The lectionary reading for today points us to our text of the morning from the Gospel of Saint Mark.  Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing: go sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven: then come, follow me."  When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.  (Mark 10:20-22)

Let us pray:
Gracious and generous God, you have entrusted us with so much, be patient with us as we learn and grow in our understanding of our commitment to faithful stewardship of all your gifts.  May your spirit move among us now, opening your Word to our hearts and our hearts to your Word.  In the spirit of our brother and our friend, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The dictionary defines a steward as a person who is in charge, entrusted by his or her employer with responsibility, especially in their absence.  The theology of Christian stewardship is grounded on the biblical truth that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and we are stewards of what God has entrusted to us.  Jesus taught that we will be held accountable for our stewardship, as in his parable of the dishonest steward with the ominous words: "Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward."

Christian stewardship is our personal response of gratitude and thanksgiving to the love and grace of God.  Jesus by word and deed reminds us that we are not here to be served but to serve.  Christian stewardship is a way of life.  It involves our passion for building communities of justice and inclusivity, our care of the earth, and one another and our bodies, as well as our use of our money, time and talents.  Christian stewardship involves all those wonderful gifts which God has entrusted to us.

In our Gospel reading of the morning, Saint Mark tells us, "As Jesus was setting out on a journey -Jesus is always on the move in Mark's gospel - a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  I suspect that if Jesus were to appear among us here this morning this would be among the first questions we would ask of him:  What must I do to inherit eternal life?"  I have come to the tentative conclusion that the answer to life's ultimate questions are not multiple choice.  Recognized or unrecognized, this is the deep spiritual hunger of your life and mine:  How do I make sense out of my life?  What is the meaning and purpose of my life?

Jesus tells him to keep the commandments.  He says he has been keeping them since his youth.  Then pay attention to what happens next.  Mark tells us:  Jesus looking at him loved him. . . This is a word of love: "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."  When he heard this he was shocked and went away grieving for he had many possessions."
Here is a person possessed by his possessions.  It reminds me of Emerson's observation: "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind."  Nothing wrong with possessions.  I have a few.  It is when we allow them to possess us that they become a hazard to our spiritual life.  They come between ourselves and God, between ourselves and others.  Moreover, I have never seen a hearse with a luggage rack

This is why we find Jesus speaking and teaching so frequently about money and possessions --  some think more frequently than any other subject in the Gospels.  Jesus having no possessions himself recognized the tremendous spiritual danger in being possessed by your possessions.

"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  Is the meaning of your life and mine really defined by the accumulated stuff in our basements, attics, closets?

The problem is you and I live in a culture that has come up with an entirely different answer to the question of living a good life.  It is a consumer culture and we who live and worship here between Filene's Basement for the more ambitiously creative, Lord and Taylor's, the Prudential Mall, know very clearly what that all means.

Don Browning writes in the recent issue of The Christian Century:  "I agree that the strains of modern capitalism are the main reasons for family change and disruption.  The market has pulled couples away from the support of extended family, drawn both men and women into its competitive atmosphere, reduced the time working parents have for their children and each other, and forced many workers into lower salaries in the name of efficiency and global competition.  And yes, there are growing economic differences in our society between rich and poor that hurt families."  In this materialistic culture which says to us every day: "your life's meaning is what you can afford to buy and consume" the gospel of Jesus Christ is radically counter-cultural.

Beneath it all there is a deep spiritual hunger.  People today don't want their father's Oldsmobile...they are searching for something more and asking, "What can I find and use to make a life and not just a living?"

"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?. .sell what you own. . .come follow me. . .when he heard this he was shocked and went away grieving for he had many possessions."

In our Epistle reading of the morning Paul is writing to the Corinthians about money.  He speaks of life and all that we have as gift.  You and I are not conditioned to think like that.  We live in a society where there is not much room for gift.  We live in a society where the dominant theme is rights.  My rights are my entitlement.  I don't feel gratitude because you have only given me what I already deserve.2

You and I meet people every day who feel they are entitled - entitled to cut you off in traffic - entitled to give the sales clerk a hard time - entitled to step in front of you in line - entitled to cut a corner on moral integrity.

When we have no sense of our lives as gifts, we have no feeling of gratitude.  To those who have been given nothing, nothing is required.  When you struggle to find your way through these feelings of entitlement, rights and privileges, you come at last to see your life as a gift, then you come to understand the teaching of Jesus: "To the one whom much is given, will much be required."  This is what we find Saint Paul urging his Corinthian readers to see:  It is called proportionate giving.  Not equal gifts... for our resources are not equal, but equal sacrifice.

Many congregations in the United Church of Christ are lifting up this biblical concept of proportionate giving.  The biblical tithe is 10% - people love to ask: "Before or after taxes?" - no matter, however you wish to look at it.  Many churches in the United Church of Christ are considering the so-called "modern tithe" - 5% for the church and 5% for other charitable giving.  Members of these congregations are encouraging each other to prayerfully consider what percent of their resources they are currently giving and sharing with others.  It is 1% or 2% or are they already at the modern tithe of 5% for their church and 5% for other charitable giving.  For our own spiritual health it would be wise to wrestle with these issues.

Stewardship involves our money, how we choose to use our time, how we share our gifts and talents.  Important as it is to not be possessed by our possessions, Christian stewardship involves ever so much more.  Christian stewardship is our personal response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we choose to live in God's world as disciples of Jesus, who calls us to follow him.  Christian stewardship reminds us how we choose to live as Christian citizens in these challenging days matters -- it makes a difference.

There needs to be a national debate over funding priorities as the bill grows ever larger for the rebuilding of Iraq and our other commitments around the world.  Our government is or soon will be in hock for $500 trillion dollars of debt.

Ronald Reagan had a way of vividly describing a trillion dollars.  He said if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only four inches high you'd be a millionaire.  A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills sixty-seven miles high.  Now multiply 67 miles by 500!4  As Jim Hightower observes in his excellent new book: Thieves in High Places: They've stolen our country and it's time to take it back," what they're really stealing is the very idea of this country, the idea that there is a common good, that we're all in this together, that we all do better when we all do better.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls each of us to live in the world as stewards of God and as disciples.  Let your voice be heard in this national debate about the future of the country we all love.

Stewardship is analogous to conversion.  It means leaning to see the world and our own life in a whole new way.  And that according to Jesus, begins with knowing how valuable our own lives are and managing them, investing them and giving them away responsibly.  It is a major biblical theme - responsibility and stewardship.  God has great expectations for our life together in this community of faith -- and so must we.

This is a marvelous time to be a member of this congregation or to belong to whatever faith community you visitors come from.  Let us bless this place we call home with our generosity and faithfulness and the many thousands of people whose lives have been and are being touched by its ministry.

Let us pray:
O God, teach us to be generous and gracious givers as you have been gracious and generous to us.  Guard us against the temptation of our society to think we are somehow entitled and to become possesses by our possessions.  One thing more Lord.  Forgive us our resistance to sermons about stewardship.  In the spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

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End Notes:
1. Christian Century - October 4, 2003, p. 50.
2.  William Willitron - Pulpit Resource; Vol. 31, No. 2, p. 59.
3.   Molly Ivins - Cape Cod Times, September 18, 2003.
4.  Eyewitness to Power, David Gergen.

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Scripture Readings

II Corinthians 9: 6-13

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.   And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.  As it is written,
“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.  Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others.

Mark 10:17-22

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.  You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’ ”  He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”  Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.