Commands, Camels and Coins - A Stewardship Sermon

Commands, Camels, and Coins

A Sermon by Brent J. Eelman

First Presbyterian Church Clarks Summit

October 21, 2018

Jeremiah 32:6-15

Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Mark 10: 17-31

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ¹⁸Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.” ’ ²⁰He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ ²¹Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money^* to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ ²²When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

23 Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’ ²⁴And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how hard it is^* to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ ²⁶They were greatly astounded and said to one another,^* ‘Then who can be saved?’ ²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.’
28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ ²⁹Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news,^{* 30}who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’

A few years prior to retirement, I was in a conversation with a colleague who was also my age.  We were talking about our post ministry plans: traveling, fishing, hobbies, and actually sitting in worship with our spouses.  In the course of the conversation he said, “Just think, only three more stewardship drives and then I can retire.”  The comment struck me as funny and I gave it a good laugh.  But it was also revealing.  It revealed a great deal about how clergy feel about money and funding our churches.  Why are women and men called to the ministry? To care; to pray, to teach; to study; and to lead people in their spiritual lives.   The damnable thing about ministry is that in order to do what we are called by God to do, (preach, heal, teach, care, and pray), we also have to honor the hunger of the institution for financial resources.  It is the bane of our profession, and the few who seem to thrive at it, immediately become professional fundraisers and travel to different congregations, assisting them with their needs. 

People in the pew are also familiar with the annual October drill.  There are the standard stewardship sermon texts:  “Jeremiah Purchases a Field”, “the Widow’s Mite”, and the “Rich Young Ruler”.   Congregations, hearing these passages read, have a way of bracing themselves thinking, “Here comes the stewardship sermon.”  “The commitment card must be in the mail.”  When you heard the scripture lesson today, and saw the title, I am sure that some of you must have thought: “Here it comes.”

Do stewardship sermons honestly make a difference?  I realize that I am committing pastoral heresy at this point, but I am not sure if there is a relationship between the stewardship sermon (no matter how good!) and the amount that is committed during the stewardship campaign.  

With all of that said, I believe that stewardship is important.  The issue of money and what we do with it needs to be addressed from the pulpit.  Clergy should not handle this topic with “kid gloves” because Jesus didn’t.  In fact, when we look at the teachings of Jesus, money and possessions were a primary concern.

 I want to re-examine the topic of stewardship in light of the biblical story I just read.  I have three points:  1. We do stewardship wrong.  2. How much we give is not what matters. 3. It is a matter of life and death.    Do I have your attention?

I

We do stewardship wrong.  The church and religious institutions do a good job of raising funds.  Of the total amount that is given to charities, churches and religious organizations receive the largest percentage.  Americans also tend to be very generous in comparison to other countries, (although the amount is decreasing.)  A number of years ago, Canada, our neighbor to the north, had a public service advertizing campaign called the 5% campaign.  It was designed to encourage Canadians to give more generously to charities.  Part of the reasoning behind the campaign was to emulate the United States and its support of charities.  Churches do a reasonably good job of raising funds.  But that is not the stewardship that Christ taught.  Stewardship is not about fund raising.

I fear that the way churches approach stewardship has made us one more eleemosynary institution asking for donations to support it.  There is the YMCA, the Hospital, the Red Cross, the university or our college, and public radio.  We are one more fundraising organization out there attempting to get a bite of the charity dollar.  That is not what Jesus taught.  We do it wrong. 

Stewardship is not about raising money… it is about hope, the future, and what we believe!  It is about investing in the future… a future we may not live in, but a future our children and our children’s children will.  We need to stop talking about goals and budgets during this time of year and talk about our souls, our possessions, and the future we envision for coming generations.  

 II

Stewardship is not about how much we give.  What did Jesus teach?  When I read the stories of Jesus, I am struck by two things.  First, money was his most popular topic.  Second, when he taught about money and the stewardship of things, he never gave any direction on how much to give.  This did not seem to matter.  We all know the story of the widow who gave two copper coins.  She gave the least amount of anybody and Jesus held her up as an example of good stewardship.  In this story of the wealthy man, Jesus did not give the man a percentage or an amount to give. No.  He told him to sell what he had and give it away. 

The stewardship that Jesus taught does not center on what we give, but rather what we keep for ourselves. 

Stewardship is about our lifestyle.  We keep a lot.  We worry about the future and whether we will have enough.  I know I do.  So like squirrels gathering nuts before winter, we store stuff because we fear that we will need it: “Saving for a rainy day.”  What did Jesus say?  “Do not be anxious about tomorrow. Consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.”  God provides for them. 

Stewardship means asking the hard question of our own lives. “What do I really need?”  It is not about how much we give, but rather how much we keep. It is about how honestly we answer the questions, “What do I really need? And what should I keep for me?”   When I am honest with myself, I realize that I need a lot less than what I have.  The biblical stewardship of which Jesus taught, is a lifestyle.  A lifestyle that examines not how much we give, but how much we keep for ourselves.  When I think about it like that, I begin to understand why the man walked away dejected. 

I wonder, would I?

How true is the message of Hebrews: “The word of God is living, active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints for marrow.  It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

I wonder, would I walk away too?

III

It is a matter of life and death.  What was the question that prompted Jesus to tell the young man, “Go sell what you own and give it to the poor.”  The question was, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus was responding to a life and death question.  Eternal life, the good life, the fulfilling life, is determined by what we keep.  Why? 

Because what we keep often gets in the way of our love for God and our relationships with our fellow human beings.  Our possessions are powerful and can control our lives.  We begin to live for them and they begin to determine our behavior.  We become workaholics, consequently on those days when we are not working we are “play-aholics”. 

Where is God in the midst of this?  Where is the God whom we are called to love with our heart, our soul, and our mind?   Is our “stuff” squeezing God out of our lives?  Our possessions, and our fealty to them, cause us to keep more time for ourselves and to tend our stuff… and so we give less to others: to our families, to the church, to serving those in need, to building up the community and enabling people to be reconciled to each other. 

The question was, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus did not give a doctrinal answer: “you have to believe this doctrine and this point of theology.”  No.  He said… “obey the commandments”  and “give.”  The man walked away dejected, not because he didn’t obey the commandments, (he kept them from his youth!).  He walked away because he had a lot, and he wanted to keep it for himself.  “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” For Christ it is a matter of life and death. 

I am sure that the stewardship committee is fearing that this homily is undercutting their important efforts.   Let me conclude by saying, if you love this church and you want to see it continue its ministry; if you love worshiping here, if you want to continue to see a rich and diversified program of music, study, and mission; if First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit is important enough to continue to exist, we need to support the church with our offerings and be generous.  There are unpleasant consequences if we don’t, and it is not just for the church. 1^st Presbyterian Church enriches this community beyond these walls.  It is a thinking congregation, a praying congregation that puts muscle behind its thoughts and legs to its prayers.  My prayer is that you will be generous supporting FPC because, as imperfect as it is, it does wonderful things in the name of Christ, and if we are faithful in keeping a bit less for ourselves, the work of this congregation can be multiplied.    

The message this morning is that Christ invites us to go even further in our lives.  To not merely be generous in our giving, but honest about what we need and what we keep for ourselves.  Generous support is fund raising.  Honesty in what we keep is stewardship.  This is the Good News…. Challenging, perhaps upsetting, but Good News nonetheless.  We can join the rich man and walk away, or we can believe it and live.  Amen.