St. Mary's Episcopal Church

The Reverend Beth Fain
September 10, 2006
18b: The church of the best buy or the first fruits? (James 1. 17—27)

Did you get this envelope in your mail this week?
In it is a bunch on information put together by our Stewardship ministry at St. Mary’s.
Each piece of paper represents lots of hours of work by these men and women. Particularly over this little piece of paper called the "pledge card."
I have to admit.
I’ve never like the name "pledge card."
“Pledge” is such an old-fashioned sounding word.
Over the years, I’ve lobbied for a lot of other euphemisms:
Money commitment card.
Money promise card.
Even Thank you note to God.
Then last week I saw an ad on tv for a particular store.
Maybe you’ve seen it.

Snippets of people like us saying things like:
I pledge to invite my children’s friends over to play with our play station.
I pledge to invite my friends to watch my plasma screen TV.

Then a series of employees of the store being advertised:
I pledge to give the best prices available.
I pledge to give the best service.
I’ve decided then that maybe in contrast to the religion of the best buy, the Church needs to take back the word "pledge" and refocus it on God.
To remind us that the kind of pledge we Christians make is different from the pledge the customers and employees of the church of the best buy make.
At St. Mary’s, we make pledges to God.
Every time we renew our Baptismal covenant.
When we make promises to those being baptized.
When we get married.
When we pledge our money to St. Mary’s.
When we pledge our money to the church, what does "money" and "church" represent?
In our culture, money stands for the work of our hands and the value of our lives.
It’s one way that our culture measures our personal worth.
(Whether that’s a good or bad standard; whether it’s the truth or a lie; it’s how we do it.)
When we make a pledge with our money, we’re making a pledge of ourselves.
When we give away our money, we are in fact giving away a part of ourselves.
Offering our selves.
What does St. Mary’s, the church, represent?
The church, we are told in Scripture, is the body of Christ.
The Church represents Christ’s body—the presence of Christ.
The Church, a community of people, is the means of God’s presence in human lives and in the world.
We give to the church because by doing so we are giving to God.
As I say these words, I am very humbled.
Because if the Body of Christ and Christ’s presence is what the Church is, and I believe it is true, this sets a very high standard for what I do at St.
Mary’s Church and how St. Mary’s Church functions.
Today, 5 years since 9/11, one year since Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and all the devastation, sorrow, suffering from those three events that continue, if there were ever a time that the Church needed to be Christ’s body, God’s presence, it is now.
Of course, God’s presence is not limited to the Church, and we will be led to give to other places, too.
But today, the pledge we are talking about is this pledge. To St. Mary’s. You’ve heard about giving a tithe.
10%. I like to call this kind of giving proportional giving.

It’s God’s economy.
It works this way:
In God’s economy, a poor person who gives $5 may be giving more than another person who gives $100.
How can this be?
If the person who gives $5 makes $50/week, he is giving how much of what he has? 10% of what he has. Of his personal worth.
And the person who gives $100 makes $5,000 each week, how much is she giving of what she has? 2%. Of her personal worth.
Setting a number, a percentage, is a way to help people understand what their fair share is.
Using a percentage as a standard, it allows us to all make the same offering to God—no matter what the total amount.
Tithe, 10%, is the amount that has been historically used for those who want or need a guideline.
How do we know how much to give?
How do we know what our pledge is to be?
On the inside back cover of your worship booklet is a worksheet for each of us.
A method through prayer (that is, talking to God and then listening) and by reading Scripture, and waiting for God’s answer to what God wants our pledge to be.

Before you fill out your pledge card, please look at that with me:
How do I know the amount of money God wants me to give to St. Mary’s in 2007?

1. Take time with your spouse/family/alone in prayer. Find a quiet place away from distractions. Have your Bible and any other financial information you might need handy.

2. Ask God to guide you in your money giving. You might pray the Prayer of Discernment.

3. Take time to be silent.

4. Read the following Scripture passages. After reading each, try to listen to what God is saying to you about your money giving.
Matthew 6. 19—21
2 Corinthians 8. 8—15
2 Corinthians 9. 6—12

5. Don’t make a decision right now, but ask God to guide you over the next few days.

6. Continue to return to God, and ask God what you should give. God will speak to you in some way.

7. When you sense an answer, fill out a pledge card and return it to St. Mary’s.

Adapted from Becoming a Blessed Church by N. Graham Standish from the Alban Institute, p.218

One final word:

In our passage from the book of James today we heard these words:
Every generous act of giving……is from above, coming down from the Father….. In fulfillment of God own purpose, God gave us birth……so we could become a kind of first fruits of creation. (James 1. 17, 18)

Do you remember what first fruits are?
In the Hebrew scripture, the Jews were instructed to give the first of their harvest, the first of their livestock each year to pay for the maintenance of the temple and for the livelihood of the priests.
First fruits are just that. Not the best. But the first.
Giving not necessarily the best but giving the first to that which represents God, meant trusting, of course, that there would be something that came second and third and so on to maintain their own homes and own families.
The passage from James says that now, God who is the most generous giver of all, God’s purpose was to give us birth so we, not our crops or our cattle or our money or our talents, but we, our very self is the new first fruit.
We are the first gift to the One who gives with such generosity.
The passage continues…..
Be doers of what we hear, not merely hearers who deceive ourselves….
Be not hearers who forget but doers who act. (James 1. 25)

And finally the author of James writes,
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God (not the religion of the best buy) is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress; and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1. 27)

How much are we to pledge to St. Mary’s to show that we don’t just hear, but we do?
Since I have been at St. Mary’s, I have pledged a tithe of the salary you, Christ’s body the Church, pay me, back to St. Mary’s.
My 2006 pledge was $5,980 plus an additional pledge of $720 for debt elimination.
We are coming to a new year.
I will not assume what God is telling me to do with my money in 2007, the symbol of my life, as a pledge this year to St. Mary’s, the place where I experience Christ’s presence.
But, like you, I’m going to pray and be quiet and read some scripture and listen first.
Please. Take time to listen to God before you make your pledge.
Be doers of what we hear, not merely hearers who deceive ourselves….
Be not hearers who forget but doers who act…and be blessed.
AMEN