Stewardship Sermon, 2003

A sermon preached by Father Dwight D. Duncan, ssc, Rector, St Matthias, Dallas, Texas
26 October 2003 - The Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

I do not like ANY church convention. At their best, they are something I endure as graciously as possible, accepting them as penance for my sins. But God had a surprise in store for me at our recently concluded synod of the Diocese of Dallas: I came away inspired! My inspiration was not due to the overwhelming victory achieved this year in our diocese for orthodox Anglicans. No ... it was due to two addresses by a bishop. Fancy that! Namely, the retired Bishop of Colorado, William Frey.


Early on in Bishop Frey's first address, I knew that God was speaking to me through him. So I began taking notes. And now I am going to share with you a few of his words. I share them because they serve my purpose in this sermon. That purpose is two-fold:

1. To remind you of the vision I have always had for us. It is, I believe, a vision held by each of you who fully commit your lives to this parish family.

2. I want, then, briefly to remind you of how we can continue towards realizing this vision. So, listen closely to Bishop Frey:

• "I am not afraid," said Bishop Frey, "of the Church disappearing. What I am afraid of is the Church continuing without being what God intends her to be, continuing as nothing more than a sham, an empty shell." To this, I say, "Amen," and pray you do as well.
  
  
• Further, Bishop Frey said, "The Church exists to help God undo the results of mankind's Fall ... that horrible experiment in autonomy from which all creation and every creature suffers. To achieve this purpose, God needs a community of people who will hear his voice and obey his voice in such a way that they will model what God intends for all humans and all creation." To this, I say, "Amen," and pray you do as well.
  
  
• Finally, Bishop Frey said, "Imagine if wherever there was a church building, it was filled with people who modeled the glory of God, people who in their lives were living contradictions to the diseased culture which surrounds us. To such a people others could not help but be attracted, and they would know that these people could only be how they were because of some greater power which inhabited them." Again I say, "Amen," and pray you do as well.
  
  

Bishop Frey's words communicate the vision. But how do we realize it, make it less of a hope and more of a fact? Well, we Catholic Christians, for centuries beyond a millennium, have known the way. It is a way comprised of several fundamental disciplines which together are the ground out of which the sanctity of disciples and communities grow. When disciples sincerely seek, by God's grace, to live these disciplines, their transformation back into the likeness of Jesus proceeds, and they and the communities they comprise shine like beckoning stars to those around them.

What are these disciplines? These six:

1. Absolute faithfulness in the worship of God in his Church
2. Regular and devout reception of the Blessed Sacrament
3. Chaste living
4. Disciplined fasting
5. Confession
6. Obedient, faithful stewardship of all one's resources

Now, fully to understand and be trained in each of these, take my course on Christian Believing & Living, now running on Thursday nights! At this moment I only want to state what each is and to try to help you see the part each plays in creating individuals and parishes who model God's intention for all.

Discipline 1: Absolute faithfulness in the worship of God in his Church

All things come from our Creator and upon him we are totally dependent. At the least he is due back from us the sacrifice of our time and attention to acknowledge his worth, to thank him for being himself, and to praise him for his goodness. It is easy to make this sacrifice of ourselves to him, when life is as we wish it, and we realize how blessed we are. It is hard to do so, when life is not as we wish it, and we wonder if he loves us or if he even IS at all. But, whether in season or out of season, God is due our worship.

And as with human friendship and marriage, so with our relationship to God: it will only grow in security and joy if persevered in through times of fullness and times of lack. So, discipline 1: absolute faithfulness in worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ: Sunday by Sunday, and every holy day of obligation. How can a soul which is not with God and his Church faithfully be a soul through which the world will be richly blessed?

Discipline 2: Regular and devout reception of the Blessed Sacrament

Christ is not a memory in our mind. He is the living Lord, with whose life we need to be infused if we are to be saved from hell and for heaven. He said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." And so, on the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread, he took wine, saying "This is my Body. Eat ... This is my Blood. Drink." This IS THE FOOD we need to receive regularly, for it is our traveling provisions on the way to heaven (viaticum). And we never know when the curtain of this earthly segment of our journey will drop.

But this food is awe-full food, for it is nothing other, nothing less than Christ himself, our King, our Judge, our Bridegroom. Thus we must receive it devoutly. As our apostolic father Paul warns us, to eat of it in an unworthy manner ... to eat of it while in a state of known and un-repented of sin, to eat of it seeking only solace for oneself and not strength to wage war against the evil within oneself and in our world, to eat of it without intention and desire to be transubstantiated by it into the likeness of Christ ... this is grievous sin. And we then eat and drink damnation upon ourselves.

But think: every soul who approaches reception of the Blessed Sacrament in holy fear and with sincere preparation, will not that soul be a more fit channel in the world of the grace it here receives? But of course. So, discipline 2: regular and devout reception of the Blessed Sacrament.

Discipline 3: Chaste living

We are creatures who are a union of spirit and body, meant forever so to be. Our hope beyond death is not to be released from our bodies, but for our bodies to be raised from death and restored to us in a glory like that of our risen, ascended Lord. This means that what we do with our bodies in this earthly life is not a matter indifferent. They have been claimed by God as instruments through which he means to give himself to others.

No one goes away from being with another person unchanged. Either one goes away blessed or cursed. This is what chaste living is about: living one's body as God's word to the world, which requires doing with our bodies only that which is ordained by God. To do otherwise, is not to raise up, but to harm that which your body touches. So, discipline 3: chaste living.

Discipline 4: Fasting

A holy person, a healthy person, is someone who is able consistently to choose what is good for himself even when he doesn't like it. Here is the problem: until I am only holy, and nothing less, I will frequently be conflicted between what I want to do and what I ought to do. What can help me with this obstacle to growth in wholeness of life? Achieving some mastery over my passions, my desires.

That is what a discipline of fasting is for. Spiritual strength, you see, often grows from the "outside-in", because the part of us of which we are most aware is our physicality. Any control we achieve over our physical desires increases our ability to control the roilings of our minds and spirits. Won't people who are more in control of themselves and less controlled by their passions provide stability for their communities? But of course. So, discipline 4: fasting.

Discipline 5: Confession

Sin unacknowledged and un-repented of falls in on the soul like sharp glass, creating scars which hamper our health and our ability to be agents of God's love. Further, living life in the shadows, afraid of being known at our worst for fear of being rejected, keeps us from emerging into our best. Only by being bathed in the light of God's healing love - a love which embraces us even in our sins and then strengthens us to come forth from them ... only such a bath can cleanse us to walk in newness of life.

Well, Jesus died in order to bathe us in the blood and water flowing from his piercèd side. And he gave power and commandment to his priests to wash through absolution every soul which repents and comes to him for release.

Wouldn't the world be more like heaven, if it were filled with people who handed the garbage of their lives over to the One who could destroy it, instead of carrying it in a knapsack on their backs, trying to keep themselves and others from discovering it? But of course. So, discipline 5: confession.

Finally, discipline 6: Obedient, faithful stewardship of all one's resources

Everything we have is God's gift to us. And what he gives, he gives not just for our sustenance and enjoyment but also for that of others. God expects us to support our secular community by our responsible involvement in its affairs and by our financial support of its needs and services.

And God expects us to support our mother, the Church. The strength and vitality of her mission and ministry is determined by how faithfully and sacrificially we give of our time and our talents to her life of worship, education, fellowship and service. And the strength and vitality of her mission and ministry is determined as well by the degree to which we give her that tithe, that 10% of our income, which God has commanded for her from each of us.

Absolute faithfulness in the worship of God in his Church; regular and devout reception of the Blessed Sacrament; chaste living; disciplined fasting; confession; obedient, faithful stewardship of all one's resources: These are the disciplines which turn parishes into communities where others see and experience the glory of God and are drawn to him like moths to warm light.

Don't you want St Matthias' Church to be that? If we are not, then we should cease to be at all. For we exist as an outpost of Christ's Catholic Church not for ourselves, but to help God undo the result of mankind's Fall by modeling in our life his intention for every human and all creation.

I have shared all this with you because that is precisely what you are determining this week through the declarations you make next Sunday of your time, talent and money stewardship of this parish next year. Will you, by faithful, sacrificial, obedient giving of yourself and your substance, help us be what God calls us to be ... or will you not?

One thing more: For Father Houk and me to be for you the priests you want us to be, and which we want to be for you, we need your help. You see there is a synergy between priests and their people: the nature of your sacrifices effect us, as do ours, you. I have always known this, but Bishop Frey pointed out why. God reveals the reason in Acts 4:32-33:

Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

Why, Bishop Frey asked, were the apostles able with great power to give their testimony? Because they were within a community which incarnated the very gospel they were proclaiming. May it be so with us. Fr Houk and I will keep you in our prayers as you make your decisions this week. Why don't you pray for one another as well?


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