I'm a week behind on posting the sermons. I had someone note that they had not heard this category of of stewardship ever discussed before in a stewardship sermon. I found that interesting because it has been a part of my stewardship approach for many years. To lay claim to the call to teach stewardship at all ages and see opportunities for stewardship at all ages is important to me.
“Stewardship Responsibilities: Generational Stewardship”; September 21, 2025; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; 2 Timothy 1: 1-7
2 Timothy 1: 1-7 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6 For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
Introduction: Another week reflecting on stewardship responsibilities - this week, you are invited to reflect on generational stewardship.
Move 1: We have a responsibility to engage in stewardship at all stages of life.
a. We recognize that at different stages in life, we have different circumstances and different opportunities for giving and teaching about giving.
1. Consider a young child growing up at home.
a lot less independence, both from a financial standpoint and from their need for others to provide support.
the young among us know the vulnerability of depending on others to provide for them.
As we watch the young among us trust that their parents or guardians will provide for them, we get a glimpse of how we are called to trust in God.
We also have opportunities to teach the young about what it means to give thanks to God and give back to God.
2. Or, consider that stage in life when we first start working and suddenly we have resources to use, but also the responsibility of providing for our own needs.
We begin to make choices for how we want to use our resources, but we also discover the obligations to provide for ourselves.
If we are not careful, at this stage of life we may forget that all our resources are a gift from God
and the choices we make reflect on how live out our relationship with God.
if we were taught about giving based on a small allowance as a child, we have to learn how that lesson is lived out when we are making a salary and paying off bills.
3. or, consider when we get to a later stage in life.
maybe we are retired with a fixed income.
again, choices for how to spend our money.
maybe at that stage in life we find it easier to step away from the hustle and bustle of life and reflect on the gifts from God.
Perhaps at this point, we consider giving a legacy gift, returning to God a gift that points out what we think is important and impacts future generations.
b. All stages of life have opportunities to recognize God’s gifts
give back to God
and teach others about the importance of giving.
1. The church is uniquely positioned to guide us in recognizing the gifts,
giving gifts,
and teaching about giving.
2. The church gives us a community fo people who are at all those various stages of life who gather together to explore what it means to be disciples of Christ.
3. i love the passage from 2 Timothy because it speaks of the generations who gather in that faith community - grandmother, mother, and son - three generations, who shape the faith of those who gather.
4. the point is made that Eunice and Lois have impacted Timothy’s faith, but I suspect that all three were impacted by being in community with not only each other, but the others who gather to worship and serve God.
5. Stewardship is generational because we are called to be good stewards at all ages,
and because we learn from each other At every stage of life.
Move 2: reflect with me for a moment about Giving and teaching stewardship.
Think about the best lesson you have ever learned on giving, or the best lesson you have ever tough about giving,
a. We oftenlearn stewardship by the example of how others give.
1. I have shared this story before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately as consider how we model stewardship for the congregation that gathers in-person for worship.
In the first church I served in KY, I noticed that Jack, an old farmer, put something in the offering plate every week.
He sat on the second row each week, so it was easy to notice.
2. This seemed a bit odd after I learned that most of the farmers like who raised cattle gave their total pledge for the year in August after the cattle sales.
I learned that the first august I was there. Giving that month was tremendous. I figured it was because they’d heard a couple of months of my sermons, but then the stewardship chair informed me that August was often the biggest giving month of the year because of the cattle sales.
3. So I asked Jack about why he gave every week instead of just in August.
4. He told me that he did most of his pledge in August, but he put at least a dollar in the offering plate every week. Why? Because years before he’d been sitting on the pew passing the offering plate and put nothing in it.
Sitting next to jack in the pew was the young daughter of his best friends.
As she watched him pass the offering plate without putting anything in it, she told announced to her mother, “Look at that old snake Jack Stofer. He didn’t give anything to God.”
5. Of course, now our offering plates pass most of us by because many people have shifted to on-line giving.
how do we teach the act of giving when the act is now done on our computer, or tablet, or phone instead of actually putting a check, or money, or pledge card in the offering plate as it is passed?
An important question we are asking because we know that we lean about giving from how others model it,
b. Sometimes, our lessons are taught by how we handle our giving at critical moments.
1. The church I served in OH had a woman who was a widow by the time I was there.
she and her husband had apparently set themselves up well because she did not have to worry about money as she made her decisions about care as her health declined.
she had one daughter, who lived a couple of hours away. she was attentive to her mother, although her mother wished she lived closer.
if the woman had an immediate problem, it would not be unusual for the daughter to call me and ask if I could run to hospital and be with her mother until she could get to town.
it was a good relationship between mother and daughter - no drama to make this story exciting.
2. When she died, her daughter and the church discovered that she had tithed, that is left 10%, or her estate to the church.
again, no angry daughter, no drama.
But, her daughter commented to me, “My mother always told me that giving back to God and the church were important to her, and I guess she meant it.”
I bet her daughter understands tithing in a very important way because her mother was still teaching about it after she died.
c. today, we dedicate the new baptismal font, a gift from the Plunkett Memorial in memory of Margaret and Steve Plunkett.
1. a gift that will remind us each week in powerful ways about the role baptism plays in the life of believers and the community of faith.
as we see the water and the symbols of our faith each week, we will be reminded that Jesus himself was baptized in the Jordan River;
We will be reminded that God claims us in the waters of baptism,
We will be reminded that Jesus sent us into the world to baptize,
a reminder that in our baptism, we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection.
2. Giving that teaches us about giving back to the God who has already claimed us.
Conclusion: in Every generation of life we are bound God, the giver of all things;
in Every generation of life, we are called to give thanks to God and return our gifts.
in Every generation of life, we have opportunities to teach about giving.
Generational stewardship.
Lisa: We have another stewardship skit this week. The Stewardship Troupe may change a bit each week, but their goal stays the same – to give us some stewardship insights.
(Karen and Dan walk in with their chairs and set them down in the chancel closer to pulpit side. Karen then gets the mike from the lectern steps; Dan gets a mike from pulpit side.
David comes down and gets mike from the piano and stands at the bottom of the steps on lectern side)
Lisa: Today is a wonderful worship service with a stewardship sermon, dedication of the baptismal font, and reaffirmation of baptism.
Imagine what the conversations our young disciples will have at home this afternoon about all they have seen and participated in this morning.
Better yet, imagine the conversation that might take place next Sunday morning between a couple of parents of some of our young disciples.
Karen: Dan, I don’t know about you, but my kids came home last Sunday with lots of questions.
Dan: Questions? Like what?
Karen: Like, “Mommy, what is stewardship?”
Dan: Glad you got that question, not me.
Karen: Thanks for the support!
Dan: So what did you tell your kid?
Karen: I mumbled something about giving and then said, “that sounds like a good question to ask Pastor Lisa or Pastor Richard!”
Dan: (Laughing) Way to go. I mean wasn’t the sermon that morning about teaching stewardship to our kids, or something like that?
Karen: If you think it’s that funny, why don’t you tell me what you would have said if your kids asked you that question.
Dan: To be honest, I’d tell them to ask their mother!
But, hey I think that’s David walking by. He’s raised some kids. Maybe he can help us.
Hey David!
David: What’s going on?
Karen: We’re struggling with talking to our kids and thought maybe you might be able to help us.
David: You want some advice from me about talking to your kids?
Dan: Well, you do have a lot of years on us, and you did raise three kids.
Karen: Yeah, you got lots of years and lots of experience on us.
David: OK. OK. How about you just tell me what you need help with in talking to your kids.
Karen: My kdis asked me about stewardship.
Dan: We know to tell them it’s about giving back to God.
Karen: but how do we explain giving?
David: Well, you could do the ol’ “ten dimes is a dollar” lesson on tithing.
Karen: What’s that?
David: you know, a tithe is 10%. One in ten. You give them kids ten dimes, which is the same thing as a dollar.
So you remind them that everything we have is a gift from God.
The ten times = the gift of a dollar from God.
And God calls us to give back a tithe, which is 10%, which is 1 of 10, so they give back to God 1 of the ten dimes.
Karen: Hey, I like that idea.
David: What about your kids Dan, did they ask you about giving last week?
Dan: Nope. All they could talk about was that big new baptismal font we dedicated.
David: Did you tell them that the baptismal font was a gift in memory of one of our former pastors Steve Plunkett and his wife Margaret.
Dan: Nah, they didn’t know them.
Karen: My kids didn’t really know them either.
David: But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that a beautiful gift was given to the church in memory of some people who were important in the church’s history.
Karen: yeah, I grew up when Steve was the minister here. I could tell them some good stories from back then.
David: That would be great to tell the stories, but don’t miss the teaching point that whether you knew Margaret and Steve or not, the memorial gift is a way of both remembering them and enhancing the church’s worship experience. Giving that will have a long-term impact on the life of the church and support the church’s call to into the world and baptize.
Dan: I like that idea. Maybe the next time the kids try to baptize the cat, I can remind them of the gift of the baptismal font.
Karen: Can’t wait to hear about that.
David: See you later. (Start to walk away)
Karen: Apparently, David’s got a little bit of stewardship game to go with all his years of experience.
Dan: Yeah, I just thought he was some old geezer, but he actually had some good ideas about teaching stewardship to our kids.
David: (turning back) What did you say?
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