2 Corinthians 8:1-15
Liturgy of Abundance
The Uprising of Stewardship
James Sledge May
10, 2015
From
time to time I’ve turned on my local PBS station hoping to watch Frontline or
Nova only to discover some well-worn show featuring over the hill folk
musicians. Instantly I realize it’s a PBS fundraising campaign. If I give $50 I
will receive a lovely tote bag. And if I give more, I will get an autographed
CD featuring some of the music.
I’ve
never really understood the strategy of putting on tired reruns rather than the
programming I’d like to watch to entice me to give. I can appreciate the need
for financial support. I just find the process a little distasteful.
I
suspect a lot of people have similar feelings regarding church stewardship
campaigns. They often feel a little contrived. If you’ve been around church
long enough you know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the campaigns with
cutesy names such as The Pony Express. Everyone realizes that the church can’t
operate if people don’t give, but the process sometimes leaves something to be
desired.
It
doesn’t help that stewardship is often just a churchy word for fund raising. I wonder
if we don’t need to separate the two, to fundraise unapologetically and then,
quite separately, to help people grow into the joyful, life-giving practice of
stewardship, generosity born of new life
in Christ.
Getting
better at church fundraising is a pretty straight forward project. I’m not
saying it’s easy but it is mostly a matter of learning best practices. Stewardship
is another issue altogether because some of the basic tenets of Christian
stewardship are fundamentally at odds with the cultural and economic world we
live in.
Consider
the basic outlines and assumptions of American capitalism and its deeply
embedded notions of competition, supply, and demand. Build a better mousetrap,
or a better smartphone, and the world will beat a path to your door, and you
will make lots of money. Meanwhile, those who compete less well have to sell
their phones at deep discounts or perhaps go out of business. The system
assumes there is not enough for all, that only the fittest survive. There are
winners and losers. There are haves and have nots. And fear is the great
motivator.
Old
Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann says that our culture is rooted in a
particular narrative, one he calls the “myth of scarcity.” And this myth
fundamentally misconstrues the nature of God and God’s gracious provision.
Over
and against this scarcity myth is God’s “liturgy of abundance.” A good God lovingly
creates and sustains. God works to form Israel into a covenant community of
blessing and life. Most profoundly, in the kingdom, that new day Jesus
proclaims, the poor are lifted up as all are invited into abundant life. We in
the church know and even cherish this liturgy of abundance, but the scarcity myth
is pervasive. Writes Brueggemann:
But
if you are like me, while you read the Bible you keep looking over at the
screen to see how the market is doing. If you are like me, you read the Bible
on a good day, but you watch Nike ads every day. And the Nike story says that
our beginnings are in our achievements, and that we must create ourselves. My
wife and I have some young friends who have a four-year-old son. Recently the
mother told us that she was about to make a crucial decision. She had to get
her son into the right kindergarten because if she didn't, then he wouldn't get
into the right prep school. And that would mean not being able to get into
Davidson College. And if he didn't go to school there he wouldn't be connected
to the bankers in Charlotte and be able to get the kind of job where he would
make a lot of money. Our friends' story is a kind of a parable of our notion
that we must position ourselves because we must achieve, and build our own
lives.
According
to the Nike story, whoever has the most shoes when he dies wins. The Nike story
says there are no gifts to be given because there's no giver. We end up only
with whatever we manage to get for ourselves. This story ends in despair. It
gives us a present tense of anxiety, fear, greed and brutality. It produces
child and wife abuse, indifference to the poor, the buildup of armaments,
divisions between people, and environmental racism. It tells us not to care
about anyone but ourselves -- and it is the prevailing creed of American
society.[1]
But
many do question this creed. How, in the world’s richest nation, can so many of
us always be worried about having enough and always wanting more? How, in the
world’s richest nation, can there be such horrible disparities between rich and
poor, leaving some in utter hopelessness and despair? How, in the world’s
richest nation, can we live such anxious, stressed out, harried lives, always
worried about making it or being good enough?
_____________________________________________________________________________
According
to the biblical story, joining the Jesus movement had profound economic and
social implications for those first Christians. It created a new sort of
community, one without want, where those with much used it to ensure others had
enough. It was never perfect. Like us, they were constantly tempted by the
false myths of their own day. But it was real and powerful. And Paul clearly
has it in mind as he writes to the church in Corinth.
Paul’s
not above a bit of old fashioned fundraising, even arm twisting. “Look at those
Macedonians, nowhere near as rich as you, yet they give generously.” But more
importantly, Paul sees generosity as test of love. Have the Corinthians really
discovered the depths of God’s love in Christ and so embraced God’s alternative
economy of grace and abundance, or are they still captive to false narratives of
scarcity and fear?
As
Paul writes, he reminds the Corinthians of the manna story from Exodus, a story
of God’s abundant provision, a story reflected in Jesus’ teaching that we pray
for daily bread. In this strange example of God’s alternative economy, the
Israelites go out to gather manna, some gathering a lot and some gathering only
a little. But in the end, those who gathered much had nothing left over, and
those who gathered little were not lacking. “The one who had much did not have
too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.”
In
his book, We Make the Road by Walking,
Brian McLaren doesn’t use language of scarcity and abundance, but I hear the
fearful, death dealing ways of scarcity versus the generous, neighborly ways of
abundance as he imagines himself a first century Christian.
“What’s
yours is mine,” some people say, “and I want to steal it!” “What’s mine is
mine,” some people say. “And I want to keep it!” “What’s mine is God’s,” we are
learning to say, “and I want to use it for the common good.” We call that
attitude stewardship.
Stewardship
applies to all areas of our lives— how we use time, potential, possessions,
privilege, and power. Whatever we do, we try to give it our very best, because
we work for Christ and not just for money. We want no part of dishonest or
harmful employment, so if necessary we change jobs, or we work for reform so we
can stay in our current jobs with a clear conscience. As we are being
transformed personally, we seek to transform our economic systems from corrupt
to ethical, from destructive to regenerative, from cruel and dehumanizing to
kind and humane. We believe this pleases God.
When
it comes to how we spend our earnings, stewardship means living below our
means. We do so by dividing our income into three parts. First, we determine a
percentage that we will use to provide for our needs and the needs of our
families. That’s just basic decency. Second, we determine a percentage to save,
since wisdom requires foresight. Even ants know to save some of their summer’s
work to get them through the winter. Third, we set aside the largest portion we
can for God’s work of compassion, justice, restoration, and peace.[2]
What a strange concept, living
below our means. It makes almost no sense in the prevailing consumer culture of
our day. But for those who’ve experienced God’s liturgy of abundance…
We Make the Road by Walking. The practice begun in Advent continues through
summer of 2015. Scripture and sermons will connect to chapters in Brian
McLaren’s book. This week’s chapter is 38, “The Uprising of Stewardship.”
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