The Stewardship of Time and Talent

By Chris West, Stewardship Co-Chair

The Stewardship of Time and Talent. That is the theme of today's Ministry Fair. Time and Talent. Seems pretty simple. Not always easy - but simple. A bit of time given here and there. A sharing of talent - of personal gifts - well - maybe that seems a bit more complicated.

Still - it is a new year - not liturgical, not by the calendar. This month we return to Sunday School and regular worship hours and the choir singing and Dinners For Eight and a host of other activities that mark this time.

And we return to Stewardship - that calling out to consider both the new and the renewal of our commitment to share with St. George's (and therefore with each other and the greater church and the larger community) our treasure, our time and our talent.

I'm not going to talk about the treasure part this morning. The Stewardship Committee wanted very much to give full voice and visibility to the other aspects of Stewardship. So today - our Time and Talent Fair.

I want to shift a bit now - to today's Gospel lesson. The one where the writer of Luke almost seems to be telling a story where Jesus is telling his disciples - be smart: be shrewd like the "children of this age" not the "children of light".

A story where a manager is doing a poor job for his boss - and when he gets found out - he decides to add cheating to wastefulness. In his fear as well as his disdain for working or begging - he comes up with the idea that he'll just help everyone that owes his boss money and thereby ingratiate himself with them. And the boss - he seems to think this is fine - because the manager "had acted shrewdly".

At the end of the telling of this story - Jesus says "make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes."

The whole thing makes no sense. A boss who's angry with an incompetent employee and then thinks he's great because he cheats him. And - even more confusing - Jesus talking about being shrewd and being dishonest, like that's a good thing.

But the final sentences - the summing up of the story if you will - are very clear.

Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful in much - and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. No one can serve two masters - we will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. We cannot serve God and wealth.

Our faithfulness - our keeping our part of the covenant - in little things and big things - is required. And we cannot give short shrift to the small stuff - because when we do - we give the big stuff short shrift as well.

This is what happens when we are not whole and complete. Or maybe it causes that fragmentation. I'm never sure which comes first.

But the splitting of our selves and the battle that can rage between our yearning towards the God of our understanding and the world's demands - can be overwhelming sometimes. A lot of times.

A favorite of my remembered biblical stories is only one of my favorites because as a child I completely misunderstood it.

It is the parable of the talents. And it goes (the quick version) like this: A man going on a long journey leaves his goods with his servants. Now in the bible - the goods are talents - an amount of money, which somewhere or other I read, is the equal of about a thousand dollars today.

Two of the servants invest the talents and double them. When the man returns, he's happy. But the third servant - afraid to lose the talents - has buried them for safekeeping and the man - pretty upset at not having the talents increase - is very angry. This is one of those stories that end in weeping and teeth gnashing.

The thing is - I didn't know the talents were money when I first heard this story. I just thought they were talents - like singing or dancing or playing the harmonica. So I thought the point was - don't bury your talents. I may have also confused this with not hiding your light under a bushel.

Anyway - you get my point, I hope. More about this later.

Christian and I were on vacation recently in Maine - we did a bit of research before leaving about what there was to do and where we wanted to go. But when we arrived we found the most amazing Tourist Information Center. It was amazing because it was filled with everything you would need to know about Maine ... and it was organized in a way that satisfied even my obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

We went there three separate times - to browse, to get ideas, to be sure we hadn't missed anything - and to revel in the numbers of activities, places, events, restaurants, galleries, nature walks, scenic drives open to us. And everyone else there was doing the same thing. Wandering through this large room - ducking in and out between aisles of shelves. We were part of this small community of sojourners. It was great.

As the weeks leading to today's Fair galloped along, I kept thinking about the Center. And in this last week - when even more parishioners suddenly seemed to jump on the idea of hosting a table - I thought about it some more.

Because when you go down stairs after the service and wander around our very beautiful Parish Hall - you'll have this whole host of opportunities in front of you.

Please don't think of them as duties to be fulfilled - or obligations to be met. Pretend you are going into the Center in Maine the way Chris and I did. And see the smorgasbord of all these things to do and let your appetite be whet. We are entering this hall together - surveying this smorgasbord as yet another community of sojourners.

There are opportunities for fellowship, chances to un-bury talents and let them increase, occasions for grace when our commitment to our life of faith overcomes the calls of a world in which faith, grace and fellowship seem unsupported.

And today you get a One-Day Dispensation from the sin of Pride - (see your bulletin). Good today and today only! Because we want you to be bold, to brag, to pop your jerseys, to let both your big talents and your small skills get put to good use.

Now why do I say 'put to good use'? That's a bit presumptuous I guess.

So let me tell you how it is I really came to be standing here this morning - speaking to you. I have been a member of St. George's for about 12 years I think. I've done a few things here in that time - but the one that has brought me the most joy is teaching Sunday School - 4th, 5th or 6th graders depending on the year. I've done that most of the years I've been here.

I don't think I'm that good at it. But I love it. And I love the children who have been in my class.

I watch with anticipation all the even younger ones - and I start thinking about how eventually I'll get them in my class. So each year when I consider how maybe I'll ask Jane Cates for a year off, I think of someone I've been waiting to see in my class and I postpone for another year that brief sabbatical.

Let me reassure you - this ministry is not without its frustrations. Aside from my own insecurity, there is of course the occasional Sunday morning when I'm certain no one is listening - no one cares - the whole group is out of control and I'm just about to bust.

Following one such Sunday - as I was shepherding the little lambs to the church (there's an irony to our joining you all at the Peace) a few of the children made a stop at the water cooler.

This is pretty routine with them. I slipped into my normal pose and tone of voice when this happens and shushed them along - reminding them "Come on - we're going to church now."

And then something happened. I felt this great sense of calm - of certainty - and I had a waking up moment. I thought - this is their church. They know this place. They know every nook and cranny - from the stage to the altar to the cloister garden to the playground to the kitchen. They've crawled and run and walked over every surface. They feel comfortable here - this is a place they know. The faces are familiar - some grownups even know their names (though I wish there were more of them).

And someday - 20 or 30 years from now, they may be sitting in a newcomers' meeting at a rectory telling people about the church they went to as children. And that will be this place. This church. St. George's will be the church of their memory. It will be the place they remember and even if they don't know that now, it is true.

We create - in our covenant with God and with each other - this memory. It is the work we do here, the worship we pray and sing here, the ministries we embrace and engage in and are engaged by, the place from which we reach out and the place in which we may turn inward, the place we meet the comfort we find in each other with the strength we find in ourselves, the place we try to name the un-nameable.

It is the place of our memory - which we carry with us all through the week if only we will stop to hear, and look, and remember it.

There is ample opportunity today for us to continue - or to embark upon - this memory-creation.

When you walk downstairs look for Joy. Be bold. Take chances. Over-reach. Build a memory - for yourself, for our children, for each other.

Let us pray -

Lord, guide us to be faithful in a little so that we may be faithful in much, show us the way to wholeness and completeness, remind us of our many talents, relieve us of our fears of the finiteness of time, and guide us to continue to create and re-create this church in which we give you thanks and praise. Amen.

© 2007 Chris West

Homecoming Sunday

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

Today is our Homecoming Sunday. It's a time for us as a church community to renew our focus on our spiritual lives in this place. Most of our programs and classes are suspended for the summer and it's good to have a break. It's good to refresh and re-create ourselves. It's also good to come back.

St. George's is a spiritual home to many. Generations have come and gone, and we who have benefited from their work, have added our own to building and renovating this wonderful place so that our prayer, fellowship, study and outreach may be enriched, that we may make it appealing and available to others, and raise our children in a faith that they will need to face the challenges of their day.

It's fitting that we celebrate a baptism today. As we welcome Paolo, Julia, Margot and Elizabeth into Christ's church and fellowship, we'll renew our own baptismal vows and strengthen our own commitments to God and ourselves and the faith we proclaim.

Our scripture lessons are rich this morning. In Exodus, children of Israel have been wandering in the desert a long time and Moses, their leader has been missing for quite some time. They fear the worst and feeling abandoned, feeling cut off from God for whom Moses is the spokesperson, they panic. They revert to old ways and create their own gods they can speak to themselves, that are in their camp where they can be watched and carried when they travel. God observes all this, gets jealous and angry and threatens to kill them all and promises Moses that he'll start a new nation beginning at scratch with Moses' children. Moses intercedes again, saves the day and restores the peace and relationship between God and the people.

There's a touch of the story teller in this scripture reading which captures some wonderful myth and imagery while reaching for some deep truths. The most compelling truth in this scripture lesson is that we need to feel in relationship with God. We need that divine grace and love to embrace us in a way we can feel and even if we don't understand it fully, we can breathe it in like the air we depend on so much. Like the children of Israel, when we don't feel connected to God, we devise our own lesser gods in a desperate attempt to fill that gap. For the children of Israel, their substitute gods took the form of golden calves. Each person contributed something gold, like jewelry or decorative items. How important it was that they all contributed to this project, melted these items down and molded them into calves they then called their gods. They empowered these inanimate objects with vast spiritual significance because they had felt cut off from the God Moses introduced them to. For them it was golden calves, for us, when we feel cut off from God we devise gods of other types. Anything from addictions, to material fads, to pop gurus, you name it.

One of the problems confronted by Moses in this episode was how to teach the people of Israel to have their own knowledge of God, their own contact and their own relationship. If they felt disconnected because he wasn't there, then he needed to teach them how to get connected by themselves.

That remains one of the biggest problems of faith communities: how to instruct each person to connect with God themselves. I'm about to ask rhetorical questions, so don't feel put on the spot or like you have to raise your hands. Here goes: Do you take time to pray? Do you take time to meditate? Do you read scriptures or spiritual literature? Do you feel God's presence in your day to day life? If so, do you look for ways to deepen it? If not, what do you get close to, connect with or attach spiritual significance?

I've been in this "business" if you will a long time and have come to believe that God is big enough to be seen in many ways. But each of those ways requires diligence and intention to be fruitful. If no effort is made, we depend on those who we identify as having found a connection to God. We follow them and bask in the warmth of their fire. The problem is, that if they leave, we are again cold and spiritually alone.

Being here this day, in this church, during this baptism, we are proclaiming a way to God that works. There are many, but this is the one we've chosen. It is impossible to devote ourselves to all the possible ways. We must choose.

Our recent college graduates feel frustrated because they have so many interests and at this point in their young lives can see themselves going in many different directions successfully and have a hard time deciding. And decide they must. One of my nieces declared at a young age that she wanted to be either a teacher or a rock star. Both are admirable pursuits, but a choice needed to be made, you can't be both. In time she discovered this and took yet another option for her career.

Just so, in matters of faith. In a world of competing teachings and spiritual paths. Many offer valid approaches, and many can be explored but only one can be explored to any depth.

And that's what brings us here. We are a progressive Christian community. We maintain traditional liturgy formed in the earliest recorded ways. We embrace the Anglican spiritual approach of studying scripture, observing tradition and using reason. We pray with our hearts, work with hands and think with our brains. We follow the teaching of Jesus in loving God and neighbor. We take scripture seriously as a source of spiritual truth. We may debate, argue or do lunch, but in this place we take responsibility for our own relationship with God in the company of others as fellow seekers.

The worldwide Anglican Communion teeters toward a division created by forgetting its own history and tradition of tolerance and debate. Other gods are created as demonstrated by the loss of love between brothers and sisters, children of the God who is love.

Baptism is a bringing into fellowship people desiring a way to God. It signifies intention and commitment. It echoes the promise of Jesus that God is available to all people without discrimination and that life in God's love is eternal. The children for whom these vows are made today and the adults who renew their own vows re-establish this relationship.

There are many individuals that seek God. Many churches created to form a fellowship where that seeking may occur. This is our way, our understanding, our home. Stay as long as you are spiritually fed and join us in our prayer, work, fellowship and study. Welcome to all in the name of Jesus. Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ

On Discipleship

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

From the Gospel we just heard, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple..."

This little nugget is tucked into a series of teachings about discipleship. At first glance it's problematic, to say the least. The modern ear hears this and deep concerns arise about families being dysfunctional enough without our Savior adding fuel to the fire. When I came back from my vacation feeling rested, I opened the lectionary and saw this portion of text and wondered how I'm going to handle this one in the family service. I'll have you know that I did what any sane preacher would do -- I changed the lesson. Can you imagine the Back to School sermon beginning with telling the kids that unless they hate their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and themselves, they can't be Jesus' disciples! That didn't strike me as being the most productive approach to congregational development. So I left it out.

No such luck for you, though. We're going to dive into the deep end of the pool. What on earth can Jesus be talking about? What ever happened to the fifth commandment, "Thou shalt honor thy mother and father"? Well, to begin with, we need to remember that this text was not meant for children, nor was it meant for the modern ear. The construct of the biblical language from which this comes doesn't have shading of degree. You either love something or hate it. Something is either good or evil. The language is very black and white and that's the way it is.

That explanation may take a little of the sting out of this passage, but it's still disturbing. And I think that's the point. It's disturbing. It gets our attention and makes us listen very carefully and puts in bold relief what Jesus is calling for.

Being on a spiritual path is not easy. The level of discipleship that Jesus outlines for his followers is very strong indeed and calls for strong talk. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? It means a commitment to a prayerful relationship with God, a life devoted to truth, one centered on justice and respect. It calls for a life of spiritual health and following teachings that bring out of us better people than we could ever imagine. It puts us in a loving relationship with our neighbor and leads up to support them in their spiritual path. It is a life style and not a hobby. It is a commitment to Jesus as the Son of God, through whom God's love and grace is known.

For many of us as we grew up, relationship to God was put in the context of a burden with threats of punishment for failure. That approach is misguided and destructive. The reward of a spiritual life is one of peace and an abundance of love and spiritual health. Jesus is giving his disciples an invitation, not a threat. But we come back to the strong words of that invitation and it seems to be a contradiction.

One area of our lives which gets lost in modern society is passion. We hear the phrase "following one's bliss" for example as though to do so is irresponsible and leading to disaster. The alternative is to follow one's despair. I like to use subway riders as an illustration. Somewhere along the line it's become the norm to scowl on the train. To smile is a negative. Imagine yourself on a subway thinking of a pleasant event over the weekend and having a broad grin and perhaps a hearty laugh. How many of us would then be immediately embarrassed for that lapse and go back in the stern character? Taken a bit further, our passions in life usually get the shortest amount of time and attention, if at all. It's sad to see people whose spirits seem to have died within them, people for whom joy is a luxury they cannot afford to indulge or perhaps have forgotten how. Now imagine that joy and passion as being available and close at hand. What would you give for it? What would you sacrifice for it? Would you let anyone deter you from it or get in your way? What if the person that stood between you and your greatest joy was you mother or father? Your sister or brother? Or even yourself, as expressed in doubts or lack of confidence? If our greatest joy was right in front of us, ready for the taking we would stand at a crossroad of choice. We could let others, and even our own limitations, prevent us – or putting aside those cares reach out for the opportunity that promises us the life we are called to live. These are not choices that would be made out of hate, though to some it might seem that way. But they would be difficult none the less. This, I believe is the kind of situation Jesus describes to his disciples.

People don't always approve our choices for how we live our lives: the people we marry, the jobs we take, the values we espouse, the spiritual paths we follow. People we care for, if they are not supportive can range from mildly disapproving to abusively confrontational. And again we have the choice to follow our own passion, our own joy, our own spiritual path or not.

Jesus' path took him to the cross and beyond the cross to resurrection. His disciples went their own paths during their lives and risked much and I believe found much in the process. When we follow convention or loving advice at the expense of our heart's desire, we pay a terrible price in the spirit. But, when we follow our hearts and spirits we risk the misunderstanding and judgment of those around us who we really care about. I don't think it necessarily needs to be hate, but there comes a time when our choices place us in difficult situations where the fears and limitations of those around us and even ourselves, no matter what kind of love or fear they may be cloaked in, need to be set aside. We can still honor those around us without allowing their influences to affect us negatively.

One of my favorite poems is one I had to memorize in the sixth grade and it's stayed with me all these years. It's called Barter by Sara Teasdale. In the first two stanzas she describes many wonderful and lovely things in life. She concludes with this stanza: "Spend all that you have for loveliness. Buy it and never count the cost. For one white singing hour of peace count many a year of strife well lost, and for a breath of ecstasy give all that you have been or could be."

God calls each of us on a spiritual path, full of joy, purpose and much mystery. Jesus also described it as sometimes taking up your cross and following him. Strong words for strong choices, but he better than anyone knows that beyond the cross is the resurrection to new life. The psalmist said, "Lord, you have searched me out and known me, you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar..." God knows us so intimately and calls us into living as fully and wonderfully as we have been made. Amen.

© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ