Sermon Series on Stewardship (Year C)
Sundays: 14th September (Outwood EC & Stanley EC), 21st September (Alverthorpe HC & Wrenthorpe HC)
Readings: Matthew 25:1-13 | James 2:14-26
“You don’t tell time, time tells you”.
Wise words there from Chumbawumba, the Lancashire-based protest band!
“You don’t tell time, time tells you”.
We should learn from that, shouldn’t we?
We use clocks and calendars, to slice up time into manageable portions, as if we could become the masters of time!
We pride ourselves on being punctual, efficient, good time-managers.
Or perhaps we just drift along, turning up when we choose, taking as long as we want… behaviour that is not always popular on a Sunday morning!
Time.
It’s both our blessing and our life sentence.
It is our reality.
And it cannot be fixed to suit our desires.
We get a span of years and for much of it, we have no idea of what it’s for.
It might take most of a lifetime for us to start using our time well.
Time challenges us unduly – mostly we accept its passing, but we also reject the notion that one day it will run out….
How best to live with time?
I have always loved the concept of time-travel: from classic science fiction to Back to the Future and time-travel cinema!
To return to the past, or leap into the future….
The excitement, possibility, emotion, and … usually disaster.
What would you change, given the chance?
In the Harry Potter stories, Hermione is given a “time-turner” – an enchanted necklace – so she can take as many classes as possible…. How exhausting!
Perhaps, I would not want a Time Machine… would you?
Yet, how often do we lament not having enough hours in the day, or days remaining in our lifetime…. Or someone else’s lifetime…?
Or the memories of a past that contained unparalleled joy, or abject misery – and oh, how we might long to return and live it all again… or change it forever, for the better….
Maybe… but our reality is just that….
Is time then, the millstone around our already over-burdened necks, or is it a gift….?
Live. Each. Moment.
It is all precious…. Of unparalleled value…. and as it is gifted by God… we must use it wisely, this finite resource – we can never know just how much…
Why am I talking about this today?
In terms of stewardship, what is the relevance of time? Gifts, talents, money and the environment… we live with them all.
Time is totally beyond our control and yet we live as if that were not so.
Do we spend our precious time on ourselves? Do we invest our time in building the Kingdom, giving it for the benefit of others?
Should we pause time…. as if we could actually do that… in order that we might be ‘ready’ for when God is revealed, Jesus returns, or indeed our lives are required of us?
I am ready now… but what about tomorrow?
I am often bleating about being “time poor”. I’m not, but I worry that I will take on some task or other, only to let someone down, to not complete it, miss other deadlines, exhaust myself and become useless: to be less than “ready”!
For much of my adult life I have found it more achievable and realistic to give of my time instead of money. This is perhaps the connection point with stewardship. Though, it isn’t a value comparison.
However we respond to need – the call of discipleship – we will give from our resources, hopefully without exhausting ourselves. Whatever it is that we give, to build the Kingdom here on Earth, the greatest value we can offer will come from ourselves – from those moments that tick by.
Church people always give of their time, their skills, and their cash. If you find money harder to summon up more than the spare hours in your day – that’s you…. If maybe your physical presence, or availability, is diminished, then you might put your hand in your you pocket instead. Whatever we do, or don’t do, we know that God is calling upon us to love and to serve the Lord… now, tomorrow, and onwards….
We normally hear today’s passage from Matthew in the context of “being ready”, usually on Sundays before Advent. Today we might hear it as “when” are we ready.
Some of those bridesmaids did not cover themselves in glory. There are no preparations to suggest they are interested in the bridal couple. They are just keen to get to the party. No wonder they are considered gatecrashers!
There are other passages that might resonate more with you, such as Martha and Mary, in Luke:
Martha uses her time in service; Mary uses her time in presence. Jesus doesn’t condemn Martha’s service, but He calls Mary’s choice “the better one.” The challenge is not one against the other, but discerning when to act and when to be still.
Time spent in prayer, or sitting in the garden isn’t to be compared with making cakes for a fete or attending PCC! Ok those are perhaps extreme examples… but, sometimes I just want to breathe… and watch the seconds pass… I imagine you do too.
James reminds us that it’s no good to shout about faith while living a life without a Christ-like reality. Jesus always found time to stop.. sit with someone.. listen… and light the way…
In our imperfection, we are called on to reveal our love for one another in what we do.
Often that calling is not easy. Giving our time is not easy.
I chose to take time as the aspect of stewardship that I could preach on, because I know the value of giving my time when in fact it’s the last thing I want to do.
As a child, sermon writing devoured time on a Saturday, as my father’s typewriter clacked away, whilst I hoped he would find time for me. These days, being self-employed, I find time to write by putting a day aside, usually a Friday. There’s a very real cost to that though. It’s why I publish this stuff on the Internet, to make it go further, to get more ‘value for time’, if that makes sense.
You come here on a Sunday and maybe other days. You do stuff, go to meetings, make others welcome, visit the housebound; live your lives… you pray and you turn up, and you do whatever you can.
Time is what you are investing in for others by giving it away. There is no store or reserve from which to take it; the giving of it may not be noticed by you, until maybe later. The cost is not always visible.
Yet the value…. It’s priceless.
I have taken the liberty of providing you all with a prayer card as a ‘take away’. Many thanks to Ellie at the Benefice Office who used her gifts to produce them efficiently, when it would have taken me forever! Always delegate to busy people!
The prayer was attributed to the life, words and works of Archbishop Oscar Romero. In his faithful service to God, Romero challenged the violent ruling elites in San Salvador, leading inevitably to his assassination in 1980.
I encourage you to spend some of your time reading this prayer. It isn’t short, pithy, or particularly memorable. It invites a deeper reflection of our place in God’s creation – of what we can and cannot do; offering the wisdom that comes from knowing the value of time and how we might invest it in the Kingdom; being ready for whatever comes next, however long that takes.
We plant trees never knowing if we will enjoy their shade.
If we don’t plant the seeds now, how can those that come after us enjoy anything?
We might then sit in the garden and watch them grow.
Do we still imagine that we can mould and fashion the time we are given to suit ourselves?
Let’s not…!
Instead… Be ready.
Each second that passes is a gift, even if it doesn’t seem like it.
Time, experience and memory hopefully lead to reflection.
In being ready for God, we can see where God is moving….
By all means spend your time for you. It’s your one and only life….
And be cautious of looking back and thinking you have wasted time.
Time is a gift. You didn’t make it yourself!
And there is no shame in saying – ‘I have no more of my time to give’, or in knowing that you will never have given enough….
My sisters and brother, take courage and hope from what you do with faith and love. Hear the encouragements of Jesus to give freely from the bounty of God’s blessings to us.
If you have optimism and hope for the kingdom, make time for others and, as you deepen your relationship with God, the world around you, and in knowing yourself…. Know that such time is well spent, and invested wisely.
May the grace of God take you onwards, in being a good steward of all the blessings of this life – transforming you, to love and to serve the Lord.
God be with you.
Amen.
Four part sermon series on Stewardship, addressing: Gifts & Talents, Monday, Creation & Environment, Time.
“Timebomb”, Chumbawumba (Anarchy 1994)
A Prayer for Oscar Romero
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realising that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own.
Amen.
A prayer in celebration of the canonization of St. Archbishop Oscar Romero. St. Romero reminds us in his homilies, and in his actions, that Jesus stands always with those who suffer from poverty, injustice, violence, and hunger.
This prayer was composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw, drafted for a homily by Cardinal John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of departed priests. As a reflection on the anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Romero, Bishop Untener included in a reflection book a passage titled “The mystery of the Romero Prayer.”
The mystery is that the words of the prayer are attributed to Oscar Romero, but they were never spoken by him.