Sermon 127
Sermon by Keith Batesonat
Wonersh on Sunday 20th April 2008
Stewardship Review – Jesus is
Special
Lord Jesus, you are the living cornerstone of our lives. Teach us to
live as the people of God your word says we are. Amen.
This is the first of two 'stewardship weekends'—how does this link in
with the lectionary readings for today? Perhaps not a great deal
at first sight.
At the beginning of our reading from John's gospel Jesus says,
"Trust in God; trust also in me." He is saying 'trust in me to
provide for you'. Trust me for your security, in this world and the next—'in my
father's house'.
Why should we trust? Because Jesus is special and
unique. This is the message of both our readings—Jesus is the greatest.
Presumably Jesus looked like an ordinary man. He didn't look special.
Yet the disciples had thought him special enough to leave their homes and jobs,
launching out into the unknown to follow him. Not because of what he looked
like, but because of what he said and did. His teachings and
his miracles. Here he makes the
stupendous claim, not just to know the way to Father God, but to be the
way, and for good measure, the truth and the life as well. Not just a way to
God, but the only way—no one comes to the Father by any other way. Surely this
is outrageous?
But then he ups the ante even further. "Anyone who has seen me has
seen the Father." He claims to be so closely identified with the Father
that if they have seen him they have seen the Father. As Paul put it, "In
Christ all the fullness of the Deity, the Godhead, lives in bodily form."
We know that there have been cult leaders who have persuaded numbers of
people to follow them, and to believe that they are someone special. And have
turned out to be frauds people like David Koresh of
Wako in
Well, he had no long life of writing and teaching. His ministry was
limited to three years and he never wrote a book. He died but his disciples
discovered new life. We have a great deal of historical evidence that, far from
being found out as a fraud, he rose from the dead. In our passage he says, "Believe and you
will do miracles—because I am going to the Father". Signs and wonders may
not be our personal experience, but undoubtedly they have always been the
experience of the church as a whole. Our own conversion to Christ is a miracle.
In our reading from 1 Peter 2, the emphasis is also on Christ as
special—the cornerstone, the capstone, of the spiritual house which is the
church, the gathering of those who put their trust in Christ. `Now you are a people belonging to God' says
Peter. You dwell in light. You have received mercy. All this is because of
Christ. So, where do we stand, and what
has all this to do with stewardship?
Well, the first thing to say is that to be a Christian is not just
having faith as a bolt-on extra to a normal life. A normal life being one
where, as far as possible, I retain control of my life and God is just part of
the scenery. No, to be a Christian involves surrendering the whole of myself to God through Christ. If I surrender the whole of myself, of
course that includes my ambitions, my time and my possessions—all of them. I no
longer own these things; I hold them in trust as a servant of Christ, I am a
steward.
I do not give to God his share of 'my' assets and keep the rest for
myself. Of course, it is fatally easy to think this way. It's what comes
naturally to us. A few people may be naturally overflowing with generosity, but
most of us are not, and we tend to think ourselves mighty fine if we give
anything significant away!
So we need to dwell prayerfully on what it means that everything we have
belongs to God. How does He want us to use it?
Now a stewardship campaign, or appeal, in a church generally focuses, at
least partly, on giving money to cover the running costs of the church. "Paying the bills." I read somewhere that "paying the
bills will rarely provoke generosity".
John Revess, who is a great chap and has been
asked to lead the needed giving appeal, will be telling us about 'paying the
bills' a bit later in the service.
I knew a vicar once who was afraid to ask his congregation to pay for
the resurfacing of their church car park (a job costing around £20,000). He
thought it was too ordinary, too unexciting, to move people to give. As there
was no fund set aside for it from regular church income—the giving of the
people for support of the church's ministry—this vicar insisted on the car park
maintenance being paid for by depleting church reserves.
It seemed to me very sad, that he had so little confidence in his people's grasp
of everyday realities. That there was no hope of their catching a vision for
car park repairs. Or do you think he was right? What motivates you to give to a
particular cause? Equally, what demotivates you—prevents you—from giving to a cause?
I've no time now to go into the whole scriptural teaching on Christian
giving, but just a couple of points quickly. Giving should be proportionate to
our income. A percentage, at least approximately. What
percentage is for us to decide prayerfully before our Lord.
We should not confuse giving to the local church with giving to God, although
there is a link. We know the local church is part of our ministry to the local
community, and has to be paid for. But we will want to give more widely than
that. So once we have concluded what percentage of our income should guide our
giving, we then have another decision. What proportion to give to the local
church?
On the overall proportion, the Old Testament speaks of tithes, or
tenths. 10 percent. This is not a rigid rule for the
New Testament age in which we live—grace rather than law. A tenth isn't a bad
starting place for our thoughts, though. Modern taxes may take as much as a
third of our income—three tithes! Of course, a good fraction of this comes back
to us in the form of roads, schools, hospitals, national defence
and so on. You can actually find three tithes in the Old Testament, and it's
not clear what there was in the way of taxes.
The aim of our Christian life is to grow more like Christ. His
generosity was such that he gave us his whole self. And of course he gives us
the power to get wealth, to earn an income. All we have is his. How much of it
should we keep for our own use?
Christian giving is a joyful privilege, as I hope you've
discovered. We don't need to worry
about the future. All our security is in God. Whatever happens to us He will be
with us. 'You believe in God; believe also in me', says our saviour.
Lord, we believe.
Help our unbelief. Help us to say grace more thoughtfully, and to please you in
our giving of money. In the name of Jesus we ask.
Amen.