Father John McGinn, Rector

 

Saint John’s Episcopal Church 

Sandwich, Massachusetts

 

                 November 12, 2006                                Pentecost 23

 

 

 

I want to begin my sermon today with a prayer for stewardship:

     We celebrate and acknowledge with thanksgiving and

     gratitude, all of God’s gifts to us.  We are honored to

     make a commitment of our pledge money as we under-

     stand that all we have is a gift from God, and we are

     choosing to serve God by giving a portion of what we

     have received, for the love of Jesus, through St. John’s

     Church.  We pray God will help us trust so that we can

     give generously of our abundance.  All this we pray in

     Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

A wealthy man rang his minister at 2am on the telephone, and he said, “Father, I lost everything in the stock market yesterday and I can’t believe that it is all gone.”  The slowly awakened pastor tried to reassure the man.  “I am so sorry.  I know this is a difficult time for you.”  “What bothers me the most” continued the man, “Is the two million dollars I had pledged to the church building fund, it is gone too.”   “Don’t stress yourself said the priest, “the Lord will take care of everything.  He will provide us a way to build the new church.”   The once wealthy man thanked the priest and soon he fell asleep.  The priest, however, did not sleep another wink.

 

I want to talk for a few moments this morning about giving.  It is one of the most important themes in Christian discipleship. 

 

An Episcopal priest tells the story of a woman who goes into the church he once pastured, her name was Ellen Douglas.  She was a poor woman who lived in a government housing project.  Her car was covered with bumper stickers.  The priest used to say to her “If you peel off one bumper sticker, the whole car will fall apart.  Even though she didn’t have much money, Helen was faithful to the church.  When the time came to raise a great deal of money for the new building, the church began holding prayer meetings early in the morning. Helen was always there waiting for the doors to open.  She prayed, wept and even fasted asking God to supply the needs of the church, and finally the day of the big offering came, she let the plate pass her by, and God spoke to her.  “Helen, why didn’t you give?” And she said “Lord, I am a poor lady, I don’t have anything to give.”  And the Lord said “Give all you got.”  So she dug into her purse and found some loose change.  She put it in an offering envelope, and wrote: It is all I have.   After the service, she gave it to the parish priest.  He tried to give it back, but she insisted it was her gift from God.  He took it home and opened it.  It was 3.30.  That evening the church was packed because everyone wanted to see how much the offering had brought the church.  Maybe they went over the goal?  After everyone settled down, the priest said “I want to tell you about the largest gift.”  He then shared the story of Helen Douglas.  One of the men stood up in church and said: “That is the greatest story of stewardship I have ever heard.  And I want one of the coins to remember this.  And with that he offered ten dollars for the coin.”  Then someone else did the same.  Suddenly a spirit of giving came over the congregation and for the next thirty minutes, people brought checks and the smallest gift of all became the largest in the history of the church.

 

Now those of you who read the King James Version of the bible would say that this is a variation of the widow’s money story. 

 

Jesus sat down opposite where the offerings were taken and he watched the crowd putting money into the temple treasure.  Many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and threw in two small copper coins.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said “This poor widow has put more in the treasury than all the others.  They all gave out of their wealth, but she gave everything.  All she had to live on.”    I think there are some important lessons in this story.

 

Here is the first lesson I want to talk about.  We give in proportion to our faith.  I want to say that again.  We give in direct proportion to our faith.  Think about that.  Conventional wisdom says that we give in proportion to our resources, but that is rarely true.    Traditionally, most affluent families give very little to the church.  Few of us give what we ought, but proportionately in most churches, lower income people give more than higher income people.  I read that if all Christians were reduced to a welfare income, and they tithed that amount, the church would double what it receives.

 

Now according to national statistics, the average Episcopal church member gives 2,5% of his/ her income to the church.  Unfortunately that does not increase when people’s income increases.  Sadly, it falls.  We don’t give in proportion to our incomes, we give in proportion to our faith.

 

How many of you are uncertain about the future financially? How many of you are uncertain that the nation’s economy will produce more in the future instead of less?  I am sure some of you are thinking about that.

 

Now, how many of you are certain that God will take care of you regardless of what happens to the economy.  One reason people do not give is that they are afraid.  They are afraid that the stock market will fail and they will not have enough to pay the bills.

 

 I know my parents lived this way.  They were products of the

depression, they worried about paying their bills, they worried about

the government failing.  I remember that except for their house, it

was the only thing they took on credit, every thing else they paid in

cash.   They were worried that they wouldn’t be able to pay the bills.

 

                           Some are afraid that if they do not have the things their neighbors have, people will think badly of them.  Some are still uncertain that this Christianity stuff is real after all.  What does the church do with that money?  Waste it? 

 

In each situation, the problem is not a lack of resources, the problem is a lack of faith.  We give in proportion to our faith in Jesus. Little faith little gift;  big faith, big gift. 

 

For some people 100 dollars is a big gift, for others, 100 thousand dollars is a big gift.  We give proportion to our faith.

 

Here is the second thing I want to say.  God measures our gift, not on the size but on the level of the sacrifice involved.  Today we throw the word LOVE around, it is amazing how that word can be misused.  C.S. Lewis wrote a book about love and tried to make it clearer.  There are all sorts of things with love in them: I love you, I love this, and I love that.  There are all sorts of things that come around with love in them. I really think love is an action.  I really think love is a sacrificial action.  Love always pays a price.  Love always costs something. 

 

Love is expensive.  When you love, benefits accrue in another’s account.  Love is for you, not for me.  Love gives, love doesn’t grab. 

 

The story of the widow in the gospel today, is a simple story but a powerful one.  The widow gave all that she had.  Hers was a loving, sacrificial action.

 

A leading charity used to say “Give until it hurts.” Then they changed it to “Give until it helps.”  Could it be that they quit asking people to “Give until it hurts” because the idea of sacrificial giving is alien to people today. Jesus said about the wealthy at the temple, “They all gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in everything”

God doesn’t measure the size of the gift, but the size of the sacrifice.

 

The last thing I want to say this morning is that you never know the goodness that can come from the smallest gift.  Jesus used the widows small gift to instruct his disciples, and through the scriptures, millions of his later follower.  And a young, small boy gave two fish, and two loaves of bread and a multitude of 5000 were fed.  In the Episcopal priest’s story, Helen Douglas’ gift motivated an entire congregation to give more than they ever had before.  You never know if you give even a small gift, how God will use it.

 

In my seminary years, I served as an intern at Trinity Church in Boston.  I loved being there because I worked for the rector, a wonderful guy, Father Tom Ferris, who is the long time rector of Trinity Church.  He is also a famous preacher and a famous religious leader in the twentieth century.  Tom was a gentle, intelligent and gave very powerful sermons.  While I was at that church, one of the most faithful members was a woman named Mrs. Rolfe, a single mother, who struggled daily to support herself and her young son.  Before I left the church, she gave me a farewell gift.  The priest had told the congregation that I was leaving, and asked if anyone had something that would help me through the rest of seminary.  Mrs. Rolfe gave me a quarter.  The most money this poor woman could scrape together at the time.  I don’t know what happened to that quarter. Back then you could rid the T for 25 cents, so I might have used it to get home that night.  I only know what happened to me.  In many ways that quarter bought a minister.  More than 28 years later, I have not been able to shake off that Godly woman’s sacrifice, it helps me and my wife as we think about giving each year to the church.  As I told you before we are tithing, that is 10% of all that we have.

 

You never know when you make the smallest sacrificial gift, how much good it might do.  Two small coins, worth less than a penny, that poor widow had no idea that Jesus was watching when she dropped them in, but he was.  Jesus was watching.  People don’t give in proportion to their resources; they give in proportion to their faith.  Even the smallest gift, with God's blessing, can do more than we can possibly imagine.  Thank you Mrs.  Rolfe.  Thank you Mrs. Douglas.  Thank you to the widow.  Amen.

 

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