Stewardship
1988 (Year B), 20 November /
Last after Pentecost
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
And the Lord said to the Pharisees, ‘Alas for you Pharisees! You who pay your tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and overlook justice and the love of God! These you should have practised, without leaving the others undone ... You are like the unmarked tombs that men walk on without knowing it!’
We’re actually in Luke’s Gospel and the Pharisees are getting stick again. And we’re also in the middle of a Stewardship programme and the likelihood is that if someone hasn’t already contacted you to see if they can come and talk about paying your tithe then you’re certainly not safe here. They’re probably eyeing you up in the pew just at this moment and getting ready to pounce when the service is over.
But let’s start with the Pharisees. They didn’t stop at just giving God mint and rue. They came to Jesus at other times to make their position clear. They reflected regularly on their lives. They wanted to get it right and they had rules to help them. They fasted twice a week and gave away ten per cent of all they owned.
We could in reality all take a leaf out of their books. Fasting twice a week and giving away ten per cent. If we all did that then this church would never be in need. If we did that we could probably pay the common fund contributions of every church in Hackney. If everyone in society did what the Pharisees did we would level up conditions between the rich and poor. There would be an end to need. Fasting twice a week and giving away ten percent that could be the new lifestyle for authentic Christian living. Fasting twice a week and giving ten per cent – with that, deserts could be irrigated, slums cleared and poor nations developed.
So for a start we really must stop calling them Pharisees, because through the long Christian tradition the Pharisees have become the villains, the bogey men. The figures of hate. Those who put Jesus to death. We must simply call him what they were. The good men.
Well then, the good men take the stage and debate as good men always do, what is right and proper for good men to do. It is always important to get things right. Just how much mint and rue needs to be given to God. And we, we will be debating – maybe some of us have already decided – but we will be debating over the next three weeks – what is right and proper to give to God.
These good men figured often in Jesus’ teaching. You will all remember the story of the good man and the tax collector who went into the temple to pray. The good man held out his arms to God and prayed with these words, ‘God I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector’. What has he to thank God for – nothing at all really. He’s taking care of his own salvation. He’s followed the rules. Got himself sorted out. Decided how much to give. And so he presents himself: good and righteous, as he most definitely is, and waits for the applause.
The tax collector comes in. He’s the one who in tradition gets all the sympathy. Yet all his repentance can’t ultimately blind us from the fact that the man is thoroughly corrupt. Faith took him to Jesus in order to save his servant’s life. The one affected the other. Even we sometimes behave differently because of faith.
Yet the great works of faith are not given to many of us. Acts of heroism and martyrdom are not for us either. It’s the still small voice and the achingly insignificant fumblings towards faith that characterise our lives. We will probably never demonstrate to others the glories of faith. They will see in us only the failings and the hypocrisy. So it’s fortunate that great faith is not demanded nor even expected. Just a little is enough.
A story you know well concerns Christians who were tortured for their faith in Japan. The torturers came and one a great big man was barely threatened before he denied his faith. He was a coward. He ran away leaving his friends to their fate. Some years later, so the story goes, as he was about to leave a beach. He heard a voice calling him from behind. He turned round, but there was no-one there. It was neither the voice of a man or a women. But he heard the echoing clearly amidst the sound of the black ocean waves.
‘All you have to do is go back and be with the others, said the voice. If you’re tortured again and you become afraid, it’s alright to run away. It’s alright to betray me. But go follow the others’.
And so he returned to the camp his friends were confined in. And the next morning the officers unlocked the door to interrogate him. As he heard the rasp of the lock and the great big man was lead away, his friend whispered. ‘If it hurts you, it’s all right to apostatise. It’s all right. The Lord Jesus is pleased just because you came here. He is pleased’.
That’s the story. It’s amazingly simple. And the prayer, that’s easy too. ‘Lord I believe – help thou my unbelief’. AMEN