Stewardship Sermon at St John the Evangelist, 25th February 2018
God said to Abram, ‘I will make you exceedingly fruitful… I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you, throughout their generations.’ (Genesis 17.6-7)
How do we hold together God’s commitment to us, with our commitment to God?
Today’s readings (on this second Sunday of Lent) appear, on the surface, to juxtapose two very different themes, which could be seen as being in tension with each other: covenant and sacrifice.
Our Old Testament reading is one of a series of readings – through three consecutive Sundays – unveiling a unique covenant (a binding agreement) between God and human beings; in this case between God and Abram, who becomes Abraham, ‘the father of many nations’. It is, if you stop to think about it, an astonishing story. Abram, who is 99 years old, has already had his life turned upside down, as God called him – in old age – to leave behind his ancestral home, and journey to a far off country. Abram has already acted in great faith, leaving behind all his wealth and prosperity, to embrace the new future that God promises. But here, as God meets with Abram, something remarkable happens, and God – who is always abundantly gracious, bringing order out of chaos and hope out of despair – promises a new covenant. Yes, God will make Abraham (who is given a new name), abundantly fruitful, and will protect him, wherever he goes. All Abraham has to do, in gratitude to God, is to ‘walk before him and be blameless.’
It is, like the covenant with Noah before him, and with Moses on Mount Sinai after, one of the great foundations of our faith, a mysterious binding agreement that constitutes our identity, as the people of God. And at its heart is pure gift, God’s gracious movement – out of love – in making a covenant with his people, us, in order that we might walk before him. For we are a covenant people & Lent is a time for renewing that covenant – our life-giving relationship with God – upon which everything depends, both as individuals, as a church and beyond. For without God and his paths, revealed to us through the Bible, we are nothing and the fabric of our lives is threadbare indeed. As the prophet Micah puts it: ‘He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to talk humbly with your God?’
So if covenant is one of the key themes in our readings today, rooted in the generosity of God, what of the contrasting theme – in our Gospel– of sacrifice?
It is, like the Transfiguration, which follows, one of the pivotal points in Mark’s Gospel. Jesus is mid-way through his ministry, lives have been transformed, the Kingdom has been proclaimed, and Jesus is set to journey towards Jerusalem. And having glimpsed who Jesus really is (the Christ of God), Jesus begins to explain to his disciples that His way will involve suffering and sacrifice, death and resurrection. There is no short-cut to glory... And yet Peter doesn’t get it, and rebukes Jesus for suggesting such a thing. In Matthew Peter blurts out, ‘God forbid it Lord, this must never happen to you.’ Somehow, for Peter, it doesn’t make sense: why does Jesus have to suffer and to die? Why do we have to suffer and, at times, embrace self-sacrifice for our faith? As Jesus goes on to explain, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake… will save it.’ So just as the mission of Jesus, the Son of God, will lead through suffering and death to resurrection, so too disciplesmust learn that true life is to be found by being willing to make sacrifices – to lose ourselves - for the sake of Jesus and his Gospel, and out of his great love. It is one of the great mysteries, and hard edges realities of living out our faith.
So how do we relate and link the two, covenant and sacrifice, grace and self-giving, God’s generosity and our response of faith? The gift that Abraham received, and the path that St Peter & the earliest Christians were called to follow?
Well maybe, there isn’t, after all, such a conflict, although there may well remain a tension & there’s certainly a challenge… because covenant (God’s free gift) always involves a serious commitment on both sides, as Abraham went on to discover, and sacrifice – our self-giving to God – is always bound up with receiving the abundant grace that God pours into our hearts. As St Paulputs it, ‘hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’. In other words, covenant and sacrifice are, if you like, two sides of the same coin, because whilst we don’t earn God’s grace, God invites us (in response to his covenant faithfulness) to give of our whole being and life to Him – our time, talents and money - as we as seek to follow in his paths, for our own good and for the good of others; in our Christian life &day-to-day family responsibilities. And this brings me to the key point of this sermon, stewardship.
I have been asked by the PCC to speak about stewardship, both because of its importance, for any healthy, growing church, but also because we need to encourage more people – in the light of our present financial situation – to re-consider their giving, and (in particular) the possibility of signing up to our regular giving scheme (whether that’s via a Standing Order or the new Parish Giving Scheme – and Roger, as our Treasurer, will be at the back of the Church with details about both of these ways of giving in a regular, planned way).
Briefly, we are very fortunate, as a local Parish Church, to be well resourced in terms of our ministry and in terms of the many people who give of their time and talents and money, in the service of God; and we are immensely grateful to the many people, who give very sacrificially. We are constantly diligent, in terms of good stewardship & keeping our costs down as much as possible.
However, St John’s, which does not have historic endowments and whose ministry is entirely paid for by planned congregational giving, is a sizeable Christian community: our annual costs amount to £118,000, which equates to over £2,000 per week. And whilst congregational giving is already healthy, we are presently running (for a second year) a deficit budget of around £12,000, which means that – on current trends – our savings will be used up within the next two years. [And we need to remember, of course, that the ‘Enlarging our Tent’ project is funded entirely separately, through one-off donations and external grants; and the Community Rooms essentially pay for themselves through the balance of staff costs and lettings.] So we’re talking here, predominantly about ministry, maintenance, Church building and support costs.
We need therefore, if we are going to break even – let alone develop our vision and plan for future growth in mission – to increase our giving; which means that all of us need to reflect on our giving, and how together (as a local church family) we are going to meet the costs of our ministry. For as someone once suggested, ‘money is a sacrament of seriousness’, and if we’re going to be real about our Christian commitment, we need to include our income – however great or small this might be – as a key element in our sacrificial covenant commitment to God.
And so I invite you, whether you are new to St John’s or whether you’ve been part of this congregation for some years, to review your giving and to consider whether you could give more and (if you don’t do so already) to sign up to our giving scheme. Remembering, like the widow’s mite, that it really doesn’t matter whether it’s a big amount or a modest offering, for God knows what each of us – according to our means – can afford and what we owe back to him…
I’m very aware, as I meet with a wide range of people within and outside of St John’s, on a daily basis, of all ages and stages of life, of how much this place means to them – and of how central it is to their wellbeing, their faith, their belonging and indeed the whole fabric of our lives. And, as is so often the case, much of St John’s work goes on quietly, in hidden ways, as the Gospel is preached, worship is offered, faith is nurtured (for all ages), people are cared for, schools engaged with, and mission carried out, in a myriad of ways… I sincerely hope and pray, therefore, especially as we anticipate a new full-time curate in July, that we can respond to this challenge, and (like Abraham in the Old Testament, and the earliest disciples in the New) respond to God’s covenant faithfulness by living lives of generosity and sacrifice, in his service.
Let us pray: Loving Father, we thank you for your many gifts to us, for our common life at St John’s, and for drawing us into your covenant of grace and love. Fill us, this Lent, with your Holy Spirit, grant us vision, and draw us back to you, that we in turn, following your people of old, might give ourselves sacrificially in love and service, to one another and to the service of your Kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.