Rev.
Ann C. Fox
(508) 992-7081
minister@uufairhaven.org
Unitarian Universalist
Society of Fairhaven
The Good Steward
a sermon by Rev. Ann C. Fox
March 25, 2007
Note: A reading is attached, which you might like to read first.
When you saw the sermon topic, “The Good Steward” did it make you think of the biblical story of the Good Shepherd? How many of you thought of the Good Shepherd? I did have this connotation in mind, among other connotations.
As many of you know, our church leadership decided that it would be good to change the name of our annual fund drive from “canvass” to “stewardship.” They thought that “stewardship” had a deeper, more spiritual meaning than “canvass.” I believe they are right. The meaning of “stewardship” is about taking care of something we value and enabling it to grow. When we become stewards of our church, we take responsibility and contribute our time, talent and treasure for its greatest benefit. We are all of us stewards of our church and we all reap benefits from its flourishing.
Perhaps you have heard of the parable of three stewards. It is actually Jesus’ Parable of the Talents, a “talent” being a large amount of money in those days, about $1,000. This is a paraphrased version of the parable from the Gospel of Matthew 25:14-30. A rich man called his three stewards to him. He said to them, “I am going away on a journey. I will entrust each of you with an amount of money to invest in my behalf?” To the first steward, he gave 10 talents; to the second steward 5 talents; and to the third 1 talent.
When he returned, he called the stewards to him once more. The first steward gave him 20 talents, yielding 100% profit; the second gave him 10 talents, also yielding 100% profit; but the third steward gave him back the one talent saying, “I was afraid that I would lose the talent so I buried it for safe keeping.” The Master was pleased with the first two stewards and praised them but with the third one he was angry for he had shown no faith in the value of what he had been given.
There are many ways of interpreting this story. I believe that the “rich” man was rich in the knowledge of the Universe or God. The money, or talents, actually represents “knowledge” or “wisdom” that they had gained from the master and so the first two reaped the riches of using their knowledge. The last had not recognized the value of even one talent and so could reap no benefit whatever. Perhaps the master even gave only what he thought each could manage—thus the reason for giving only one talent.
When we attend church, it means something significant to us; we get something from it that we don’t get anywhere else. Some of what we get is spiritual upliftment, whether it is from a part of the liturgy of the service, the music, or the children’s religious education, or from the gathered community, or the special experience of being in an altered time-space or time out of time, or something from the total experience that is not definable. What it is, is valuable to each one of us.
A humor break: You might have heard the story of when a preacher's car broke down on a country road in the middle of nowhere but he discovered there was a small tavern close by. When he went inside to use the phone he was surprised to see his old friend, Hank, shabbily dressed and sitting at the bar. "Hank what happened?" the preacher asked. "You used to be a prosperous man." Hank proceeded to tell him about the problems he had, and the bad investments he had made, and he asked for the pastor's advice. "Go home," the preacher said, "and when you get there open your Bible and put your finger down on the page. God will give you the answer."
A year later the preacher saw Hank wearing an expensive new suit and getting into a new BMW. "I'm glad to see that things have turned around for you" the preacher said.
"They have, and I owe it all to you, Pastor!" Hank said. "I went home and like you advised I opened my Bible and put my finger down on the page and there was the answer: Chapter 11!"
Seriously, though, whether we are in a church or in society at large, we are ultimately responsible for the institutions of which we are a part, particularly if we hold ownership or voting power in that institution. You can witness in our democratic process how much say you have in shaping our institution.
We witnessed a lack of stewardship very recently in our local community at the company in New Bedford where many undocumented workers had been working—Michael Bianco, Inc., MBI for short. We found out that the owner charged the government $14.50 an hour for each worker but the workers actually received $7.25 an hour. To make matters worse, when the employee went to the bathroom, he or she was charged $20 for each minute beyond 2 minutes away from her work. And there were other outrageous charges and intimidation. An employer is a steward of fair employment and as such he or she can make the lives of his workers better or worse. Nevertheless, Bianco is a small scale employer. Larger companies have done the same or worse. It is a fact that hourly rates of skilled workers have decreased over the last two decades and corporate wealth has increased exponentially. Isn’t it obvious that when we pay a fair wage, society as a whole thrives?
We recently learned that one of the wealthiest Corporations in America (and likely the world), Halliburton, is moving its corporate headquarters to the United Arab Emirates so that it will not have to pay taxes here. These are the taxes that would help us all, especially the “least of us.” It seems to be harder for human beings who are already rich not to want more. Jesus was fully aware of this for he often warned his disciples and offered many teachings on it. Perhaps his most famous words on this are, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24) Jesus knew that greed (or “avarice” as it is called in the Seven Deadly Sins) looms great once generosity ceases. Being fully human includes a generous spirit. The Buddha, too, offered many such teachings. However, I know that we can all pass through the eye of a needle for I am not aware that any of us is especially rich.
The teachings of the masters are there to help us have insight into the workings of the world. The teachings are urging us to live in a way that we will have faith that there will be enough for our needs and not to live in fear that there won’t be enough. Paying taxes and giving to charity are ways of sharing wealth and supporting the institutions that add to the richness of the fabric of our lives. It is a very good thing to pay adequate taxes for it is a way of equalizing wealth for our public institutions that can build the infrastructure that make our communities strong and culturally wholesome.
The well-supported churches are not those that are liberal. The richest churches are those that have a conservative theology that requires their people give 10%, or a tithe in biblical language, of their gross income to their church. These churches are able to support their programs well and their leaders are not stressed each year wondering how they will be able to pay the bills of the church. These churches also give very large sums to charities that support the poor. One of you told me last week that a Presbyterian church you visited gave away half of its pledge income to worthy charities. How wonderful it would be if we could do this!
“A recent study found that the congregations of most [liberal] churches give only 1.8 percent to charity. This includes all we give to our churches…” (p.211, Tulley & Mulholland). Until I joined a church, I think that I was in this category. But when I found a church of my heart—that is, one that reflected my values and fed my soul, each year I belonged as a lay person I increased my contribution. Leo and I give more than 5% of our net income to our church. This puts us in the highest giving category but we are not by a very long shot the highest earners.
Once each year, I remind us of the story of the “widow’s mite” when Jesus sees the widow drop her “mite” into the giving box at the temple and comments that she has given as much as she has to give. No doubt the “mite” was likely five percent or more of her income. But the illustration is a very good one. The poor amongst us can be proud to be in the highest giving category. Those of us who have more can be glad that we are supporting and strengthening an institution that serves us well and which we “own” in a sense in that we each have a vote that decides how we spend our income.
Did you like the goose story that Carol read today, a scientifically true story? It said, “As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.” It’s like us, isn’t it? We are so much greater when we’re moving together? At the end of the story we find out that the geese do not leave an injured one alone but that two other geese fall out of formation to go with that injured goose and stay with it. It is like us when we care for one another, isn’t it? This community supports and gives to one another in many ways.
This year, the members of our Stewardship Committee have worked very hard to help us change our thinking from the “canvass” way of thinking to the “stewardship” way of thinking of supporting this wonderful community that we call the UU Society of Fairhaven. By opening ourselves to a different way of thinking, we are changing ourselves, changing and growing together in community.
We have asked many of you to be visiting stewards and are so very grateful to those of you who have said, “Yes” to the call. May we ask you now to rise? I will call out your names: See the list at the bottom of the Covenant. Let the Visiting Stewards and the rest of us read the Covenant. (Dear Reader: I called out each of the name.) Following is the Covenant we read this day:
Covenant between Visiting
Stewards and the Congregation
Stewards: We are committed to doing our best to make our congregational dreams come true by asking each of you for your help in supporting the mission of our church in the coming year.
Congregation: Committed to the hopes and dreams of this congregation, we accept the responsibility for turning those hopes and dreams into reality.
Stewards: We commit ourselves to preparing for each stewardship conversation by having already made our own best financial commitment and becoming knowledgeable about the goals of our annual stewardship drive.
Congregation: We commit ourselves to make time in our busy lives to have a stewardship conversation. We will prepare for the conversation by reflecting upon our relationship with the church and we will engage the visiting steward in honest and direct conversation.
Stewards: We commit ourselves to listen respectfully to your hopes, dreams, and concerns. We promise to keep private what should be private and pass along only that information that you have asked us to share.
Congregation: Finally, we commit ourselves to generosity of spirit and promise to make a financial commitment to the best of our ability.
Everyone: And together, we commit ourselves to respect each other’s ideas, perceptions and beliefs, and to have a good time while raising money to ensure the future health of our church. So may this be.
Visiting Stewards:
Leonard Alfonso, Jenny Arruda, Jan Besse,
Tracy Carreiro,
Dexter Cate, Rhea Cate, Donna Cordeiro, Jack Dean, Cindy Denault, Laurie
Despres, Bill Elliott, Pete Figueira, Bob Kelley, Dorothy Lewis, Cam Marean,
Kim Mitchell, Carol Oliva, Tony Oliva, Joyce Pottel, Ken Pottel, Bill Roth,
Paige Roth, Arianna Swink, Peter Turowski, Cathie Walsh, Carl Winnett,
Sharon Dean.
When a Visiting Steward visits you (you who are also a steward of our church) this person will want to know your hopes and dreams and you will likely get to know someone from our church you haven’t known before. After hearing your precious thoughts, they will ask you to fill in a pledge card where you will decide privately how you will support us as a caring religious community this year and then you will put your stewardship pledge in an envelope and seal it up. We hope that our way of doing stewardship this year will deepen our commitment to our church community, strengthen us as an institution, and leave us with a great sense of what it means to be generous and abundant together. It will be an experience like no other. We are all called to be stewards of the church. The Society as a whole will grow and change together as a generous body. It will be like a wonderful communal dance that we do.
[Dear Reader, We sang one of our favorite hymns 311 Let It Be a Dance We Do. Following were the unison closing words: “May we be the model of The Good Steward in sharing our personal abundance to support our church programs to the extent that we may metaphorically pass through “the eye of a needle” and know that we have done our very best for our church community. Amen!”]
Reference
Gulley, Philip and Mulholland, James. If God Is Love: Rediscovering Grace in an Ungracious World, San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004.
Reading: The Goose Story
When you next see geese heading south for the winter---flying along in V formation---you might consider what science has discovered as to why they fly that way:
As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following.
By flying in V formation the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.
When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone---and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the birds in front.
When the head goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wings of the V formation and another goose flies point. Geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Finally, and this is important---when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gunshots, and falls out of formation, two other geese fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection.
They stay with the fallen goose until it is
able to fly, or until it dies, and only then do they launch out on their own
or with another formation to catch up with their group.
--Anonymous
© The Rev. Ann C. Fox