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Trinity Episcopal Church Hattiesburg, Mississippi Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 20) September 23, 2007 Go To Trinity's Home Page

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13
The Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA

Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Luke 16:1-13)

The Grace-full Steward
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop, Rector

     Tony Campolo, the Baptist preacher, tells the story of a trip he took to Philadelphia where he lived and worked.[1] He had to take the red-eye flight that night, and was met at the airport by his secretary at 8:30 p.m., and she told him about a prayer meeting he had at ten that morning. The last thing Tony wanted to do after being up all day and night was church. But this was a World Day of Prayer service, and Tony was scheduled to deliver a ‘missionary’ message.

     Tony wasn’t thinking clearly when he got to the church. He was tired, hungry, and probably a bit annoyed. The service leader announced that she had a request from a doctor in Venezuela who needed $5,000 to build a new addition to her clinic where she had been serving the poor. It was a worthwhile project but Tony was tired. When asked to lead the prayer asking the Lord to provide the $5,000 needed by their sister in Venezuela, Tony said, “No. But what I will do is take all the money I am carrying and put it on the altar.” He went on to challenge everybody to do the same. Then he said he would lead them in prayer to make up the difference.

     This was a good day for Tony day to pull this off because he only had $2.25 in his pocket! After he put his money on the altar, the service leader smiled, and said, “We’ve all gotten the point haven’t we.” But Tony, tired to the point of losing self-control said, “No, I don’t think we have! My $2.25 is on the altar. Now it’s your turn!” The service leader was stunned by Tony’s aggressiveness, but pulled out her purse, opened her wallet, and added $110 to Tony’s meager offering. Tony then said, “We’re on our way! We’ve got $112.25. Now it’s your turn!”

     Tony then pointed to a woman in the front pew. She looked around a bit, but got up and added some cash to the $112.25. Tony got the next person, and then the next to do the same. It took him more than 25 minutes to get everyone to place their money on the communion table. When they finished, the money was counted and they had taken in more than $8000. Tony says that even then he was pretty sure he hadn’t gotten all their cash. He had seen some come up and put in meager offerings, holding back most of their cash; they gave Tony a dirty look as they returned to their seats (Aren’t you glad we don’t do collections in our church that way?!).

     There wasn’t time for Tony to preach. After all, more than 25 minutes had been taken up with the collection, and even that was getting a bit long for a Baptist service! So all Tony said was, “The audacity of asking God for $5,000, when [God] had already provided us with more than $8000. We should not be asking God to supply our needs. [God] already has!”

     On the ninth of September, we launched our Fall stewardship campaign with Rally Day. This was an opportunity for you to take a look at the various ministries of Trinity and to see how those activities matched your own time, talent and vocational calling. On the twelfth of September, we launched the second part of the stewardship campaign with the mailing of 312 stewardship letters and pledge cards. As of Friday, we have received 45 pledge cards in the mail.

     What exactly is stewardship? Peter Gomes, professor of Christian morals at Harvard College defines stewardship quite simply: It is the wise and prudent use of one’s resources.[2]The wise and prudent use of one’s own resources. But at the same time, we must acknowledge that what we possess is really not our own: it is what we hold in trust for God. What we possess does not refer only to money, stocks, bonds, property, and the like. It also refers to our talents, our innate abilities, our passions, our avocations, and our vocations.

     To that I would add that stewardship is also the wise and prudent use of all of the resources we are provided. In today’s gospel lesson we come face to face with the hardest of Jesus’ parables: the story of the unjust steward. We don’t have a very good idea why Luke constructed this parable the way he did, nor is it particularly clear why it appears here in this part of Luke’s gospel. But the first eight verses tell the story of an informant tell a rich man that his steward wasted his money, his possessions. Without so much as a thought, the master read the steward the riot act, and fired him on the spot. The steward left the master’s office with nothing, and had no prospect of a future. He was for all intents and purposes dead. And we, reading this story, get on our judgmental high horses and shake our heads at the steward’s failings, and turn our backs on him as having gotten what he deserved.

     But then, Luke turns this parable on its head. In a clever twist, the steward made a few adjustments to the master’s accounting books before returning them. He knocked off half the bill of one of the master’s debtors, and the bill of another by a fifth. When the master saw what the steward has done, he commended him.

     What the steward did was to provide a means of grace that benefited the master and the debtors, and probably the steward too. By forgiving some of the debt of the debtors, the master collected at least something from them. And that in turn helped the master realize that he had worked very hard all of his life becoming wealthy by keeping people in debt to him. The steward’s unorthodox action provided the grace needed to help the master see that he was a prisoner of his own greed; that he had been keeping his clients in bondage.

     Stewardship is about all about intentionally caring for all things, and doing for others. We are all part of the Body of Christ, and each of those body parts works together for the betterment of the whole. Sure the stewards actions were unorthodox, but all the people in the story benefited by his action, and he became an instrument of grace.

     It is stewardship that we honor and love our neighbors as ourselves,a nd allow God's grace to work in our world. In so doing, we honor the whole Body of Christ and fulfill the two great commandments: To love the Lord God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and to love thy neighbor as thyself.

     By being intentional about stewardship when we can, we will condition ourselves to recognize and act upon stewardship opportunities when they occur. That’s what the steward did. He used the resources available to him, and opened a pathway for God’s abundant grace to warm his master’s greedy, cold heart and gladly accept as full payment what the steward had arranged.

     The parents of Katie Hosking recognized a stewardship opportunity at a most unexpected moment. Katie planned to marry her intended and then have the reception at the Echo Falls country club in Everett, Washington.[3] Her parents had already made a $2,500 down payment and written a check for the $6,200 balance for the reception for 150 guests when their daughter called off the wedding just twelve days before the event. Club policy did not allow refunds.

     After turning the air blue over the prospect of losing thousands of dollars, a little grace came to them. They invited the staff and residents of the Interfaith Family Shelter to join the celebration on the day as planned. The shelter staff arranged for rides to the club, and on the night of the event, more than 50 family members were joined by 40 homeless people, shelter workers, and volunteers. The chef prepared strawberry shortcake to top off a menu that included baron of beef, salmon, shrimp cocktail, fettuccine, and fruit. They had a DJ, and the music was good, and the atmosphere warm.

     Shelter residents came up and thanked the family many times. The food that was left over was taken back to the shelter where it fed everyone for another three or four days. Unorthodox? Yes. Grace. Yes.

     Managing our resources intentionally, and preparing our mind and spirit to respond generously and responsibly when the need arises are at the heart of good stewardship. And Trinity needs your financial help now more than ever. Stewardship begins by taking an inventory of what we have to give in terms of our time, talent, and our treasure. It begins by looking at our own spiritual and financial accounting books.

     There are several ways that we can financially support the church. The Bible teaches us that tithing is one way.[4] Tithing regularly is a way of steadily contributing to the church, and it avoids having to respond quickly to an unexpected call. So, if you like setting up a regular budget, tithing may be a method that works well for you.

     Because there are many important and worthwhile charitable organizations that contribute to the visible and invisible support structures of culture and society, the idea of proportionate giving may make more sense. In proportionate giving, you use your sense of stewardship to decide what proportion of your total income is to be given to others – including the church.

     Fred Craddock tells the story of a mule his family owned when he was a boy.[5] The fences around Fred’s home were poor, and the mule would get out, and it was Fred’s job to find the beast and bring it back. This would invariably involve going up over a hill, across the back wood, to the old family cemetery. This was one of those cemeteries with leaning headstones and graves going back to the 1700’s. The wind blew through the old pines, and the carpet of pine needles was so thick you couldn’t see which way the graves were laid out; the crooked headstones weren’t much help. Fred hated going through that creepy cemetery, but he had no choice. To make matters worse, his Mom told him, “When you go through the cemetery, make sure you don’t step on the graves. Graves are sacred ground, so don’t you go steppin’ on ‘em.” He said that he must have looked ridiculous tiptoeing and taking long and short steps trying to avoid stepping on the sacred ground. He would also whistle and make noises to convince himself that he wasn’t afraid. He went home one day and told his Mamma, “I just can’t tell what part is sacred. And his Mamma said, “Well, I know, it looks the same. But if you’ll just treat it all as sacred, you’ll never miss.”

     Time, talent, and treasure are the three things that we all hold in trust from God. They are all sacred things because they come to us from God. If we treat them as sacred, stewardship will happen. We’ll never miss.

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Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”) “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!”

Psalm 79:1-9 Deus, venerunt

1 O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance;
they have profaned your holy temple; *
they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble.

2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, *
and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field.

3 They have shed their blood like water

on every side of Jerusalem, *
and there was no one to bury them.

4 We have become a reproach to our neighbors, *
an object of scorn and derision to those around us.

5 How long will you be angry, O LORD?*
will your fury blaze like fire for ever?

6 Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you *
and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your Name.

7 For they have devoured Jacob *
and made his dwelling a ruin.

8 Remember not our past sins;
let your compassion be swift to meet us; *
for we have been brought very low.

9 Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your Name; *
deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your Name’s sake.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Forthere is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all -- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

The Collect of the Day

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1] This story is taken from Tony Campolo. “He Already Has!” Let Me Tell You a Story. (W Publishing Group, 2000), 153-154.
[2] Peter J. Gomes. “The Bible and Wealth.” The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart. ( San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco), 287.
[3] H. King Oehmig, Editor-in-chief. “The non-Runaway Bride.” Synthesis. Proper 23A October 9, 2005. (Boyds, MD: Sedgwick Publishing) 2005.
[4] Lev 27:30-33; Num 18:25-27; Deut 14:22-29.
[5] Fred B. Craddock. Craddock Stories. Mike Graves and Richard F. Ward, editors. ( St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001), 91.

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Copyright © 2007, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
20 September 2007

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