Sermon by Rev. Russell Daye
St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax

Where your Treasure Is...

Luke 5:1-11
Fourth Sunday of ‘Rejoice, Respond!’

This is week four of our ‘Rejoice, Respond!’ stewardship campaign, and this will be the final offering in a four part sermon series. In the first three weeks I spoke of stewardship of our energy and passion, stewardship of our covenants, referring specifically to our bond with First Nations, and stewardship of the Earth. The time has finally come to talk about money.

When we look at the step chart provided by the Rejoice, Respond! people, we see that 53 members or adherents of St. Andrew’s give under $1 per week, 65 give $1-5, 64 give $5-10 and so on. I’ve heard folks speak of our level of giving as shameful. That’s not how I feel. Members of a congregation need to be both moved and educated to give what a congregation needs. I really hope you are being moved to give. I hope that you believe in this community of faith, in this ministry, in this worship, and in the future we are forging for ourselves. If you are, then we ask those who can to move up one step. That in itself would erase our deficit. If you can’t do that without doing injury to your family finances, please don’t – and don’t feel uncomfortable about that. We don’t want you to give till it hurts. Others might be able to move up two steps without feeling the pinch. Again, if you feel moved by this ministry, then please consider it.

Now, if you’re like Fiona and me, you may be more likely to contribute to the M&S fund or to make flow-through contributions to such worthy organisations as Phoenix Youth or Brunswick St. Mission. Almost all of our charitable giving goes to support the education of a young woman in Fiji and to help her family. It’s a good cause. I’ve never contributed to ‘local’ givings in the churches I have served. But I am rethinking this. Do I think the presence of St. Andrew’s in the center of Halifax is a worthy mission? Do I think our worship is a worthy mission? Do I think our ministry of Christian Education is a worthy mission? I can answer an unequivocal ‘yes!’ to all these questions. So I’m rethinking my perspective and Fiona and I are planning to go on PAR to support ‘local’ givings.

Which is a good segue. Please consider PAR – an automatic, weekly deduction from your bank account. Why does this help? Two reasons: first, when you’re forgetful or away the income still comes in. Secondly, the money comes in at an even pace through the year. Each year we take out a big loan – as big as $90,000 – to see us through the middle of the year and then the bulk of our revenue comes in at the end. We lose the money in interest and the finance people lose months off their lives in worry!

Today I’m being more like Jesus than usual. Most preachers these days aren’t very much like Jesus – as if you didn’t know this already! But I’m referring here to one particular way in which we don’t resemble him: Jesus talked an awful lot about money. We preachers are too chicken; we think you will not like it. But Jesus went on and on about wealth: in the parable of the talents; in the parable of the vineyard, in which some workers grumble because they have worked longer for the same pay; in the parable of the prodigal son; in the story of the widow’s mite; when Jesus drove the money changers out of the temple. A number of Jesus’ sayings about money have entered popular consciousness. ‘Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give unto God what is God’s.’ ‘You cannot serve both God and mammon.’ ‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.’ ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

When one surveys these various passages, one sees that Jesus’ monetary philosophy can be summed up in one word: ‘less.’ Less is better. Listen to him preaching to the crowds from the mountainside after he had spoken the beatitudes: ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.' Listen to him instructing his disciples before sending them out to preach and heal: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.’ Listen to him counselling the rich young man who follows all the commandments but still fears that he has not inherited eternal life: ‘One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’

Less is better. You might find it ironic that I say this when I have just asked you for more money. But this is the message buried deep in the Gospel story and this is the message that should shape our loyalty to the church. Let’s hold onto that irony for a few minutes. Let’s go a little deeper into it. To that end, let’s listen to a confession by Walter Brueggemann, one of this generation’s greatest preachers and biblical scholars.

...consider the two stories that operate in my life. One story that competes for our loyalty is the money story as it is told and lived in the modern world. That is the story of self-sufficiency and hard work and competence and merit and being safe on our own terms. It is a story that touches our lives in many ways, but all of these ways have to do with organizing the world according to our interests and preferences. The sign of that story is more – more goods, more influence, more alcohol, more stock options, more power, more published articles, more running shoes, more chemical dependence, more trips to Europe, more capital gains – whatever. It is a tale that insists that no matter how much one gathers together, it is not yet enough for happiness and safety. But more will make us happy and secure. The outcomes of this story are anxiety and worry. At their most benign they issue in restlessness and fatigue, and in their most destructive ways culminate in greed, isolation, and meanness of spirit … and eventually brutality. It is a way of life that is seductive, that has much power in our culture, and that has power to cheapen and numb our daily experience.

Brueggemann, whom so many of we clergy have come to see as a beacon of integrity and service, goes on to confess the power of this story in his life. I will do the same thing. I have never lusted much over money, but I have sold myself, at various stages in my life, to the pursuit of more academic awards, more published articles, more people in the pews, and more entrée into halls of power. I do find myself these days fantasizing about a bigger house and a newer car. Success is the drug into which the ‘Story of More’ has morphed to capture my heart.

Some version of that story gets most of us: the more money version; the more romantic conquests version; the more status version; the more righteousness version; the more power version – it can be transformed into an endless number of cocktails that are addictive and poisonous. Some version of that story must have grasped hold of Peter. For, when Peter was confronted with the embodiment of the opposite story, he fell at Jesus’ knees and cried out, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’

Jesus the Christ is the embodiment of the opposite story. He is the living story, the story that says ‘less money, more generosity,’ ‘less power, more love,’ ‘less status, more humility,’ ‘less authority, more service,’ ‘less greed, more kindness,’ ‘less seeking our own way, more meekness.’

Peter was neither greedy nor power-hungry. Peter was probably a regular, decent guy like you or me. None-the-less, when confronted with the power of the Gospel story of love and abundance embodied in Jesus, Peter was knocked down by the realisation of his own sin. He met a man who produced a great bounty of fish, which he could have sold to the crowd for good money, but who walked away leaving the people to nourish themselves. He met a man with the force of personality to lead a revolution or to gain great wealth and power, a man who could have been anything he wanted and chose to spend his life with the hungry, the broken, the ashamed.

Confronted with this love, Peter fell down under the knowledge of his own un-loving. Now, the story could have ended there. Psychologically, Peter could have remained on his face. He could have returned to his old life burdened with guilt, which probably would have faded as he became a prisoner to the Story of More again. But he didn’t. To my mind, the hero of this story isn’t Jesus, but Peter. This was Peter’s moment. Jesus had already broken the bonds of the Story of More. Today’s story is Peter’s story, for, as he lay on his face, Jesus offered him an invitation to stand up and walk out of the Story of More into the ‘Story of Love’ – and Peter did it! He just walked out of the old story.

Our stewardship campaign is an invitation to us to do exactly the same thing Peter did. It is an invitation to abandon the Story of More for the Story of Love. ‘Now hold on!’ You might be thinking, ‘This sounds more like the “Story of Less at Home and More at Church!”’ If we are being asked to walk free of the Story of More at home, then why does the church need more?! You have a point. We have to be careful. An effort to grow the coffers of a church can very easily become an embrace of the Story of More. Let’s earn more. Let’s make more. Let’s get a bigger budget. Let’s get bigger endowments. Let’s be successful.

Let me paraphrase last week’s epistle: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing. If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If we have a balanced budget and endowments of eight figures but have not love, we are nothing. If you give generously but not out of love, it means nothing. If St. Andrew’s receives greatly but cannot transform that money into works of love it amounts to nothing.

Let me make a promise on behalf of this church. What you give to St. Andrew’s will be transformed into works of love: love in worship, love in pastoral care, love in mission, love in fellowship, love in education. What you give will be written into the plot of the Story of Love. If you think we are living up to this promise, if you believe we will live up to it better, then please give.