Stewardship
24th September 2006, Parish Communion
Exodus 18:13
Acts 6
Matthew 9
I pray that I may speak in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.” The words of a great philosopher perhaps or some well-hidden theology in a dusty book of the Old Testament? No, the words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: Generations yet very apt words for us today as we consider the question of the stewardship of our time in the context of our life here at St Andrew’s Chesterton.
And time is very much the theme of the Archdeacon’s message to us on the white leaflet I hope you were given when you entered church this morning. Time, the wonderful word that can be re-arranged to spell others than are useful in our thinking too -“I am but an item with a mite of time” might do quite nicely to illustrate that point - you may well think of others.
Ecclesiastes 3vv 1-8 is another wonderful biblical passage (not chosen for today) that reminds us that there is a time in God’s order for all things yet we, human that we are, continue to try to pretend that we have a better sense of order in our lives than God and to defy the fact that God’s natural day has 24 hours in it and the natural week seven days. As I look at the congregation before me I this morning I see an expression of time; the span of our own lives, represented in different ages amongst us, the time we have given up to be here today, the ticking of the clock that marks the progression of another hour of this day as we gather to worship God.
Time is all around us, time increasingly governs our lives and time is the one precious commodity that we, the high-tec, consumer generation never seem to have enough of to do with what we will, or to share with others. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we are sometimes guilty of completely overlooking the need to give time for God and to give time to God?
We are increasingly stressed as we dash from one activity to another, living life in the fast lane and trying, so hard at times, to find those few precious moments to set aside for yet another activity that just “must” be done before bedtime. I will be first in line to confess I am a very good example of same and, I suspect, there would be plenty of others here today who could line up behind me.
Yet, of course, there is also the opposite: the elderly, infirm and lonely for whom time passes anything but quickly. Those in need whose only wish would be that someone would have time to visit them, to sit with them for a while and talk and, maybe, pray with them. There are those who long with yearning for the “good old days” when we lived as a community that actually spoke to each other, passed the time of day and ate meals round a table in mutual sharing. There are many children living in Chesterton who urgently and desperately need an adult to have time for them. For all the wonder of science, computers, the internet, mobile phones and much more, we have done little in the past 20-30 years to grow in community and share the burdens of responsibility for those in need - the vulnerable of society. The marginalised are now left to manage alone as we busy people pass by on the other side.
Within the church, time is also an increasing problem and, as we focus on the months ahead as we go through the process of selecting a new vicar for this parish, we are faced with the dilemma of too much work to do and too few to do it. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” wrote St Matthew - never was that more true than in St Andrew’s right now.
The “ministry” of St Andrew’s has been recognised under James’s leadership as being the work of the whole congregation but we have continued to look to James to work wonders in shouldering our needs and trials.
As each year has gone by, we have found it increasingly necessary when James could no longer be all things to all people, to put more tasks the way of a few, capable and faithful members of St Andrew’s to do more and more for the parish until they now too are also at saturation point. We urgently need more workers in this field to harvest in what Archdeacon Beer describes as a response to “their calling by God to serve as best they can - not just Sunday-type things but all sorts of work in which each person can play a part in the life of the parish.”
Fine words - but so hard when you already feel you’re giving all you can and have no more to give, or you feel you did your part many years ago and now are prevented by age or ill-health from doing more, that it is time for those of a younger age to come forward and take the strain.
St Andrew’s as a parish is richly blessed. On the whole, we don’t live in a high-priority urban area when poverty, unemployment and vandalism are rife, where ASBOs are applied to large numbers of teenagers in our midst and where people are afraid to venture out of their homes. We don’t have to barricade ourselves in and meet to worship behind closed doors, fearful of what might happen to us. Most of us, though, of course, by no means all, have enough money to meet our needs and don’t know what it is, night by night to go to bed cold and hungry.
Yet, St Andrew’s is impoverished in some ways through this affluence. Such affluence is gained through hard work and determination - commitment to the treadmill of the working life and our poverty comes from the lack of time to give back to God in his service and to serving each other.
I think it is true to say that your ministry and leadership team is feeling fairly vulnerable on timely issues right now. Once Antje leaves us at the end of October, we shall be even more acutely aware that our serving ministry team are all either in full-time employment or retired and our wardens both have demanding jobs, as do the leaders of our house-groups, our junior church, our music department and so on. Each of looks to the other to find the willingness to give more and in looking sees a mirrored reflection of our needs coming back in the other direction.
So, what is the solution? We have designated today as “Stewardship Sunday” at St Andrew’s. A day not, on this occasion for considering how we give financially but a day for considering how we give of our time and talents. A day to appraise what we could do, however big or however small, to find a little more time to do something in God’s service, even if we have to put down something else to make space for same.
There is good scriptural evidence to support this need to find more people to share the load. In Exodus we heard the story of Moses who needed a good talking-to from his father-in-law to get straight in his mind the fact that he couldn’t do everything. The burden of leadership had to be shared and Moses had to re-assess where his priorities were. So, too, did the apostles when they realised they were being distracted from preaching and teaching to do the administrative work of the church. Their solution? To find others to take on tasks for which they were equipped, leaving them free to exercise their ministry in teaching the word of God and growing the faith.
And even Jesus saw the problem too - too much work and too few people to do it. The resolution - commission others for God’s work so that the burdens might be lessened on the few. This is the stewardship of God’s time in proper order - putting God head of your “to do” list rather than building him into the diary when it suits.
Doing this requires commitment - a word that lacks a certain “political correctness” today. It’s not very “cool” to be committed to things and so it becomes increasingly hard to be so. It’s very, very hard (and distinctly “uncool”) to be committed to church. The wider world perceives us as somehow a little eccentric in wishing to come to church on a Sunday and yet, I suspect, many also envy us that we have found some consolation and sustaining in our faith. But being a Christian isn’t just about Sunday church-going. Our commitment to God is for all time, all days.
So, am I suggesting we should give up work and sit in St Andrew’s eager for the next task to be assigned to us whilst the family go hungry because we can’t pay the bills? No, of course not. That isn’t God’s way either. He recognises we have to meet our human needs, care for our children, tend the land and so on. But God also calls each of us, through his Holy Spirit, and gifts us in his service. He gives us authority to work in his name and to rejoice in the sharing as a community of his work on earth.
Today you will have been given a cream leaflet outlining some of the tasks that now urgently need support in the life of St Andrew’s. They are in no particular order other than to say that finding a new PCC Secretary as from January 2007 is a major and urgent need.
It is daunting to look at the list and see what needs doing but it is equally important to say that nobody is being asked to commit to undertaking huge burdens of work.
Most of the tasks shown would benefit from a commitment of just one or two people to give of their time maybe even as little as once every three months. Four people offering an hour here and there could make the difference between our parish supporting and maintaining some of our outreach and missioning activities in Chesterton or having to close them down.
Today, I am asking you (on behalf of the wardens, ministry team, Pastoral Committee and PCC) to bring these needs prayerfully before God and seek him on how you might become involved in helping to do his work in this place. You may feel that none of the tasks listed are right for you but perhaps you can discern some other way in which you might be able to give a little time. If so, put this down under “other” on the leaflet. We are asking you to return these leaflets within the next two weeks if possible to a box that is at the back of church (and will be at every service) or to the parish office when Margaret returns midweek.
If you sense God’s calling this morning, then complete your form before you go and post it in the box now. If you feel it best to take time with God to reflect, then complete the form later on. The important thing is to complete it - not just hope the famous “somebody” else will do so instead. No offer is too insignificant for God.
Giving time is giving back to God that which he allows us to share in his purpose for us. It is the rightful Christian response to the Gospel and the teaching we profess. “Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.” Captain Pecard got it right and I suspect if Jesus walked amongst us today, he’d endorse those comments.
There is no higher calling than to live in God’s way and to show that way to others who we call our neighbours. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The British Council of Churches puts it another way:
As a free response to the overwhelming gift of God in Christ, Stewardship becomes a way of life that is spontaneous and joyful.’ Take time with God to consider how you might find that extra time to give back to him in joyful obedience and with openness and generosity of spirit, mind and heart, by answering his call to serve in this place. Amen.