Some of you may remember the story of the young student who was underachieving in his school, getting C’s and D’s in math and English when he was very capable of better work. His teachers decided that they would be super-understanding and super-friendly so as to encourage him, but to no avail. His parents made all sorts of threats and in fact, followed through on them such as no television, no computer games, but also to no avail. Finally, his parents enrolled him in a Roman Catholic parochial school even though they were protestants, and much to their great surprise he came home with B’s and A’s in math and English. Screwing up their courage to ask him what had made the difference, he said, “As soon as I saw that guy nailed to the cross, I knew they meant business!”
I’m not exactly sure that’s the motivation we’re looking for in today’s Consecration Sunday as if this is how God will “get you” if your pledge isn’t up to snuff. However, Jesus on the cross and our pledges have a relationship, they have a connection I find encouraging but not for the same reasons our young friend decided to do better. It has instead to do with how it is Jesus offers himself, how Jesus gives himself in love for God’s purposes.
Last Sunday I reminded you that I had been encouraged by Jesus and by the Stewardship Committee to talk about money first of all because Jesus talked about money more than anything else except the Kingdom of Heaven, and secondly because today is the day when we offer our pledges and contributions, when we offer our money.
Last week we considered the rich young man whom Jesus invited to be a follower but who was sad at what he would have to give up in order to be part of that company. And I in turn was sad for that rich young man because he could not see that he had it in his reach to know a kind of happiness he’d never known before, that he possessed gifts that could be used in God’s service and which could provide him with a purpose that had seemed to elude him. The nature of what he possessed was fundamentally financial in character, for we are told that he was, in fact, a rich young man. Living in relationship with God and living in relationship with God’s people requires these kinds of gifts from ourselves back to God if we are to understand the deeply loving nature of God’s Kingdom itself.
This past week I was given an arresting insight I want to share with you, an insight with which you may agree or disagree but which bears some exploration in all this talk about money. It had to do with a seminar I attended on family systems and the potential for dysfunction in family systems whether it’s our family of origin or the family of the Church or the family of a business company or any system that brings people together for the purposes of living or working. The teacher said that as important as empathy is in resolving or even understanding issues we may have with another person, it is clarity that will provide the more important dynamic.
Now as valuable as empathy is—and we would certainly say that in a church we need a depth of feeling and understanding for one another as children of God—nonetheless, in order to resolve disagreements or to clear up what our expectations are, we need clarity. Therefore, let me try to be clear about what it is you are offering at the altar on this Consecration Sunday.
The first thing you are offering is that which will enable your Vestry to produce a budget. For all that we might say about every other gift whether of time or of talent that you offer, the financial gift that you offer is amazingly specific and measurable. It was agonizingly so for the rich young man. He knew exactly what was being required and there was nothing murky or mushy about it. And it is the sum total of these pledges that will provide clarity to the Vestry about what we can fund in 2007 and what we cannot. There’s no magic nor is there any bullion in the basement—some sort of mythical huge endowment we can simply draw on when times get tough. There is an absolutely direct correlation between the staff we hire and the programs we pay for and what you will offer this morning.
The next thing I want to be clear about is that what you offer is a percentage of your income. Now that fact may only be clear to you if you’ve taken the time to make the calculation, but it will be 10% or 2% or whatever percent, higher or lower, it is. That’s one of those examples of “It is what it is.” To be sure, one great tradition in this country is that charitable giving to one’s church or faith community is a much greater percentage of our income than any other charitable giving. And so I am clear, and gratefully so, that what you offer this morning is, generally, a high priority for you. If you don’t know, but are interested in what percentage of your income it is, that might be a valuable exercise. That knowledge has held an important place in the Bible’s traditions of tithing which is the teaching of the Church and an ancient religious standard.
The third thing I would want us to be clear about this morning is the fact that our pattern and our example is that of Christ on the cross. Jesus withheld nothing in the extent to which he wanted us to know of his love. And nothing could be clearer than the gift of his life, of his dying, of his sacrifice. It is no accident that my favorite offertory sentence is the one that I use every Sunday: “Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.”
And that leads me to the last thing that I want to be clear about which is that what you are offering on this Consecration Sunday is yourself. Money is a sacrament which is to say it is an outward sign of something inward and spiritual, and however much you are offering—$1,000, $5,000, even much, much more—it represents your true selves. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Whatever else you could have been doing with the gift that you are making, you have chosen to give it and to do it here. No one can coerce you, no one should manipulate you, no one should deter you from the realization that who you are is being presented to God.
And let me ask that when you do come forward from the pew, that if you’ve come to church this morning with others that you come up together. The gifts you present are being consecrated, they’re being made holy for God’s work which is to say that you are being made holy for God’s work. What greater work could any of us ever have than that which we have right here?
