It is that principle enunciated by Jesus in reply to his questioners that is at the heart of this whole subject of Christian Stewardship which we are addressing over the coming month. I want to say loud and clear that whatever you may think of stewardship, about making a financial commitment through a pledge, it is primarily a spiritual issue; it touches at the heart of our relationship with God. To start with how we deal with our finances does say something about what we believe about God. So for instance when Jesus says “Give to God the things that are God’s” Jesus is touching on the fundamental issue of our Credal faith. His statement is a consequence of our belief that God is the maker of all things. So everything that we are, what we have been given or earned or inherited, is given as gift for us to steward, or to look after, and to use wisely, justly and well. This applies equally to our talents, our gifts, and our very selves as well as it does to our wealth. Once we acknowledge that principle then the rest is easy. For my money for instance is not simply mine to do with as I please but as people of faith in the Creator God it is so much more than that. My wealth is entrusted to me by God for both my own needs as well as for the good of others. It is this liberating principle which makes sense of proportional giving to God and his church through our pledge. We give back to God part of what he has given to us both as an acknowledgement of that fact and as a sign of our thanksgiving. “All things come from You O Lord and of Your own have we given You”. That is the first basic principle of stewardship.

The second is an extension of the first. And that appears in the context of the second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. This First letter of which today’s epistle formed the opening paragraphs is regarded as some of the earliest writing of the New Testament. Thessalonians and Philippians are two of the nicer letters of Paul. We are all two familiar with the Corinthian correspondence and with the letter to the Galatians in which Paul has an axe to grind. Both those correspondences arose out of complaints about the conduct of the local Christians. The Corinthians were a quarrelsome lot and the Galatians seemed to have strayed from the faith they had received from Paul. But by contrast Thessalonians from the opening words is addressed to a church for which Paul had the greatest affection and admiration. “We give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is clear that the Thessalonians had responded to the preaching of Paul and the first missionaries not only with enthusiasm and with acceptance but that they had also begun living the new faith in word and deed. “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” What really touched Paul is mentioned elsewhere in Second Corinthians chapter 8 where Paul mentions the extraordinary sacrificial giving of the poor and persecuted churches in Macedonia, that is the churches of the Thessalonians and of the Philippians, in response to the needs of the church in Jerusalem and in Judea during a time of famine. Here we have the first example of the principles of stewardship of resources, financial or otherwise, in the New Testament. It is the example which Paul uses to give his detailed account of Christian stewardship in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. What moved him about the Thessalonians generosity and readiness of response was precisely their overall poverty and that they too were having a hard time. Rather that use their situation as an excuse not to give they gave out of their poverty with joy. Paul sees in this example, an example he holds up to the Corinthian church, the model of Jesus Christ, “who became poor in order that we might become rich”. Christ by his incarnation, by his passion and death, gave of himself for our sakes, for our salvation. So our financial giving has yet another layer of meaning to it.

But last but by no means least is another principle which is part of our understanding of Christian Stewardship and that is thanksgiving. The Thessalonians generosity to the Christians of Jerusalem was clearly a source of great thanksgiving. Paul’s letters give evidence of that. He gives great thanks to God for this sign of new life in several of the churches he has founded. But more than that as he notes in those chapters of 2 Corinthians such generosity adduces thanksgiving in the recipients and even more so in the heart of God. Paul sees waves of thanksgiving arising out of the generosity of the Macedonian Christians.

As I said at the outset Christian Stewardship is first and foremost a spiritual matter; it is a living sign of our relationship with God. Or to put it another way how we use our money can be a sacramental sign of what we believe. In the catechism we speak of a sacrament as an outward sign of an inner spiritual reality. Think of that and the other spiritual principles I have mentioned as you come to consider your pledge this year. But above all remember Paul’s words: “God loves a cheerful giver”. Let your giving be a sign of joy; joy in all that God has given you and joy in sharing what you have been given.   Amen

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