Matthew 21:23-32
Proper 21 / Year A
Which brother did
the will of the father? I guess the one who said at first he wouldn’t work, but
then did… but for my money, both boys deserve little more than a lump of coal
in their Christmas stocking this year! At its heart, Jesus’ parable is a story
about responding to God – responding to God’s will, responding to God’s love,
responding to God’s mercy and forgiveness. We all know what it is to commit,
but fail to follow through. And we all know what it is to resist, but then embrace.
There are many
facets to this reality, but I want to focus in on just one of them this
morning. I want to speak plainly and practically about personal stewardship and
about contributing financially to the work of the church. Now, having called my
shot, I can almost hear the clicking of computer mice all over the city as
people log off our live-stream, but if you are still with me I hope you will
hear some things that encourage you, inform you, surprise you, and challenge
you.
I first began
giving money to the church when I was a child. Well, to be truthful, my parents
gave me a quarter each Sunday to put in the collection basket in our Sunday
School room. Back then a quarter was a lot of money to me. It could buy me a
comic book and a candy bar… and more than once it did! I engaged early on the
struggle of holding on to what I have verses letting go and giving to God.
When I got a little
older I was able to make money as a paperboy, so I made my first pledge to the
church. I think it was something like a dollar a week. When I got hopelessly
behind on my commitment I learned first-hand the experience of despair and
defeat. I was not able to follow through on what I said I would do. I grew from
that experience, continued to pledge, and in subsequent years did a better job
of keeping current on my commitment.
Over the years I
have come to believe each of us is called to be good stewards of all God
entrusts to us. This involves (as they say) our time, our talent, and our
treasure, which is to say, we are called to use our time, our abilities, and
our money in good and godly ways. A part of this call and responsibility
requires us to give away a part of our financial means to support God’s mission
and ministry in the world. How much? Some lift up the biblical example of the
tithe – 10%. I like to talk about cultivating generosity because for some, 10%
at this point in life is out of the question while for others it is not nearly
enough.
While I believe
every person baptized into the Christian faith and life is called to be
generous, I do not believe anyone is required to give money to St. Paul’s
Church. Each of us has to decide how we will use our time, our talent, and our
treasure to support God’s work. Most of us recognize the need to do this
locally and most of us sense our common life at St. Paul’s is an effective and
necessary way for us to do this.
I hope your sense
of generosity extends beyond the walls of our parish. The lion’s share of what
I give away I give to our church, but I also have minor monthly commitments to
my college, my seminary, our diocesan camp and conference center, Episcopal
Relief & Development, and a campus missioner. In addition I remain open to
supporting various causes and initiatives as they come to me. A few years ago
Nora Buttler organized us to volunteer ringing the bell for the Salvation Army.
Since then I always have a dollar ready every time I pass a kettle. I call it
my “Wal-Mart Tax” and I give it joyfully both to support the cause and to
encourage the ringer.
Let me tell you about
St. Paul’s finances. Our fixed expenses each year run around $275,000. This
includes salaries and benefits, utilities, office supplies, insurance, and our
financial commitment to the common life of our diocese. We entered this year
with income projected to be 10% short of our fixed needs. As they say, God
always seems to provide.
Our income comes
from four primary sources: pledges (what members commit in advance to
contribute over the course of the year), plate (money received, but not pledged
and loose money put in the offering plate), donations from building use
(including parking lot rental), and a portion of the income earned by our
Endowment Fund (which, depending on how the market performs, usually runs
between $25,000-$30,000). As you might imagine, plate and building use income
are down dramatically due to the pandemic, but so are some of our fixed
expenses.
St. Paul’s is
blessed to have an Endowment Fund of about $1,100,000, comprised largely of
money people have designated to the church in their wills. The majority of the
endowment is dedicated to building upkeep or is undesignated. Under the rules
of the fund, the Vestry can use 75% on the yearly income of the undesignated
money for whatever purpose it deems good. Over the last several years, the
Vestry has used this money to supplement our Operating Budget. Some might look
at our endowment and think St. Paul’s has a lot of money. In truth, we are
blessed to have a financial asset and we are called to shepherd it with good
stewardship so it will remain an asset well into the future.
In a couple of
weeks you will receive a pledge card in the mail and a letter asking you to
consider making a financial commitment to St. Paul’s in 2021. As I said, while
God calls you to be generous, God does not require you to give a single penny
to our parish. But most of you value the work we do here and want to support
it. More and more I find I don’t open my mail and never seem to get around to
following up on what is in it. If you are at all like me in this regard, please
do pay special attention to this mailing.
I hope you will
give serious consideration to making a pledge to the church. With so much
having changed in our world in 2020, it is vital for the Vestry to know how
much income we can expect next year in order to respond accordingly. Your
pledge helps us to plan. It will help us to be faithful stewards of what you
and God provide to us. Given the state of our economy, we suspect some people
will not be able to give as much as they have in the past. We understand and no
one should feel poorly if you have to cut back.
Perhaps some of you
have never considered making a pledge. I hope you will do so this year. Maybe
you think St. Paul’s has all the money it needs. We don’t. But even more
important than what the church needs is what you need. You need to cultivate a
sense of generosity. You need to know the spiritual blessing of you are doing
your part in God’s world. You need to let go of a little in order to know you
will be OK without it… to know all things come from God. Perhaps consider
pledging $25 or $50 a month to the church. For most of us, this sacrifice can
be covered by passing on eating out once a month.
If you are pledging
and want to push yourself little, figure out your take-home pay, do a little math,
and discover the percentage your are giving away. I remember reading somewhere
the average church member gives away about 2.2% of their income. If this is
where you, consider what it would look like to give away 2.5% of your income in
the coming year. The year after that, push it to 3.0% and so on. What I gain by
doing this is not that God gives me back ten times what I give away, but that I
use more wisely what I retrain. There use to be an old saying: “A penny saved
is a good example to the rest of the dollar.” Well, Christian generosity works
like this. What you give away has a way of transforming what you do (and don’t
do) with what you keep.
Please remember, a
pledge is a commitment, not a contract. The church will not send you a bill at
the end of the year telling you to pay up. We will not foreclose on your
favorite pew if you fall behind. Your pledge helps us to plan. And it shifts
your giving from how you feel on any given day (let’s be honest, how often does
anyone ‘feel’ like giving away hard earned cash?) to something aspirational (a
specific plan to cultivate a generous life-style).
Well, this is just
one way we can see ourselves in today’s parable of the two brothers. Each of us
is called to work in God’s vineyard. Either we can say yes or we can say no.
Either we can actually follow through or we can walk away. The choice is ours
to make. How will you respond to the will of the Father?
