STEWARDS OF BOUNTY

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2007

Luke 16: 13 "You cannot serve God and Mammon."

Americans visiting the City of London for the first time are surprised to find that the actual City of London is very small, and that it consists of administrative and financial headquarters, with quite a few old churches that are not opened on Sundays - as no-one lives in the area anymore. A guide book to London that I read made reference to the many old churches, and pointed out that during the week they competed against the financial centre of the world, but on Sundays most of them were closed. The author concluded that in the battle between God and mammon, mammon had won - at least in the City of London!

I don't know if these days we think of a battle between God and mammon. In the west, which is still nominally Christian, we have an abundance of financial and material goods and general prosperity, and we all have reasonably good standards of living. This is surely a temptation to suggest that God has blessed us - just as in the Old Testament wealth and possessions - along with “thy wife like the fruitful vine” and plenty of children - were a sure sign that God had blessed you.

As I pointed out in my previous sermon, the Jewish word for glory, kabod, comes from the word "weight", as in lots of bags of money. I am still amazed at our great love affair with the automobile here in California - such that bigger and better cars are the order of the day, and in many cases replaced annually. And we eagerly pursue the latest and newest in clothing, technology, and creature comforts. Yet often they a millstone around our necks - especially for our young people, who are forced by peer pressure to keep up.

Perhaps then, the current housing crisis is a warning to our society? Cast your mind back this time two years ago, to hurricane Katrina. They said that was also a warning. A warning from whom? We assume God, Let me make it clear that I do not believe that natural phenomena and disasters are sent from God as punishment (unlike fundamentalist preachers). God spoke directly to us at the Annunciation - and the human race replied through Mary: "Be it unto me according to thy word". The trouble is that, ever since then our replying to God has been less than committed - we have gotten too soft after 2000 years of the Gospel.

God has blessed us here in the United States - and I guess we attempt to think that is surely enough. We forget that the Annunciation depended on Mary's response back to God. So when things go wrong in our world it is not punishment sent from God, but a reminder of one of Jesus' most specific statements: "You cannot serve both God and mammon".

In the New Testament people with riches got a bad press from Jesus. He criticized those who accumulated great wealth, said that a man with riches would find it harder to get into the kingdom of heaven than a camel passing through the eye of a needle, and condemned those for whom avarice and greed was their priority.

Jesus actually said more in the New Testament about money than he did about prayer. Not because he thinks that we shouldn't have money - he alone knows that we certainly need it - but it's what we do with it. And the great temptation of money is that we will do with it more than we should.

All this is part of stewardship. How interesting that the parable today is a parable of someone called the dishonest steward. Stewardship is the point of the parable. When Jesus commends the dishonest steward he is not commending his dishonesty; but the way he thought about his stewardship, the way he dwelt with the things he was steward of.

When our society gets into a crisis, like the current housing and financial crisis, it's because money is being treated as both the means and the end, and no one acts as a steward. Summarily, hurricane Katrina's result was a potent reminder of the lack of our stewardship. To our embarrassment, there was exposed before the whole world to see, poverty and social division - and some would say racial division also - existing in our country, the world's most richest and most powerful nation. And at the crunch we were helpless to deal with it.

This was a sober reminder just two years ago, that lack of stewardship doesn't just affect the budget of your local church, but affects society. More significantly, Katrina exposed the fragile nature of life in our sophisticated and technological western society. To think that in this society such a disaster so easily occurred. In particular, Katrina exposed our dependence upon oil, electricity, transportation, and mass communication - and we were shown wanting. It showed how quickly the social fabric of our lives falls apart under pressure. And it iall about stewardship.

You don't need a hurricane of course, for your life to break down. Many people know that experience as part of their ordinary lives, relationships, job, etc. But in those situations - and certainly for the Christian - with faith and hope it can be a real turning around. Not all crises of natural causes can be blamed on a lack of stewardship - sometimes the world just reaps what it sows. Who could think that the lowly refrigerator would change climate? And it is ironical that two years ago the USA was hit by two huge storms in the very heart of our oil supplies - sobering indeed.

We are also the nation which consumes the most per capita in the world, and contributes the most to world pollution, because we are so big and so prosperous. I am as guilty as anyone, because tonight I fly to Australia, and we are now told that flying contributes to global warming - so I stand condemned with the rest of us!

Ultimately, it is about stewardship of everything. Today Jesus gives says that "the sons of this world are shrewder than the sons of light". Sometimes we are not as good about stewardship as people who aren't Christians. As always, we can only begin with ourselves and our own choices. But can we can also join with others in letting our views be known. Sometimes social action demands political action.

Lest you think this is just one of those social justice sermons - let me say that one of the teachings of Jesus is that when we live for others, we actually discover our true selves. And it is a life like that of God himself - a constant giving and receiving, a pouring out of love, so that love my be returned.

The truth of stewardship is ultimately shown in the incident between Jesus and the Samaritan women at the well in John chapter 4. When Jesus asked her, the Samaritan women, to draw some water, she said - conscious of their different social status - "How is it that you, ask of me?" But that was the point. It was because of his love that he required her to do this - not his status. And her response to him gave her the new life she needed.

Our response to Jesus, of which stewardship is one way, is significant in the Gospel. It is only through our response in service to God that we will be renewed and made whole.

Yes - there is no choice between serving God and mammon. And our service of God is ultimately for our sake, not his. And so is our stewardship.

And all this is captured rather marvelously in today’s collect:

"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".