Spiritual Growth :: Sermons

Sunday, November 8, 2009.
The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Today I want to talk about money. Maybe you think that is not an appropriate thing to do from the pulpit, especially for a preacher who is so new to a community. Talking about money is not really very polite. It’s the last taboo – you know, how people used to say, never talk about sex, religion, or politics? Today we talk about all three, but money is so taboo it’s not even on the list.

However, money was Jesus’ main topic. He talked about it more than anything else. Over half of his parables are about money, and in today’s Gospel we have yet another story about Jesus talking about money. And not only was he talking about it, he was actually watching what people were putting in the collection plate during worship. I always find that a little scary, but at least it shows that Jesus was certainly not above talking and thinking about how we get, use, spend, and share our money.

Hopefully you don’t just hear sermons about money during stewardship season, but this one is during stewardship season because as I get to know Redeemer a little better, it seems that people are a little anxious about money, perhaps because of the budget deficit last year. And it’s always hard on the vestry and the finance committee, those who look at the bills that come in every month and wonder how we’re going to be able to pay them, just as it is sometimes stressful in our homes wondering the same thing.

But I don’t think we need to be anxious about money. So there was a deficit, but even before I got here, you all were getting organized with the 13th month campaign to solve that problem, and the campaign more than reached its goal, $23,000 was raised this fall so we will end the year with a balanced budget. That’s a huge accomplishment. I hope you all are patting yourselves on the back for that.

We have what we need. Maybe we get anxious about money at church because, hey, we’re anxious about it at home, too, right? It’s a place of anxiety for most of us. But the widow of our Gospel story today was not anxious. If she was anxious, she would have held one of those pennies back for herself. But she must have, at some level, felt like she had what she needed, whether that was her health or her family or her relationships, or her ability to work or do what was needed. She knew she had what she needed. She must have trusted that God would be there for her, that there would be enough.

I realize that may not be true for everyone, some of us are struggling with looking for a new job or dealing with a family crisis. That’s part of what our church community is here to help with. But overall, as a community, we do have what we need, we have enough to do what God has given us to do. There is plenty. We don’t need to be anxious.

This is kind of an intimidating story to look at, this story of the widow’s mite, as we think about our own giving. We may think this sets a standard we simply can’t live up to – just give it all away! But I want to offer two thoughts about it.

First, we have a human need to share. We need to give to others. It makes our life better when we do that, no matter what organization or person we give to. In our 21st century materialistic world, too much revolves around what we own and what we have. And we all have too much anxiety about having enough to support our families and pay the bills. Let go of some of that. Let God into all of your life, don’t keep your financial life compartmentalized away from God, it’s not healthy. I’ve heard some of you talk about sacrificial giving, and how life changing it is, how it transforms your life when you give away not just the extra that you didn’t need anyway, not just getting junk out of the house by giving it to Goodwill, but by giving away some of what is actually important to you, what has meaning to you. It comes right down to, what are you going to center your life around? Are you going to center it around getting “enough”? Because, here’s the secret, the first way never works. There never is “enough”, if you go that way the finish line just keeps moving. Or are you going to center it around God, God’s love, God’s generosity, God’s caring. As your priest, I want to urge you to find the spiritual fulfillment that that widow had, that comes from sharing what you have.

My second point I make not as your priest but as your priest-in-charge. Once you’ve made the decision to let giving be part of your spiritual practice, just as prayer and Sunday worship are, I want to ask you to give to this place, to give to Redeemer.

All this month I’ve been attending cottage meetings, hearing about history of Redeemer, about soup lunches and silver teas, about how mission and outreach to those in need has always gone hand in hand with friendship, fellowship and community here at Redeemer. And I've also been attending budget presentations from each of our commission and committees, hearing about how mission and outreach still go hand in hand with fun and fellowship at Habitat work days and the Fun Fest and so many other places. I’ve been listening to all you wonderful people who make this church go, the property committee who makes sure we have a roof over our heads on Sunday morning and the music committee that makes our worship come alive and the mission committee that makes our worship find meaning in serving others. I haven’t heard from Christian Formation yet, but I’ve gotten to spend enough time with the youth group to know they also will have some exciting things to share. And all of these groups are saying, this is what we'd like to do, this is how we'd like to do God's work here at Redeemer next year. And it’s echoing a lot of what we’ve been talking about at the cottage meetings

But each group also says, well, it will all depend on how the pledging goes, how much people give next year, if we can do these things we hope to or not. And I keep thinking, but the people is us, those who will decide if we can do this or not by how much they give is us, we decide, you decide, if you want to support this work, we all are the ones whom make it happen both by our time, our involvement, and our giving.

Later on this morning Jim our finance chair will talk to us about our budget and no doubt a big piece of that will be how much it costs just to keep the heat going and the lights on, and it is true that that there is no other money to do those things than what you put in the plate on Sundays. However, that’s not why we give. We’re not trying to perpetuate the church as an institution, like it’s a social club or something. A lot of churches fall into that trap but I don’t see that at all at Redeemer, that’s why I love this place. We are giving to the ministry of the church – the way the people of this church, that is to say you, affect the lives of other people. We keep this building in good shape not for our own satisfaction, but so that people who are hungry can come here to the Food Pantry Saturday and get food, so that people struggling with addiction have a place to meet for AA. So that we all can meet together to study God’s word and be better followers of Jesus. So that by our coming together we can go out into the world and make a difference for people in need in Lawrence, in Honduras, and here in Lexington. So that we can teach the same things to our children and young people – not to give them a social club to belong to, but a faith to sustain them and make them God’s agents in the world. So that we can have this worship service to renew ourselves and invite others to God’s table, to meet our Savior Jesus. That’s why we give to Redeemer. On stewardship consultant I know always said that the number one reason people offer for not giving to their church is “nobody every asked me.” Which is actually a pretty good reason. So I want to go on record as asking you to give to this church. I’ll ask you as many times as you like and I’ll ask you in person if you prefer, but I’m asking you to give to Redeemer. Because it’s worth it. What we’re doing here is worth every penny you can give.