Stewardship Week 1
The Rev. Rod Sprange

Malachi 4:1-2a; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19

This is week 1 of our three week focus on stewardship. Let’s get right to the heart of things. Do you believe in God? Think carefully about your answer. Do you believe in God? That’s a much bigger question than it sounds. When someone asks me “do you believe in God?”. And I answer “yes”, I am saying yes to much more than they probably intended by their question. They invariably mean do I believe that God exists. Well, the simple answer is yes, I do believe that God exists, and always has done, and always will. But ‘believe in’ has a far greater meaning than whether or not the deity exists.

If I were to say to one of you “I believe in you”. What would I be saying - what would I mean? Let’s suppose I’m saying it to Marcus or Laurie - one of our wardens. It’s always fun to pick on wardens. “Marcus, Laurie, you are a church warden, I believe in you”. Clearly I’m not saying I believe they exist - it’s obvious they are real people. So what do I mean? I mean that I believe in them. I believe they carry out their role as warden faithfully and carefully. It means I believe in their wisdom and experience, in their integrity, their ability to be effective wardens. In short, I trust them.

Similarly, when I answer “Yes, I believe in God”, I am saying that I trust God. Having faith in God, trusting God, means I can put my whole life, my earthly and eternal life in God’s hands. I can do this because I trust God is a good God who loves all of creation, including me. I put my trust in God. Our first reading today and the Gospel reading are all about trust. In reality we can only be good christian stewards if we trust God, and If we trust that God has provided us with a world of abundance. God has also trusted us and that calls for a response.

Paul’s second letter to the church in Thessaloniki, also speaks of trust and faith in Christ. However, in it, he warned against some who had misunderstood that trust. There seemed to be some who were content to sit idly around waiting for the imminent return of Christ. They didn’t work, didn’t help, just happily waited. They hadn’t understood that there was urgent work to be done - the sharing of the Good News, the Gospel.

They didn’t seem to realize, they couldn’t just declare themselves Christians and everything would be fine; that they just needed to wait for Christ. They didn’t seem to realize that they were called to help with the mission of the church. They didn’t seem to realize that it took all of them, every one of them, to do all the tasks and to contribute resources to the mission Christ has given them. Paul was saying that If they all used their God given abilities and shared their resources, they could accomplish infinitely more than they could ask or imagine; because they had the gift of the power of the Holy Spirit working within and among them.

What was true for the Thessalonians, back then, is true for us today. Look around you! Look at the wonderful collection of people gathered here today. Think about the ones you know well, and think about the gifts they bring. Think about how much can be accomplished if all of us truly trusted God, and recognized we are here because God called us here.

Think about what could be accomplished If we all remembered that everything we have, the very persons we are, everything is given us by God.
What if we truly understood that all of this has been entrusted to us by God, and that God expects us to share what we have - our personalities, our faith, talents, time and finances, and to share these extravagantly to support Christ’s mission, in particular in support of Christ’s mission carried out through the ministries offered in and through St. Peter’s.

I don’t remember Paul saying he didn’t have enough time, he had tents to make (that was how he earned his living, he was a tent maker). He never said that he had done enough, it was someone else’s turn now. He didn’t complain that the price of tents has dropped. I don’t expect us to have quite the passion and drive of St. Paul, but we can certainly learn and be encouraged by his example.

What Christ taught and Paul demonstrated was that once we say “I believe”, there should be nothing more important than Christ’s mission.

We have work to be done. We have a mission from God, a collective mission and together we have everything we need to fulfil that mission.

We have all the talents we need. We have enough believers to use those talents. We have sufficient faith to carry us forward. Between us we possess all the physical and financial resources we need to prosper as a parish.

We will accomplish remarkable things as long as we embody three virtues:
trust, gratitude and generosity. These all emanate from the three great virtues - faith, hope and love. That’s really what following Jesus means - living lives of faith, with grateful hearts and exhibiting extravagant generosity.

One of the reasons that Christian community is so important is to help each of us to nurture these three things in our lives. It starts by being a place and community where people know they belong. Whether you are here for the first time today or have been coming here since the church was built, you belong - completely and fully. Whether you are ninety or three, you belong - completely and fully. There is no hierarchy of membership in Christ’s church, in Christ’s family. That’s why we often refer to ourselves as brothers and sisters in Christ.

By belonging we learn faith from one another, we learn more and more to trust God. We learn to have faith in a good and loving God. A generous God. This can lead us to an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all that God entrusts to us. Our hearts become filled with gratitude. When we have grateful hearts we want to share generously. As Christians in community what does that generosity look like?

It means we nurture and share our faith with one another and with those we meet.
It means we share in the work.
It means we offer ourselves, our time and our talents.
It means we share our financial resources.
And if we have those grateful hearts, we do all these with joy. I had this vision of the mean Scrooge - begrudgingly giving Tom Cratchett half a day off to celebrate Christmas with his family. And then the enlightened Scrooge giggling and laughing with happiness when he gives Tom a raise. When we give we want to feel like the second Scrooge, overflowing with the joy of sharing.

The trouble is, we may think, yes that’s what I should do, I’ll certainly think about that, when I have a moment. But we often succumb to what I call IP - the inertia of procrastination. You know the phrase, why do today what I can put off till tomorrow.

Do you suffer from IP - the inertia of procrastination? Be of good cheer, your stewardship group is here!

We have mail for each of you today. It’s a that will help you make prayerful decisions about how you will support St. Peter’s ministries in 2020. It will help, but only if you open it, and read the contents - and if you want to conquer your IP, your inertia of procrastination - open it today!

In the package you will find a short letter from us. There are some simple work sheets that can help you in thinking about how you want to support God’s ministries in and through this parish. And, new this year is a Ministry Based Budget - it shows two things - firstly how much of each dollar you contribute to St. Peter’s is used to support each of five areas of ministry. Secondly it includes comments we have heard from people describing how these ministries make a difference in their lives. It demonstrates how important it is that our parish is here to enable these ministries to continue, ministries which change people’s lives for the better.

There is also a green coloured sheet or paper. It is there for you to write down your estimate of giving to St. Peter’s in 2020 - in terms of time, talents, christian education and finances.

I love this parish, It has been our spiritual home for many years and we consider you to be our faith family. I commend this parish for much - for the way you affirm others, for the way you welcome others, the way you offer your building to outside community groups, for your generosity in outreach, and faithful worship and for your care for one another. I commend you for so much. But one thing continues to puzzle me, and that’s why many of you don’t return your estimate of giving sheets..

I learned a long time ago, at another parish, just how important it is for our family to prayerfully provide, in writing, what we plan to give to the parish over the next year. It is a spiritual practice that makes us pray about and think deeply about how God has blessed us and what God is calling us to do. It makes us really pray and think about how much we really trust God, and how much we love God and God’s people.

Your stewardship development group has set a goal this year of substantially increasing the number of you who return an estimate of giving form. I am happy to tell you that all the members of Corporation, Vestry and the pastors group have completed and returned their estimate of giving forms. And now, we are asking you to join us.

We made this commitment because we won’t ask you to do something we are not willing to do.

A week ago, the members of corporation, vestry and the pastors group and our spouses, gathered in a time of fellowship to talk about all this and we shared what it is about St. Peter’s that we love and why we give to support the ministries here. It was a great evening, we had some lovely conversations, and came away feeling uplifted.

We are offering something similar for each of you. I am inviting you to come to one of six small group gatherings. These will be coffee evenings hosted in people’s homes. We will talk together about what St. Peter’s means in our lives, and why this parish is so important. It’s an opportunity for some relaxed community time. A time to get to know one another better outside of our church building,

There are six different evening times, and each is being held in a different location - so you should be able to find one that is convenient for you. If you are concerned about driving or going out at night, we will do our best to arrange a ride for you, because we really want you there. You belong there.

So, I really encourage you to sign up for one of the gatherings that is most convenient for you. I promise you will have a good time! Remember your IP, Inertia of Procrastination, don’t leave today without signing up.

As Paul wrote to the church in Philippi,
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Amen