The Rev. Steve Wendfeldt
St. Margaret's Episcopal Church & School
Now a few words from the Gospel according to St. John, the 15th chapter. The Father has loved me so I have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father’s commandments abide in his love. I’ve said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. Isn’t this a great time of year? Temperatures are finally coming down. We had dinner outside last night, boy was that wonderful, 62 degrees, it’s great the nights are getting crisp over at the beach where I live and sweater weather now in the evenings the races are gone from Del Mar, the tourists have gone home, thank you Jesus. We finally have our streets to ourselves, we have our restaurants again, and for many of you, I know you stay here all year long and you’ve weathered this summer heat and some of you may have just returned. I guess there are a lot of you yet to come back - a lot of the folks that do come back? They’ll be coming back soon. I know some people that come to our church during the summer time will be coming back soon.
But, it’s just a great time of year that there’s new snow that’s covering Mt. Hood up where we use to live — the leaves are now changing to the max of Minnesota where I am from and out in New England, and the baseball playoffs are going, the world series is just around the corner — Advent is coming!! When we celebrate and get ready for the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, what’s not to love about this time of year!! Isn’t it great? It really, really is. And just as important as the seasonal things, the changes of the earth, this begins a special season for the church.
You all are wondering what that season is. It’s stewardship season (laughter). Aren’t you excited about that? Isn’t that exciting, you know, when I say the word stewardship, and the congregation, I looked at a few of you, and some of you had a smile and others of you looked as if you were getting ready for the crucifixion. That’s kind of the way it is when you mention the “S” word in the Episcopal Church. But for me, I am not only excited about stewardship season, every single year, but, I need stewardship season, I need it in my life. Let me tell a story that might tell you why. The church where my oldest daughter and her husband and two granddaughters go is up in Washington State and they use the program called the Cetaceous of the Good Shepherd. It is one of the really widely used children’s programs used throughout the country. And they not only use it for their Sunday school program but it use for their week-day program, they have a week-day children’s school for 3 and 4 year olds and they use this same program. And my oldest granddaughter had started it when she was 3 and we were visiting shortly after that time, she’d been there about 3 months or so. It was one of her school mornings and she was getting ready to go, she was all dressed and ready and rarin’ to go, and she and I were playing on the floor, in the family room she was riding me like a horse, one of those things grandfathers love to do because they see their kids so seldom and so as we both rolled over onto the floor some change fell out of my pocket and the 3 year old’s eyes looked at that change, her eyes were gleaming at it, and she knew darned well at that age what it was for and she knew how she might be able to use it so she asked me, “Papa can I have some of that?” And, I said sure and I grabbed some of the change and I gave her a handful of coins, not because she needed it but because I needed to give it to her because I knew if I gave it to her she would just jump all over me and throw her arms around my neck and nuzzle her little face right in and kiss me and say I love you Papa. That’s why I did it. Her mother soon came in and said it was time to go to school. But about 11:30, she came in and said “Dad would you like to go pick Paige up from school?” and I said sure I’d love to do that so off I went. When I arrived a whole cadre of parents who were there waiting to pick up their children it was a cold time of the year and kids were all bundled up except for my granddaughter. And, I couldn’t figure out why she was not ready to go and she said “Papa come and see, come and see.” So I walked with her into the classroom and she showed me everything in the classroom and we ended at the altar which is a central focus – every one of the classes has a little altar in it the central focus of the Cetaceous program. And then she said, watch this Papa, and behind the altar she opened up a cabinet and she started taking out the altar supplies. First she took out a linen and she laid it out on the altar, and she said that’s the corporal, Papa, and piece by piece, one after the other in the right order, she took out every single piece to set the altar, she named every piece, and she put it in the exact right place. My insides were bursting. I was so filled with joy and it was the most exciting thing, I’ve never been so jazzed in my whole life. Not only was I looking at a future altar guild hall of famer, but I was watching a glow and a special anointing on this child. I was watching a joy and a power and a radiance that was coming out from life, it was welling up inside her and she was glowing with joy and pride - she was filled with God Almighty and the Holy Spirit was touching her life and flooding her with joy and at the same time, doing the same thing to me. I was seeing an adult sort of faith in this little 3-year old child. And I said to her now, “Paige what do we do?” She said, “Now Papa we have communion,” and I said, “What happens at communion?” She said, “Oh, Papa you know, that’s when we see Jesus.” And, I was witnessing a mountain of faith before me in this 3-year old child. I was seeing a trust and a joy and an understanding, I was seeing something that I don’t see in most of the adults that I have ministered with in the past 25-30 years. But then she said, “We’re not done yet.” I said, “So what now?” So she opened up the cabinet again and she pulled out the alms basin and she set the alms basin on the corner of the altar and then this little 3-year old girl dug into her pocket and pulled out the handful of coins that I have given her and she dumped them in the basin, and put her hands on her hips and said, “There, it’s done.” So I asked her “Why did you do that Paige?” And she said, “Oh Papa, because I love Jesus and I know he loves me,” and then she said, “don’t you love Jesus Papa?” Not only was this child sharing with me, that professional religious person, but she, the truth of the matter was, she got it. She understood the faith, she understood why she gave, and she understood that the only operative question to ask when one considers giving is the question of faith.
You know, there are some within the church that have said for a long time that the church has a crisis of economics that faces the church, and this time of the year always brings that out, things that point out, we have to face the dilemma regarding our economics, with the oil prices skyrocketing with prolific American spending that faces us, we are caught in a powerful tension. There never seems to be enough.
I’m sure most of you’ve heard of J. Pierpont Morgan? He was a great business tycoon, he was one of the titans of business and lived in New York City, he was Episcopalian, he was a member of the Vestry regularly at Trinity Church, Wall Street Trinity Church and he was a perpetual delegate to General Convention. And, he was asked by a reporter one time, “Mr. Morgan, how much money is enough?” And his famous retort was, “Just a little more than I have.” Seems like his dilemma was no different than ours.
You know, there maybe a crisis in the church today but, it’s not a crisis of economics. It’s a crisis of faith. But because we are pressed on all sides before and behind by these financial pressures, it is easy for us to blame our economics so that many don’t have to face the foundational question of faith. Often times we survey reasons, or I hear reasons from people who want to give, they give because they are in need of a new roof, they give because the church needs it, they give because it’s their fair share, and for Christians, none of those are good reasons for giving. So, people survey the reasons for not giving. You know, there’s not enough, the church doesn’t need it anyway, the lights are on when I get there, heck, everything’s o.k., and besides I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. None of these, for a Christian, are valid reasons for not giving. There’s only one reason Christians give and that’s our faith in Jesus Christ and the abundance of what God has poured into our lives because of Him. No matter what words we put around it, it comes down to a question of faith, not economics, giving follows faith.
My own stewardship journey constantly forces me to face the question in my own dilemma of faith and economics. I found I was forced into that kind dilemma when I was converted 31 years ago, I faced it when my granddaughter asked me that same question, and I face it today as my wife and I try to decide once again, can we continue to be 10% tithers in this economic time. It is really, really difficult, and it is especially difficult for clergy. Just have to tell you. It has never gotten easier as we examine our commitment to stewardship. But you know, every time I get the opportunity to face this question, it causes me have an encounter with the risen Lord. And, every time I have an encounter with the risen Lord, I know and I recall the abundant blessings and the over-whelming grace that God has poured into my life and I am so grateful I can hardly stand it. I give, because you see, I love the Lord Jesus. I give because God has blessed me so abundantly, I give because I am grateful, I give because of my granddaughter because I want the church to be there for her and I want the church to be there for your grandchildren, generation after generation, and the only way we’ll be, is if I am a faithful steward of the blessings that God has given me.
I would invite you into that same encounter with the Risen Lord as you examine and survey and decide on your reasons for giving and your giving commitment for this coming stewardship season. And when you do that, I am convinced you will know and understand and rejoice at the abundance that God has poured into your life and that you have received from his joy and his glory and you will find when you do that your joy will be - that His joy will be in you and you joy will be full.
AMEN.