Written and Delivered by The Rev. Canon Paul S. Nancarrow

"Come Grow With Us!"

That's the slogan for our parish pledge drive this fall. That's the slogan you've been seeing on bulletin inserts and newsletter articles and picture displays throughout the church. That's the slogan we are particularly holding up today, Pledge Packet Sunday, the day you all receive your envelope full of resources to help you make a pledge of support to St George's for 2007. Today is the day we make the invitation "Come Grow With Us!"

But that phrase more than just a pledge drive slogan. That is also the theme of our whole stewardship effort for the year to come. In my own thinking I like to make a distinction between stewardship and the pledge drive. Stewardship is the Christian discipline of being mindful of how we use our wealth--our material wealth, our money; our spiritual wealth, our gifts and talents; our emotional wealth, our compassion and caring and reaching out to others--stewardship is the Christian discipline of being mindful of how we use our wealth to participate in God's mission to reconcile the world. Stewardship encompasses all we do with all we have all the time. Within the discipline of stewardship, pledging is what we do to give resources to the church so the church can do its work. Pledging is just one small part of stewardship; supporting the church is just one small part of giving of ourselves to be in service with God. The pledge drive is something we do in the fall to make the budget, while stewardship is something we live in various ways all year long.

So today, as part of the Big Picture of stewardship, we focus on the pledge drive for St George's 2007.

And being that this is Pledge Packet Sunday, I must confess that I am sorely tempted to draw your attention to second half of our Epistle lesson today. In this passage, James has some dire things to say about the spiritual dangers of wealth. "Come now, you rich people," he says, "weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. Your riches have rotted, your clothes are moth-eaten, your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire." James says, "Fire and rust will be your treasure for the last days!" To hear James talk about it, you'd think it would be better to have no riches at all, you'd think it would be safer to get rid of your gold and silver just as soon as you could. And it's a little tempting at this point to step in and say "You know, the church could help you with that. It would be much safer for your souls if you'd let us just take some of those nasty riches off your hands for you. Why should you worry about rust and fire and punishment?--you've got better things to think about than that. Let us help take all that away from you. Just pull out your checkbooks now and write a big fat check to the church, and I know you'll feel so much better!"

It would be kind of tempting to preach a pledge drive sermon like that. Except for two things. First, because it wouldn't work. I could never preach such a sermon with a straight face, I'd probably start laughing halfway through, because I don't believe it, and neither do you. And second, because it isn't true. Saying that people should give in order to avoid the spiritual dangers of wealth is nothing more that trying to motivate people with fear. And fear as a motivation for giving isn't healthy, it isn't genuine, it is not what God wants. Giving out of fear is not a way that leads to growth. Fear that God will punish us if we don't give enough; fear that our friends and neighbors would think us stingy--or maybe think us overly pious--if they were to find out what our pledge figure was; fear that, if we don't give enough, our church will have to cut back or maybe even close; there are plenty of fears to play on. But playing on fear to motivate giving is a dumb thing to do. It is an unspiritual thing to do. It is an unchristian thing to do.

Because the Christian reason to give is growth. The Christian reason to give is to answer God's call to "Come and Grow." The Christian reason to give is to join with God in inviting all the world to "Come Grow With Us!"

And I think we see that Christian reason in our Gospel lesson this morning. To be sure, it is not easy to see at first glance. At first glance, this lesson seems to be about anything but generous giving. All this talk about cutting off hands and chopping off feet and tearing out eyes makes for some of the most gruesome sayings ever attributed to Jesus, and they don't seem to say very much at all about generosity and growth. But that's when we have to look at the lesson as a whole, and to see what place these gruesome sayings have in the larger teaching Jesus offers.

Jesus and his disciples are traveling to Jerusalem, and on the way John notices a stranger who is not one of Jesus' official disciples, but is using Jesus' name to cast out unclean spirits. John of course wants to stop him--nowadays John would probably try to say that the name of Jesus was a registered trademark and he could issue a cease and desist order to bar the stranger from copyright infringement. But Jesus tells John to let the stranger alone; Jesus tells John that his name is not anyone's private property; Jesus tells John that the goodness and love and power of God that flows through him is for everyone to grow in, not just for the small circle of official disciples. And then Jesus says a remarkable thing: "Whoever is not against us is for us." That is so much the opposite of how we usually think; usually we'd say "Whoever is not for us is against us; whoever is not with me is my enemy; it's my way or the highway." Jesus turns that right around. Jesus isn't interested in determining who's for or against, who's in or who's out. Jesus is interested in inviting everyone to come use his name, inviting everyone to come share the Spirit, inviting everyone to come grow with him. What Jesus wants to do, and what Jesus wants his disciples to do, is to remove the stumbling blocks, to break down the barriers, to get out of the way anything that would get in the way of people coming to God. That's why Jesus says "Don't put stumbling blocks in anyone's way; it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea than to put a stumbling block in anyone's way; if anything makes you stumble, get rid of it." All that gruesome talk about hands and feet and eyes really boils down to saying "if it's in the way between you and God, get it out of the way." Jesus' whole mission is to get stumbling blocks out of the way, so that people can respond freely when he proclaims God's call, "Come Grow With Us!"

And that's why we give, pledging to the church in the pledge drive, and living a life of stewardship all the time. We give so that we can open up the way; we give so that we can remove the stumbling blocks that keep people from God; we give so that there will be some substance when we make the invitation "Come Grow With Us!" We give so that there will be an attractive and well-kept building where we can welcome people to come and grow. We give so that there will be lights so people can see and a sound system so people can hear and Prayer Books and Hymnals and bulletins for people to read when they come to grow in worship. We give so that there will be clergy and lay staff who work to open the way for everyone to grow as ministers of God's word and God's gospel and God's love. We give so that there will be resources to remove the stumbling blocks that keep us all from growing in justice and peace and service and love.

But if we give to grow, then we must also be careful to remove the stumbling blocks that get in our own way. Church buildings are good; but if maintaining the building becomes an end in itself, rather than an instrument for growth, then it is a stumbling block, and we may need to let it go. Staff positions are good; but if maintaining staff positions absorbs a disproportionate share of our resources and energies, instead of serving as instruments for growth, then they are stumbling blocks, and we may need to let them go. That feeling that we are a family where everybody knows everybody's name and we're all close-knit is good; but if feeling like a family becomes an end in itself, rather than an open invitation for others, strangers, to come and speak their names with us too, then it is a stumbling block, and we may need to let it go. Jesus calls us not to put stumbling blocks in anyone's way, including our own--and if we would follow Jesus, we must be ready, like Jesus, to clear our way.

And that is what this pledge drive is about: clearing our way so we can grow. That's what this whole year of stewardship is about. That is our motivation to give. The opposite of fear, our motivation is generosity and openness and courage and hope and joy that moves us to shout out with Jesus "Come Grow With Us!"

Let's grow.