Action & Motivation

A sermon for Proper 25
October 23, 2022

Well, no surprise. Today I’m talking about stewardship because October is stewardship month! This past week, pledge cards were sent to you in the mail. If you haven’t received one in the next few days, let me know. When you’re ready to pledge, you can drop your pledge card in the offering plate, or you can send it in the mail to Candace. If you’ve never pledged before, here’s how it works. On your card, you will tell us how much you plan to contribute in 2023. It’s an act of faith and thanksgiving. Once all of our pledges are in, the Vestry will make a responsible budget for the coming year. So you know, the Vestry has set the goal of collecting $140,000 in pledges for this next year.

Because I know you are all generous givers, let me say in advance: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Because of your sacrificial giving of time, talent, and treasure, this church will continue to stand, proclaiming the love of God in Christ Jesus for all, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, giving hope to a hopeless world, healing to a broken world, faith to a despairing world, love to a hateful world. That’s why the church is here. 

Our gospel passage from Luke today is kind of a strange one to pair with stewardship. Jesus encounters a group of people who, our gospel tells us, trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt. Two men are going up to the temple: a pharisee, someone who has this religion thing figured out, and a tax collector, a sinner. The pharisee prays, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people. I fast twice a week. I tithe my income to the church.” But then we have this tax collector, who gets it right. He prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” 

The Pharisee, in appearance at least, is doing everything right. What he does is even admirable. He fasts and he tithes–just as we are encouraged to fast when appropriate and tithe our income. These are righteous actions, actions that please God, commendable actions for you and me. And yet he gets something wrong. His motivation. He is doing these things to exalt himself, to lift himself up, to make himself look good. And he does that at the expense of others. He mounts ridicule on them—thank God I’m not like all those scoundrels, bless their hearts.

What the Pharisee does—fasting and tithing—is good, and it matters. But his motivations matter, too, and they’re not good. He’s trying to puff himself up instead of glorify God. He’s tearing down his neighbors instead of helping them. His motivation doesn’t match his actions. 

As for this tax collector, all he can do is ask God for mercy. He knows he’s a sinner. He is humbled before God. Of course, if this tax collector wants to grow in God, if he wants to come to know God more, he’s going to have to change. Tax collectors cheated people, so he’s going to have to make amends. He cannot just continue to do what he’s doing Monday-Friday and then pray for mercy come the weekend. He might actually learn from the Pharisee here: he should learn to fast and he should give a tithe to the work of God. 

His attitude is right; his motivations are good; and all of that matters. But his actions matter, too. And if he wants to grow in God, his actions need to match his motivation. 

Our actions matter. Our motivation matters. And they need to match up. Our actions should serve God and reflect God. The motivation for our actions must also point to God, and not to ourselves. Stewardship month is about this very thing. We pray about how we should use our gifts of time, talent, and treasure for the Kingdom of God. Notice there is an action and a motivation there: we are using our time, talent, and treasure. Why? For the Kingdom of God and for the glory of God. We pledge to give to the church. Why? So that the love of God in Christ Jesus will be proclaimed to further the Kingdom of God. None of this is about us or making ourselves look good. It’s about giving to God, in humble thanksgiving for all of our many blessings. 

Everything we do, and the reasons we do it, should point to God. Where we put our time, our energy, our money, should all point to Christ and the Kingdom of God. If we work on that, by God’s grace, we will be able to stand before God and say, like Paul in today’s reading from II Timothy, we have fought the good fight; we have finished the race; we have kept the faith. We have been good stewards, good caretakers, of our many blessings from God. And through us, in our actions and our motivations, people can see Christ reflected. They can see God’s goodness and love for all. 

Stewardship is about seeing all of ourselves, all of our lives, everything about us, all that we are and all that we have, as an offering to God. Just as we offer bread and wine week after week, so too we offer all that we are to God day after day. 

Are we the Pharisee or the tax collector? Maybe there’s a bit of both within us. That’s true for me, anyway. I wonder how God is calling us to grow in action and motivation, getting our lives to match up with what we say and what we believe? Stewardship for 2023 is a good place to start.