantasy reality of television. They try to accomplish them by putting others down, propping themselves up, hiding behind locks or excuses, fortifying themselves with expensive gadgets or the latest fashions. They try to fill themselves full by getting when what they really need is to be fulfilled by giving.

What you have here at Christ Church is what everybody is looking for. Some are literally dying to know what you know, to have what you have. Don’t you see how important is that it be here for them to find? Don’t you see how important it is that you help them find it?

Your dollars alone will not make these things happen but these things are not going to happen without your dollars. That is the reason we are talking about the stewardship of money today and I thank you for the privilege of sharing in the conversation with you.