Dr. David D. Young
October 28, 2007
II Chronicles 31: 2-6
Mark 4: 1-9
"Traveling Trustees"
(Stewardship)

Grace be unto you and peace from God out Creator and the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!

Some people may have stayed away today because this is Stewardship Sunday. Some of you may be here this morning out of curiosity to see just what the preacher has to say about stewardship on this particular Sunday. Others are probably present because you are in the discipline of being here on most Sundays.

Still others are here because you know how important stewardship is in the life of faith and of our church. And there may even be some of you who could care less about what day it is. Regardless of why you’re here - I’m glad you are.

If you are a visitor or guest this morning, I need to let you know you can really disregard this sermon for the most part, you can listen in, certainly. This is the one Sunday a year that we talk about the financial need to give to support the life of our congregation and our ministries together as we seek to serve God in the world. So it’s the one time when we really talk directly about our financial resources and what it means to share them as a part of Christ’s body. So if you are a guest or visitor this really isn’t for you but since you are here you can listen in.

Today, we’re not going to focus so much on stewardship or at least not the word, even though it is very important. And that may sound strange to hear me say that. But I am convinced that for many in our time – the image of a steward is not very relevant. We certainly don’t use the word stewardess anymore – when we fly – such airline personnel are referred to as flight attendants.

In seventeen of his thirty-seven parables, Jesus dealt with property and our responsibility for using it wisely. During his day, a steward was a relevant role, not so much in our day. But the key of his teachings is relationships and responsibilities. So, for us today I would like to shift our thinking to the notion of our being trustees.

Webster defines a trustee as a person to whom another’s property or the management of another’s property is entrusted. I suspect that most of us are much more comfortable with the idea of being a trustee than we are a steward.

Many of us have either been a trustee ourselves or know a family member or friend who has. A trustee is one who has been entrusted with a responsibility for something that is not his/her own. And while one is a trustee – no matter where they go or what they are doing, they carry that trust, that responsibility with them.

Again, many of Jesus’ parables about material responsibility take place in the context of traveling or being on a journey. Stories like the Good Samaritan, or the rich man who traveled to a far off country and left his steward in charge, giving…and walking the second mile or the parable of the talents – to name just a few.

For us, at our church, I’m not talking about being on the Board of Trustees – important as that is – it’s about all of us being trustees.

"Traveling Trustees." Friends, what I’m trying to suggest is that we are all traveling trustees for God – all of our lives! The Christian life is not an arrival – but a journey.

The great Congregational preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, put it this way,

"The strength and the happiness of a person consist in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too."

To be a traveler is to engage in action and movement. It is not being a passive tourist. Unlike watching an athletic event on television – like the World Series – we are not called to a spectator religion. We are called to be traveling trustees in the game of life.

Let’s turn now to our New Testament text which Beth Beam read for us. It is the familiar parable of the sower. A certain sower went out to sow – and some of the seed was devoured – some withered after a quick burst of growth – some was choked – and some fell on good soil – yielding a tremendous growth.

Whenever I have heard this passage preached on – the point has always been made that we are like the soil in which the seeds are planted. And that’s a helpful point. Because how the seeds of faith grow within us is vitally important.

One of the beauties of the parables Jesus used is their many and multiple meanings. For I would also like us to consider that we are sowers. We have been entrusted with the seeds and their disbursement. You see the sower is traveling along – sharing that with which he/she has been entrusted. In a very real sense then, the sower is a traveling trustee.

If this church is to be an effective sower of the seeds of faith – then we must understand ourselves as traveling trustees. We are traveling - we are journeying through life entrusted with the gifts of God. When we see that our faith and very lives are from God with which we have been entrusted – will we not see that everything we have and own is also a gift from God?

I know that what I’m going to say may rub some of the hard-core, autonomous, independent Congregationalist wrong - but this is not your church, my church, our church - this is God’s church!

We are sitting here today inside a building which happens to currently be housing a church – but the church is more than a building – it is we the people - we are the church – and we are God’s. This is God’s church!

As trustees we have a responsibility to see that the sowing of seeds continues. Certainly we support the maintenance of this building – but if that’s all we were doing – we would merely be custodians. No, we support the life-giving ministries of this body of people – which includes every single one of us.

When I think of the children singing this morning and all of our children and youth – we have a lot to celebrate here at First Congregational Church. And that’s what we are doing during this fall stewardship series, celebrating our family of faith.

As traveling trustees, as sowers of faith – we have a financial responsibility to share in the future vitality of Christ’s work.

"Dagwood turns away from his desk with a look of triumph and says to Blondie, ‘We finished the month with money left over.’ Blondie replies, ‘Then here’s some more bills I’ve been saving.’ Dagwood, looking crestfallen, ‘That’s the trouble with the rat race. There’s never a finish line.’"

With two daughters in college – I know what more bills is all about. As someone who looks at the church budget and church finances on a regular basis – I just have to tell you that church costs more than it used to. It costs more to do church today than it did ten to twenty year ago. And yet many pledges have not kept pace with the increasing costs over the years.

I can remember when you could get a pack of gum or a candy bar for a nickel. I guess that makes me old. We all know how costs have affected our family finances – so too, our church family. It used to be that a dollar or twenty dollars really meant something – but it just doesn’t go very far these days.

I love the story of the five dollar bill and the hundred dollar that became fast friends once they were made at the mint. The day soon came when they would part and make their own way in the world. A few years passed and then one day they ended up in the same cash register near each other and so they quickly renewed their friendship.

The five dollar bill asked the hundred dollar bill how life had been going. "Oh" it replied, "things have been wonderful. I’ve had such an exciting life – I’ve been to Las Vegas and to some of the best restaurants and theaters in the country. But what about you?" "Oh," said the five dollar bill, "It’s been the same old thing, go to church, go to church, go to church."

Laughter!

Who gave us the spirit to laugh? Who? God! God gives us a spirit to laugh and to know joy.

Friends, everything that we have – everything that we are is a gift from God. We are not possessors forever. We are traveling trustees in time. The great giver of gifts asks for our gifts in return.

We are Christ’s body. If we give weak gifts – Christ’s body is weakened. And when we give generous, strong gifts – Christ’s body – this church is strengthened!

The scriptural standard is the tithe – and we dare not shy away from it. Hear a portion of the other text Beth read for us,

"the people…gave in abundance…they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything."

Ten percent – it sounds like a lot – but look at everything we’ve been given. We have been blessed!

The great preacher, Peter Marshall, ended a prayer this way,

"Help us to give according to our incomes, lest thou O God, make our incomes according to our gifts. In Jesus name we ask. Amen."

The flip side of that is expressed in a "horrible dream."

"I dreamed that the Lord took my Sunday contribution and multiplied it by ten and this became my weekly income. In no time, I lost my TV and VCR and had to give up my new car; I couldn’t even make a house payment."

Back in the days when many Christian baptisms were conducted in lakes and rivers, a man who had just been converted was about to be immersed in a stream. The officiating pastor noted the man’s billfold protruding from his hip pocket and suggested it be removed so it wouldn’t get wet. The man quickly responded, "No, Reverend, when I get baptized my wallet gets baptized, too."

That man knew his identity as a traveling trustee. He knew that all in his life had been entrusted to him by God and that he was called to a responsible use of the gifts. What greater way to use our money than for the sowing of the seeds.

This morning I’ve asked Bobbie Hopkins to come forward and share a few of her thoughts from her own experience and background about what it means to give and why she gives. Bobbie…

Bobbie Hopkins

Having been asked by David the question "Why do you give to the church?" My first reflection darted back to my parents and to Sunday School – a congregational Sunday School. That was a long time ago but it was where I was first told about God and how I could learn to believe in him. Quite simply, that is where the cornerstone was laid for me, my own Christian life began and I have never looked back with any doubts. Even at that young age the lesson of giving was a part of my promise to God. To let him understand my wanting to be one of his flock.

This might sound childlike but it is really true for me and helps me at this moment to try and share my answer with you. In our lives patterns are formed. When Rich and I were to be married we both realized the similarities in our desire to go to church and to be able to give to God’s work. Here we are now fifty-five years later with that same priceless pattern in our lives – reinforcing our beliefs in God and reaffirming our Christian giving.

As we live each day to the fullest and with gratitude as we continue our journey in faith – I believe that’s my answer to David’s question – why. It is such a privileged opportunity each year for each of us to strengthen our commitment to First Church and it’s heritage expressing our love of God, on the one hand and with the other hand making our gifts for God’s work here and in the greater world around us. We do this as prayfully and as generously as we possibly can. May I suggest each of you ask yourselves this same question.

David Young

Thank you, Bobbie.

I said it last year and I’ll say it again this year, if you are unhappy about the amount of money you are giving to the work of this church – then I suggest you do one of two things. Either stop giving altogether or start giving more. And if you’re just feeling so/so – give more. Friends, giving is one of the most spiritual things you can ever do.

The last thing I want is unhappy or resentful givers in our church. If you don’t like what I’m saying or are unhappy in your giving – take it up with God. It is God who calls us to give – I’m just passing on the message.

I want us to know the joy that comes by sharing with and in Christ’s body. Faith gives – not to a budget – but out of our own inner need to give and we share in the joy. Traveling Trustees – sowers and growers in faith!

In closing, Susan Gregg-Shroeder sets the path out before us,

"We are called to pioneer a future yet unnamed.
As we venture forward, we leave behind our desires for a no-risk life
worldly accumulations certainty.
Let us travel light in the spirit of faith and expectation toward God
of our hopes and dreams.
May we be witnesses to God’s future breaking in.

Come along with me as travelers in faith secure in the knowledge
that we never travel alone."

God, the great giver of gifts, is with us throughout our life’s journey – when we live out our calling as Traveling Trustees!

Amen!