Essays on Stewardship

Essays on Stewardship

Christ Church CranbrookThe Reverend Dr. William J. Danaher, Jr.

In just a few short weeks, we will celebrate the birth of Christ. Christmas teaches us that God is merciful, that human nature is redeemable, that peace will prevail, that the end will be followed by a new beginning – an Advent, which is from the Latin, adventum, meaning an “arrival,” an “ap-proach,” or a “coming.”

Here I want to focus on a critical and often-mis-understood lesson: Christmas is about gift giving. Jesus’ incarnation is God’s gift to the world. This gift is astonishing. An all-powerful God chose to enter a violent and chaotic world as a vulnerable baby, dependent, as all babies are, on constant nurture and love.

By doing so, God counteracted the all-too-famil-iar cycle of retribution that dictates human be-havior in so many areas of our life. Instead of giv-ing sinful humanity what it deserved, God gave us what we needed to make a fresh start.

God’s gift of Jesus therefore initiated a new way for us to live. Instead of enacting the justice of a judge sentencing a guilty person to punishment, or a creditor demanding payment for a debt owed, God initiated an alternative economy based on mercy and generosity. By being generous to us through the gift of Jesus, God hoped to evoke a different response from us – one in which we re-spond in kind. Just as God has been generous to us, so God wants us to be generous in return.

As our Famous Festival of Gifts makes clear, the premier act of Christmas gift-giving is the visit from the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12). Over the years, the Christian tradition has elaborated on this sto-ry, adding the names – Melchior, Caspar, Balthaz-ar – and the meaning of the gifts they brought. In the third century, for example, Origin wrote that the gifts signified “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to

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one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God” Contra Celsum, 248 AD).

However, the Bible only tells us that the gifts the Magi gave were expensive, public acts of gener-osity. Like an echo that comes back after some-one sings or shouts in a church or a canyon, their smaller gifts reflected the greater gift of God’s son, Jesus.

In this way, the wise men followed what anthropol-ogists call a “gift-economy” in which gifts repre-sent deeper social relations based on dependence and trust. Rather than an “exchange-economy” based on products and services, in gift-econo-mies relations and people are pivotal.

We find an example of this gift-economy in the famous O. Henry story about the young woman who sold her hair to buy a gold chain for her hus-band’s beautiful watch, and the young man who sold his watch to by expensive combs for his wife’s beautiful hair. The story’s title is “The Gift of the Magi.” It concludes when Henry writes:

The magi, as you know, were wise men – won-derfully wise men – who brought gifts to the new-born King of the Jews in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish chil-dren in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi.

Pledging is the time-honored way for Christians

Why You Need to Pledge: A Christmas Meditation for Advent

to enter this gift-economy through their church. Pledging is part of the ministry of stewardship, which is the lived expression of our awareness of God’s generosity in our lives. Pledging helps us live out within the context of our lives the life-giving message of Christmas – through Christ, we have the power to be generous, because God has first been generous to us. This Advent and Christmas, may we all be counted among the Magi. •

In a wonderful book, Mark Allen Powell recalls a story told about baptism in Gaul during the days of the Roman Empire. A warrior culture, the Gauls accepted their conquest begrudgingly. At Baptism, able-bodied male converts therefore held one arm over their head so that it would not be submerged during the celebration of the sac-rament. That way, if a skirmish broke out, they could shout, “This arm is not baptized!” and reach for the nearest club, axe, or sword (Giving to God, 2006).

There is very little evidence that this practice ac-tually existed. More than likely, it was the Roman equivalent to an “urban legend.” However, it helps me make an important theological point about stewardship and, by extension, pledging.

Many tell us that stewardship concerns our “time, talent, and treasure.” However, stewardship is about much more than money. Stewardship is about giving God total control of our lives. It is about learning to see that everything we have is a gift from God. To faithfully receive that gift, we need to faithfully administer the trust God places in our hands so that we use this gift wisely and for the benefit of all.

The theme of stewardship runs throughout. God has given us “dominion” of the earth (Genesis 1:26; Psalm 8:6), which is really a kind of stew-ardship. We are responsible for the stewardship of our bodies (Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We exercise stewardship over our families when we care for them (Exodus 20:12; Proverbs 22:6; Mark 7:9-13; 1 Timothy 5:8). God has even made us “stewards” of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 4:1; 9:16-17).

Money is involved in each of these dimensions of stewardship. Concerning our stewardship of creation, for example, it matters how we make

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and spend our money in relation to the natural resources God has given us. The same applies to our bodies, families and the Gospel. Unfortunate-ly, there is no hard and fast rule to help us deter-mine what is “enough” or what is the “best” way we should use our money in these and other areas.

Ultimately, it is a matter of prayer and discern-ment. The shape that the ministry of stewardship takes in our lives depends on complex factors and the many responsibilities each of us has.

However, the story about Gallic baptism provides an important image to keep in mind to help this process along. We cannot hold money, or family, or our bodies, out of the proverbial water of bap-tism. Because, in the end, like Baptism, our Chris-tian lives require full immersion. We have to be “all in,” in light of the fact that God has gone “all in” to join us to him through Jesus’ death and res-urrection.

Last Sunday, with some trepidation, I shared with the congregation the amount of my salary (7%) that I have pledged to Christ Church Cranbrook. In no way was I trying to show off by sharing this news. Instead, I wanted to indicate to the extent to which I am “all in” regarding the ministry of Christ Church Cranbrook.

My pledge supports our worship, our pastoral care, our outreach, our mission. I am “all in” because I believe that this ministry is worthy of my support. To support it in the way I have is only fitting given the grace God has given me by bringing me here and allowing me the amazing opportunity to serve in such a wonderful, hospitable, generous parish. My pledge reminds me that this ministry is not “yours” or “mine,” but God’s first and foremost.

•

All in: a Meditation on Stewardship and Pledging

This Saturday and Sunday, we celebrate our annu-al Festival of Gifts. At two services, our Acolytes will enact the narrative of Jesus’ birth in a living crèche located in St. Paul’s Chapel. The congre-gation will also take part in a procession by the crèche to give gifts – of toys and money – to make Christmas brighter for many needy families in the Detroit area.

This tradition stretches back to 1928, the year our beautiful sanctuary was completed. In many ways, the format remains unchanged. The actors in the crèche are youth, and the crèche is full of gifts that express the culture of generosity that ex-isted at this parish from its beginning.

The ritual continuity of this celebration is clear in Jervis McMechan’s extensive and meticulously researched history of Christ Church Cranbrook. In it, he placed two photos of the Festival of Gifts next to each other.

The first is from 1929, the second year that the Festival of Gifts was celebrated. The second is from 1945. As McMechan noted, there are small changes to the set and the costumes. Otherwise, to quote David Byrne, the photos depict a cele-bration that was the “same as it ever was.”

When I looked at these photos, however, I was struck by the dates of the photographs. The first was taken shortly after the stock market crash of 1929. The second just after World War II ended.

Consequently, the photographs not only demon-strated that this tradition remained constant, but also documents two moments when it was im-periled. In 1929, generosity was in short supply, and yet, even in the face of unexpected financial hardship, the members of this parish made the decision to be generous.

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In 1945, Americans had just emerged from three years of rationing imposed during the war. The distribution of fuel, gasoline, coffee, cheese, and other goods had been closely monitored and re-stricted. Most of these measures had ended by December 1945. But others, like sugar, did not end until 1947. The national ethos was therefore geared toward austerity, not generosity. And yet, here again, the members of our church were gen-erous, perhaps in part previous generations had been so.

These pictures teach an important lesson about tradition and generosity. Anthropologists tell us that traditions are important because they instill in us a sense of identity - the sense of who “we” are.

However, traditions also teach us how to live - in the fullest sense of this word - faithfully. This is particularly relevant when we think about the generosity expressed by the congregation in 1929 and 1945. If they found ways to be generous, so can we.

Most of us cannot imagine deviating from the Festival of Gifts. For clergy and laity alike, observ-ing it is a charge to keep and a legacy to protect. However, what is most important in this celebra-tion is not the fact that it remains unchanged, but that it continues to celebrate an ethos of generosi-ty. Our spiritual forbearers were generous even in the face of hardship and austerity. May God give us grace to follow the values that guided them as faithfully as we follow their actions in this beautiful cele-bration. •

Generosity Across Generations: On the Festival of Gifts

Permit me to tell you a bit about Brenthy John-ston, a parishioner at Christ Church Cranbrook. Originally from Mexico, she moved to Michigan nearly two decades ago.

Brenthy is currently struggling with cancer, and she has recently retired. She has no children and no family members in the United States. She has few relatives in Mexico. Her mother is in her 80s and lives in Mexico City. Brenthy is her mother’s sole source of financial support.

Given these incredible challenges, one might ex-pect Brenthy to refrain from making a pledge in 2015. She has not. A few weeks ago, we received her pledge, the latest iteration of the financial sup-port she has provided to CCC for years.

Brenthy’s financial faithfulness has been as steady as a heartbeat. I share her story because I find it deeply moving and inspiring. I suspect you do too. More importantly, her story illustrates an import-ant point about pledging, a lesson that is critical to learn because of what it teaches us about our life together.

The church is a living body, composed of persons who have come alive in God through Jesus Christ. As such, we are a community of grace. Although we need financial resources to support our work, our decisions are guided by how we might bear witness to this grace.

This means that we do not function like a club or a college. We do not charge membership dues or tuition. We do not subsist through voluntary con-tributions as these are usually understood – that is, support for particular projects people like or admire.

This means that we are willing to live with the fact that we have many members who rarely contrib-

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ute anything at all to this parish’s financial needs. This is not fair by any human standard. However, this also means that we have many members who are willing to do far more than what is expected of them. They are people who have learned to live by grace. God’s grace is not fair, but it is good. Through grace, God gives us what we do not de-serve. This means that, in turn, we sometimes bear the burden of others, regardless of whether they are worthy, or appreciative, or even aware of what we are doing for them. We bear these burdens, because it is liberating to do so. We know what it is like to be on the receiving end of God’s be-nevolence and the affect it has on our lives. Hence Brenthy’s pledge.

As Mark Allan Powell notes (Giving to God, 2006), pledging has its roots in the New Testament. In his epistles, Paul discusses the collection taken by the early churches to financially support the church in Jerusalem, which is experiencing hard times (e.g. 2 Corinthians 8-9). Paul refers to this collection as a charis, using the Greek word for grace or gift that is translated as “generous undertaking” (2 Corin-thians 8:6 and 8:19 NRSV). He also describes it as a eulogia, or eulogy, translated as “bountiful gift” (2 Corinthians 9:5). Finally, he refers to it as a leitourgia or liturgy, translated as “ministry” (2 Corinthians 8:12).

Paul therefore sees this collection as an act of wor-ship. Through it, churches experience and convey God’s love and grace. Paul might have spoken in mundane terms of the real financial needs in Je-rusalem. Instead, he chose the noble terms he did because he wanted to highlight the fact that every-thing we do should bear witness to the grace he found so liberating, that made every action taken a testimony to the “glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Hence Brenthy’s pledge.

Precisely because it is an act of worship motivat-

The Big Difference Pledging Makes

ed by God’s grace, we celebrate those who have pledged. The recognition we give each week to those who pledge is intended to be a source of in-spiration, not ostentation. It reminds us that we are a congregation made up of parishioners like Brenthy and others who walk by faith. For her wit-ness, and the witness of everyone else who pledg-es, I am grateful. •

Worship is central to the life of Christ Church Cranbrook as we join together to adore God, hear the Sacred Word, offer prayers for ourselves and each other, and celebrate the Sacraments.

Monday - Friday ~ 8:30 AM ~ Morning PrayerWednesday ~ 7:00 AM ~ Holy Eucharist Followed by Bible StudySaturday ~ 5:00 PM Holy EucharistSunday ~ 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM ~ Holy Eucharist Nursery Care and Sunday School ~ Sunday at 10:00 AM

6:00 PM ~ Evensong Schedule may change throughout the year. Please check the website or

call the parish office to verify service times.

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Christ Church Cranbrook470 Church Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304

Phone: 248-644-5210 www.christchurchcranbrook.org