Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost
8th November 2009
Preacher: The Rev'd Gillian Moses, Assistant Curate

Theme: Learning to breathe

Text: Ruth 3.1-5; 4.3-17, Mark 12.38-44

May my words be in the name of God: Source of all being, eternal Word and holy Spirit.

Naomi said to Ruth , “We need to ensure your financial security for the future! Look , Boaz is going to be down at the threshing–floor tonight , and he is a good man. So put on your dress , fix your hair and get down to the threshing floor , dear! This is your opportunity.”

As I come to speak to you this morning on the subject of stewardship , and in particular about the financial security of ministry here , I feel a bit like Ruth. I feel like I should be brushing my hair and putting on my lipstick , hoping to make a good impression on you.

Stewardship can be a bit of a hard sell , so maybe a bit of lipstick couldn’t hurt. But why is it that we would rather not talk about stewardship? There seems to be something gauche about talking money in church , despite the frequency with which Jesus chose to address the subject. But more about Jesus’ approach later.

Sometimes we soften the approach by talking about time and talents instead. That seems to be a little more palatable. And to be honest , there is something much more personal about our time and talents. Being invited to do something for the church is a form of recognition of who we are as individuals. Being asked to share my skills in flower arranging or music recognises that these are things that perhaps I do well , or do passionately. They help to describe who I am. Money , on the other hand , is impersonal - all money is the same; it could come from anybody. When I am asked for money , then , I can perhaps feel depersonalised, like a mere cash cow.

Paradoxically , one of the church’s main roles is that of helping people discover who they are – to ‘personalise’ each one of us. In baptism we each discover that we have a vocation , and for each one of us our vocation is to become the person we were created to be. I am called to be Gillian. What it means to be Gillian is something I can only work out with the help of others , primarily with the family of God. And so in the baptism service , the congregation promises to help the newly baptised in their calling. One of the clearest ways we do this as church is to ask people to do things within the community that we see they are good at. That is why giving of our time and talents is an act of formation – it helps us to be formed as the people we were created to be.

So where does money fit in then? Giving money can and should be just a formative as giving of anything else that is important to us. Jesus would not have spoken about money quite so much if he didn’t know it was important. And interestingly , Jesus most often spoke about money in connection with faith and faithfulness , which suggests to me that for Jesus , money was not impersonal at all.

Jesus again and again told people to give their money to the poor. He told his disciples to go out without money in their purses. He told stories about stewards who were faithful and unfaithful with the money entrusted to them. He told of stories of people whose lives were choked by the weeds of riches and pleasure. And he told the story of the widow and her mite that we heard as the gospel this morning.

This gospel reading is a bestseller among stewardship texts. It draws a contrast between the rich people who have plenty and give plenty, and the poor widow who has little but gives all. At first glance it seems a straightforward tale of sacrificial giving. But you should know that the lectionary makers and those responsible for putting the chapter markers in the bible , are playing tricks with you. Let me explain.

There is good reason to believe that we have missed the end of the story , and that it should continue on into chapter 13. Listen:

As he came out of the temple , one of his disciples said to him , ‘Look , Teacher , what large stones and what large buildings!’ 2 Then Jesus asked him , ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’

This is the context of the widow’s mite – the treasury was used to maintain the Temple – its buildings and its operation. It was an impressive structure , and the disciples were certainly impressed. It must have been like wandering into a newly completed and consecrated cathedral! So the money from the rich people and from the widow was to go towards the upkeep of this magnificent building. What a worthwhile cause. Jesus , however , is unimpressed: so what , he says , they will all be destroyed before you know it. The building is unimportant.

Now I am aware that there is a certain danger in talking about the destruction of the Temple in this particular place and time! Perhaps I should reapply the lipstick , she says nervously! So I hurry on to remind you that despite his dismissive words , Jesus still thought the widow was a good example of something. Even if the Temple was doomed , her act was not futile. And that is because the widow gave in response to her own need , and not to the need of the Temple .

The widow’s action highlights for us the difference between stewardship and fundraising. We fundraise because we have a target , and a goal. We give money for fundraising because we think the cause is a good one. We make a judgment. We approve of the large stones! So I might buy chocolates in a chocolate drive to help the local girl guides , or I might contribute to the building fund of my daughter’s school , so they can build a library. If I don’t support the cause , I probably won’t give money.

Stewardship is an entirely different thing. I give money to the church regardless of what the church does with it. I give money to the church because giving is part of my identity. I give money to the church because I am thankful to God for all that I have received from God. I have been formed to give. I have grown up in the midst of church communities which give money the way they breathe air: instinctively , regularly , deeply. I have been blessed to belong to church communities which have long recognised that giving is deeply personal , because it expresses the very essence of who they are – people who receive freely , who give thanks , who want to live generously.

It saddens me that the idea of stewardship often gets disconnected from the joy of living out our vocations. I could wish that we had a more appropriate hymn just before the gospel. “Take up your cross” only emphasises the idea of giving as a sacrifice , and let’s face it , no matter how much I might want to reflect theologically on the notion of “sacrifice” , your first thought is probably not a joyful one. Sacrifice seems to go hand in hand with suffering and loss. No wonder we don’t want to talk about it! Where is the joy and the instinctive nature of stewardship? I think we should talk about sacrificial fundraising instead!

But if we think of stewardship as breathing , we might realise that it only hurts when we don’t do it! The body breathes in and out not because it is told to , and not even because it is a good thing , but because it simply cannot help but breathe. We inhale and we exhale , and the whole body is renewed and restored. Think , for a moment of the many ministries which originate from this place: not only the ministry done by the professionals here , which forms but a small part of the whole , but also the ministry which each and every one of you carries out from here into the rest of your life. What happens here , on a Sunday or any other day , inevitably shapes how you live your life and how you minister with and among others. The ministry we pay for nourishes and nurtures the ministry we take with us into the world. We too inhale and exhale.

So I do not say to you , take up your cross. I do not say to you , give until it hurts , or God loves a cheerful giver , or even that it’s for a good cause. I would rather skip to the end of the service and the beautiful hymn that comes to us from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer speaks to us not of sacrifice but of breathing:

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered ,
and confidently waiting come what may ,
we know that God is with us night and morning
and never fails to greet us each new day.

We breathe in each day God’s generosity towards us , the gift of a new day. And we breathe it out again , in money , in time , in talents , in our very selves.

Yet when again , in this same world , you give us
the joy we had , the brightness of your sun ,
we shall remember all the days we lived through ,
and our whole life shall then be yours alone.

What could be more personal than that?

In the name of God. Amen.

Gillian Moses, St Johns Cathedral Brisbane, 8 November 2009