Stewardship talk - Giving - not just about money -

I gave this Stewardship talk several years ago when we had no full-time priest.  Lay people were filling as many shoes as we could.  Perhaps we should always strive to discern how God is calling us to pledge our time and talents as well as our money.

Let us pray.  May only the word of God be spoken.  And may only the word of God be heard.  Amen.

I borrowed that prayer from The Rev. Barbara Crafton who was our priest-in-residence at the University of the South at Sewanee this past July when I attended the Church Musician's Conference.  Barbara led our lecture series and our worship services.  I have often wondered what it would be like to stand up and talk to a group or prepare a sermon. As it turns out, standing here is the easy part.  Discerning what God was leading me to say was the hard part.  So I do pray that only His word will be spoken and only His word will be heard.

I am here today to kick off our stewardship campaign.  As usual, your pledge cards will be mailed.  Thank you notes will be written and budgets will be tallied.   I imagine that most of you who support this church would sign a pledge card whether or not I or someone else stood here and asked.  Stewardship is not an easy thing to talk about.  People tire of being asked for money.  I tire of being asked for money.  I go through my inbox and delete emails every day from organizations who want my financial assistance.  I have a limited budget for donations so I carefully select which charity I will support.  I'm not here to ask you for money.  There is another way that the church, this church in particular, needs you to give.  I am going to ask you for your time and your talent. God calls us at different times in our lives to give in many different ways.  But giving isn't just about money.

Recently, Matthew Kuipers became a lector.  Matthew's parents sent him to Honey Creek this summer where he served as a lector for his group.  He came home and told his parents he wanted to do something in the church.  Someone happened to share that with me so I emailed Liz and asked her if he was interested in being a lector.  We now have a new lector.  Matthew doesn't have a job which would allow him to give money.  But he came home from Honey Creek with an appreciation for being involved in something bigger than himself.  In a very real way Matthew is pledging.  He is pledging his time to serve as a Lector. 

C. S. Lewis once wrote "I pray, not because it changes God, but because it changes me."  Giving, whether it be your money or your time, will change you.  When we offer our time as a prayer to God, it changes us.  Meaningful service can take us to that “thin place” where heaven and earth are one.  I recently read that Stewardship, in the broad sense, is how we respond to what God is trying to show us and tell us and teach us. Our response can open the door to God’s multiplying our gifts, allowing them to bear life-giving fruit in the lives of others, in ways we may never have the privilege of seeing. In the words of the old saying, “Stewardship is everything we do after we say ‘I believe.’”

So, yes, your Stewardship Committee is going to mail pledge cards.  We are going to ask you to pledge to help pay salaries and utilities and building expenses.  Without you, we couldn't turn on the lights or keep you cool in the summer or pay the musicians or the priest or the nursery workers.  But I urge you to turn that card over and spend some time praying about how God wants you to pledge your time and your talents.  

Today's collect asks for God's grace so that we may continually be given to good works.  My prayer is that God's grace will move us to good works in this parish.  I pray also that His grace will show us who we need to be - in this parish, this neighborhood and in this community.