Stewardship

1992 (Year C), 1 March / Transfiguration

St Matthew Upper Clapton

The amazing thing about the weather that we’ve just had is that it gives people a chance to say, ‘Do you remember when all winters used to be like this? I remember when I was a child’, they’ll say. It gives us a chance to recall our past, and that’s not always a bad thing.

One of the most enduring memories I have from childhood is of singing in the church choir. We had to go at least twice on Sundays or else we didn’t get paid. The evening service was in particular mind bogglingly boring. Singing psalms that I didn’t understand, prayers with long words that meant nothing and worst of all the sermon – at least 20 minutes of unadulterated misery.

To make the 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 very successful one would zoom out of the choir stalls altogether into the middle of the isle. But then dreadful things would happen, because the adults who were sitting in the back stalls could see what we’d done. At that point one of them would lean 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 the church earlier this year, with my family and the person who whacked me the most of all collapsed in church. She was ill, but she collapsed right there in front of me. It was very difficult to dispel the feeling that at long last some divine retribution had taken place.

‘You’re not here to enjoy yourselves’ – the words are still with me. They ring in my ears. ‘You’re not here to enjoy yourselves’. The other thing that we would never have done in that church was talk about money. In fact if one of the clergy had got into the pulpit and told the congregation to put their hands in their pockets and give more money the congregation would’ve been appalled. It would have had the same effect if he’d stood up and told a rude joke. You were not there to enjoy yourself, but at least your misery was free.

Well one of the reasons I’m here today is to tell you that times have changed. You are here to enjoy yourselves, for that is what God longs for, and my goodness you are here to give. What is more gone are the days when lO pence was an adequate weekly contribution to the work of the church. That would barely pay for your magazine and weekly newssheet. If you give 5O pence a week it would hardly go any farther.

What will happen over the next couple of weeks is that you will be asked to think very deeply about how much you give towards the cost that this church incurs. You won’t be asked to give so much that you or your family goes without, nor do we want you to give so little that you hardly notice it.

We want you to give realistically, responsibly and prayerfully. We don’t want you to make promises that you can’t keep or that mean nothing to you. And certainly the visitors will not be coming to see you just to make you feel guilty. What they are coming to talk to you about is to encourage you to assess your giving, for giving is a very special, a very important activity. It’s not something to be taken lightly and it’s not a dirty word either. It is a divine activity. Our giving mirrors the action of our Divine Father. When we give we put ourselves with God and the angels, for He is pleased to give his children what they ask for and our giving is made in response to his gifts to us.

Those gifts which God gives us are creative, they are sustaining and they are costly, for they called us into being’ they have developed us up until now, and they have, through the suffering of Christ, become the become the source of eternal salvation for all who put their trust in him.

We are privileged to be able to give in our turn in the ministry of the church in this place. With our own talents we develop new ministries here. With all your gifts you can sustain the ministry already developed here and we would encourage you in making your giving sacrificial, giving freely of your time and honestly of your money.

Yet something strange happens to our brains when we think about church and what we’ll give week by week to God’s work. Somehow we switch off and think it’s nothing to do with us. We assume that it will all be taken care of by somebody else – the Church Commissioners, the more wealthy churches in the Deanery, the richer members of this congregation – anybody but us. Our offerings don’t matter because they’re so small and insignificant and anyway we need the money for something else this week. We assume that the call to make choices and decisions can be put off for another day. Well I’m here to tell you that there can be no excuses. We must look at this seriously for the future of this church does depend on you. And it matters today not tomorrow. We cannot keep putting it off. Here’s a story about a man who made 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 seven 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 Japheth. Lord I am undone.’ And the Lord grew angry and said, ‘;What about the animals? Two of every kind I have offered to come to be kept alive. Where are, for example, 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 ‘Verily Noah, Noah my son. I do know how it is. Why else dost thou think I have caused a flood?’

I hope your Stewardship Programme is successful. I hope it will be a time for making good decisions and choices. not a time for excuses and putting things off, leaving them for others and hoping they will be done for you. 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