October 26, 2003
Sermon on an Unpreachable Subject
Riley E. Jensen

Of course, there is no unpreachable subject.  If there were, I would not be preaching on it.  But this one comes close because we are told by the pollsters that it turns more people off than any other.  Perhaps that is why the Apostle Paul (who had the reputation for being blunt and straightforward and even abrasive in other settings) finds himself doing a Texas two-step around the subject of stewardship in this passage.

It is not an unpreachable subject but those of us who want to keep our congregations in tact and alienate as few as possible may find ourselves dancing around the “M” word so that we never quite make clear the Christian responsibilities of stewardship.  And who can blame the preacher if she is not comfortable talking about money when in a recent survey by Robert Wuthrow of Princeton, 43 percent of you agreed that “churches are too eager to get your time and money”, and 36 percent said you were annoyed by this tendency of the church to meddle in matters of money.

And we get it in the neck again when Wuthrow concludes that “money can be discussed in churches more openly than it is currently, and clergy need to do a better job of communicating their church’s material needs.”  It is no wonder that some feel the topic is an unpreachable one.  The preacher is between a rock-and-a-hard-place; between being more explicit and persuasive than ever about the material needs of the church and those who don’t want to hear about it because it violates their sense of the spiritual mission of the church.

Of course, that is just what I am going to proceed to do this morning.  And frankly, I am not too worried about alienating you.  I have been doing this for a number of years now and I am less worried about alienating you than I am about making clear to you what the needs of your church really are, and why your faithful stewardship is needed not only for your church’s good but also for your own spiritual well-being.

Because we are a people of the Bible, that is where we start.  These verses of Scripture comprise the most extensive remarks on Christian stewardship in all the New Testament.  Paul’s efforts in behalf of what was called “The Great Collection” constitute our clearest picture of the fund-raising activities of the early church.

It is extremely important for us to get the picture here.  Paul was out on the frontiers of the missionary effort -- in fact he was the church’s first great missionary.  Jerusalem was home base and the leaders of the Jerusalem church were the old guard who because of their position and their disposition were the conservators of the values of the early church.

Of course, Paul, the missionary, was on the front lines and was not as concerned about conserving the past as winning converts to the Gospel.  There were a number of issues which created tension but all we need to know for our purposes is that there was a definite tension between Paul, the missionary, and the leaders of the Jerusalem church.  Nevertheless, Paul had committed himself to the first great financial campaign of the early church called -- “The Great Collection” -- the purpose of which was to benefit the poor in Jerusalem.

We can imagine that this was an uncomfortable position for Paul to be in because his ministry tended to be aid receiving rather than aid producing.  He was a missionary.  He had been sent out to start up churches.  Generally, the missionary has all that she can do to build self-supporting indigenous churches.  Seldom does the object of missionary activity turn around and send financial aid back to the sending agency.

However, I am sure there are exceptions.  The one that is part of my experience happened in 1972 when Seattle was going through an extreme economic downturn due to 70,000 lost jobs at the Boeing Company in a two-year period.  At that time food banks were springing up all over the city and boatloads of rice were arriving as gifts from the Christian church in Japan.  Interestingly enough, the response was as much embarrassment as it was gratitude.  We have strict rules about who ought to be the givers and who ought to be the receivers.

And so we can imagine that Paul’s discomfort here is the discomfort many of us feel when we are put in the position of asking for money.  In doing so he adopts a number of strategies in trying to pry open the pocket books of his listeners.  Paul knew what Jesus meant when he said, “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also;” or in more contemporary language, “If you want to know someone’s priorities, look at their checkbook.”

Frankly, some of Paul’s strategies betray his discomfort with the whole subject.  First, he tries the strategy of competition and envy by holding up the example of those sacrificial Macedonians who have just concluded a successful campaign.  This is the kind of guilt trip approach that is not foreign to many congregations.

I remember visiting with a church member one time and we got to talking about church finances.  He asked me what the average church pledge was.  I told him.  And then he started huffing and puffing and told me that he was going to increase his pledge beyond the average because that was where he belonged.   Now I don’t know where he “belonged”, I just know that the motives of envy and competition and guilt are not worthy of true Christian stewardship.

However, the apostle Paul who had never been through a fund-raising seminar is amazingly adept at some of the techniques.  For his next approach is to try flattery.  In Verse 7, he talks of how they already “excel in everything”, of how they are the recipients of so many of God’s spiritual gifts.  Therefore, according to this logic, it ought to be natural for them to excel in generosity also.

Finally, in Verses 10 -- 14, Paul bluntly plays the duty card.  It appears that they had already promised to be part of this “Great Collection”.  And now he is calling in that card and telling them that it is time to make good on their previous commitment.

Frankly, I have tended to shy away from emphasizing this approach over the years, because I would rather have people give out of a sense of joy and gratitude.  But I may have been wrong.  When we join the church, we make a commitment to serve Jesus Christ through it and to support its mission.  The German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, taught that one of the greatest dangers to the church is offering “cheap grace”.  When our commitment costs us nothing, it is cheap and has little meaning.

I find myself smiling benignly at Paul’s theological and homiletical gyrations here as he pulls out all of his considerable rhetorical gifts to spur the Corinthian Christians into action.  And yet the point of this passage is critical to our life together as Christians.  It is important for us to think about money and our giving of money as a spiritual issue of major significance for our discipleship.  Where our money is, there is our heart as well.

As Jesus once noted, there is a connection between what we do with our money and the condition of our souls.  Charity, the stewardship of our time, talents, and money is not something added on to the gospel, not optional equipment for disciples.  Giving is inherent in the gospel.  We give because, in Christ, God has given so much to us.

Therefore, Paul anchors his appeal to the Corinthians on the basis of what God has given them.  “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” (8:9)

I hear you saying that you get the point; you ought to give; it is part of your discipleship as a Christian; it is part of expressing your love for the one who gave himself for you.  But why give to Westminster Presbyterian Church?  Let me take a few moments to give you a summary of our financial condition with the imperative that we have never needed your financial support more than we need it today.

From my five years of pastoral experience here, Westminster Church has never been a more exciting place to serve than it is today.  I was told before I came here that you were a church that had a reputation of rising to the challenges.  And I have found here a depth of faith, a commitment to excellence, and a tenacity in the pursuit of being all that we can be to the glory of God.

It was four years ago that we launched our Vision 2000 Campaign to raise 2.6 million dollars for building and mission.  That was the largest amount ever raised by this church in a single campaign.  There was some apprehension as to whether we could do it and what would be the impact on our ongoing budget.  I am here to tell you that we are reaching the end of our three-year pledge period and that we have every indication that we will be able to declare success some time next summer.

I have to tell you that is especially remarkable because shortly after we made our commitments the economy went south.  During these last three years we have faced some of the toughest economic times ever seen in West Michigan.  Many of you have lost jobs.  Some of you who thought you were going to be able to enter retirement have gone back-to-work.  Others have had to cut back drastically and live more simply.

Through this time we have tried to manage our budget more prudently, responsibly maintaining programs with minimal increases mostly to accommodate rising utility and healthcare costs.  Churches like Westminster that seem to survive and prosper through good times and bad can sometimes project a false image.  The average person in the pew sometimes assumes that there is a secret silver bullet that can miraculously balance the budget if things get too much out-of-whack.

Frankly, in a previous church I had that silver bullet in the form of a $7,000,000 endowment and a few folks who said, “Don’t worry I will help out if things get too tight.”  My friends that is not Westminster, and frankly I am glad it is not.  The stewardship of every person here makes a difference.  We are hearing some blue sky optimism from those Wall Street economic forecasters, but the word on the street here is that a turnaround is still more hope than reality.

The truth is that we are not immune from our circumstances.  Our hearts may be generous while our pocketbooks are empty.  Therefore, we will give out of our hearts the widows mite and God will be honored and we will be thankful.  However, there are others of us even during these difficult times who have been blessed in ways that enable us to give out of our abundance.

It is no secret that the personal priorities of every one of us are reflected in our checkbooks:  “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  As you have been able to tell, the title of this sermon is clearly a misnomer.  For the subject of Christian stewardship is an eminently preachable subject.  In fact it is at the heart of our life together.

Our stewardship theme this year is more than just a catchy phrase with some alliteration:  “Giving for Growth and Service”.  This is how we grow and this is how we serve -- by giving of ourselves and substance.  Since Jesus first spoke about the importance of the widow’s mite, this has been a central truth for Christian stewardship.  It is not equal gifts but equal sacrifice.  While we certainly have very real financial needs for the coming year, we are first and foremost a people of faith.  And that means that as each one of us does what we can, God will provide and we will be about the mission of Christ.  However, the key to our Christian responsibility is that we do something -- that we make a pledge and as we do we affirm our commitment to the ministry of this church.

I want to conclude with a little story borrowed from a colleague which I think is on point.  It is told as the true story of a Presbyterian minister away on vacation.  One Saturday morning he got a call from a local congregation, a small, poor church, that their pastor was very ill, and they needed him to preach the next morning.  He agreed.

The next morning he and his young son journeyed to the poor, small congregation, where he preached a sermon before 20 people.  When the service ended, one of the deacons said, “You gave an inspiring sermon.  We only wish we could pay you something, but we are so poor we don’t have any money to give.  We are very sorry.”  The minister said, “Oh, I was so glad to come today to help you out.  It was my privilege to do this for you.”

In leaving through the narthex with his little son, the minister noticed an empty offering plate.  So moved by the poverty of the church, he took out of his wallet a crisp, clean $20 bill, put it in the offering plate, and then he and his son went hand-in-hand to the car.  As they started to drive away, that same deacon came running across the lawn with an envelope in his hand, flagging down the minister.

The minister rolled down his window, and the deacon handed him an envelope, saying, “We couldn’t let you leave without giving you something.”  So the minister opened the envelope, and there inside was a crisp, clean $20 bill.  As they drove away, the minister asked, “Son, did you learn a good lesson from this morning?”  The boy said, “Dad, I sure did.  If you had put more in, you would have gotten more out!”

You see stewardship is not about God; it is about us.  What you get will be proportional to what you give.  The gifts themselves will never be equal.  There is no such thing as an average.  But there can be equal sacrifice, the equal effort to seriously and prayerfully consider what portion we can give back to God for all that has been given to us.

Amen.

.