22 September 2013

“A money sermon for good stewards”
Luke 16:1-13 / Amos 8:4-7
OT 25 C
22 September 2013


If you heard the children’s message last week, you will recall that I talked about how I had lost the thumb drive with all my sermons on it … but finally found it again.
And it’s a good thing I did find it … because as I started preparing for this week’s message, with this Gospel text we have before us, I was thinking that I’d go a certain direction, but then thought, well, I’d better see where we’ve been together, the last time this text we call “the dishonest manager” came around, 3 years ago.
And that was a blessed move … because, that direction I thought I would go … focusing on the first half of the text, and the dishonest manager’s motivations, in many ways, a financial stewardship-encouraging Word … well, that’s the ground we’ve covered not just three years ago, but six years ago too.
Now there’s nothing wrong with us having a financial-stewardship-encouraging Word from time to time. But we are being good and faithful stewards right now … we’ve ended the past few years meeting and exceeding our budget proposed giving, we have passed a substantially increased budget for this year and the treasurer’s report presented at Thursday night’s council meeting once again shows us with a “green light” … meaning our condition is very good …
… so all of that served to encourage me to go in a different direction with these words this morning … a money sermon for good stewards.
Yes, the Word before us this morning is very First Commandment … you shall have no other gods … and very clear in its wording … You cannot serve God and wealth.
This text is unashamedly honest in its word about wealth … money … the stuff the dishonest manager moves around on paper for his own benefit … this is a Word here about how to be fiscally wise in living in the world.
No, wealth … and what we do with it … can’t get us into heaven, it can’t even get us closer to God.
But wealth can, wealth does have a purpose for those who are called to follow Jesus … wealth can serve God.
And your wealth, our wealth, does serve God, here, through our giving, our tithing, our offerings. So first this morning, Thank You. Thank You for being good stewards. It is appreciated, and you are appreciated.
But we don’t stop there, resting on praise, that’s for sure, as God does not pause in giving us blessings, we don’t pause in “returning thanks,” either.
So what might be a Word, a Way for us that uses this text, and our stewardship … which combines them for thanks, gratefulness, encouragement, learning, guidance in God’s Spirit, today?
You have it before you.
Yes, it’s our congregation’s budget.
Something we talk about at congregational meetings, council meetings, conversations outside of worship. Our elected leaders, those who are able to attend annual meetings, they, you, have seen this document before.
But in worship? The place, the time, when the most of us gather together?
Well, why not?
My colleague in ministry in Maryland used to say “Budgets are moral documents.” And he’s right. Our budget is a statement of our theology … our thinking and talking and living out our discipleship walk with Jesus.
On the copy of this year’s Nativity budget you have before you this morning, I’ve put our mission statement in large print. That is there because everything in our church budget is to be seen through the lens of our mission as Nativity congregation:

We are called and empowered by God through Christ to serve, witness, nurture, and love.

Now, let’s look at our “moral document” through our “mission eyes” and see what it says about us … and how we believe we are called to live as Jesus’ disciples here … in this place called Nativity, into our community, and our world.
The first category we see at the top of the budget is what we as a congregation “give away.” It’s called benevolence, which simply means this is our giving to others outside our congregation.
And that’s certainly appropriate. As a congregation, we want to practice first that which we ask of ourselves … that we would give first, and give it to those who need it more than us … those to whom Christ calls us to go first … and here we are, again, still, in Luke’s Gospel, being reminded that Christ’s priority is to, for, with those who have the material least in the world.
We know how the world works … that both the dishonest steward in the Gospel reading, as well as those of ancient Israel to whom the prophet Amos speaks in our Old Testament reading … we know that, to the way the world thinks, “first fruits giving,” giving away to others, off the top, before we take care of ourselves, this is “backwards-think.” And yet, as a community of the cross, a community called first to SERVE, we MUST follow that call of Christ to SERVE financially.
There is simply no other way on the path of discipleship.
So we give … we give to the larger church … our synod and our denomination, as they fund vital ministries … fighting world hunger, ending malaria and AIDS, starting new congregations and revitalizing existing ones.
We give to our local mission partners … Luther’s Table, the REACH Center of Hope which is a local homeless shelter for women and children, UW Lutheran Campus Ministry, Pacific Lutheran University, the Compass Veterans’ Center in downtown Renton, and ARISE – the local men’s homeless shelter.
Nativity, you … we … are to be commended for growing in our benevolence giving as we have over the years. Ten years ago, our budget total was $127 thousand dollars, and our benevolence giving was $2000, 1.5% of our total budget. Now we give nearly 8% of our budget away … and more, as we add in those non-budgeted items such as occasional disaster relief and our Lenten giving to the Wings of Hope orphanage in Haiti.
Budgets are moral documents. We want people to see that our values, our morals, reflect Jesus’ call to us to follow him as his disciples.
Now, the next part of the budget is a difficult one for me to talk about, because it’s what you pay me.
Yes, I’m aware that I am the largest part of the Nativity budget. Yes, I am the only full – time employee, but I see those numbers and am humbled by them.
Thank you for your generosity to me and Kathleen and Ruadh. We have a place to live. We have medical insurance and a pension … not everyone has that. I get some continuing education paid for as well. Thank you.
You may know that pastors’ salaries are set by a committee of our synod … Cindy Hokanson graciously serves on that committee … and the figures recommended to congregations are based on years of experience as well as the cost of living in our very expensive part of the country.
I am thankful that you consider those figures carefully when we set our annual budget. I am thankful for a couple of reasons … the first I shared before … home, health care, pension, etc. … but the second is just as important.
I am thankful because keeping your pastor at recommended guidelines makes a difference to the rest of the church. It will make a difference when that day comes that you will have to call a new pastor … and yes, that will happen. Bishop Unti stayed 33 years at St. Matthew but if I do that I’ll be 76 years old and well past retirement.
It will make a difference when, someday, as we grow in numbers, that we feel we need to call an associate pastor or associate in ministry. In both those instances, that word that Nativity follows synod salary guidelines will be most important for your prospective new servant-leaders to hear, and know.
So again, thank you. For my part, I try to give back a portion as my offering … and that information is public, because it comes out before I even see it on my paycheck. Right now it’s about 8% of my income … and I pray that I, like you, can continue to grow that. I believe a servant-leader leads by example. I pray that I may set a good, faithful example in this community of the cross, that others will be encouraged to follow.
And so we move on. Next comes the rest of our church staff. We are blessed to have such talented and gifted people who serve us with their gifts. Our music staff … Steve and Greta … help lead us with spirited song, and follow so well in the rich tradition of Nativity music we have had over the years. Janet keeps our buildings neat and clean and appealing for our use, as well as the use of groups from our community. Evan’s work provides us with worship bulletins and other publications. Mari and Becca and Destiny help us be an inviting and welcoming place on Sundays for small children and their families.
We want to treat them well, too, and so our budget tries to reflect that. Remember it’s our moral document. We want our staff to feel honored and respected for their work here. We do appreciate them; and when the time comes that they will move on, too, we want to make sure other, new, prospective employees know that we are a fair, honest congregation that lives our mission and vision not only with those outside our walls, but those inside them as well.
The next two sections of the budget reflect the part of the church life that sometimes, we forget needs to happen … it’s the real-world stuff that isn’t flashy, or people-populated, but without it, we wouldn’t be an institution called Nativity Lutheran. Stuff like our mortgage, which allowed us to put a new roof on this building and refurbish it for continued heavy use by us and others in our community. Property insurance … have to have that. Utilities, taxes and fees. Maintenance of our property. Office supplies, paper and photocopier. Investing in a “rainy day” fund for when things break and need to be fixed … and they will break and need to be fixed. Paying supply pastors when I’m on vacation or away.
All of these fall under the “shrewd business” end of the church. Now, yes, there are those who would just as soon prefer that the church had nothing to do with a business model ... just as there are those who would like that shrewd manager of our text to not be so shrewd with his figures.
But the fact is, we need this stuff in our budget … to pay for these items … to be shrewd in our use of our wealth to keep this place here as a place, a springboard, a resource for ministry in our community. That’s what Jesus is saying in our text today, and why the manager’s master commends him … yes, it’s not the most beneficial behavior for the master, but it does allow the manager to have a future for living.
In the same way, yes, we do spend a lot on our building, on insurance and office supplies … we aim to keep our costs low like good stewards should … but where would we be without these? They help us to be God’s people and do Christ’s ministry in and through this place.
And ministry is what we do. The final part of the budget reflects that … and yes, monetarily, percentage-wise, it’s the smallest part of our budget, but that’s because these numbers have whole and real bodies behind them … you and me … and we are the biggest part of ministry in and through this place. We are shrewd stewards with what we have when we spend it on ourselves … we are generous in giving in kind gifts which fund these ministries far above the numbers our budget reflects here … and we are an energetic and enthusiastic community of the Cross in participating in these ministries.
Each of these ministries are prayerfully and carefully reviewed through the lens of our mission … are we serving those to whom Christ calls us? Are we witnessing to Christ? Nurturing them in Christ’s love?
That’s why ministries change over the years here. Things are not the same as they were ten years ago because we’re not the same people … the same faith community … in the same neighborhood and world … as we were ten years ago. Nativity has participated in many and various ministries over the years … some, like Summer Bible School and Softball, continue … while others, such as Parish Nurse, have gone away … and others, like Youth Ministry and Drama, have changed with the changing faces and needs before us.
And that’s OK. That’s OK because change is normal and right and good for us here. IT IS NOT TO BE FEARED, OR DISMISSED, OR DUG IN HEELS AGAINST. To live is to change, and our changes reflect us, the community into which we are called to serve, and the Cross of Jesus Christ. Nothing is forever, nothing and no one is permanent or irreplaceable … not you, not me … no one except Jesus Christ. As his reflection through us changes because we are different people now than we were ten, fifteen, thirty years ago … and we will be different people in the future than we are now … so our ministries grow, and change; some end, some wait for a champion or leader to come along, others begin, and we do the best we can as we have been equipped for the ministry needs that are before us.
But all are done in, with, under, the sign of the Cross of Jesus Christ, who calls and gathers us together as community of the Cross, people of the Cross.
It is that Cross that calls, that compels us, to speak the truth in love, into a world that so desperately needs to hear truth and not spin, truth and not lies, the truth of life, this life now, and the life to come.
And so we are called to be honest about wealth … no, we cannot serve both God and wealth, but our wealth can, and indeed does, serve God, and the people God calls us to serve … and so we give and share of our wealth, in Jesus’ name, not to be better Christians, not to be patted-on-the-back Lutherans, but because this is who we are created by God and saved by Christ … brought from the valley of the shadow of death into the kingdom of life and light … this is who we are called to be, in Jesus’ name.
So I invite and encourage you to take our congregation’s budget home with you today. And … as you take time to pray for so many various things and people which, who, are before us constantly … I would encourage you to pray over our budget, too.
Pray that we would live into it – each of us personally, and corporately, as a community of the Cross of Christ – live into it, as we feel we are being called to do, as God gives each of us the ability to do.
Pray that our budget’s moral statement would always reflect the One in whose name all this is done, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And pray that we would be faithful and wise stewards with the much that we have been given, here, we, community under the Cross of Christ called Nativity … faithful stewards who serve God by serving others.
May we continue to do so, and to do so in thankful, joyful response to God, to, for, God’s glory and work through us. Amen.