Stewardship Sunday

by

Sara Barrios, Jean Olson

Preached at Old First Presbyterian Church

San Francisco, California

October 16, 2005

The New Testament Reading:  2 Corinthians 8:1-15  

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; ²for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, ⁴begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints— ⁵and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, ⁶so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you.

7 Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. ⁸I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. ⁹For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. ¹⁰And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— ¹¹now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. ¹²For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. ¹³I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between ¹⁴your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. ¹⁵As it is written, ‘The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.’

Let us pray together: Generous God, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer. 

Only something as compelling as the stewardship of this congregation could get me here.  I do so firmly believe in this church and it’s mission and it’s future, that I want to talk to you about our giving as a more generous people.  My family and I have been involved in this church since the 60’s. One of my daughters was married here, and one of my grandsons was baptized here. My husband Al and I danced a tango across this platform in a talent show.  We lived through the 60’s with three teenaged daughters and we lived a few blocks from the Haight Ashbury. The youth groups of Old First Church gave them what they needed. They are all still involved in church. You saw us through some tough times and rejoiced in our good times and have nourished and continue to comfort me after Al’s death.  I feel it a privilege to ask you to be generous in your support of Old First. I want you to feel all of the love and support and faith building that I and my family have found here.

Jean read the letter Paul wrote to the church at Corinth after his first and second journeys there. I want to talk about Paul’s letter with you.  Corinth was a city above a bay and a very beautiful place, much like San Francisco , set on hills and a thriving center of trade, and much like San Francisco , the people there were not listening to God’s message that had been preached to them earlier.  They were backsliding from their commitments to give to the Christians in Jerusalem .  Corinth was considered a very immoral place, and some people view San Francisco that way.

Paul in his letter reminded them of the church at Macedonia , which had given to the poor in Jerusalem , in spite of their poverty and affliction. The Christians in Jerusalem were poor because they were outcasts from their Jewish families, society, employment and the Temple . The churches considered it a privilege to help the first Christians in Jerusalem .

The Macedonian's giving was a demonstration of the Grace of God, because they gave from their hearts, Paul says.  They also gave of their own free will and beyond their capacity. The Macedonians gave themselves first to God and then to us, in keeping with God’s will, says Paul in his letter.  Their giving came out of Grace and Joy- not out of guilt or because they had a slick campaign.

The key was “they gave themselves first to the Lord....!”

Paul's letters were a Philosophy of giving and are as true today as then.  Paul continues to the Church at Corinth : “ excel in everything, in faith, speech and in knowledge-- see that you also excel in this Grace of giving.”

GRACE OF GIVING!!  GRACE OF GIVING !!

Grace- unmerited Love.or covenant love or undeserved favor?  Do you think of your giving as a “Grace”?

“Imagine” if we did.  We as a church excel in so many ways just like the people of Corinth .  -- in knowledge,  in speech,  in occupations,  in serving--  Why not excel in giving and become more generous people than we already are?

We have given willingly, recently, to the victims of Katrina and Rita.  There are so many calls on our resources. The PG&E bill is going up at home as well as here in the church and it is somewhat like my young daughter said to the Sunday school teacher when asked why she did not put her offering in the plate “ because my Daddy said we are spending entirely too much money!”   Perhaps we all feel that way but are we spending it where we will receive the Grace of Giving?  Are we giving from our hearts from our abundance?

I want to give more to the church and other causes, and I challenge myself to do so.  On a retirement income it’s difficult.  Al and I did provide for 10% of our estate to go to Old First. You can do that too. We can help secure the future of this church.  Sharon Salzburg  says:  “Giving up, giving in, just plain giving-  that’s the truly transforming experience.  Generosity opens our heart, frees us from attachment and is the basis of all good qualities”.  

Do we want experience Old First going forward or do we want to stay as we are?  Why not receive that Grace of giving as more generous people.  We barely make a minimum mission budget, we need chairs for our only small meeting room, the Munro room. We need to rethink our staff salaries, we need a new PA system and on and on.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could give because God has so graciously given so much to us?

I feel that in my life God has surrounded me with a loving family and a wonderful faith community and friends and provided for my material needs.  I want to honor that with my service and my offering.  Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t worry about the budget because there will be plenty?  Just to be sure there is enough there to meet the church’s and other needs and to be able to give to and help the poor in Jerusalem and in New Orleans and San Francisco and those affected by the earthquake in Pakistan and Network Ministries and The Covenant Network and the Senior Center and the Welcome Center, Larkin Sreet Center, and with enough to support the missions of our National Church. We long to get excited about not only giving but about Old First Church .  Excited about selecting a Pastor Nominating Committee.  Excited about our programs, and our future. How can we pass this along to new members if we don’t exhibit it ourselves?

IMAGINE-- a greater Old First, a renewed Old First taking it’s place as a leader in San Francisco as we have always been. We may be in transition now but are looking forward to the future together.  Here is what Jeff said in a recent sermon:  “Allow the measureless generosity of God to change you into a more generous people, for all that you have-  time, ability,  money,  energy,   life itself,- is given you from God in the first place.  We are called to be servants, not masters”

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift And for the Grace of giving generously.

Amen

"The Grace of Giving" by Jean Olson

After having read the last letter the Stewardship Committee wrote, you might think that as Moderator of Stewardship I’m going to harangue you about increasing your giving to the point of tithing or beyond.  But I am not going to admonish or scold.  Rather I will try to define stewardship in a new way so that you will want to give.  Not out of a sense of obligation but out of an understanding of the grace of giving-giving as one of the fruits of the Spirit.

The Stewardship Committee decided to lead this service in a meeting in the summer.  Sara and I agreed to share the sermon.  We had several months.  It seemed like a long time-plenty of time to prepare.   In my usual fashion, I didn’t start to write until last week. As I began to write, I realized that I’ve been preparing for this sermon for many years. As I affirmed in my statement in last Sunday’s bulletin, my reasons for giving began as a child when I learned about some of the ways the church helped others-the heifer project-providing animals and self-sufficiency to farmers in Africa (that appealed to our New England Puritan souls) or One Great Hour of Sharing (a cooperative effort among the various mainline churches).  As I grew, left home, finished school and residency training, got a job ( finally at age 31), I started to give to charitable causes and got a kick out of it.  I felt joy.  Knowing that I was helping others, helped me.  God has given me much so that I am able to give and I’m not just talking about money.  Everyone of us in this congregation gives to others in a myriad of ways.  In doing so we become partners in God’s grace.

As the time grew closer for the service, I decided to get the opinions of others about the passage from Corinthians we had chosen.  At the Session meeting in September, we used this passage for a period of meditation and discussion.  As you probably know the Session as a group is quite concrete (I certainly am-maybe I should just speak for myself).   Therefore, much of the discussion centered around the idea that the congregation needs a reason to give, something to grab on to that they’re passionate about-tangible. Some Elders thought that people will give willingly if they believe there is a reason to give and believe that it is really needed.  They suggested that we (Stewardship) should provide a list of the essential needs of the church-a new Christian Ed position, building repairs, music budget, etc.   I reminded everyone that I had done that last year without great success.  Our bulletin inserts had a list of all our needs and a graph showing where we were.  It obviously wasn’t very memorable because they had already forgotten we’d done it and were suggesting we try it again as if it were a new idea.   But then some other ideas came forward.  There were also glimmers of thinking outside the box-that what we really need are faith-based reasons to give and also to change the culture of this church in its understanding of the term stewardship.  What are those reasons?  One we hear and talk about all the time-it’s how we often describe ourselves-, we are a community of faith and each of us longs to be part of that loving community.   We see it on Sunday mornings as we greet each other and the strangers among us.  We see it during the week in our outreach to our homeless neighbors.  We see it over the years in the children as they grow before our eyes in height but more importantly in faith.  My favorite reason from the meeting came from Ted Chiao who said that our gifts to this church-whatever they may be-are an expression of our relationship  with God and do not represent club dues.  Hm—interesting-not club dues.  This church through our weekly reminders in scripture and through Jeff’s sermons, our small groups, our own personal prayers helps build that relationship to God. 

The next Tuesday the scotch and spirituality group met and we also discussed the Corinthians passage.  I am the only concrete member of that group so we got right down the more spiritual side—with the help of spirits and the Spirit.  I’m going to summarize that meeting by reordering some of our thoughts: What do we value?  The poor in South America and Africa are so happy for what they have whereas we are unhappy about what we don’t have, yet we long to live into blessing and generosity.   At other times we do express our gratitude for what we have received.  We must make a commitment to open our lives to Jesus’ gift of his life.   I want to talk a little more about commitment.   In an issue of Weavings from 1994 concerning commitment, Jay Hanke, a Methodist minister from Virginia said “Commitment is an expression of our desire to live with God and one another in the redemptive realm of wholeness announced by and embodied in Jesus.  This means that our attempts to grow commitment must start with the inner journey.  Commitment grows when we come in touch with our heart’s desire for God, with God’s desire for us, and with persons who will speak the truth in love to us.”  Imagine if each church member committed to practice the spiritual discipline of pledging their heart’s desire instead of first considering an amount of money.  Imagine if this church were to be guided by God’s call in choosing projects rather than by a sense of obligation.   Imagine if we saw our outreach ministries as an expression of a desire for God.  In thinking about this gift of grace we should consider “where is your heart’s desire?” 

Let’s return to the Corinthians passage.  Sara has provided you with some of the background of this passage in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  I am going to focus on 2 themes that have been woven into this sermon and are found in verses 8-11.  Let me read them again-this time from the RSV. “I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.  And in this matter I give my advice: it is best for you now to complete what a year ago not only what you began but what you desire, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.”  The 2 themes are the gracious gift that Jesus has given and our commitment to become companions in that grace. Paul does not berate his listeners.  He doesn’t say that we need to show our gratitude to God for God’s divine generosity by paying large amounts of money.  Nor does he state that our reward in heaven is related to the size of our gift. Rather Paul suggests that God’s gift of grace is symbolized in this passage by Jesus becoming poor that we might become rich by receiving that grace.  As we become companions of this grace, we will radiate love and compassion.  We will engage with God in love in the world and this love will include a sharing of our financial resources.  We learned in Sunday school and continue to learn as adults in our study of scripture and through prayer that God calls us to model our lives after Christ-to become as rich as Christ.  Christian stewardship is an appeal to love.

Shortly we will share in Communion- a sign of God’s generosity to us and in remembrance of Christ.  As we share this meal, let us remember God’s divine generosity to us and show forth that love.

God of grace,

We thank you that you have given us so much, but most of all, your Son who provides us a model of how you would have us live and love.  In Jesus’ name.

Amen.

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