Worship & Preaching  >  Preaching on Stewardship > First to the Lord

Stewardship Talks : First to the Lord

Presidential Address by Archbishop Sentamu when Bishop of Birmingham to the Birmingham DIocesan Synod. Our Bible Reading from 2 Corinthians 8 verses 1-15 reminds me of a story of a very rich lady who had a servant.  The servant gave nine-tenths of her meager income to the service of God, and did her job with such cheerfulness.  The rich lady - yes - gave great amounts of money but there was no cheerfulness and joy in her giving.  Both died and went to heaven.  St Peter welcomed them at the pearly gates, and said 'Ladies you are most welcome.  I'll show you to your quarters'.  And he took first of all the servant to the most luxurious gold-paved part of the city and to a huge mansion and said to the servant, 'Madam, this is yours.'  And the servant couldn't believe it.  The rich lady said, 'Wow, if this is what my servant gets, mine must be 100 times bigger!'  St Peter said to the rich lady, 'Madam, follow me, and I'll take you to your quarters.'  And she followed St Peter and they went to the outskirts of the city and he showed her a tiny little hut.  And St Peter said, 'Madam these are your quarters.'  'No, no, no, no' protested the rich lady, 'St Peter, I think you've got it all wrong.  This belongs to my servant and the big mansion in the centre of the city paved with gold is mine.'  'No', replied St Peter, 'I haven't got it wrong madam.  We build up here with what we receive from below.  And all we received up here from you could only build you this hut.  The servant may have been poor, but her life, her everything was given to the service of God and her fellow men and women, and it built her that big mansion at the centre of the city.'

This isn't a parable of course of how we are going to end up in heaven, but it is very illustrative of the fact that it's the paradox of the Christian life that those who aim at reward lose it, and those who forget reward find it. Because the whole point of giving is the spirit in which it is done. 'The Lord loves a cheerful giver. It's more blessed to give than to receive.'

Those of us who were taught that the tithe was a virtual rule of faith we need to unlearn the way the idea of a tithe has been used as the measure of Christian giving. The Apostle Paul doesn't hesitate to commend certain behaviours, as in the case of the man living with his stepmother in 1 Corinthians 5 or some portions of his discussions of marriage in 1 Corinthians 7. Here, by contrast, no matter how strong his convictions about its importance, he advises the Corinthians to participate in the collections. He doesn't command.

In making the case for his advice, St Paul appeals to the wealth and poverty of Jesus Christ. Jesus was rich and became poor for our sake 'so that by his poverty you might become rich' (2 Cor. 8:9). Yes - rich as he was, he gave it all away for us - in one stroke he became poor and we became rich.

St Paul appeals to what the gospel has already accomplished, and implicitly urges the Corinthians to live out that accomplishment. To paraphrase it, 'Jesus has already made you rich, so you should act on the basis of that new reality.'

Now what readers expect is the closing of the appeal in words something like the following: 'Last year, you began not just to promise to make this gift but to make it. Now you need to finish the task.' He does urge finishing the task, but notice the wording of v.10. 'You … began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something.' What sense does that ordering of statements make? You started not only to set money aside but even to desire to set money aside? Usually people speak of making a commitment to a project and then completing it, but Paul has reversed that order. The Corinthians have apparently made some start at the collection, but what is more important is that they desired to make that gift. What Paul implies is that the gift must be the result of a free decision rather than made from compulsion. He knows full well that 'The heart regulates the hands.'

The final segment of the lesson makes that implicit point explicit: 'If the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable' (emphasis added). Admittedly, most people who ask for money would be all too happy to accept any cheque on which the signature is valid, whether given eagerly or with bitter reluctance. St Paul works with a highly integrated sense of the whole person, and that wholeness certainly influences his understanding of giving. Particularly in the context of this collection for Jerusalem Christians, a gift that symbolises the unity of Jew and Gentile in the church, the attitude toward the gift cannot be separated from the gift itself.

The final lines of this passage have to do with balance between these two parts of the community, Gentile Christians and the Jerusalem poor. In Rom. 15, St Paul speaks of the spiritual debt Gentiles owe to Jews, a debt that is paid (in part, at least) by the collection. Here he argues in a more pragmatic vein, as did any number of moralists of his day. Balance is the ideal, so that those who have abundance should assist others. He under girds this principle with a quotation from Exodus 16:18, a quotation drawn from the story of God's gift of manna. Part of the miracle of the manna is that, no matter how much or how little individuals gathers, no one had too much or too little.

'Nothing left over to the one with the most,

Nothing lacking to the one with the least.'

These closing lines of 2 Corinthians 8:7-15 are among the few times when the Apostle Paul's discussion of the collection appeals to the Corinthians to consider the needs of others. That is not to say that he is indifferent to need, or that the Corinthians would not be swayed by a description of the need in Jerusalem, but need alone does not establish Paul's case. His case depends on the claim that God, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, has made available to Christians the gift of acting out among themselves the same love they see and experience in the obedience of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul sees this collection as a matter of immense significance in the life of the church, and its failure would be devastating. Nevertheless, he approaches it as a matter of grace rather than as a matter of obligation. Even his use of the generosity of Jesus points in this direction. He doesn't say, 'Jesus gave himself for you, therefore you are obliged to give for others.' Instead, the generosity of Jesus stands for the Corinthians to drawn their own conclusions.

In another and shocking way this passage understates the matter of the collection: for whom is this fund being gathered? Its destination is 'the poor among the saints of Jerusalem' (Rom.15:26). These are poor Jewish Christians, almost certainly part of the Christian community under the leadership of Peter and James. While Peter and James and their wing of the church were not Paul's enemies, even the most naïve reading of Acts and Galatians reveals some friction between them and Paul. Probably there was more than a little conflict. Paul, however says nothing in 2 Corinthians about the fact that the collection will go to those whose understanding of the gospel differs substantially from his own. These are Christians who are in need. The offering doesn't celebrate their disunity; rather, he hopes that, by the grace of God, it will symbolize their unity.

And so is our Common Fund collection: It symbolizes our unity and it's a matter of grace rather than a matter of obligation. And that's why we must neither speak of 'the big-givers' as if they were under obligation to keep on giving regardless of their circumstances. Nor of 'the small-givers' who are being propped up. All givers must graciously give. We are in this together and together we must out of our being rich in Christ give generously and exceed each others expectations.

Financing the call to a New Kingdom, hopes to raise the level of expectancy for all of us.

Praise the Lord we are the second highest givers in the Church of England. Let us continue in the good work we have already started. We are bound up together. Remember, the tiniest movement can set off an avalanche. Drops of water turn a waterwheel, singly none. Together we can accomplish great things for God. And in unison, what we will can be accomplished.

Being followers of Christ has financial implications for all of us. So please allow me to be personal for a moment.

In our own house budgeting Margaret and I have to make priorities. There are demands upon our income, and we budget for what we can afford - for food, heating, lighting, hospitality, holidays and our children's needs and the family in Uganda. But before we begin to make these priorities I set aside 20% of my gross income which must be given to the Church. And so does Margaret. For both of us this is 20% of our gross income. Believe you me - the temptation not to meet what we believe the Lord requires of us gets harder every month! Unfortunately because Christ loved us and gave us everything he had, the only fitting response is to give FIRST TO THE LORD. I tell you this not because we are satisfied with our giving, but simply to share with you the joy and the struggle when after prayer we first give ourselves to God and to his body the Church. The giving of money simply flows out of the purposes of God working in our lives.

I believe that as Churches we need to change our culture of expectation when we come to our Common Fund meetings. The first column of expenses to be met should be the clergy stipend, housing costs and working expenses. Only after that should we begin to look at what else we can afford - whether it be heating, lighting, building works. Otherwise we are saying that our clergy are in with the rest of our priorities. I think they are important. They should be our priority. And that means all of us together and not just supporting your vicar, but the 193 we have all agreed to fund by 2005.

For me, money is God's sheepdog; snapping at our heels until we turn in the right direction. With Christ as our Shepherd, and money as God's sheepdog let us no longer resist where he wants to lead us, but take heart and courage to go in the right direction. At this point in time it means 'Fairer Shares'. Gracious generosity like Christ from all of us.

I believe there are five outlets of God's creative and generous Spirit. Five avenues through which the Holy Spirit shows himself and reveals his power.

First Through the life, what we are. Just simply what we are. Accepted in Christ.

Second Through the lips, what we say - especially if the desire is to please and honour the Lord. Speaking of one another as family members. Not them rich and we the poor. Them inner-city and we the suburbia. Them Blacks and we the White. Then evangelicals and we the Catholic. But simply as God's invited guest. All of us as disciples of Christ.

Third Through our service, what we do - doing our best for the Lord.

Fourth Through our money, what we don't keep but loosen out to God. Money comes nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle.

Fifth Through our prayer, what we claim as our inheritance in Jesus' name. For prayer opens a whole planet to our activities. We can be in touch, for God, with people in India, China, Malawi, from Aston to Tanworth-in-Arden, through prayer. Intercession indeed is service.

May this Sacred Synod be a springboard for our Life, Lips, Service, Money and Prayer. For the Diocese of Birmingham expects every Anglican to do their duty.