Stewardship Sermon Starters

June
July
August

Stewardship in the Lectionary Readings: Year C

Some Sundays, the stewardship message leaps from the pages. In many lectionary passages, however, the stewardship themes may not be readily apparent

The following lectionary-based sermon starters offer clues to how stewardship can be an integral part of all our preaching and to how it can be incorporated into group worship or Bible study.

The Sermon Starter for July 4 was written by Gayle Simonson (Southminster-Steinhauer United Church, Edmonton). Sermon Starters for the remainder of July and August were written by Barbara Fullerton (United Church Program Minister for Stewardship Development).

Use these lectionary-based sermon starters with Offering Invitations and Dedications and Stewardship Seconds for continuity in your worship service.

June

June 6: Second after Pentecost

1 Kings 17:8–16, (17–24)*
or 1 Kings 17:17–24*
Psalm 146*
or Psalm 30*
Galatians 1:11–24*
Luke 7:11–17*

The apostle Paul proclaimed that he received the good news through a revelation of Jesus Christ, and that he didn’t need to confer with anyone else before he began proclaiming this good news. How do we feel about prophetic voices among us today? Is there a place for prophets in the church today? How do we discern that what we, and others, speak is truly the word of the Lord?

June 13: Third after Pentecost

Jesus tells the woman who anointed his feet with ointment, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” This gift of salvation and the peace that can bring to us is amazing, awe inspiring and it can be overwhelming. Do we allow ourselves to accept gifts that we wonder if we deserve? We can struggle with giving, but we can also struggle with receiving. Living in right relationship with God requires us to be able to both give and receive. What impact does our ability to give generously and abundantly have on our being able to receive? Are we able to accept what is offered to us? How does it make us feel when we are the ones who are both receiving and giving?

June 20: Fourth after Pentecost

1 Kings 19:1–4, (5–7), 8–15a*
or Isaiah 65:1–9*
Psalm 42 and 43*
or Psalm 22:19–28*
Galatians 3:23–29*
Luke 8:26–39*

We all know what fear feels like. And we need to be reassured that we don’t need to be afraid. Listen for God’s voice, heard in the angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary and from our former Moderator, the Very Rev. David Giuliano, “Be not afraid.” Fear can relate to any aspect of our lives, including our health, relationships, work-security, and our finances. Fear affects our relationships with our families, friends, neighbours, and with God. How do we respond faithfully in fearful times?

June 27: Fifth after Pentecost

What does it mean to have a place to lay your head? Is where we live just a building, or is it a home? Buildings can represent security, gathering places, offerings of hospitality. How is our faith affected by where we worship? How is our faith affected by where and how we live?

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July

July 4: Sixth after Pentecost

Galatians talks of the power of family—the power of community. Both it and the Luke passage speak of hospitality. The Galatians are urged to work together as a community of faith. In Luke, the disciples are to find those who show hospitality and welcome them and to walk away from those who do not. In Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass says, “True Christian hospitality is not a recruitment strategy designed to manipulate strangers into church membership…It stands at the heart of a Christian way of life, a living icon of wholeness in God.”

How do we demonstrate that we are a family of faith?
How do we welcome those who arrive at the doors of our congregations?
Would travellers without purses be welcome at church? At home?
Do we focus on appearance or accept others whatever their circumstances?
Do we recognize the gifts of those we do not know and accept the messages that they might teach us?
Is the diversity of the population represented in our family of faith?
Do our actions show our “radical gratitude” for the gifts with which we have been blessed?

July 11: Seventh after Pentecost

What the good Samaritan did was enough. He didn’t take the man home with him or try to fix every need in the man’s life. He did what he could, and it was enough. Sometimes we get bogged down in thinking we have to fix everything. We become immobilized about doing anything.

A man is walking on the beach throwing starfish that have been stranded at high tide back into the water. A woman comes along and asks what he is doing. The man responds by saying he is saving the starfish. The woman tells him he can’t possibly make a difference because there are too many starfish and one person can’t do anything about it. The man responds by picking up another starfish, throwing it into the water, and saying, “I made a difference to that one.”

What is the plumb line by which we measure our lives and what we are able to do? How do we set the standards for what we do and how much we do? If we asked ourselves, “Who is our neighbour?” what would our answer be? We all know the correct answer is “everyone,” and we can give that answer when we’re in church. How do we live it out in the world every day?

Our stewardship reflects our answers. When we put our words into actions, we show who we understand to be our neighbours and how we believe we are called to respond to them.

July 18: Eighth after Pentecost

What are our obsessions? Martha is caught up in the preparations for the meal. When we invite people to our homes, how do we show that we care about them? Perhaps it is when we order in pizza and spend more time with our guests. Sometimes we get so caught up in the preparations that we can no longer enjoy the people and the event.

Our obsession with physical nourishment and with our possessions and the appearance we create is not enough. How do we nourish our spirits? How do we sit at the feet of Jesus to be spiritually fed? How do we share our thoughts, ideas, and faith with one another to discern God’s message for us and to allow our spirits to grow? In an article called “Honouring Martha,” Margaret Guenther writes that the spirit of Martha is withering away because the spirit of Mary is lost.

Amos talks of God sending a famine on the land. It is the famine of not hearing God’s Word. The shortage of funds and resources in some of our congregations often reflects a crisis of faith. Because our relationship with money is a spiritual matter, unexamined personal stewardship contributes to the famine in our churches and our lives. People growing in discipleship tend to be generous with their lives and with their money. In my doctoral research project, I discovered that congregations with high per capita giving were more likely than other United Churches to offer opportunities for spiritual nurture, such as Bible study and small group ministries that include stewardship discussions. Might there be a connection?

July 25: Ninth after Pentecost

Luke 11:1–13

Give us this day our daily bread. What would it be like to have to trust every day that our daily bread will be provided?

Many of the world’s people get up each day wondering whether they will have enough food for the day—enough for survival. How do we in the North American context ever reach the point of being able to ask how much is enough? We are constantly encouraged to believe that we need more and more—for us and “our” family.

People can be overwhelmingly generous to their own children and other family members—sometimes to the extent that they are spoiled rotten. A colleague shared recently about a couple who were writing their will. They would leave nearly half a million dollars some day, a humble amount in Western culture. Though they had no children, their parents were gone, and their siblings and nieces and nephews had no financial concerns, they chose to leave it all to them. $50,000 each to ten people who already have a lot is mere spending money. But to a relief agency or community ministry serving folks on the margins, $500,000 would have been a great gift. Will we be the persistent neighbour who keeps asking on behalf of those in the world whose needs are great? And what about our own life decisions?

In his book The Ethiopian Tattoo Shop (Forest of Peace Publishing, 1983), Edward Hays tells the story of a boy who is given a coffee can that is supposedly the secret to happiness. All he has to do is fill it up to have incredible happiness. He spends his life filling the can with many things—symbols of his achievements, power, wealth, and respect. He never seems to be able to fill it up, even though he lives a life of incredible achievement and becomes the richest man in the world.

Only after the man dies and the tin rolls away and is picked up by a little girl does the situation become clear. There is no bottom to the tin; it can never be filled. The tin is like the man’s life—no matter how much prestige, money, and so on he had, it would never be enough. However, to the little girl, the can’s missing bottom opens up a world of riches around her that includes her, as she gazes out at the world through the hole in the bottom of the tin.

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August

August 1: Tenth after Pentecost

Today’s gospel and epistle texts invite us to consider what we value in this life. Colossians 3:5 instructs us to put away evil desires and greed, identified as idolatrous, in order to embrace Christ as all in all.

Put this beside Jesus’ caution against greed in verse 15 of the gospel, where Luke uses the Greek word pleonexia in reference to wealth as an object of devotion that competes with one’s worship of God. Throughout his gospel account, Luke’s treatment of Jesus’ teaching on poverty insists on the necessity of renouncing goods in order to be trustfully receptive to God’s in-breaking kingdom and paradoxically demands that possessions be used in a way that participates in the ushering in of the kingdom.

This passage weaves together nuances of wise use and the need for abandonment. The rich man seems to be a wise manager in providing for protection of the crops, but there is no hint of his intention to use this wealth as a resource for the human needs of others. By this omission, the story points to the implications of wealth as a barrier to discipleship and to community.

More pointedly, the rich man’s trust is in the very stuff of his attachment rather than in God. His wealth, while an obstacle to discipleship—which is not even his aim—is even more an occasion for idolatry. God is out of the competition with the rich man’s self-reliance and wealth as the sources of his sufficiency. The surprise sudden-death ending also contributes to the scriptural theme that the use of wealth has eschatological implications.

In what or whom do we put our trust? In our consumer-oriented society, where do we find meaning and satisfaction? Magazine advertisements and television commercials try to convince us about what will bring us abundant life, pressuring us to want more, buy more, and accumulate more.

Lynn Miller, a Mennonite stewardship theologian, often suggests that we not think in terms of how much we “should” give away, but to consider what we really need to keep for ourselves out of our resources. Sometimes people ask about tithing, “Should it be on gross income or net income? Should all charitable giving be included or just church offerings?” I think God could care less about those particulars. What if we were more intentional about what we do, not with the 10 percent but with the other 90 percent?

In his famous Sermon 50, “The Use of Money,” John Wesley offered suggestions for dealing with questions about expenditures. He recommended asking, “In expending this, am I acting according to my character...as a steward of my Lord’s goods? Am I doing this in obedience to [God’s] Word? In what Scripture does [God] require me so to do? Can I offer up this action, this expense, as a sacrifice to God?”

Both Hosea and the psalmist call us to ponder and rely on God’s steadfast love (hesed), which endures forever. Reflect on how God’s hesed challenges us to consider our own relationship with God and others.

August 8: Eleventh after Pentecost

The Isaiah passage links John Wesley’s three principles of doing no harm, doing good, and attending upon the ordinances of God. (Verses 16b and 17 in Isaiah 1 say, “remove the evil of your doings...cease to do evil, learn to do good....” Verse 19 refers to obedience.)

Jesus echoes the good things that come from attending to God’s ways. In the verse preceding the Luke passage, he says that when we strive for God’s kingdom, “these things will be given to you as well.”

But how to enter the kingdom God gives is challenging, depending on what our hearts most want. Stewardship themes often name connections with the heart. Jesus said that where our hearts are, there is our treasure.

We often interpret this passage backward—that people will give to where their hearts are invested. If I care about my church, I will give to it. Though that may be true, that is not what this text says. It says, where your money is, that is where you will be focused. Look at where your money is—in your house payments or your stock investments; in your children’s music lessons/hockey?—and that is what you are likely most worried/concerned about.

What might we learn about where our hearts are by looking at our calendars? What organizations or activities do we value most, indicated by the time and money we spend on them? What might we learn about our hearts’ deepest priorities by looking at the receipts in our wallets or purses or by examining our cheque books or bank and credit card statements? What is important to us as reflected in where and how we both earn and spend our money?

Most of us have choices, not only in how we spend our disposable income after basic necessities, but even in making decisions about those essential expenses. What kind of car do we really need? Could we use a bicycle or transit instead? What foods are more nutritious and less expensive?

What standards do we use to determine what we will give away and to whom? Several of John Wesley’s sermons offer suggestions for a Christian’s priorities in the use of money. In both Sermon 50 (“The Use of Money,” preached in 1748) and Sermon 87 (“The Danger of Riches,” preached in 1779), Wesley describes concentric circles of responsibility for those desiring to be faithful and wise stewards. Provide for yourself, your dependants, the household of faith, and—“if there be an overplus still”—do good to all people. Wesley suggests that we render to God what is God’s when we provide for our own needs and the needs of our household. By what norm do we assess actual needs versus wants? How do we determine what we will keep and what we will give?

The Isaiah passage and the epistle both offer clues to how we are called to live in the proleptic (now and not yet) kingdom God gives (Luke 12:32). Isaiah’s imperative of justice-seeking by espousing the well-being of the marginalized is carried out in the faith-filled and visionary hope so eloquently articulated by the writer to the Hebrews. How are we to know what that kingdom looks like? Look at what Jesus did.

August 15: Twelfth after Pentecost

Our modern context resonates with the apocalyptic images in the Isaiah passage and the gospel. Civil war, terrorism, and natural disasters rage around the world; peacekeeping forces are foiled; headlines are full of murder, rape, and torture; we or our loved ones battle mental or physical illness or job loss.

It may seem that the problems and the threats are too great for us to do anything about. Take heart in the continuing faith and hope themes in Hebrews. It is an expression of faith in the promises of God and hope that somehow these promises will be kept. There are times in society and in our own lives that hope may be all that sustains us. Yet as we continue to work in our churches and communities, offering time, talents, and financial resources for use in God’s world, we trust that it really matters. As God’s people, our righteousness is measured by how we treat those who are on the margins of the community. As we follow John Wesley’s three principles of doing no harm, doing good, and attending upon the ordinances of God, we trust that God’s grace links our gifts with those of others in faithful communities with a hope-filled vision of God’s kingdom values. What does that look like in your community? What could it look like?

August 22: Thirteenth after Pentecost

Late in life, my father shared with me that he identified with Jeremiah’s call because his mother had sensed his consecration to ministry before he was born. She told him this only after he sensed God’s call himself, as verification of it. Conceived in a marriage of convenience, in which his mother had not been my grandfather’s first choice to raise his orphaned children, this precocious child had a sense from his earliest years that God provided the words he used. As a gifted and accomplished musician, he was well on his way to a musical career when redirected into a path toward ordained ministry. The uncomfortable part for this non-confrontational person was that, like Jeremiah, Dad found himself commissioned to preach to people who often would not hear. While he knew that what they did with it was not his responsibility, his vocation and office were to be prophetic.

Do we hear in this passage our own call? Being prophetic is not something for which we volunteer. It is compelled by God’s insistence in the message we preach. What does your church need to hear, where you are?

For this message, and for God’s promise of an unshakable kingdom, “[t]herefore, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe,” (Heb. 12:28). Thanksgiving is fundamental to our life as Christian stewards. What is “acceptable worship” and how does it relate to worshipful work? How is equipping the people of God for living in gratitude and thanksgiving part of our prophetic call?

August 29: Fourteenth after Pentecost

It doesn’t take much imagination to hear God’s accusation, “You defiled my land” (Jer. 2:7), as our indictment, too. Trees have been clear-cut, chemicals have been used with great abandon, and rich farmland has been covered over with pavement. Our waters (cisterns) are polluted. Can we frame a discussion about stewardship in terms of choosing God’s ways as Christian lifestyle? Rather than prophetic pulpit pounding, how might the message time this week be a participative engagement for folks to engage with each other to relate what we do seven days a week with good stewardship?

Find ways to connect with our Moderator, Mardi Tindal’s focus on the care of creation.

As Christians, we share with Jeremiah and with Jesus a theology of creation in which God will redeem this material world. It is a theology that both accounts for the source of the goodness of creation and gives a moral and theological weight to our involvement in it. We have a stake in the outcome; what we do matters.

The epistle abounds with stewardship themes: for example, show hospitality, keep your lives free from the love of money, be content with what you have, and share what you have.

In his Sermon 50, on “The Use of Money,” John Wesley muses about the empty rant that blames the world’s corruption on money. He asks whether “gold or silver is to blame?” Then answers himself that “the love of money...is the root of all evil; but not the thing itself.” He goes on, “The fault does not lie in the money, but in them that use it.” Wesley even suggests that “it is an excellent gift of God,” as money can help fulfill Matthew 25 to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and provide drink for the thirsty. The main points of the sermon are his famous exhortation to “gain all you can,” and “save all you can,” so you can “give all you can,” with the climactic third point echoing verse 16 in this text.

Money itself is not inherently evil. What is significant is how we use it and whether or not it comes between us and God or between us and other relationships. Lack of money can also be destructive if we become so consumed by concern about it, that we cannot focus on loving neighbour, God, and self.

The final two verses in the gospel connect with Jesus’ explanation of the parable he tells in the beginning of Luke 14. He suggests we have responsibilities to those who are on the margins of the community due to poverty and conditions of physical differences. This is part of a biblical imperative of universal duty to care for those in need, part of a theme that wealth is a resource for meeting human needs. Jesus ends with the admonition not to give in the expectation of being repaid. What implications might this have for our discipleship, our stewardship, and how we engage in mission in God’s world?

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