Do Not Worry, God is Here!

I don't think it is any secret that Bethlehem is not in the best position financially.  Like almost every other congregation, Bethlehem has had some active members who have been laid off in recent years which has effected giving.  Compound this with the fact that Bethlehem is a small congregation, finances are an issue.  So when I was preparing for this sermon, with the gospel text of Matthew 6: 24-34, when Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about what they will eat, what they will drink and what they will wear, I naturally progressed to Jesus telling a modern audience not to worry about finances.  


This is a sermon that I think many of us need to hear on occasion, regardless of our financial status.  And it seems like people enjoyed it today.  So bring in your pictures and stories or email them to me so we can see God's love in this world.


Enjoy!

Do not worry!  Do not worry!  How are we not suppose to worry?  In fact I know very few people who have not worried at some point over the last 3 years about their jobs and their home.  In the midst of a recession with the highest unemployment rates during the majority of our lifetimes, we have worried that our job will be next.  As companies instituted wage freezes, furloughs and even pay cuts, we have worried if we would have enough to pay the bills in the short term, or we have worried that the next step our employer will take would be to make job cuts.  We have even seen some of our fellow congregation members directly effected by lay offs.  And Jesus is telling us not to worry.

As we have seen for sale signs go up in front of homes in our neighborhood and stay up for months later and as we have heard news on the television, radio and internet about home foreclosures, we have worried about our own property values.  And when you compound that with the fears over our jobs possibly getting cut, well then our home might be the next to be foreclosed.  And Jesus is telling us not to worry.

And as we have received our IRA and pension statements and seen the amount decrease drastically as the DOW and NASDAQ indexes dropped remarkable over a short period of time just a few years ago, we have worried about our retirement.  Will we be able to retire when we originally planned or are we going to have to work an additional 2…5…10 years in order to recoup enough money in order to survive retirement?  It is no wonder that people are now more afraid that they will outlive their money than they are in dying.  And yet Jesus is telling us not to worry.

Just hearing that we aren’t suppose to worry makes one want to worry even more. 

So what are some of the things you worry about?

We live in a world of scarcity.  There is only so much money, so much time, so much stuff that we can acquire.  And when we live a lifestyle of worry, we become obsessed with the idea of if we have enough and who has more than us.  Do we have enough money for retirement?  Are we making enough money to live a good life?  Do we have enough time to get everything done?

When we live with a mindset of scarcity not only are we worried about having enough, we are also worried about having the best.  And companies are helping us buy into this idea.  Best Buy recently launched a buy back program where they will buy back your electronics when you want to upgrade to the latest and greatest.  This isn’t for if your laptop, tv or phone dies and you need to replace it but when you want to upgrade to the newest technology, because as most people can tell you, with technology, anything over 6 months old is ancient, even if it still works properly.  This is the same idea behind leasing a car, because it is easier to upgrade. 

Yet here is Jesus telling us not to worry, to not worry about what we will wear, what we will eat, and what we will drink.   And I’m sure if he was talking to our modern society, Jesus would include that we should not worry about where we will live, where we will work, what technology we will have and how much time we will have. 

Jesus is telling us not to worry because God does provide.  Most people, if prodded, has a story about when they stopped worrying, how God then provided.  For me, one of those stories is here, this place.  After two failed attempts at being assigned to a synod so that I could start interviewing at churches, I eventually stopped worrying about it.  I realized that I had an okay job, Bob was enjoying grad school and would just wait until the next assignment date.  I wasn’t going to give up but there was nothing I could do about at the moment.  It was shortly after I came to that conclusion, that someone from the synod office called me about starting an interview process here.

See I want to make a disclaimer about what Jesus said.  Our gospel starts by saying that you can’t serve both God and money, and Jesus says not to worry.  But Jesus does not say not to plan.  And aren’t those completely different things?  And the gospel ends by Jesus telling us not to worry about tomorrow for today’s trouble is enough for today.  And yet part of today’s work is to prepare for tomorrow, everyone knows that if you do not work today, you will not eat tomorrow.

There is nothing we can do if our employer decides to lay off our entire department.  But we can be a good employee so that if we do get laid off, we have a good relationship with our past employer in order to have a good reference.  It is pointless to worry about how we did on that test, but if we studied so that we did our best, we at least know we were prepared as well as we could have been.  We may worry about paying for our retirement, but we can set aside money and invest wisely now so that we do have money later and along with that realize that we are doing what we can now, and worrying about it and checking our IRA daily is not going to do much to help us. 

As a congregation, we can worry about what money is left in the bank from the sale of the old parsonage and live in fear that we only have X amount of time left (which by the way that date changes every time I hear it).  But then we are giving into an idea of scarcity, there is only so much time left.  And we begin to become inward focused, worrying only about ourselves and the amount of time we have left.  And there will never be enough time and enough money.  I know of one congregation that has an endowment that will be able to pay for their entire annual budget for 20 years and yet they are still worried that 20 years is not long enough.

Instead Jesus is asking us to live with a different economy.  Not one based on money, but one based on God’s love.  And God’s love is abundant!  Every parent I know who has more than one child agrees that when their second came along, their love for the first child was not divide between the two, but instead they all of a sudden had more love, their love wasn’t just added but multiplied or increased exponential. This is what God’s love and an economy based on God’s love is like.  When we stop worrying and start living in an economy based in love we start realizing how much we are given and are able to do so much more than when we live lives based in scarcity and worry. 

As a congregation, we can instead look at the bottom line and think of how wonderful it is that we know we will be around for at least the next 3 to 5 years and think of all the wonderful things we can do in that time.  With God’s guidance we can do great ministry.  We can reach out to the people of this community, this country and this world to show God’s love to them.  We can plan ahead for that ministry to happen both in the next few years and beyond.  And we can stop worrying about if there will be enough time and instead realize that God will provide it. 

But it all starts with us as individuals.  First we have to realize that God’s abundant love is already at work in this world.  So let’s start by me asking, where do you see God’s abundant love in this world?

Now I have some homework for you.  Throughout Lent I’m going to ask you for pictures and stories of where you see God’s abundant love in this world.  Go out, take pictures, cut them out of the newspaper, print them off the computer, email them to me if you need to.  Write down and tell stories about how you saw God each day and bring those stories in.  And I’m going to put them up, we are going to see through each others words and eyes, where we see God and where we see God’s love.  And through these pictures and stories we will realize that we have more than enough and can stop worrying. 

In God We Trust

It is a season of difficult text.  After last week's text and sermon on the dishonest manager, this week we have the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31.  I talk about the difficulty at the beginning of the sermon.  


One thing that is not mentioned in this written text is that I gave everyone a dollar, to prove that "In God We Trust" is written on it.  They were able to keep it as a momento, save it, put it in the collection plate, give it away, spend it.  The mood at Bethlehem was pretty lively yesterday, so I had some peanut gallery comments and I didn't quite explain the dollar as much as I would have liked, so most people put it in the collection plate.    Now onto the sermon.


Enjoy (and sorry no dollar for you)

Often when people first read this parable, they are quick to point out that it must mean that if you are rich today on earth then you will end up in hell and if you are poor on earth than you will end up in heaven. But I wonder if that is really what this parable is telling us.

If the rich are going to end up in hell, then why are we here in church right now? How many of you can say that you have more than you need? How many of you can say that you do not need to beg for crumbs to fall from someone else’s table in order to eat? How many of you have adequate enough healthcare that you do not have open sores on your body? How many of you are only ever licked by dogs when you want them to or at least by dogs that are pets and not wild animals? How many of you have more than one set of clothes? How many of you feast on a regular basis and that you are more likely to go hungry because you are dieting than because you are not able to afford food?

We are the rich and if we want to take this parable at face value, that the rich will end up in hell and the poor will end up in heaven, then why bother with faith. Why trust in God if we are just going to go to hell anyway?

But this parable is saying more than that.

Look at verses 23 and 24 again. “In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” What strikes you about those verses?

Do you notice that this rich man does not talk to Lazarus directly? Do you notice that the rich man is not asking Lazarus to help him? Instead he is asking Abraham to send Lazarus to him like a servant. Even is death, the rich man is not treating Lazarus like a fellow human. He is treating Lazarus like a slave.

Lazarus laid at the rich man’s gate, covered in sores, begging for food and meanwhile inside his home the rich man had ample food and clothing to spare. I have to wonder if the rich man ever gave Lazarus any of his extra food or clothing or if he just stepped over him as he walked in and out of his home.

Maybe the parable isn’t telling us that the poor are going straight to heaven and the rich are going to straight to hell but that wealth can insulate us from the needs of those around us. When we are wealthy it can sometimes be easier to tune out the commercials to give money to orphans in Africa. Or ignore pleas to send relief to Haiti. Or advert our eyes from the panhandler on the street or the poor man with sores who lays at our front gate.

Money often gets in the way of us seeing and relating to people as fellow children of God. How often have you come out of a store and lied to the person who asking for donations saying that you either already gave or that you don’t have cash on you. How often have you adverted your eyes from homeless person on the street?

It is my money, I earned it, why should they ask for it? If they want money they should get a job! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Work hard and you will get ahead. America is the land of opportunity, go make yourself an opportunity! God helps those who help themselves.

Those are all phrases that we have heard or said when it comes to giving to the poor. But they don’t treat the other as children of God. Those phrases treat others as commodities, as workers, but not as children, beloved children of God. Those phrases put our trust in money, that money will get you ahead, and not in God’s love, grace and will which is give abundantly to us. Money gets in the way of us seeing others for who they truly are. And money gets in the way of how we relate to many things. We often treat those with money better than those without. Congregations, including Bethlehem, often worry about finances more than they worry about doing ministry. Money is one of the biggest arguments among married couples and is often cited as a reason for a divorce, more than affairs, health difficulties, communication issues, and changes in priority due to career or children. Money changes the way we related to things and to people.

But there is another phrase, one that is often not heard of when it comes to giving to the poor. A phrase that we often do not even think about when it comes to money, yet it is printed on every coin and bill of U.S. currency. In God We Trust. Four words that if we truly think about, can change the way we relate to money and therefore the way money makes us relate to others.

Those four words can make us change how we relate to money. Those four words can make us relate to others around. “In God we trust” has become politicize in our culture, a cry for people to put God back in politics. But I’m not asking that you think of that phrase like that. Reclaim “In God we trust.” Allow it to wash over you, absorb you. Allow yourself to think about how your spending is trusting in God every time you take out your wallet, every time you swipe your credit card or get cash out of the ATM. Allow yourself to think about how you trust in God every time you acquire money, every time you deposit a paycheck, put in a time card, sell an item or apply for a job. Allow yourself to think about how your giving is trusting in God, every time you donate money to charity, every time you donate an item to the food bank, every time you touch the offering plate. Allow yourself to think about how you trust in God.

In God we trust. In God, we trust our selves, our lives, our salvation. In God, we trust our families, our friends, our very beings.
In God, we trust that we will not end up being Lazarus begging for food.
In God, we trust that we are not going straight to hell.
In God, we trust that we will use our money wisely.
In God, we trust that we will have compassion for those in need.
In God, we trust that we will be vulnerable to those around us.
In God, we trust that we will see God’s faces in those in our midst.
In God, we trust that we will be able to remember that everyone is a child of God, even the poor, the weak, the disenfranchised.
In God, we trust that we are saved by God’s grace through our faith.
In God, we trust that our hardships will be temporary.
In God, we trust that our love will be unending.
In God, we trust that our faith will be growing.
In God, we trust that our lives will be filled with God’s mercy.
In God, we trust.

Rethinking Ourselves as Stewards

The last day of the Rethinking Stewardship conference (parts 1, 2, & 3) was officially entitled "Rethinking Stewardship,"  but since that was the title of the conference I'm renaming it "Rethinking Ourselves as Stewards"  It could also be retitled "Rethinking Ourselves as Stewardship Leaders" but well that is too long.

This last portion of the conference focused on tying together the three previous parts of the conference, as well as discussing how we, as leaders, can better help people see themselves as stewards.  Our presenters were David Loose, Daniel Conway and a tag-team presentation by Janet and Philip Jamieson.

David started us out by discussing the idea of digital pluralism, the idea that we plugged into so many different ways of receiving information that we are overwhelmed them all. But these different ways of distributing information have developed because everyone is looking for a place where they belong and a sense of purpose.  By focusing on connecting people and giving them a way to be full of meaning and purpose we will allow them to become stewards.

Daniel focused on two questions: What do you own?  And What owns you?  When we realize that many of the things that we own also own us, we are able to take better control over them and realize that stuff is just stuff.  In doing so we will become better stewards in a holistic sense.

The last presentation was by Janet and Philip, who discussed the need for us to become bilingual.  We cannot just use "church-speak" in order for people to understand the importance of being stewards.  When we speak just one language we are alienating people.  We must be able to speak the language of finance, economy and money along with the language of theology in order to talk to people about being stewards.

My questions from this section are:

• How can I use digital pluralism to help reach out to those who might not otherwise be involved in the church?
• How can the church pluralize to reach out to more people?
• How do I let things own me?
• What language do I speak and how is that language alienating others? 

Rethinking Our Practices

On Tuesday afternoon we continued Rethinking Stewardship conference I attended.  (parts 1 & 2)  After lunch we transfered to Rethinking Our Practices: How do we talk about stewardship?  How do we enable other's to give? What messages are we giving to others by our practices about stewardship?

Mark Allen Powell, Ed Kruse and Mary Sue Dreier led us in this discussion.  This was actually the second time I had seen Mark speak, the first at bishop's convocation this last fall (which apparently I didn't blog about).  After hearing him in October I got (and read) his book Giving to God.  Now much of his talk this time was an abbreviated version of what I heard in October and read in his book, but he is an excellent speaker and was very entertaining after lunch.  His main point was "what are the stewardship practices that you are doing actually saying about stewardship?"  As leaders in the church, pastors and others often do not want to talk about stewardship and the importance of giving and then we wonder why others are not giving.  We need to talk about money in church, and not just about giving to the church but also about managing, using and acquiring our money in godly ways.

He was followed by Ed, the director of stewardship in the ELCA, who discussed the need for story when talking about stewardship.  People are more apt to give to charities that they relate to, they are more apt to give to God when they hear how giving generously has changed the lives of others.  Story in our stewardship practices are important but often forgotten.

Mary Sue Dreier was our last speaker in what turned into a very long day (talking about anything for 10 hours  gets long).  Mary Sue talked about the future of practices.  Is pledging still a good way to ask people to give money?  How can we get away from the offering plate and fulfilling the budget in order to help people grow as stewards.  We all know there are more ways to give then just by putting a check or cash into the offering plate, and as we talk more about being stewards and stewardship, we will find many new ways opening to us.

Some questions I thought of during this conversation:

• How do I feel when people talk about money with me?
• How can I better discuss, preach on and instill finances and stewardship into my conversations without others thinking that I'm looking down on them?
• How have I learned to be a steward?  How can I teach others through my actions?

Rethinking Our Theology

Tuesday was a jammed packed day at the Rethinking Stewardship conference.  On Monday we discussed Rethinking Our Culture and we continued to rethink.  In the morning we discussed theology with Fred Gaiser, Martha Stortz, and Eric Barreto.

Fred started the conversation about theology by looking at some biblical text that are not often used in discussing  stewardship.  The one he focused on was Deuteronomy 14:26 "spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together."  What a beautiful text!  So often scripture is used to tell people exactly how to spend their money, but instead here is a scripture verse that says spend your money how you want, but do so in a way that is celebrates what God has given you.  Let's get away from stewardship being a program to get people to pay the church's heating and light bills and instead turn towards stewardship as a way to celebrate and rejoice together. 


Martha's presentation was about finding a Luther understanding of stewardship - we are all priests, we are all neighbors and we are all Christ.  Stewardship is part of our vocation, our calling, as part of the priesthood of all believers.  We become stewards when we care for our neighbors, and through being stewards others see Christ in us.  I believe it was in Martha's presentation that she had a picture of a woodcut or sculpture up on the powerpoint.  It was of a woman standing with a basket of fruit and lifting her hands to the upper corner where their was a young boy with an apple.  Was this woman giving the fruit to the boy or was she receiving the apple from him.  In being stewards, we become both givers and receivers.  


Eric focused on Luke and Acts as ways we interact with scripture when it comes to possessions, money, the poor and the rich.  He discussed a variety of verses from Luke and Acts to illustrate how scripture is used in churches across the world to discuss various topics within the idea of stewardship.  


Some questions that arose for me during the Rethinking Our Theology portion of the conference were:

• What subliminal messages are we sending about God through stewardship practices within the congregation? 
• Why do we always focus on the budget and church attendance instead of growing faithful disciples of Christ?
• How can we rethink scripture to better preach on being stewards and not budget-meeters?
• Why do conferences never order enough vegetarian meals?  (random side note, I had to walk to Chipotle for lunch since my group was one of the last to get lunch and they ran out of vegetarian meals) On a related question: if people are not vegetarian but prefer to eat vegetarian if there is an option, why do they not write that down in the food concerns portion of the registration form?

Rethinking Our Culture

Sorry for the delay in getting to the four portions of the Rethinking Stewardship conference I attended last week.  My internet usage was spotty and I ended up spending a lot of time with family and friends while still in Minnesota.

The first portion of the conference was entitled "Rethinking Our Culture" and featured Michael Emerson, Gary Moore and Jill Schumann as the speakers.  A sociologist, an economist and a CEO, not the actor, musician and CEO.

Michael, as the first speaker, introduced the idea of rethinking our culture, by giving a variety of facts and figures about why people give and don't give money and if every "strong" Christian tithed, how much more money would be available to churches to spend on doing God's work.  His talk was intriguing and insightful about why people give and how to use that information to encourage people to give.  One fact I found shocking was that when "strong Christians" (i.e. regular worshipers) were polled, and asked how they would respond if their congregation required all families to tithe (give 10% of their post-tax income to the church) in order to be a member of good standing, only 8% would start tithing, but 20% would drop out of church life entirely, not bothering to go to a different congregation.  Money, income especially, is considered a deeply personal issue.

Gary continued this idea about how culture affects our giving by discussing finances, especially the impact of the financial decline in the last 3 years.  He focused on Ayn Rand (who I had never heard of) and her followers and how they have effected the world economy.  Ayn Rand was the founder of Objectivism and lived a philosophy that more is better and how that effects others is not your concern.  Gary's talk was packed full of information, in fact too much for a brief 40 minute presentation, and I felt lost through most of the talk since I did not know who Rand was and her philosophy was never fully explained (therefore I apologize if I got it wrong).  The talk was also negative in tone which turns me off, and our discussion afterwards was kinda lost and confused until we turned to the idea of "now what" which got me on my soap box.

But in contrast to Gary's presentation, Jill's was extremely positive and hopeful about how current and future trends can help us rethink how people want and need to give.  She focused on four main trends: focus and loci (people can be very specific about what they want), boundaries are blurring (corporations are getting into non-profits and vice versa), positivity (people want to hear more about the good things and less about the bad), and technology (social networking especially has allowed people to have a global community and to find those things they are interested in).  Three out of these four trends I mentioned when I was on my soapbox during the previous discussion.  We need to use these four trends, and others, and adapt to how people want to give and make those opportunities available.  At the end of the day, I was able to talk to Jill and thank her for being so positive.  So often, especially in church work, either these trends are ignored or if they are mentioned they are looked down upon because that is "not the way we have always done it."  It was encouraging to hear someone else bring up these trends and see them in a positive light.  Unfortunately the majority of the people in my discussion group did not catch on to the fact that these trends can be and are good things.

I was going to end with the three questions that we were asked at the end of each presentation, but they don't make a lot of sense out of context so instead I'll ask three questions that arose for me:

• Why do you give?  How do you respond when people ask you to give more?
• How have you been effected by the financial changes over the last 3 years?  Have you seen yourself giving more or less of your time and money as a result?
• What is one trend that you see developing?  How can that be used as a tool to help others learn about and give to churches, charities and causes?

Rethinking Stewardship

This week I have been attending the Rethinking Stewardship conference held by Luther Seminary for continuing education.  I chose attending this conference for both personal and professional reasons.

Personally, the conference was held at a church about a mile and a half from my parents house.  So I have been staying at my parent's home and am now going to stick around for the next few days to visit family and friends.  Plus as an added bonus (I know I sound like an info-mericial) we were asked to be godparents/baptismal sponsors for our nephew who will be baptized this coming Sunday.  It was/is nice to be able to spend time with family outside of the conference.  And on a stewardship note, staying and my parents and eating their food has been a way I have been a good steward of the congregation's finances.  So yes coming to the conference has been a great excuses to see family, but I probably would have still attended this conference even if it wasn't in my hometown.

Professionally, I was interested in attending this conference because stewardship is a topic that I think is often misunderstood in the church.  Quiet often we equate stewardship solely with money and with giving money to the church so the church can pay the bills.  But stewardship is so much larger, it is about taking care of what God has given us: the whole creation, our bodies, our families, our mental health and our finances and possessions. This disconnect is not often preached about or otherwise taught in churches and as part of my ministry at Bethlehem I want to be able to help the congregation understand stewardship as the second definition and not the first.

I was also interested in the format of the conference.  Most events I have been to, there is either one or a small handful of keynote speakers that talk at you for an hour or so at a time and then maybe some workshops.  And with workshops I often have the problem of choosing which ones I want to go to - it always seems like if there are four workshop times, I have too many options for three times and the fourth I'm not interested in any of the workshops.

For this conference, the organizers scheduled 12 keynote addresses (yes 12!) and after each speaker there was time for small group discussion.  The schedule was broken up into four sections of three speakers:  rethinking culture, rethinking theology, rethinking practices, and rethinking stewardship.  It was actually a wonderful format, being able to hear each speaker and having time to discuss and decompress the ideas presented before moving on to another topic/speaker.

Over the next week or so I plan on writing about each of these four topics, what I've gotten out of this conference and what I hope to pass on to the members of Bethlehem.  In the meantime feel free to check out the conference's website.  In the next few days power points from some of the presenters should be up along with other extras.

Living Abundantly in Times of Sacristy

My first workshop at Baby Pastor School was entitled Living Abundantly in Times of Sacristy. The workshop presenter was Scott Schantzenbach who is the stewardship specialist for the New Jersey Synod.

This was one of those workshops that had so much information that we didn't even get to a quarter of it. Scott suggested many different stewardship practices that work in both periods of financial booms and busts. But first what is stewardship?

Stewardship is giving to God what belongs to God. But everything belongs to God. So in a more hands one approach it is more about giving to God (offering, tithe, whatever you want to call it) out of everything that we have and not out of what is left in our checking account at the end of the month after we have paid all of our other bills.

Scott offered twelve practical ideas. I'm not going to list all twelve but instead touch on a few.

* Remain Missional and Enjoy the Moment. It is very easy for the church to become business like and either dwell on the past or have future outlooks, but when we do so we miss the point that the business of the church is to make disciples and preach the gospel. If the church get hung up about the decor, or a social statement that doesn't greatly effect us or an annual event that only a few people attend, then we are not doing the mission of the church and therefor are not being good stewards.

* Conduct Financial Stewardship Programs Three Times This Year Many people aren't sure if they are going to have a job in year, but 4 months is a little more manageable. So instead of pledging a dollar amount for the entire year, pledge what you are going to give within the next four months, then do it again for the next four.

* Asset Mapping Asset Mapping is a process when you look at what you have and the needs of the congregation and community and then you map and match those assets with the needs. Not all needs have assets and not all assets are needed. But by doing so you see how each person's gifts can be used for mission. What needs do you see in the community? How do you have the gifts and skills to address those needs?

* 10-10-80 Ideally each person/family should share 10% of their income with the church and charity, save 10% and live off of the remaining 80%. Don't think you can do it? For a month save every single receipt and put them in three buckets, one for spending, one for saving and one for sharing. The twist? We have a hard time deciding between what we need in order to provide for ourselves and our family and what we want as consumers. At the end of the month dig through that spending bucket. Put things like the mortgage, car payments and basic groceries in the provide category and things like eating out, entertainment, and the daily coffee in the consume category. Then work on spending down your consuming in order to share and save more.

So how do you see stewardship? Do you regularly give to God? If so, do you give from all that you have or from the leftovers? How would you change the talk of stewardship at Bethlehem or at your own church?

I ended up skipping my second workshop because well, let's just say the food wasn't vegetarian friendly and a girl has to eat so the workshop time right after dinner was used for a better good. Tomorrow "Bringing Stories of Justice into the Pulpit."