Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Stewardship 2. 27 July, 2014. Cherishing the gift in our hands. The Sultan was an extraordinary rich man. Within his dominion there lived a very holy man, who would come when called to give advice and wise counsel. One day the Sultan decided that he would show his appreciation to the holy man for all his support, which was always given freely. From his storehouse of jewels the Sultan chose a diamond, the largest and most flawless diamond in his extensive collection. When the Sultan handed it over to the holy man he smiled and thanked him then tucked it into the roughly woven bag slung over his shoulder. Neither the Sultan nor the holy man noticed the look of astonishment on the face of the courtier who was standing nearby. That man (let’s call him Bruce), as soon as possible, sent a message to his brother (let’s call him Jim) who lived in a village along the way between the palace and where the holy man usually lived. Jim waited and watched. A few days later the holy man came to his village. He realised that it would not be safe to confront him too openly, so he watched. The people of the village greeted the holy man warmly and the children danced around him. Everyone loved him for his wisdom and the serenity which seemed to surround him like an aura! As was his custom the holy man moved outside the village and set up a camp in a quiet place. In the dead of the night Jim crept up and suddenly confronted the holy man. Shaking sleep from his eyes the holy man asked calmly, “What is it that you want me to do for you?” Jim replied “Give me your treasure!” The holy man raised one eyebrow and Jim blustered “Give me, give me that diamond! The one the Sultan gave you!” The holy man shrugged and said “I thought you might mean THAT.” He rummaged around in his bag and pulled out the diamond. In the light of the campfire the sparkles of refracted light were like an explosion of colour around them. Jim began to shake, then the hold man handed him the gem and asked “Can I go back to sleep now?” Without answering Jim grabbed the diamond, stuffed it inside his shirt and ran all the way back to his house. He sat up all through the rest of the night staring at the diamond sitting on his kitchen table, watching how the light from a candle danced beams of beautiful colour around the room. When dawn broke Jim leapt up from the table, leaving the diamond where it sat. He flung his door open and ran up the road. Soon after, he found the holy man already walking slowly along the way to the next village. Jim threw himself at the feet of the holy man, who asked him, “What is it that you want me to do for you?” Jim cried out, “Please! Give me your treasure!” The holy man raised an eyebrow again. Jim continued “Please give me what you have that is so valuable that you could have just given away that diamond!” We are thinking about stewardship. Last week we started thinking about recognising that we are blessed and counting our blessings. This week we are thinking about cherishing and respecting the blessing which has been placed in our hands. Treasure, blessings, pearls of great price come in many shapes and sizes and types and delightfully nuanced by the way in which we have been shaped to recognise what is valuable. Jim was after material treasure. And the raised eyebrow from the holy man raised the question of whether he was on the right track, whether he had defined ‘treasure’ too narrowly. Have you ever thought how silly the parables were that Jesus told which we heard in today’s gospel reading? (Matthew 1344-58). Lots of parables are silly if taken literally. Who would sell everything they had to put all their worldly wealth into just one object? Why put all the focus of your life into one material thing? What is meant is not material wealth. Clearly. This is a metaphor. Parables are never just as simple as ‘this’ means ‘that’. There is a key though here because Jesus begins these parables by saying ‘the kingdom of heaven is like ...’. The kingdom of heaven is not a place or time ‘out there’ or after we physically die or some time into the future. Whenever Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven he is talking about here and now. The here and now for the disciples and the crowds then, and the here and now for us in our time, here and now. Jesus is describing, in a multitude of colours and shapes and pictures, what it means to be in a relationship with God, that it looks like to be connecting to the one relationship which puts everything else into perspective. In all the conversations which Jesus has, in all the stories that He tells, in all the encounters which have become part of the narrative handed down to us the desired response is never “Ooh that’s nice. Now I’ll make a cuppa tea.” These are not just snapshots and glimpses into His life or pithy moments which can be simply touched upon then put aside. They are burrs under our skin. They are grass seeds which work their way in until they cannot be ignored. They are that bit or gravel which somehow gets into a shoe when out walking and wont just shake itself out again no matter how much we try ‘hokey-pokey – like ‘ waving of a foot in the air. The words from Jesus, the extraordinary encounters, the ripples which resonate out from His presence are like that scrap of a song which, once heard, will not get out of our heads!! At least, that is what the gospel is supposed to be, if we are open to be touched and annoyed and inspired and encouraged and disturbed and truly encountered! The treasure hidden in the field, the pearl of great price, the overflowing net, the scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven ... these images beg the question ... what next? What do we do then with something of almost inestimable value once we have found it? What do we do with the connection we have with God? What do we do with the treasure which has been placed in our hands? Cherish and respect the blessing. How? By caring for what has been discovered and given and the blessing we have. If it is money then we are to use it wisely, not wastefully, to pay careful attention to how we invest and use what is there. That includes thinking carefully about what we spend where and how much on what – and in that spirit of acknowledging blessing to let our investing and spending and saving and giving be enriched by and infused with our relationship with the One who gave it all to us in the first place. But good stewardship is not just about how we use our financial blessings. What about the blessing of time? What about the blessing of the intelligence we have and the desire to learn and grow and develop understanding of ourselves and God and the world and all that surrounds us? Investing and nurturing and sharing appropriately all apply here too! What do we do with the gift in our hands? And what of our relationship with God? Do we invest in and nurture and share that relationship too? Being here. Praying. Spending time being nurtured and learning. Reading, exploring through other media, taking time simply to be in the presence of God. These are all at the heart of good stewardship, because stewardship is about what we do with our opportunities, what we do with what the poet Mary Oliver calls ‘this one precious life’. How highly is this relationship valued? Enough to die holding onto God, as Christians are in Mosul in Iraq and in many other places in the world at the moment? Thankfully Miryam, the young woman who became a Christian in Sudan and who was condemned to death for that crime, has successfully left that country. Is your relationship with God important enough to die holding onto God? Is your relationship important enough to LIVE holding onto God, to live deeply, to live thoughtfully and with God’s presence infusing every aspect of your being? And what of our world? Caring for the world, caring for creation is not just the preserve of greenies and people who live on the fringes, don’t wash, let their hair go to dread-locks and hug trees. Caring for the blessing which is the world which God has entrusted to us is a core Christian activity. It is, again, about cherishing and respecting the blessing which has been placed in our hands. We are thinking about Stewardship, recognising that we are blessed, cherishing, respecting and nurturing the blessings which God has placed in our hands. Once the treasure is in your hands, what do you do with it? Amen. Paul Mitchell
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 21:59:27 +0000