While I knew early in my college career that I wanted to go to seminary and study to be a priest, I needed a fall back career. Because my father had a successful career in the world of finance, I declared a major in Finance with a concentration in Investment Management.
Obviously, I didn’t follow up with that career path, but I like to tell people that I am concerned with a different type of investment management. Instead of helping people invest their money in an economy with finite resources, I am helping people invest their lives in God’s world of abundance.
In this earthly world of limited resources, a good financial planner encourages their clients to diversify their portfolio – to spread their money out through different investments so they don’t lose it all in one place. However, a good priest and pastor is charged with encouraging their congregation to risk losing everything in one place – in the kingdom of God – for the sake of the gospel.
In today’s gospel lesson, we meet a widow who does just that. She gives her last two copper coins – the least of all currency – to the temple treasury. Jesus says she has given more than all the scribes because she gives out of her poverty while the scribes’ give out of their abundance. In other words, Jesus is not concerned with how much we give. Rather, he is with how much of ourselves we give.
In case you weren’t already aware, today officially kicks off the Annual Giving campaign at Ascension. If Stewardship Season were an Annual Wellness Exam, it would be the part where the doctor tells you to eat better and exercise. While we don’t really want to hear it, we know deep down inside that it is for our own spiritual health.
Jesus, after all, talks about the subject of money more than any other topic in the Bible. He does this because money is one of the most tangible spiritual diagnostic tools we have. Where we spend our money, tells us a lot about where we put our trust. How we spend our money, tells us a lot about what we value most in this world.
I am well aware that talking about money in the Episcopal Church is even worse than talking about evangelism. Talking about money is even more private than talking about our faith story. But as a wise person once told me, this means that the issue of faith and money are close to our hearts. And I would not be functioning as a faithful pastor if I did not help my congregation connect their money story with their faith story.
With that being said, I want to share with you this morning a little bit about how my faith story intersects with my money story. For most of my younger years, I grew up in a household where money was a constant source of anxiety. It wasn’t that we were poor. My father had a very successful career and did well.
However, that also meant he felt he had a lot to lose. There was always a sense that no matter how much he made it was never enough. Tragically, his worst fear came true. He developed Major Depression, lost his job, and ended up spending most of his savings. My dad never recovered.
Obviously, this made quite an impact on me as a young man. The silver lining in it all is that this life-event shifted my attention toward the church. I was set on a path where I started holding less and less trust in the things of this world and more and more trust in the truth that God will provide.
Don’t get me wrong. I still worry about not having enough, but it is like everyone said before we had kids. Don’t wait until you can afford kids or else you will never end up having any kids at all. From a worldly perspective, we will never have enough. No matter who you are there will always be something you can’t afford.
Somewhere along the way I learned that I will never be happy living for the things I can’t afford. There has got to be a better way, and I found that way in the church. It wasn’t that I heard a really good Stewardship sermon because there has never been one of those! Rather, I discovered that I had all that I really needed through a church community.
The best experiences I have ever didn’t come after a fancy meal or vacation but have come through ordinary events with the church (it’s how I met Jamie!). These are the experiences that I will hold onto for the rest of my life.
I fully realize that not everyone has had this experience with the church (some quite the opposite), but I want this to be true for more people. And I imagine that you who can relate to my story desire the same for others. In theory, a church community is a place where people can be fully themselves and know they are fully loved for this is what God desires through Jesus Christ. While I have only been here for six-weeks, I believe Ascension is committed to this mission of God in Christ.
Sure, we aren’t perfect but no one and no church is. However, this Spirit of this place is about loving and embracing everyone who comes through those church doors. Ascension is about making a place in this part of the world where people feel loved and accepted for who they are. And this is why I feel good about talking about money and Stewardship because I believe in what we are doing; I believe many of you believe in what we are doing, and most importantly, I believe that God believes in what we are doing.
At the end of the day, we aren’t going to give ourselves – much less all of ourselves – to anything if we don’t believe in it. So, over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to do somethings to remind us why we believe in God, why we believe in the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to change lives, why we believe that Church of the Ascension is a place where God is making the love of Jesus known to all people.
As you discern your monetary commitment to Ascension in 2019, I want you to know that God isn’t testing you with this decision. God will love you if you put $10,000 on that pledge card, and God will love you the same if you put $1 on that pledge card. The question for us though is how much do we know that God loves us. And I believe we learn more about God’s love and care for us when we are willing to invest more of ourselves in God, invest more of our lives in God’s mission in the world through the Church.
Unlike a financial planner, I can’t tell you what kind of return you can expect on your investment. I do, hope, however that as you invest more and more in the kingdom of God you grow to put less stock in finding happiness in the things of this world and more stock in the relationships born through the riches of God’s grace. Amen.
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