I want to tell you a true story about a woman who went to a counselor a few years ago with a problem.  She took her husband and three children with her.  She thought the problem was that the family was inconsiderate and too messy.  However, they thought the problem was her over-concern and compulsive neatness.

 

The focal point of the conflict was the carpet.  The woman spent a lot of time trying to get her family not to walk on the carpet, because they left footprints -- not mud or dirt, just footprints -- dents in the fiber of the rug.  She spent a lot of time trying to get people to use the back door and nagging them when they didn’t, or getting them to take their shoes off and to walk lightly.

 

Whenever she saw a footprint on the carpet, she would rush off to get the vacuum and would vacuum the carpet immediately.  She usually vacuumed the carpet between three and seven times a day.  The counselor asked her to close her eyes and imagine her carpet -- to imagine it clean and fluffy without a footprint on it, not a mark anywhere.  And she asked her to imagine that the carpet remained that way hour-after-hour, all day long, day-after-day, week-after-week.

 

At first the woman was pleased with her vision of the clean and fluffy carpet.  But then the counselor asked her to realize that the carpet being that way meant that she was totally alone.  The people she loved and cared for were nowhere around -- they were gone.  And now the vision of the unmarked and perfectly clean carpet did not feel so good to her.

 

Next the counselor asked her to imagine footprints on the carpet once again, some going to the toy box, some to the easy chair, and some to the piano.  The woman got tears in her eyes and she broke into a big smile.  “They’re back,” she said, “My family has come home.”  The counselor taught her a new way of reacting to the footprints on the carpet.

 

Today is Stewardship Sunday, a day which some people avoid, a day which some feel is a necessary evil, a day that some use as an excuse for non-involvement in the church “because all they do is talk about money anyway”.  It is also a day when some are praying that the minister will over-achieve and somehow produce a miracle in the hearts of the faithful, to produce generous spirits, and open pocketbooks, and balance the budget for the coming year.

 

I am fully aware of the uphill battle I have anytime I choose to talk about stewardship.  There, in fact, are some churches that don’t talk about it but who proudly advertise that they operate on a faith budget.  The truth is that this is not about whether one church has more faith than another in meeting its financial obligations.  This rather is about faithful discipleship -- how we handle the distribution of resources God has given us.  There is instruction involved; there is reflection involved; there is prayer involved.  But not to talk or think about it certainly does not put one higher on the spirituality scale.

 

I know that it can be tiresome and even irritating to be bombarded with news of how we need more money to fix the roof and paint the sanctuary, to provide for staff, and educate our children.  But I hope that we will leave here this morning with a different way of thinking about our church’s financial needs, because like the footprints on the carpet, the church’s financial needs are evidence that the family of God is at home and is alive and healthy and growing and living in faith and love and doing the work of the kingdom of God.

 

The absence of financial need in the church (like the absence of footprints on the carpet) would mean that there is no life here -- that the family is gone, that the life of faith has died among this people, and that the work of the kingdom of God is not being done here.  But you and I know that is not true so we will try to keep faith with one another by talking openly and honestly about the wear-and-tear of a carpet that has to sustain an active family life.  In order to do that I want us to look at the past through the lens of objectivity, to deal with the present through the filter of honesty, and approach the future with the stewardship of gratitude.

 

I.                 Looking at the Past Through the Lens of Objectivity

 

Our market-oriented society tends to think that it can sell anything if it is packaged correctly.  In this regard most ministers like myself look with envy upon the T.V. evangelists.  We go to our secret mirrors several times a week and ask desperately, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, what in the world have they got that I haven’t got!”  You can bet that the purists of my profession while decrying the methods of the T.V. evangelists wish we had the secret of their success.

 

I am sure that if Dallas mega preacher Joel Osteen had been my consultant, he would have told me what a strategic mistake in marketing it is to have chosen a text from Amos for a stewardship sermon.  This crusty out-spoken shepherd from the rocky Judaen hills of Tekoa would be about as welcome in most Presbyterian congregations as inviting an Enron executive to talk about business ethics.  As a prophet to the Northern Kingdom, Amos was one of those people who had little patience with packaging and would have argued for the list of ingredients on the side of the package.

 

In most periods of history people have looked to the future with high expectation, always anticipating better times ahead.  Many an age has looked for prosperity just around the corner.  This was especially true in the time of Amos.  Does it sound familiar to hear that his contemporaries lived in the midst of unprecedented wealth and they expected it to continue to increase indefinitely.

 

In as much as they thought that they had kept favor with Yahweh by carrying out strictly the ritualistic prescriptions, they felt confident in their expectations.  Burnt offerings, in fact, were those which had been prepared strictly according to the law.  Everything humanly possible had been done to make them acceptable.

 

It is important to note that Amos did not address a secular or indifferent people, but rather folk who went about public religion with zeal and extravagance.  The festivals which they celebrated and the rituals they followed were ancient and well-established.  There is no hint that the ritual was regarded as irregular or pagan; the sacrifices were for Yahweh, their God, and they took them seriously.

 

Unfortunately, Amos is not a great deal of help to those of us in the church who plan stewardship campaigns.  For he is likely to say that our themes and our promotions, our efforts at interpretation and inspiration and motivation fall into the burnt offering category.  For somehow they will always miss the mark in bringing to the surface what we are about as the Church of Jesus Christ.

 

II.             Dealing With the Present Through the Filter of Honesty

 

Some years ago, I picked up a new term while reading a book on education.  The term is rather descriptive and you will know what it means right away.  The term is “crap detecting”.  And that is exactly the challenge that Amos offers.  His challenge is that descriptive and direct, “Don’t be fooled by appearances but get to the heart of the matter.”

 

As we meet Peter and John and the crippled man in the book of Acts, the point of our second scripture lesson is precisely the same as the first -- ritual is not the same as reality.  We will be mistaken if we dismiss this story as just another plea at the heart strings by a professional vagrant.  My time spent in New York City has taught me that there are such people, and without regard to the condition that has put them in such a position they tend to have a highly developed sense of who will respond to their plans.

 

It is very likely that this lame man by the gates of Jerusalem read something in the joyous faces of Peter and John which caused him to intuitively (with a beggar’s skill) sense that they would be good marks.  He asked for alms.  The form of the Greek verb indicates that it was a rehearsed appeal which he chanted over-and-over with success for years.

 

The text means that they stopped, looked at the man, and really thought about him and what he was asking.  “Look at us,” they demanded.  One might ask why did they have to get his attention after he had already gotten theirs?  The reason was that he kept on calling out to others while he had these two good prospects in hand.  He was a pro who knew how to work a crowd.

 

Another item worth pondering is that the cripple did not ask to be cured, but rather asked for alms or money.  He was “street-smart” -- a man who had come to terms with his condition and, in fact, was determined to use it for his own best interest.  We might pity him, but in another sense, he is to be admired as a practiced professional who was surviving in the only way he knew how.

 

Long ago, he accepted his condition and now he saw in Peter and John nothing more than two easy marks.  However, Peter and John had something else in mind.  They certainly had been approached by enough beggars not to be caught up in his frenzied cries for help.  But I would suggest they were drawn to him because they saw in him a person who was unwilling or even afraid after years of rejection to ask for what he really needed.

 

On this Stewardship Sunday, that is precisely our challenge -- to try to deal with the present through the filter of honesty by asking for what we really need.  Having said that, now is not the time for me to rehearse again the long litany of programs and maintenance needs and staffing concerns and mission opportunities.  All of the appropriate materials are in your hands and you can read and pray and think and ask questions.

 

But in all of the materials, in all of the letters, in all of the minutes for stewardship, even in all of the sermons which I have preached, I am not sure that this church has made clear what it really needs from you, its members.

 

You see, there is the danger that you will respond too readily to our superficial declaration of need without considering the deeper need.  The superficial declaration of need is for alms, for burnt offerings.  It can be thought, if not articulated, that it is that time of year again.  The church beggars are out in force.  At their best they are smooth and slick and they have a point.  Therefore, the effort, at least, is worth some response.

 

III.         Approaching the Future With a Stewardship of

Gratitude

 

My friends, here is where some truth in packaging is required, for we are not beggars who are after your alms.  We will be doing you a disservice if we do not ask for what we really need.  For if we do not ask for what we really need, then you will not be able to offer what you can really give.

 

The biggest mistake we, as the church, make during this time of year is that we do not tell you honestly what stewardship is all about.  It may be that we are afraid that if we tell you the truth about stewardship, you will think that we are asking for too much.  And so with our encouragement, you wind up following the same old formulas.

 

You read the promotional materials and hear the stewardship speakers as if you were examining a Fortune 500 Company.  What is it doing?  How is it performing against the competition?  What new product lines are being developed and what are their prospects for success?  What kind of return do I expect for my investment dollar?  Perhaps it is only a reasonable sermon, an inspiring Christmas Eve service, a place where my son or daughter can get married, or a church I can call on in an emergency and be able to say that I am a member in good standing.

 

What bothers me most about stewardship time is not that we are dishonest, but that we are off the mark; not that we are doing the wrong things, but that we don’t go far enough; not that our demands are unreasonable, but that they are too reasonable.

 

We go to you, the congregation, after cranking everything together, including salaries, maintenance, and program needs, and say, “We need X amount of dollars for this year’s budget.”  Out come the calculators; the budget is divided by the number of giving units, and there is my fair share.  The sad thing is that those who follow such a process are some of our most committed people who want to make sure that they are doing what is expected of them.

 

Go back to our story in the book of Acts and you will find Peter and John closing their checkbooks rather than opening them, “Silver and Gold have I none, but what I have I will give you.”  Peter and John knew that the deepest need of that beggar was not some loose change to get by for another day, but rather a change of condition.

 

My friends, what we are looking for at stewardship time is the gift of your heart.  That’s what we have not been able to talk about as well as we would have liked.  Because when you give your heart, everything else will follow.  “Lift up your hearts” and the response of grateful stewardship is, “We lift them up to the Lord.”

 

The important thing is that stewardship be combined with signs of God’s power at work in the lives of people.  Years ago a young student at the University of California at Berkley heard a radio preacher giving a sermon on stewardship.  The preacher was Dr. Robert Munger of the First Presbyterian Church of Berkley.  It was a life changing experience for that young collegian.

 

The young man wrote a note to the minister and confessed, “I never realized before that my life belongs to another.”  It is clear that stewardship has to do with money and our willingness to give, but it also has to do with how we handle what we keep; and whether we are harsh or gentle with the earth and its resources; and whether we are more at home with “accounts receivable” than “accounts payable”.  Does life owe us or do we owe life?

 

A pastor was confronted one day as he was leaving the church, by a needy person, who was entering the church to seek some help.  The pastor was in a hurry and felt that he didn’t have time to be bothered by the man.  But he stopped to observe that the man had on only one shoe.  “I see you’ve lost a shoe,” observed the pastor.  “No”, replied the man with a cheery toothless smile, “I found one.”

 

In this confused and confusing world, the only way we can approach the future and still survive is with a stewardship of gratitude.  A friend of mine regularly reminds me, “If we do not have charity in our hearts, we have the worst kind of heart trouble.”  May our hearts be lifted up to the Lord as we examine with gratitude the stewardship of all that we have and are.

 

Amen.