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Sermon Archive - November 15, 1998
Pastor Danielson
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Luke 21:5-19
If you are a first time visitor it is my duty to inform you that today is
Stewardship Sunday ---that day of the Church year when we take a serious look
at where we want to go as a congregation and what it will cost us to go there.
If you are a regular worshiper, but not a member, you may or may not realize
how important this day is to St. James ---its people and its programs. In fact
we have members who are still somewhat "in the dark"
A "Stewardship Message," at its best, communicates the biblical charge that
followers of Christ, having already been fed and nurtured spiritually, must
now prepare to respond to human need, within and outside their family of
faith. That's a mouthful, but it's my mouthful and I stand behind it.
Furthermore, when we effectively communicate that biblical message AND then,
willingly commit to it ---the mission of Christ's Church on earth, in this
place and this time, moves forward. However, when we are not able to
communicate effectively and we are not willing to commit wholeheartedly, the
mission of the Church, in this time and place, stands still, or worse ---moves
backwards.
Here at St. James, we move only forward! At least that has been my experience
over the past 23 years. I say that with great pride but without taking
personal credit. I mean that! Parishioners like to attribute a congregation's
continuing success to its pastor or pastors and all too often pastors, by
their silence, seem to indicate that they go along with it. But the truth is
this: While good stewards have been known to support ministers they trust with
great generosity; they support only ministries they believe in with
sacrificial giving!
I won't deny that each time our Annual Stewardship Appeal rolls around, even
the most committed can grow weary. You may recall a Lutheran Magazine cartoon,
from two or three years ago, that pictured a minister standing at the church
door after Sunday services. A member says to him, "Pastor, we sure were
relieved to hear you say you didn't know where the money was coming from for
this year's budget. We were afraid you were going to ask us for it!"
Year in and year out, pastors and other stewardship leaders "ask" and indeed
there is no relief in sight! And, the asking is always the same:
"We need your gifts of time and talent and treasure!"
Thankfully, here at St. James, the response is always the same:
". . .full measure," "shaken down," and "overflowing."
I have every reason to believe that it will be so again this year.
In 1998 83% of our active, contributing members pledged. And, of equal or
even greater importance, members of St. James ---young and old, employed and
unemployed, healthy and not so healthy--- almost without exception,
contributed gifts of unselfish service as well; teaching and typing, ushering
and greeting, singing and tooting, scrubbing and cooking, visiting and
driving, hammering and hauling. . . the list is endless!
The Dwight Liles song, We Are an Offering, seems to tell the "St. James Story"
like none other:
"We lift our voices, we lift our hands,
we lift our lives up to You, we are an offering.
Lord, use our voices, Lord, use our hands, Lord, use our lives,
they are Yours, we are an offering.
All that we have, all that we are, all that we hope to be,
we give to You, we give to You."
Good stewards stand out in a crowd because they are happy to be in the
presence of the Lord ---serving among God's people with hands and voices and
with their very lives.
Send the children out into the congregation to find persons who look like
"Christian Stewards." Let the children decide what that means. Encourage each
child to explain why they picked that person. Invite those persons identified
as Christian stewards come to the front. Ask them, "What do you have to say
for yourself ---standing out in a crowd like that?" Allow them to respond as
the children watch and listen. Give each person a gold cross that identifies
them as good stewards.
Over the years I have woven into my annual stewardship sermons the best of an
endless stream of true stories of sacrificial giving. They were usually
stories lifted from childhood memories or from congregations served earlier in
my ministry. It was as if there were no stewards like "old stewards" and no
stewardship like that of the distant past. Of course that isn't true at all!
It is simply easier and a bit more colorful to speak of such "goodness" from a
distance. Larger than life characters are always more believable when no one
is around to challenge the storyteller.
Believe me, having ministered long and hard here among you, I now have more
stories worth 'the telling' than ever before. I hesitate to share them only
because the characters are so recognizable. Someday, somewhere, your stories
of generosity and sacrifice will be heard by others and they will be inspired
to be better stewards of God's bountiful goodness. Suffice to say, the stories
I hold most dear, from any place and time, are not those of size but of
sentiment; ---not of grandeur, but of growth.
As much as I may relish an opportunity to cultivate a giver for his or her
eventual deferred gift; I cherish being blindsided by the totally unexpected.
SO, BLINDSIDE ME WITH UNIMAGINED GIFTS!
As much as I may enjoy receiving an anonymous gift that has everyone guessing;
I am thrilled when someone steps forth to make their gift a "testimony" not of
their generosity but of God's goodness!
STEP UP TO THE CHALLENGE! YOU WON'T BE SORRY!
As much as I may wish for St. James Church the kind of predictable financial
security that comes with over-subscribed budgets, cash reserves and bulging
endowment funds; I want you to believe that the very Spirit of God is moving
us into a future of sensational surprises! SURPRISE ME!
As much as I might hope for unwavering faith within this church community; I
know that Christians and their faith are immeasurably strengthened when they
emerge unscathed from crises of lingering doubt. EMBRACE YOUR DOUBTS AS
VALUABLE BUILDING BLOCKS OF A LASTING FAITH! TAKE YOUR LEAPS OF FAITH.
And finally, as much as I am strengthened by the knowledge that God is a God
of unlimited grace; I am empowered by the promise that God's grace saves me
AND YOU for now and forever!
On a day such as this we dare not deny that, historically, the so called
"younger generation" is at first skeptical of the Church's need to "grow" its
stewardship. With the passing of time they and we, working together, see that
the old adage is true: "The more things change the more they stay the same!"
---at least as concerns Christian stewards and their stewardship.
The Church will never outlive its need for faithful stewards and each new
generation of stewards eventually realizes what sacrificial giving means;
---what it brings to ministry in their day and what it leaves for future
ministries.
Let us pray.
Good and gracious God,
"We give thee but thine own,
What-e'er the gift may be;
All that we have is thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from thee.
May we thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive,
And gladly, as thou blessest us,
To thee our first fruits give."
AMEN.
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