This was the final sermon of the four-part stewardship series. It went ok. I had some good feedback at the door, but I was not that satisfied with the sermon. I opened with a fun story as an intentional way to lighten the mood a bit. I have found that sometimes stewardship seems to wear on congregations. I think the Time with Young Disciples (I divided them into two groups and said one group had $500 to spend and one group had $100 to spend and then asked what they would do with the money) worked better than the sermon! I love the story in the conclusion about Pompeii, but I do not think it really fit the sermon. Should have saved it for another year.
“Celebrating Stewardship” Stewardship series 2019; SAPC, Denton; September 29, 2019; Matthew 25: 14-30
For it is as if a
man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to
them; 15 to one he gave five
talents,[f] to another two, to another one, to each according to his
ability. Then he went away. 16 The one who had received the five talents went off at
once and traded with them, and made five more talents. 17 In the same way, the
one who had the two talents made two more talents. 18 But the one who had
received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his
master’s money. 19 After a long time the master of those slaves came and
settled accounts with them. 20 Then the one who had received the five talents came
forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me
five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ 21 His master said to
him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few
things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your
master.’ 22 And the one with the
two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two
talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done,
good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will
put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 Then the one who had
received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you
were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did
not scatter seed; 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the
ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You
knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not
scatter? 27 Then you ought to
have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received
what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with
the ten talents. 29 For to all those who have, more will be given, and they
will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have
will be taken away. 30 As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer
darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Introduction: Lots of good reasons for celebrating stewardship.
As the story goes, two men crashed in their private plane on a South Pacific Island. Both
survived. One of the men brushed himself off and
then proceeded to run all over the island to see if they had any chance of
survival. When he returned, he rushed up
to his friend and screamed, "This island is uninhabited, there is no food, there
is no water. We! Are going to die!"
His friend, who happened to be a Presbyterian, leaned back against the fuselage of the wrecked plane, folded his arms and responded,
"No we're not. I’m a Presbyterian, and I make over $100,000 a week."
The first man grabbed his friend and shook him. "Listen, we are on an
uninhabited island. There is no food, no water. We are going to die!"
The other man, unruffled, again responded. "No, we are going to be
fine. I am a Presbyterian, and I make over $100,000 a week."
Mystified, the first man, taken aback with such an answer again
repeated, "For the last time, I'm telling you we ARE doomed. There is NO
one else on this island. There is NO food. There is NO water. It does not matter where you go to church or how much money you make. We are going to die on this deserted
island.”
Still unfazed, the first man looked the other in the eyes and said, “I am a Presbyterian. I make over
$100,000 per week........I tithe. I promise you, the Session is already looking for us.
Lots of reasons to celebrate stewardship!
Two reasons to celebrate are the opportunities stewardship gives us.
Move 1: First, we celebrate the opportunity stewardship gives us to live into our calling.
a.
In his book Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller describes an interview he heard of Bill Gates.
Gates noted that he was so rich that there was nothing he could not buy. Gates notes that lots of rich people were not happy,
even when they could buy anything and everything.
He went on to note that Microsoft saved him because “he was really more interested in what he was doing than how much money
he had.” (my editorial note – now he finds that satisfaction in working with his foundation) ( Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller, 192)
1.
When we engage in stewardship, it shifts our
focus from issues surrounding money to what we are called to do as disciples of Christ.
2.
Would you rather chase the next dollar, or live into your calling as a disciple of Christ?
b. We know the Matthew
passage as the parable of the talents.
1. I don’t think Jesus tells us this story to give us investment advice, at
least not in the sense that a stock broker might.
3.
Jesus tells this story to emphasize how he calls us to live our lives.
3.
This is not a stewardship story about money, but a discipleship story about how we are called to live
our lives.
4.
In fact, take the sermon I am preaching and any time you hear me say stewardship, sub in the word discipleship, and it preaches just the same.
b.
Back to the story - Jesus asks us to compare how the one who is given five talents uses his
gifts with how the one who is given one talent uses his gift.
1. What is the
difference?
2. The one whom Christ commends sees the talents he is given as an
opportunity – an opportunity for do more; an opportunity to risk; an invitation to go do something.
4.
For person given one talent, the gift becomes a burden..
5.
The person is paralyzed.
6.
The gift from God is not seen as an opportunity to risk, to engage, to do more, but an opportunity to fear making the wrong choice.
7.
What scares him? Maybe he has failed before and does not want to go through that again.
Maybe he is not sure what to do, so he does nothing.
He suggests that he is afraid of making God mad by doing the wrong thing.
He is paralyzed by his fear and unwilling to trust God to support him as he steps out to use the gift.
c.
When we make our commitment to God, we seize the opportunity to live into our calling as disciples of Christ.
1.
We give and step forward, leaving our fears behind and trusting that God who
blesses us will continue to do so. risk choosing to utilize the many blessings God has given to us.
2. Our stewardship commitments remind us and announce to the world that we are choosing to use the gifts, both our monetary gifts and our others gifts that
God has given us to do God’s work in the world.
A reason to celebrate.
Move 2: We also celebrate stewardship because is gives the opportunity to be a cheerful giver.
a.
Through the years, I have learned that Sunday afternoon can be a time when I get phone calls from friends or family.
1.
It’s sort of a variation of “phone a friend,” that is more like, “phone a minister friend and tell him what happened at church that morning.”
2.
Several years ago, a friend who called me one Sunday afternoon and said, “guess what happened at church today on Commitment Sunday?”
“What?”
“I went to church with a pledge in mind, but then I filled out the
pledge card for a lesser amount. You want to know why?”
“why?”
“Because the minister preached on being a cheerful giver. He said to only give an amount that would make us cheerful. I decided that the original amount I was going to pledge did
not make me cheerful, so I lowered the amount to what made me cheerful.”
“Really?” That led to a rather interesting conversation on
stewardship.
b.
I always think about that phone call when I
read Paul’s letter urging the Corinthians to be cheerful givers.
1.
As he tries to explain to these new Christians about
giving and how it connects to their discipleship and grows out of God’s blessing of them, did any of those Corinthians decide they
needed to give less in order to be cheerful?
2.
I think when Paul writes about being a cheerful giver, he is not talking about what makes us happy, or giddy, or makes us laugh with excitement.
3.
I think he is writing about how giving can satisfy a person.
4.
Satisfaction that comes from having prayerfully thought about our commitment
5.
Satisfaction tat comes from knowing that in our giving we support the many things God is doing in our midst.
6.
Satisfaction that comes from knowing we have pushed ourselves.
7.
Satisfaction that comes from laying claim to the
blessings God has given us and responding.
8 . Satisfaction that also has a bit of restlessness to it because we know that God is not done with us and we are
not done with growing into our calling.
Conclusion: Finish with an image from Pompeii. Many of you have seen the exhibit over the years and all the people frozen in time by the
lava.
When Pompeii was being excavated one woman was discovered with her feet
headed in the direction of the city gates and escape from the hot,
flowing lava, but her face and hands were frozen in place looking and reaching
for a bag of pearls.
Stewardship allows us to choose whether we want to look forward to what God has in store for us, or cling to that which holds us back.
