October 8, 2006
(Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 22)

Loving God Back

By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

Genesis 2:18-24  •  Psalm 8 or 128  •  Hebrews 2:(1-8)9-18  •  Mark 10:2-9
(From The Lectionary Page)

In the backyard, there are six people gathered near an outside wall of the garage, standing around a small hole. Jimmy, Annie, Jason and Amy, along with Mom and Dad are there. They have gathered for a solemn occasion. Goldie, the beloved gold fish has been gathered to his ancestors, and now his family is laying the remains to rest.

The service was carefully planned the night before at the wake around the kitchen table. Memories of Goldie were shared, and there was laughter and some tears and of course, quite a few questions about what it meant to be dead.

A key point in the planning of the service was deciding on the proper form of burial. Dad asked if the children wished for the remains to be placed in the ground or into a more aquatic environment followed by a whooshing sound? The vote was 5-1 for earthen burial, with the ornery Dad being out voted. Jason brought the family Book of Common Prayer to the table, and blowing the dust off the cover they opened to the Burial of the Dead. It was determined that Goldie preferred the language of Rite One, so that service was chosen.

Now the assembly was at the grave, and offered prayers and words of farewell as the metal coffin was placed in the ground. There was the scent of peppermint incense in the air, as Goldie’s remains had been placed in an empty Altoids Breath Mint container. It fell to young Amy to offer the final words of committal, and though Jimmy held open the prayer book for her, she gently pushed it away, and offered her own version of a final benediction:

“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and into the Hole-he-goes. Amen.”

And all said “Amen” and adjourned to the family home for lemonade and Pepperidge Farm cheddar gold fish crackers.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. What is meant when that ascription is offered before a prayer, a homily, or walking Stations of the Cross, for surely it is more than a theological formula?

I am guessing that if we compared 20 written answers to this question we would find a common belief that such a statement sanctifies what follows. Such as when we gather for the Eucharist, and begin: “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” which has the effect of consecrating our gathering. Sanctifying. Consecrating. Helping us transition from the secular to the sacred, from the profane to the holy. It is a way of both calling on God and on ourselves to be attentive to our time with each other and God.

I would like to add to that definition, that whatever follows In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and Holy Spirit, is also an expression of Love. That invocation is a sure and certain way that we state that whatever follows is one way we confess our love of God.

We invoke the Trinitarian formula at sacred times: baptizing in that Name, blessing a marriage in the Name, ordaining to Holy Orders, blessing people and sacred things.

Therefore, imagine what it would mean to stop, as the offering plate comes before us today, and first say: “In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” before placing your offering in the plate. In fact, I suggest that that is precisely what each of us should do before filling out a pledge card. For how we give of our wealth – not what we give, but how we give of our wealth to the mission of the Gospel as expressed through the work of the Cathedral is indeed both a sacred act, and first and foremost an expression of Love to God. A financial pledge is not our fair share of the budget – it is a holy act, a powerful expression of our faith and love, and rightly so, should be decided upon and made in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Bishop John MacNaughton recalls a Peanuts cartoon that begins with Lucy and Linus looking out the window in a heavy rain storm. Lucy says, “Boy, look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?”

To which Linus replies, “It will never do that. In the ninth chapter of Genesis God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.”

Lucy is reassured and smiles, saying, “You’ve taken a great load off my mind.”

Linus replies, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

The basic questions of life are ultimately satisfied only by theological answers. And in our day and age, among the most basic questions of life are questions about money and our use of it. (More Blessed to Give, p.6)

Too much talk in the Church today is devoted to matters of sexuality and church order. Consequently, we are not paying enough attention to matters at the center of our faith, including how does our time and money best serve God and God’s people? Today I invite us to begin, if we have not already begun, a journey into the theology of money.

Father Loren Mead, is THE grand-old-man of parish development in the Episcopal Church, and while Loren has never been shy about sacred cows, he is even less so in his golden years. He attacks the notion that the term “stewardship” is simply a church-word for “fundraising,” merely “pay-back theology.” He writes:

“I yearn for a more complex and straight-talk theology of giving and of money that takes seriously the ambiguous character of my life, of my use of everything I have, and the straight-out sick way that I often relate to money and possessions as well as my whole life. [The garden variety approach to] stewardship leaves out my sinfulness, my need for repentance, and the reality of the grace of God. I don’t mind simplistic theology, I just wish we had a theology of money and giving that had more substance.” [More Than Money, p.2]

Our theme this year I believe begins a journey toward a theology that acknowledges the complexity of money and is more plainly spoken. Loving God Back. John Mulder, a colleague of Loren Mead’s, puts it this way: "If giving money to the church could be reinterpreted as an expression of grace and forgiveness, it would mitigate the legalism and moralism that characterizes and curses the discussion of money in the life of the church.” [Ibid.]

The journey I propose we engage in here at the cathedral would need to move us from hearing the word “stewardship” as being equal with the phrase, “give money” toward an identification of stewardship with loving God back, stewardship meaning to express our appreciation of grace and forgiveness in a generous way.

The culture is against such a foolish act. Give money away? No strings attached? Nothing in compensation? Yet our very God-created nature is to give.

All of Kansas City today mourns the death of Buck O’Neil. Among the tributes pouring in is one that we can all agree on: Buck was a giver; it was his first and second nature to give. He had plenty of reasons to be bitter. But he refused to quit giving. Buck lived one of life’s secrets. What often prevents others from giving so joyfully and freely is fear. Yet God created us to be givers.

The scriptural witness has the people of God committed to giving one tenth, 10% of all to God. According to the Gospels, Jesus focuses on giving a generous proportion, and suggests giving half or everything in certain situations.

In our country people with less wealth have traditionally given more of their incomes, proportionately, to charity. In the year 2000, for example, the U.S. Census reported that households with incomes between $20,000 and $29,000 contributed 3.9% of
their income (as measured in cash and in-kind contributions) to charity, as compared to an average of 2.7% for households with an income of more than $100,000. [The Giving Forum http://www.givingforum.org/newventures/givinglandscape.html]

The Giving Research website gives this historical perspective: In 1916, Protestants were giving 2.9% of their incomes to their churches. In 1933, the depth of the Great Depression, it was 3.2%. In 1955, just after affluence began spreading through our culture, it was still 3.2%. By 2003, when Americans were over 541% richer, after taxes and inflation, than in the Great Depression, Protestants were giving 2.6% of their incomes to their churches. Giving Research (http://www.emptytomb.org/research.html#Tab2)

Our culture is moving the wrong direction and it is up to people of faith to correct that slide.

The use of money is complex, and easy answers, formulas, and scolding and guilt simply smack of fundraising techniques, not the theology of stewardship. What we need is more theology, literally more God-talk, to free us and enable us to do what comes naturally – give. If you have every said to yourself, to your family, and in a meeting at work or here at the cathedral “that money is both a blessing and curse” then you know the complexity of dealing with money in a faithful way, as well as the need for more theology about money and loving God back.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. By this invocation we sanctify and hallow. Throughout the decades people of this cathedral have sanctified their giving, and have left for us a healthy and impressive mission to build upon. This cathedral is uniquely situated in the city, and is called to continue to be a beacon of hope, responsive to our changing times and challenges. This is a place where diversity is celebrated, not merely tolerated; where beauty cleanses us of despair and inspires us to seek the highest and noblest calling of being servants who are peacemakers, reconcilers, and prophets. We love God back when we fulfill our baptismal covenant, striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the freedom and dignity of every human being. To accept this call means to invite risk, challenges to unity, and the constant need to seek God’s forgiveness, grace and Spirit.

It is a call those before us have accepted, as are we now, and by grace, those who come after us shall accept as well. Loving God Back is more than a theme – it is a proclamation of the Gospel that frees us to be the people were we created and baptized to be. Let us arise with one voice and love God back with our money, our time, our energy and creativity – with our heart. We are the Cathedral at the Heart of the City. We are the Episcopal Church. We will Love God Back.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and let God’s people say Amen.