Greg Powell

All the advice I’ve read about public speaking suggests starting with a joke to warm up the audience and get them on your side. So here’s a joke with a stewardship theme for you. It comes from one of those lists of church bulletin bloopers that circulate on the internet. Supposedly someone gave a talk like this at a church somewhere, and gave it this title: ‘I upped my pledge – up yours!’

Even if they had printed that title in the leaflet, I doubt it would have done much to mitigate the discomfort most of us feel about this sensitive topic. We keep our financial lives very private -- it goes against the grain to discuss it openly. And maybe it feels a little crass to suggest that we can put a dollar figure on our relationship with the church and with God.

Like so many of us, we came to St. George’s when our children were little. I had been working as a paid singer at St. James in New York, but left that job when the music director departed. Miriam and the kids had been visiting St. George’s while I was still singing in the city, so I started to tag along. I felt immediately as if I fit in. At one of those first, typically lavish coffee hours, someone asked me to lend a hand with something – stacking chairs or moving tables – and the next thing I knew, I was a part of this community. I served on a choir-master search committee and in a parish planning group. I’ve performed in various musicals and plays, and have been delighted to see our children participate in activities here as well. This is a sense of community, a church family.

But enough about me – let’s talk about stewardship. The word has always seemed like a euphemism to me – like ‘regime change’ or ’pre-owned vehicle.’ But as I prepared these remarks, my thinking changed. It’s not a simple concept psychologically -- to faithfully look after something which is owned by someone else.

I looked up steward figures in the Bible -- SIX in the book of Genesis alone! But my favorites are the ones in Esther, and if you know me, you’ll understand why – King Ahasuerus, or Xerxes as we’d call him today, hosts a great feast for his court and all his subjects in Persia. This is such a lavish affair, we’re told that every person is served his favorite wine instead of just the standard-issue castle rotgut! “By the king’s command, each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished.” That’s my kind of party – I’d be hoping that Xerxes had laid in a few cases of the 5th century BC version of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 1979!

Jesus tells parables about stewards too, many of whom mess up in various ways. There are dishonest ones, who embezzle; and there’s the cowardly one in the parable of the ten talents. He buries the master’s money for fear of losing it. The good stewards return MORE to their master than they’re originally given.

I used to think of my relationship with St. George’s as reciprocal, ‘Even Steven’ – the church provides us with certain spiritual services, and in return, we support it with our dollars.

With that understanding, we’ve pledged for a number of years, quite modestly to be honest, since we’ve always felt pressured to save for other goals (our own future, college educations). Happily, we’re finally in a position to be able to ‘up our pledge.’

But I don’t see this as a reciprocal arrangement any more. Reading about stewards who look after their master’s property made me realize, this can’t be a two-way street because none of this is really OURS.

Do you know the ad campaign for those absurdly expensive Patek-Philippe watches? – ‘you never really own a Patek-Philippe, you just look after it for the next generation’? Perhaps this is similar – all these treasures which make our lives so rich and meaningful, do we in any sense OWN them?

No, we’re simply blessed to enjoy them during our lifetimes, and given the responsibility of making sure that they survive and thrive.

Like the good stewards in the Bible stories, we’re asked to make good use of what is entrusted to us – our own personal possessions, and everything that we hold jointly with one another – these fine old buildings, this denomination, this community, these friends and families, and all the good that our parish, and our faith, does in so many lives.

The successful stewards in the Bible invest the master’s treasure, and return more than they’re originally given. We can do the same. With our gifts, we can nurture the children who attend our church school and our choirs, by providing them with materials and robes and music. We can maintain and improve these glorious buildings for generations to come. With our gifts, the church can help those in need in Essex County, and alleviate suffering around the world.

I like that offertory prayer -- ‘of thine own have we given thee’ (King David, I believe). How neatly it captures this joyful giving BACK. That comes from realizing that we’re not really GIVING at all -- but conscientiously looking after and cherishing all the treasures so generously shared with us.