SERMON PREACHED BY THE REV’D ALLAN B. WARREN III AT THE CHURCH OF THE ADVENT,
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2009, THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Some weeks ago I was given my marching orders by the Stewardship Committee, and, obedient as you know me always to be, this morning I am doing precisely as I was told. Today’s sermon will be about Stewardship; today we will begin our Stewardship Campaign for the year 2010.
But before I talk about 2010 I want to say something about 2009, and what I want to say is this: I am very, very proud of you; I am very, very proud of us all. This time last year, the whole world, in the striking words of an Advent hymn, was “wrapped in fear.” Not in the godly and expectant fear of which the hymn speaks, but rather in an ungodly fear born of uncertainty, instability, and threat. There was some small comfort in the fact that we were all in the same boat together . . . but was that boat sinking and were there any life rafts aboard? One after another, proud and powerful financial institutions collapsed. Things many of us relied upon – directly and indirectly, for the present and for the future – revealed themselves to be built upon lies or arrangements so devious and complicated that even the best financial minds could not unravel them.
The world was “wrapped in fear.” I was afraid, and I suspect that you were as well. In spite of all that, the Stewardship Campaign for this year 2009 was a resounding success, and I am proud of us all. It would seem – and praise God for it – that we put our trust in God, and that trust overcame our fear. Again – praise God for it.
For 2009 there were forty-nine new pledges to the Advent, which means, taking into account those lost by death or removal, that we have 240 persons and households who make a pledge. Of these, some thirty-eight persons on fixed incomes were obliged to decrease the amount they pledged. However, this was easily offset by the sixty-two persons who increased the amount they pledged. The Campaign for 2009 – in spite of fear and daily uncertainty – ended ahead of, not behind the Campaign for 2008, and I am very proud of you. I am very proud of us all. Scripture tells us that trust and love can overcome fear, and here at the Advent we seem to have realized that insight from the Bible. Praise God for it!
And so to those of you who pledge to this Parish, what can I say, except: say your prayers, be guided by God, and keep it up. Even increase it. Certainly it is out of love for our wonderful and miraculous Parish that you give to its support, but, more than that, in these troubling times your giving is surely grounded in trust in God – personal trust in God – and that is one of the spiritual virtues our Christian faith is all about and which is one of the purposes and ends of this Parish Church.
And to those of you who do not yet pledge to the Advent, allow me to point out two things. First of all, those who do pledge do so, as I said before, out of trust, but also because the Advent is such an essential part of their lives that support for the Parish’s well-being and prosperity is a matter of course. The Advent is worthy of support. The Advent is unique in its life and ministry. Were that life and ministry somehow to be diminished, those of us who do pledge to the Parish know that our own lives would be considerably diminished as well, and that is one reason we pledge. The Advent is a part of each of us, so much so that it would be very hard indeed to be without it. To those of you who do not yet pledge, do so. The Advent is worth it.
And here’s a second thing. Perhaps in fact you do give to the support of the Advent. Splendid.God bless you for it. However, pledging and giving are two different things, for a pledge is not just a gift but is an act of commitment. In making a pledge one says to oneself and one says to God that for a certain period of time – a calendar year, for instance – this, this amount, this percentage of what I am, this – come what may – I will devote to God through his Church. This I pledge, this I promise, to this I commit myself – that is the act of pledging. And therefore, a pledge is more than simple giving, it is an interior disposition. It is an efficacious spiritual act with good effect on the state of one’s soul. And like any Christian commitment, like any Christian interior disposition it opens us up more and more to the life-giving action of grace and God’s gracious Spirit. Making a pledge can be a new and very fruitful beginning in one’s spiritual life. If you don’t pledge, then do so. The amount is less important than the act. Let me say that again (and watch the Finance Committee cringe). The amount is less important than the act. Make a pledge. It may well be crucial for your spiritual life.
* * * * *
You may have heard it said – preachers love to make this claim – you may have heard it said that in the Gospels Jesus teaches more about money than about any other single thing. Well, I haven’t been counting, but I don’t think that this is true. If one’s interpretation of certain passages is creative, so to speak, then one might find money when money’s not there. But I’m not sure that’s quite right or true to the plain meaning of Scripture.
But something I do know for a fact is that one of the things Jesus talks about again and again is commitment. That is a crucial part of his teaching. Commitment – it is sometimes in the foreground, it is sometimes in the background, but always there. Commitment. Some ancient sages taught us that the unexamined life is not worth living. Jesus goes beyond that: he tells us that it is the uncommitted life that is not worth living, not worth living at all.
There is one crucial and well-known passage in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 6:21) and the Gospel of Luke (Lk 12:34) where Jesus teaches both about money and about commitment. I call it crucial, because it is most often misunderstood. Misunderstood, because Jesus’ teaching is – in today’s parlance – counterintuitive, the opposite of what common sense would suggest. Here it is:
Most of us – and common sense – would turn this around: where your heart is there will your treasure be also. That is, if you really, really care about something, then you will support it. If your heart is there, your treasure will follow.
But Jesus – again – says just the opposite. He tells us: if you invest in something, if you support it with treasure and time, then your commitment will grow. Where your treasure is, your heart will follow. Commitment begets commitment. A pledge to God of time and treasure results in a change of the heart. An enlarging of the heart. An opening up of the heart to God, his life-giving grace and his gracious Spirit.
And so, good people, say your prayers, examine your lives, ponder the words of Jesus, and make a pledge, for
Amen.