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Sermon - November 23rd, 2008
Stewardship: Do We Know Jesus?
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46
The sixteenth century monk and reformer Martin Luther once said that God gave our hands fingers so that money could slip through them. He explained that this helps us fulfill a basic human longing—the desire to do good, to help others, to share our resources with those in need, to make a difference in the world. When we let money slip through our fingers for this purpose then amazing things happen especially in our church. For over 200 years, Methodists have built hospitals, universities, schools, housed refugee families, fed the hungry, saved lives, helped those hit with disaster, shared the gospel, and put flesh on the word.
God also created us with opposable digits….our wonderful thumbs. This God-given creation gives us the ability to grab, grasp, hold, clutch, and cling. Where would we be without our thumbs? Our hands represent a picture of the privileges and challenges of money. Our hands remind us that we are contradictory and complex creatures. We cling to the dream of having more, more stuff, new, improved stuff, the latest amazing gadget, more security, more room, more storage, more, more, more.
We also long for a time when getting more might take a back seat to something deeper—something like gratitude, compassion, reverence, peace. As much as we want certain things for ourselves, we also yearn to share ourselves for a greater good, we yearn to give something back, we yearn to pass something good and lasting onto others. We are wonderfully created this way. Many of us are still working on figuring that out or figuring out a way to balance our desire for accumulating more and our deep yearning to give.
At our church you have many opportunities to give, through your service, your talents, your gifts, your presence. It is a gift of your presence when you sign up to spend the night at the church as a host for homeless families through Family Bridge. It is a gift when you buy a pair of socks or a tube of toothpaste and bring it to church next Sunday trusting it will go to someone in need. It is a gift when you give your time and talent to the choir. It is a gift of your service when you sign up to usher or light the candles or greet people or teach Sunday School. You also should have received in the mail a pledge card with a tri-folded letter asking you to prayerfully consider your financial gift to the church. All these are ways to give back a part of what is a gift from God—our life and everything and everyone in it.
As scary as this economic crisis is, honestly, I believe, as I have said before, it is a wake-up call for us, for America, for our government, and for the whole world. It is showing us just how connected we all are. It is showing us that all of us are spending more than what we have, individually and corporately. It is telling all of us that we are going to have to tighten our belts. It means people are losing jobs, corporations are asking for help, and more people are applying for food stamps than ever before. I don’t have to review the news for you. But I do want to say that it is a time when the church is needed more than ever because it is not just an economic wake-up call, it is a moral wake-up call. We need to ask some very difficult questions like: Where are our priorities, where is our treasure and our heart? Are we living a life enslaved to our love of money, our love of stuff and acquiring more? Just what is our relationship with money? And what is our relationship to God? Are we living a life of faith and trust in God? Well, I know what I’d rather be doing. I’d rather put my trust and faith in God, than in the economy or in money. But that is not as easy as it sounds. For many it will mean starting at ground zero and rearranging their whole way of life. I know that that is what it has meant for me in the last five years.
One of the first issues that came up in my marriage 25 years ago was about how to spend money. I don’t remember my parents ever using a credit card growing up. I didn’t like credit cards, because it just postponed the inevitable, paying for what I purchased. I spent what I had, saved as much as I could, and didn’t ask for financial help from my family, and was proud of being self-sufficient. Then I met Andy, charming, funny, confident, smart. In two years we were married and my values about finances were challenged. We started using credit cards as a way of life. Early in my marriage, I gave up fighting for my particular values when it came to money. For 10 years we lived on my salary while he stayed home taking care of the girls and the finances. When I questioned anything about our finances, he always had a reason, an excuse, and justification for what was going on. We spent our whole marriage spending more than we had. When we separated, we had a $55,000 credit card debt, yes, $55,000! Our divorce was very contentious because I was not willing to negotiate with him; I stood my ground, and paid a lawyer a lot of money to help me do that. Fortunately, we were able to pay off that debt in the settlement.
It’s been over 4 years since the divorce and I have done a lot of soul searching on what my part was in letting our debt grow so much. I have learned through AlAnon, thanks to Emma, that I have been a co-dependent for years. I kept the peace in the marriage at the expense of our finances. I am not a spender and a shopper. I have very deep values of going without, delaying gratification, sacrificing. They came from growing up on a ranch where I heard my father tell us that he didn’t know if we would have enough money to buy new school clothes. Yet, I let those values go in my marriage, I gave up the fight early on for the sake of getting along, for the sake of the illusion of peace.
I’m telling you this because the last 4 years have been a time of healing and learning and regaining my own self-respect. Also, I want to share with you that for the first time in my life, I am going to give proportionately back to God what I earn. I’m not going to tithe, because that would be a 6% increase in my proportionate giving. I am going to increase what I gave last year by 1% of my compensation.
I am doing this not because I’m such a good, wonderful person, or because I needed something to preach about. Believe me, I’m a worrier when it comes to money. I have a lot of fear and anxiety around money. I am far from being together about this. To be honest, I think maybe I’m saying to God, “Hey, I’m going to do this now, so it’s up to you, God, to prove to me that I can!!!”
Believe me, there are many people in this church who are a lot more generous than I am! There’s also a part of me that is saying, “It’s about time, Gwen. Twenty-two years in the ministry and you aren’t even giving 5%! What kind of pastor are you?” So, yes, there is some guilt, but, I am trying really hard not to beat myself up. I have the beginnings of this good feeling, a feeling of release and freedom and commitment. In fact, I am looking forward to bringing my pledge card next week and giving it to the children, and leading us in prayer, dedicating the pledges given. I am looking forward to trusting that God will use my gift and all our gifts to do incredible things through our church. I am looking forward to seeing what we will be able to do as a whole congregation as we give and put our trust in God.
God created us with a need to share our wealth for the sake of others and for the good of our own souls. To be wholly human, we need to let some things go—on purpose. We need to release part of what we earn for the good of others. We need to learn to hold onto what we earn lightly, letting some of it slip through our fingers for the good of others. We need to give back to God some of what God has given us. We need to be free of the sins of greed and envy, and the burdens of worry and anxiety. We need to put our trust in God. Sounds easy, but I know that it isn’t.
So Jesus sat on his throne on the day of last judgment before all the nations separating the people just like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. To those who practiced radical hospitality and extravagant generosity he said, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for you fed me when I was hungry, welcomed me when I was a stranger, gave me drink when I was thirsty, clothed me when I was naked, visited me when I was in prison, and took care of me when I was sick.” It’s a magnificent scene, with Christ as King, setting everything right, separating the good from the bad. It’s one of those scenes that Christians dream about and hope for and pray about. But it’s a parable. It’s not about the end of time, it’s a parable about right now. Christ the King in all his glory is here already, right now hidden in plain view. He is not sitting on a throne. Christ is in the smallest, most vulnerable child. Christ is in the man who just got laid off. Christ is in the homeless families who are staying in our church this week. Christ is in the stranger. Christ is in you. Christ is in the person sitting next to you. And knowing this, believing this, how can we do nothing, how can we turn away, how can we talk the way we sometimes talk about other people? How can we treat Christ the way we do? All the nations, all races, all religions, all people, every man, woman, and child on this earth—that’s where Christ is hidden—and especially in someone you would call the least of these.
We don’t act like we believe this, the nations don’t, and one of those nations is our nation. Sure we escape our personal responsibility, we can blame everyone else, we can make excuses, we can justify our actions. Just like I can very easily blame my children’s father for our credit card debt; after all, he was the one who spent most of the money, he is the one with a whole garage full of toys. But until I’m free of my co-dependency which includes blaming him, I won’t get beyond the guilt and resentment and worry and anxiety. When I start seeing Christ in him and in me, then I will be truly free. And I want to be free from all that. I want to let it go. I think, just maybe, I’m ready to finally let it go. However, I won’t be able to until I take responsibility for my own spiritual path, my own spiritual disciplines and growth and love of God. Christ is asking me, “Do you see me in those you consider the least of these?”
This is such an important step for me, to start my own journey toward tithing by 1% baby steps. Already, this decision has given me more than I have the words for…words like freedom, release, joy. It’s about trusting God. It’s about loving God. It’s about loving me and my neighbor. And it about doing all the good I can. It’s about looking for Christ who is hidden in plain view, in all of us.
My hope and prayer for you is that you think about your own life, your own spiritual path, look deep inside of you, and prayerfully consider, are you doing all the good you can?
Amen.