Worship & Preaching  >  Preaching on Stewardship > Treasures in Heaven

Stewardship Talks : Treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6: 19-24)

Sermon preached by Archbishop George Carey to the Stewardship Network. I want us look at our Gospel reading. It is the relationship between financial giving and Christian discipleship that interests me. I know, of course, that there is a danger of focusing the subject of stewardship too tightly on the area of finance. Quite rightly we have been reminded that we are called upon to be good stewards of our abilities, our time, our relationships, and not just of our resources.

Nevertheless there is a danger in that quite proper widening of our understanding of stewardship. Simply stated it is this. To concentrate on those other aspects of stewardship can mean that we use them to avoid the awkward question of money. From reading the Gospels you will have noticed, I am sure, that Jesus never made that mistake. He was concerned to teach all those things – but he was also thoroughly realistic about wealth and money. Time and again his challenge to discipleship was focused on the attitude of people to their possessions. “You cannot serve God and mammon”, or again “Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also”.

Attitude to wealth

Indeed, the first thing I notice is that Jesus challenged his followers to look radically at their attitude to wealth. He expected them to examine critically their patterns of saving, spending and giving. He did not challenge them to give away a precise percentage of their earnings, although he lived in a society where tithing was widely practised. Rather, he asked for a much more radical discipleship – one in which people treated all they possessed as having been given to them by God.

I heard a lovely story recently about the nature of that kind of discipleship when it expresses itself in giving. During the collection at a service in the diocese of Mount Kenya East, in a very poor area an egg was placed in the collection bag. It was then auctioned by the local Bishop and raised some tens of pounds. This was not the real worth of the egg, but was the real worth of the love and generosity that had inspired the giving from someone who could possibly not afford to give up an egg. Such is the nature of sacrificial giving and from that example comes again the question: “Are we going to serve God or money?”

That question needs to be addressed to our congregations. We are moving into a period in the Church’s life when the living church has to rely less and less on the wealth of ages past to enable it to balance its books. This will become very evident to people within the next few weeks and months. People will need to know this and to face up to the challenge.

A place where we need to start is with the leadership of our Church. One of the great temptations, and I’m sure you will have doubtless met it and experienced it, of having stewardship advisers is that it gets bishops and clergy off the hook! What a relief to have a professional who does the work for us! So the professional is wheeled in to do the dirty work, to raise the money, address the issues, confront the pain. This is not good enough, is it? Leaders must not abdicate their responsibilities in such a way. Principles of stewardship as well as realism about the running of the ‘household’ should be part of the teaching programme of the Church. Naturally, part of that will include clergy and lay leaders alike assessing their own levels of giving, because we cannot expect of others what we are not prepared to do ourselves.

Spiritual liberation

And that is the second thing I notice from this passage; Jesus is saying that to be freed from domination by money is spiritually liberating. If the reading had been extended, we would have heard Jesus’ words “Do not be anxious, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”

His word-picture speaks of a person most of us can only dimly recognise – a person liberated from the anxiousness of this world and in harmony with God. And yet we do know something of that person in our own lives. I suspect many of you have had times when you have tasted something of that liberty. No doubt too you have seen it happening in the lives of others. As many of you will know when I was Vicar of St Nicholas, Durham, we decided to raise over £300,000 – a huge sum then when inflation was running at 18% – to reorder the Church building and to foster its life. One of the most thrilling things for me as that project got under way was to see people giving sacrificially and discovering a new joy and freedom as they did so. I have often noticed that if people learn to be generous financially, then they become generous in other ways as well. I suspect that it is inevitable for a spirit of generosity to reflect the very nature of God himself.

But this liberation is not just for individuals – it is something God longs for in his Church as a whole. Another thing I have observed is that when congregations start learning to be generous in their giving, they also become more generous in caring for the needs of others. In my own diocese a new church was dedicated two weeks ago. It has cost over £600,000. Under half of that came from outside sources and the rest came from the congregation. They are not particularly wealthy – but many have begun to learn to give. It is interesting that in that same period not only has their quota risen sharply but they also increased their outside giving substantially. That pattern can be repeated time and again.

When we talk about our economic problems as a Church I hope we will never lose sight of the spiritual challenge that lies behind them. If we could learn to give generously, then not only would any immediate budgetary difficulties disappear, but there would be more than enough to spare to encourage new developments, both in this country and overseas.

The challenge

But let me say a little more about the challenge facing the Church at this time. First, we need a perspective on the issue. We are a rich church, enviably endowed with giving from the past. You may know the story of the vicar who regularly mowed his graveyard three afternoons a week. A parishioner complained that he spent more time mowing the graveyard then he did visiting his parishioners. And he replied: “Why shouldn’t I? They give more towards my salary than you lot do!”

The inherited wealth is still very substantial but, as you will know from the recent report of the the Church Commissioners, the gap between income and expenditure is widening all the time. Stipends are more realistic these days, although far from adequate. Church Commissioners now have to give more to pensions than to stipends. As the Commissioners stagger under this burden, so more of the weight is falling upon dioceses. This trend will continue.

It is difficult to foresee the outcome. Let me conjecture some possible scenarios. There will be those dioceses where the temptation will be for retrenchment. They will seek to cut the number of clergy by amalgamating parishes. That might bring temporary relief, but I suspect not for long. Cutting costs is not the answer because it only leads to reduced income and further retrenchment becomes inevitable. The knock-on effect might initially be a glut of clergy but not for long, because younger people will not feel any enthusiasm for a church which shows such unwillingness to employ them. Vocations will go out of the window.

I hope another option is seized. First, the note of realism. No one, let alone those who follow Christ, have any right to expect gilt-edged security. We must become a more professional church expecting results and achieving them. We must re-visit the freehold and see if we can afford a system of protection which works against deployment. We must examine the fact that our historic buildings do gobble up so much of our giving and may in some situations actually work against the mission of God in our land. Has the time come to see if a new partnership with the State is required to share in the care and maintenance of our historic buildings which belong to the nation as well as to the Church?

But secondly, the note of faith. We do believe in a God who acts in history! If I doubted that, I would resign tomorrow. Our God has control of his church and, given our faithfulness, he is able to reward us with his abundance.

Attitude and appreciation

Finally I notice that Jesus says there is a close link between our attitude to our finances and our appreciation of all that God longs to give us, both now and in eternity. He challenges his disciples – are they seeking to store up treasures on earth or treasures in heaven? Precisely what he meant by “treasures in heaven” is difficult to define. At its heart must be their relationship with God himself, for the chief characteristic of heaven lies in a gloriously complete relationship with him. What Jesus is talking about, therefore, is the value they place on their relationship with God. Is it more important than the value we place on our possessions? If not, then we will be the poorer in eternity.

Now, it is wrong to glorify poverty or suffering. Yet when I have the privilege of meeting those from countries far poorer than our own, I am often struck by their spiritual riches. A couple of weeks after Easter I visited Armenia. The Church there, having been trodden down for many years, is now experiencing a real springtime. They have very little. The economy is on a wartime footing. Yet they show a depth of spiritual life which many of us would envy. Or again last week I was talking with Archbishop Benjamin and two of his fellow Bishops from the Sudan. Despite their terrible suffering, caused by lack of food, and more importantly, civil war, they told of a rapidly expanding Church overcoming the problems that surround them and suffused with joy. Such is the joy of those who focus on eternity.

Our attitude to our possessions is an important part of the challenge that faces us spiritually. It is vital, therefore, that we address it both individually and as a church. My prayer is that you will reflect Jesus more and more in your lives, as I struggle to do. His teaching in this area was, after all, no theoretician’s prognostications; rather it was earthed in his own experience of walking with his heavenly Father and trusting him day by day.

We remember today him who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him. May his pattern of sacrificial living, giving and dying, be ours today as we face so many challenges and so many glorious opportunities.