November 11, 2007,   Pentecost 20, All Souls' Episcopal Church

We give thee but thine own, What’er the gift may be:
All that we have is thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from thee.

The Hymn St. Michael – Bishop W. Walsham How

       As I hope most of you are aware by now, we have tried this year to make our every member canvass an opportunity to learn about the nature of Christian stewardship.  Next Sunday, which will also be known as Pledge Sunday, is when we encourage you to return your pledge cards to the church, offering your pledge to God to the building up of His church.  In keeping with this plan, this is the Sunday when I am to preach on the topic of stewardship; summing up our understanding of sacrificial, proportional giving.  Of course, as the preacher, I was hoping that we would have a gospel reading very much in keeping with this theme.  Well, as Mick Jagger sings, “you can’t always get what you want … but if you try, sometimes you might just get what you need.”  Perhaps, in God’s providence, this gospel reading is what we need on this day.

       The Sadducees were a Jewish sect which did not believe in the resurrection.  As the old joke goes, not believing in the resurrection was why the Sadducees were so sad, you see.  Members of this sect approached Jesus with a question which seems to have been manufactured for the occasion.  They told the story of a married man who died childless.  According to a law recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25, called the Levirate Law, if a man’s brother died childless, it was the duty of the man to marry his late brother’s widow and produce children, thus honoring the deceased.  In the story the Sadducees told, this process kept being repeated as each brother died until the poor woman, still childless, had been married seven times.  The Sadducees wanted to know, after being married seven times, whose wife this woman would be in the heavenly resurrection.

       Of course, the Sadducees were engaging in what we call “Reductio ad Absurdum”, a rhetorical devise that illustrates the absurd conclusion that results from accepting a faulty premise as true.  They thought this story would illustrate the absurdity of believing in the resurrection.  Our Lord Jesus responds by announcing that in the heavenly resurrection, there will be no marriage and no giving in marriage.  This is so because in Heaven the imperfect union of man and woman in marriage will be lifted up and transformed into a higher and greater union.  In this Heavenly union, nothing of the goodness and unity and togetherness by which we knew one another in marriage will be lost, but it all shall be perfected and made into something ever so much greater.  In fact, nature itself – the whole created order – shall not be obliterated or wiped away in the world to come, but shall instead be transformed and resurrected to something far greater as God’s grace perfects nature.  In fact, St. Paul, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, writes that the relation of the natural world to the heavenly order, and by extension, the relation between earthly marriage and the unity of Heaven, is like the relation of a small seed to the great and beautiful tree it eventually becomes.  He writes that nature itself groans in anticipation of this eventual resurrection.  So you see, our reading today isn’t so much about earthly marriage as it is a reflection upon the resurrection of the whole created order.

      Our belief in the resurrection determines how we understand our relation to all of creation.  As Christians, we believe in the Trinitarian God.  We believe in God who knows Himself and loves Himself and yet is one.  The created order - everything that was made – does not exist over and against God, but rather finds its true principle in God, and is redeemable, and shall one day be gathered up so that not one fragment remains, and shall find its true nature in God.  As those created in God’s image, our relation to this natural, created world, is one of stewardship.

      A steward is someone entrusted with the care of something which does not ultimately belong to them.  An image of this might be seen when mothers bring their children to our church during the week for Mothers Day Out.  Those mothers are entrusting to the temporary care of others what is most precious to them, their beloved children.  Just think how careful and diligent the care of those children must be.  This is a form of stewardship.  This reminds me of the words spoken by the bishop in his charge to me when I was ordained.  They are the words of the traditional ordinal.

      …have in remembrance into how high a dignity and to how weighty an office and charge ye are called: that is to say … to be stewards of the Lord … to feed and provide for the Lord’s family. Have always therefore printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For, they are the sheep of Christ which he bought with his death … his spouse, and his body.

      Each and every Christian is called to be a good steward.  The created order – this magnificent world – is not simply something to be used and abused and thrown away.  Instead, we are to nourish and care for all that God has given us.  This applies to our talents and abilities.  They are not to be used and abused and thrown away.  Instead, they are to be nourished and employed to the service and praise of God.  Our time – the time we are given on this earth – is not something to be used and abused and thrown away.  Instead, we are to employ it to the service and praise of Almighty God.  The same principle applies to our property and our possessions.  Stewardship defines and give shape to how we treat everything we have been given.

      When it comes to how we give to support charitable work and in particular our giving to the church, an example might be seen in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  In the story Jesus told, after the Samaritan treats the wounded man who had been robbed – used, abused, and thrown away, he takes him to an inn and gives the innkeeper the funds required to ensure that the man would be cared for while he recovered.  The Samaritan even adds that if the money he is leaving is not sufficient to cover the costs, he will see to it that they are paid in full when he returns.  The Samaritan makes sure that his good and compassionate ministry will be carried out by giving of his own means and substance.  In summary, this is what I am asking you to do as well.

      One of the great blessings of my life has been, and is, to work in this wonderful parish and to participate in so many worthy and honorable ministries.  So much has been accomplished since All Souls’ began as a temporary mission on Grand Boulevard.  We are blessed with splendid facilities, our ministries and programs continue to expand, worship and prayers are offered every day of the year, and souls are nurtured in the redeeming grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

            Your pledge of support allows us to maintain these facilities and ministries.  And, by God’s grace, your pledge will allow us to continue to expand, broaden, and deepen the work of All Souls’ Church.  We have been entrusted with  many and great blessings in our parish – we need to make sure these blessing are shared and put to proper use in the praise of almighty God and the spread of His saving Gospel.  Each of us here has personally been entrusted with many and great blessings and we need to ensure, likewise, that we share what has been so freely given for the very same purposes, to the praise of almighty God and the spread of his saving and holy Gospel.