St. Mary's Episcopal Church

I come from a family of five children. I am the last of the five children. My parents had three children when my dad was finishing college. At one point they had to dip into my oldest sister's college fund to pay rent, or buy groceries. By the time they moved to Texas, they had learned how to budget, or my mom had learned how to budget, and my dad learned to trust her with his income. They were always a single income family living off my mom's teacher salary, and then after he graduated, living off my dad's forester salary, and somehow they managed to pay for college for all five of us. My parents tithe and have since I can remember. They didn't always. They worked toward it increasing their percentage of giving. I think at 5%, and each year adding a percentage, until they reached 10%. I'm not sure if they ever pledged more than 10%.

Laura and I just moved back to Texas, after living off her part-time salary, and a lot of help from my sending parish and our diocese. Because we were tired of being in transition, we decided to buy a house, which is a new financial adventure for us. We are DINK's: double income, no kids. We have to be intentional about how we spend our money, but we feel we are living quite comfortably. We have been working toward tithing since we were married, each year increasing our percentage. Although the amount dropped significantly in seminary, we stayed on our progression percentage-wise. This year, we are jumping ahead a bit to give 10% to the church. We had decided to tithe because it was a goal we learned from the church, but also from our parents. Laura's dad is also a percentage giver, but he has gone beyond the 10% to something like 12%. We are pretty sure we can pledge 10% because we have seen our parents do it, and we know others do it.

I share our story with you because I need to share it. Just like Jim needed to share his story last week, and Beth the week before, and the McNiels next week. We need to hear from one another about what it means to give a percentage of our money to the church, and how we get there. Education about stewardship is ongoing, and is necessary because it is so contrary to the way our society works. I sometimes think about the importance of having a community of Christians in terms of sanity. If I were to behave like a Christian alone, the world would think I'm crazy! & Giving money away seems crazy! And by some standards it may be. But in the church, for Christians, it is sanity. It is what we are called to do, it is who we are. Stewardship is a community event. In God's Economy, as Beth taught us, we all give a percentage of our income, and that means one household will give a smaller dollar amount, and another a larger dollar amount, but we are all sharing our resources, and that fuels the mission of the church.

It is good to talk about money at this time of year, to remind ourselves what stewardship is about, to remember it is not a straight forward fund-raiser. Are not aiming for a specific dollar amount and then we can stop and have enough. Yes, the money goes toward funding the budget whatever that turns out to be for this year, but each of us has to pray and discern how much our household is called to give, what percentage of our income we will hand over to the mission of the church. Stewardship is also not a membership fee. We are not paying dues. Jesus already paid our dues for us. Jesus already welcomed us into God's Kingdom. Stewardship, instead, is about a practice of discipleship, it is about learning to trust in God, and help to set things in the order that the Kingdom of God calls for.

Money itself is not evil, but it is powerful. Status, our worth, control, all these things come with money in our society. Having money, earning money enables us to do the things we need to do and want to do. Money is empowering. If we are wise with our investments, we will make money from the money we have. In Luke and Matthew we hear a parable from Jesus about a master who leaves money with his servants. When he returns the ones who have made more are rewarded, but the one who is fearful and hides the money away is punished. The parable is about using what God has given us wisely, not being fearful and hiding our gifts. Then in another parable relating to money, we have from Luke's gospel the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man, in which the rich man ends up in Hell for neglecting poor Lazarus who suffered at his doorstep. Jesus had a lot to say about the way we use our money, because money is powerful, if we are not careful it can have more power over us that we would ever want.

Power and status in the kingdom of God is all kind of backward. Consider our Gospel today. Jesus teaches his disciples what is going to happen to him. He will be betrayed into human hands, they will kill him, and three days later he will rise again. And the disciples didn't understand, but they were afraid to ask.

I don't blame them. It doesn't seem to make any sense. This leader and teacher they have been following is suddenly talking about being handed over, and killed. Maybe they wonder: "Well, if you know this is going to happen, let's get out of here!!" He is showing them that he is aware of his coming death, and he is not going to avoid it. He is not running away, or fighting his death. The Kingdom of God he is ushering in looks very different than what they may have expected. Instead of fighting for power, he is laying down all power, unto death. His innocence will be ignored as the "human hands" hang him up for all to see what happens to those who mess with Rome. Hung up on the cross like a bill of notice: Rome has the Power: Don't forget it. After he tells them about his coming death and resurrection, they immediately begin arguing about who is the greatest, and when Jesus asks them about it, again they are silent. After he foretells what he, their leader will be doing with his power, they begin to argue about who among them will be the greatest, who will have more power. He has to teach them again.

You wanna be first? Be last! Be the servant to others, and then you will be considered first! Then he does something that is hard to grasp, so let me try to set the context here. Children were not considered these priviledged people in a state of innocence that we have, but were considered totally powerless, vulnerable, and even non-people.

Jesus was a great teacher. These men who were recognized as the official disciples were great by their association with him. Suddenly, Jesus stepped all over the social norms and brought this child, this vulnerable, powerless, non-person into their midst to be the example to aspire to. IN a way, the child by her or his status in the society was an example of where Jesus would be before long: powerless, vulnerable, hung up as a non-person, as a message to tell the world that Rome had the Power. This is our Lord. He took on death, laying down all power he had as human, leading the way through death so that we no longer have to fear death, we no longer have to fear vulnerability, we no longer have to fear powerlessness.

Friends. We live in a rich country. I am a rich person. The more I learn of the struggles of poverty in other countries, and about the poor in our own country the more I realize just how rich I am. I strive to be wise with my money, to invest it well, to budget, and spend it on things that are good for me. But I also know that if I am not careful, if we are not careful, that money can gain power over us. Giving money away takes that power away from money. Giving money away is one way we can follow Jesus lead of practicing powerlessness, and vulnerability. Because it is our hard earned money, because we work so hard to be wise about how we spend and invest, it is a sacrifice. It is laying a piece of ourselves down. It is letting a part of ourselves die.

This practice of financial stewardship is counter cultural. It doesn't make sense outside of the Gospel, outside of the Church. If money is power, and gives us status, then it would seem to make sense to make and keep as much as possible. But Jesus teaches us a different way. In the kingdom of God, the last are first. In the Kingdom of God it is by giving up power, associating ourselves with the vulnerable and powerless, by practicing discipleship, following Jesus example of becoming vulnerable and powerless ourselves, it is by this that we come closer to God, and with God is the true power, power to reconcile the world, power to bring love to the unloved, food to the hungry, and life to the dead. As you consider your financial pledge this year, remember that it is a sacrifice, one that Jesus teaches us is good, and remember that we are doing this as a community, we are teaching our children about the freedom we might find in giving our money away, just as my parents taught me, and Jesus teaches all of us.