Stewardship
In Response to God's Many Blessings - Pledging for 2007
The St. Patrick's Budget Committee has begun it's work on our budget for 2007. If you missed the November 18th ingathering and would still like to make a pledge, fill out the pledge form (below) and mail to the church office at P.O. Box 550, Long Beach, MS or place your pledge card in the offering plate.2007 Pledge Card
(11/28)
Sermon given on the Last Sunday after Pentecost
Christ the King (November 21, 2004)
Read the lessons for the Last Sunday after Pentecost
I have a confession to make. I have since a very young age always taken certain responsibilities very seriously – often to my personal detriment. I don’t know what in my upbringing or my genetic code or from being dropped on my head a bunch when I was a baby does that to me – but it’s been part of me for a long time.
When I was in the 6th grade I was promoted to….drum roll please….the very prestigious position of……..SAFETY PATROL CAPTAIN! Yes, I was the man! That meant that not only did I wear the lovely safety patrol hard hat and criss-cross belt on my assigned weeks – I wore them EVERY morning, patrolling all the cross walks withing four blocks of the school to make sure the guys and gals assigned to them had shown up for duty, supervising the raising and lowering of the flags in front of the school, and managing the car drop off points for proper protocols being followed. YOU DIDN’T WANT TO MESS WITH ME, PATROL BOY CAPTAIN KNIGHT, let me tell ya. And so the sad day came, as all of you I am sure by now are expecting to hear about, when some of my friends messed up, crossed the line, did something that VIOLATED safety patrol code, and I, their captain, had to make a choice – do I look the other way, these were my buddies after all, or do I do what I said I would do, and turn them in?
Look folks this may be a humorous story now but can you imagine what that was like for a 6th grader? It was tooooo much pressure, with a lot of ramifications in my decision, ramifications I was very much aware of. Their crime? They intentionally raised the US and Miss flags upside down. They told me it was on purpose. I noticed it right away….and I told them to correct it….and they refused. Sigh. Do I turn them in? Do I ignore my duty, my obligations? Turning them in meant DEATH to any aspirations I would have of being even remotely popular with the “cool kids” in school. Turning them in meant risking friendships. Turning them in…..was the only choice I had. And so I did.
Their punishment was minor, they were fussed at and were sent right out to correct the flags. No big deal, quickly forgotten by the administration – but not by my friends or by me. I suffered a lot for that decision, but guess what – I could sleep at night, for I had done the right thing. And I learned something that day, something about myself and the importance of not shirking your responsibilities just because they may be difficult, or they may upset other people, or they may make you unpopular.
Which brings me, of course, to Jeremiah and this OT reading that I go back and read ALL the time, ever since I became a Priest and especially since I became a Rector of a church. A similar, perhaps more haunting passage, is in Ezekiel and both passages deal with a message from God for the shepherds of the people of Israel, shepherds who have failed the test, who have not led the people in the ways God wanted them too, who have allowed the people to forget their history, to forget their covenant, to become of the world and not just in it, with the result being the destruction of their homes, their temple, their world and the exile of the people to another land. God is not pleased with the shepherds. Not at all.
Some scholars link this shepherd language to the kings of Israel, who in many ways were also their high priests. Regardless, the image of priest as shepherd of a flock is strong in our traditions and it is that image that haunts me when I read this passage.
God is saying, to me, through the prophet Jeremiah, that there will be an accountability for how I shepherd this flock. I accepted the call to come here, the Bishop affirmed it, and I said some powerful words at my CNM, words that bring me again and again to my knees, words like: So what does this have to do with you? Simply this – for quite some time now you have endured sermons about that one topic you don’t like to hear – money. You have heard me over and over drive home the biblical truth that decisions over how much money we give the church are always decisions of faith, of trust in God and that God will provide for us, decisions that mark, dramatically, where our true focus lies, who our master is – for as Jesus tells us you can only serve one. And the cards and letters have come in and frankly I am very saddened. I have not done my job as your shepherd on this count, for our pledging to date is woeful.
First some facts, as of today we are $xxxx below last year’s giving. That places us $xxxx short of even making our 2005 budget. And let me tell you, speak to your wardens and vestry, you will see that our budget on the expense side is as lean as a church can get, a church that wants to maintain a physical plant and support a full time Priest. A budget that absolutely SHOULD include additional staffing and certainly, as our Deacon points out, certainly should provide much more funding for outreach in this community. We have a budget that merely takes care of ourselves and that is disappointing and MUST change, but the worst news of all is we are not even close to reaching enough pledged income to make this minimal budget we have.
I am going to challenge you directly today, and I know this is risky. I know it may offend and upset some of you. I know that some of you are tithing, or are working towards a tithe as a goal, and I am ever so thankful to you. But, although I don’t know what any of you pledges, I am sure from the numbers we have that most of our people are giving far, far below a 10% tithe – the minimum God asked of us in the Scriptures. Far below it.
Why does God want 10%? Well, certainly since God gave us 100% of what we have, God could ask for much more. But for God, it’s not about the money, God does not need your money, but what God does require from us is loyalty above all else – you shall have no other Gods before me, you cannot serve two masters, and if I don’t tell you that over and over again, if I don’t dare risk offending or upsetting you with these words, if I don’t challenge you to re-think how you give and how you reach that decision, if I don’t stand here and encourage you to tithe, to work towards a tithe, to figure out a percentage you can give this year and to ADD at least 1% to that as you move, every year, closer to the Biblical tithe, if I don’t say to you that I am tithing back to this church 10% of what you pay me, if I don’t stick my neck out and risk what to date has been a great relationship with all of you, if I don’t do all this – FOR YOUR SAKE, for the sake of your soul, your faith, your relationship with God, if I back down and don’t do this, then I risk standing before the throne of God and hearing these words of Jeremiah, knowing I was unwilling to be the shepherd God needed me to be……
Believe me, folks, I know how tough this is. It has taken me a long time in my life to get it, to move towards this goal, to let go of the power and despair that money had over me. It is still a struggle. I still own that house in Greenville, I still have a huge debt from seminary, I still have one child in college and one joining her next year, I know the difficulty – and I know, with all my heart I know – the freeing release of sitting down and saying first – ahead of budget, ahead of car notes and mortgages, ahead of it all, the least I can do is give the first fruit of what I have been given to God, who is my master, the Good Shepherd of us all. It’s hard, but it will change your life. There are some of you out there today that have already done this, already been blessed by the awesome statement it makes to you and to God – share your story with others, let them know the freedom and the blessing of being a cheerful giver.
For the rest it’s not too late for you and for St. Pat’s. You have enclosed in your bulletin a pledge card. I know many of you have turned one in already, that’s ok. If what I have to say to you has made you stop and think and reconsider, then I am asking you to turn in an amended card. Maybe right now you know what figure to put on there, maybe you feel the need to take it home and talk about it and especially pray about it, but regardless, feel free to take a bold step, a real step, for God and for this church, and ESPECIALLY for yourself and your own walk with God.
I am sorry if this direct approach is offensive, but I have no choice. I am called to be your shepherd, and I hear Jeremiah’s voice. I hear the words of Hebrews 13 that says your pastor has watch of your souls, for which he must give an account. To the flock of St. Patrick’s, God has given me this message to give you. It is my prayer that we will look back at November 21, 2004 as the day we, as a church, GOT IT, and became the cheerful givers who serve only one master. I believe God will answer that prayer. I pray you will accept it and take it to heart.
—© The Rev. J. David Knight
