Stewardship
1992 (Year C) 11 October / Pentecost 18
All Saints Haggerson
‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful’ said Mae West. And I guess that’s just what you are thinking as you settle down and see me again. More likely it’s, ‘What on earth is he doing back here again? Thought we’d seen the back of him.’ Well they wheel the Area Dean out for Stewardship dos, so here we are. Verily, too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
One of the most enduring memories I have from my childhood is of singing in the church choir. We had to go at least twice on Sunday, or we didn’t get paid. The evening service in particular was mind bogglingly boring. The sermon lasted at least twenty minutes, a bit like this one, and seemed for the most part to be completely irrelevant to us.
To make time pass more quickly we used to make paper aeroplanes out of the sheets which had the hymn numbers on and fire them up and down the choir stalls. Occasionally a supremely successful one would zoom out of the choir stalls altogether into the middle of the church. But then, horror of horrors, it could be seen by the adult members of the choir sitting in the stalls behind us. At that point one of them would reach over and whack us on the back of the head with a leather glove. ‘You’re not here to enjoy yourselves’ they would hiss ‘Just sit still and behave’.
I went back to that church earlier this year, with my family and the parson who whacked me most of all collapsed in church. It was very difficult to dispel feelings that at long last some kind of divine retribution had taken place.
‘You’re not here to enjoy yourselves,’ the words are still with me. The ring in my ears. ‘You’re not here to enjoy yourselves.’ The other thing that we were not there to do was to talk about money. The people of Leeds would have been appalled if a member of the clergy had got into a pulpit and told them that it was about time they put their hands in their pockets and gave more money. It would’ve been as if they’d said something rude. You might not be there to enjoy yourself but at least your misery was free.
Well I’m here today to tell you that a great many things have changed. One of them is that you are here to enjoy yourselves, for that is what God longs for, and the other is that my goodness you are here to give. What’s more you’re here to give generously, in the same way that the readings today record God giving to us.
For God is generous. It’s at the heart of his very nature. His gift of creation is unlimited and he wants us to take pleasure in it, to revel in it and enjoy it. His son compared his father to a Lord who out of generosity gave a great banquet and when not all the seats were filled commanded his servants to go out and bring in others to share this great feast. Generosity is at the heart of Christ who even gave up his life for us.
Generosity should be the hallmark of any Christian congregation. Generosity of spirit, of possessions and of money. Yet something strange happens to our brains when we begin to think about giving to the church and what we offer to God. Somehow we switch off and strange standards begin to apply. We assume that it will be taken care of by somebody else – the Diocese (after all they paid for the roof) church Commissioners, the more wealthy members of our congregation, anybody but us.
What has been happening over the last few weeks is that you’ve been asked to think very deeply about how generous you can be to the church. You’re not being asked to give away so much that either you or your family go without, nor do we want you to give so little that you scarcely notice it.
We want you to give generously, realistically, responsibly and prayerfully. We don’t want you to make promises that mean nothing and we don’t want to start a process that will result in promises that will be impossible to keep. Neither are you here to feel guilty. You’re being encouraged to assess you giving, for giving is a very special, a very important activity. It’s not something to be taken lightly but it’s not a dirty word either; it is truly divine. Our giving mirrors the gifts we have already received from God and it is made in response to those gifts.
So gone are days when 10p was an adequate weekly contribution to the work of the church. That’s not generous, that’s just giving God the fag ends. 50p shows that God is about equivalent in our lives to a Sunday paper. £1 and he’s got to the price of ten cigarettes. It makes you think doesn’t it?
God showers on us out of divine generosity gifts which are creative, sustaining and costly, for they called us into being, they have developed us up until now, ‘for in him we move and have our being’.
And we are privileged to be able to mirror these gifts, given us by God, in the ministry of the church here. With our own talents we can call into being new forms of ministry. With all your gifts you can sustain the ministry which is already in existence here. We would encourage all your giving to be generous and sacrificial.
Yet we assume the call to make choices and decisions about how generous we can be, can be put off for another day. Well I am also here today to tell you that there can be no excuses for not looking at this issue seriously and of putting it all off. Here’s a story of a man with excuses.
‘The Lord said unto Noah, ‘Where is the Ark I commanded you to build? And Noah said, Verily I have had three carpenters off sick. The gopher wood supplier hath let me down – yea even though the gopher wood hath been on order for nigh upon twelve months. The damp course specialist hath not turned up. And God said to Noah I want the Ark finished before seven days and nights. Noah said it will be so. But it was not so.
The Lord said unto Noah, ‘What seems to be the trouble this time?’ and Noah said, ‘My subcontractor hath gone bankrupt. The pitch for the outside of the Ark hath not arrived. The glazier departeth on holiday for Majorca, yea even though I offered him double time. Shem hath formed himself a pop group with his brothers Ham and Japeth. Lord I am undone.’ And the Lord grew angry and said, ‘What about the animals, two of every sort I have offered to come to be kept alive. Where for example are the giraffes?’ And Noah said, ‘They have been delivered to the wrong address, but should arrive by Friday.’
And the Lord said to Noah, ‘Where are the monkeys and the elephants, and the zebras?’ Noah said, ‘They are expected today.’ The Lord said, ‘How about the unicorns?’ Noah wrung his hands and wept. ‘Oh Lord, they are a discontinued line. Thou knowest, thou knowest how it is.’ And the Lord said Noah’, My son, I know, why else dost thou think I have caused a flood?’
I hope that your stewardship programme is successful. I hope that it will be a time for making good decisions and choices not a time for excuses and putting things off. I pray that you will all find the appropriate way to give back to God some of the good things he has showered on you. AMEN