CONFIDENTLY GROUNDED IN CHRIST

Philippians 1:3-11; Matthew 21:23-32

5th Sunday in the Season of Creation, October 1, 2023

Pastor Ritva H Williams

Welcome to our final episode of the Season of Creation. We have been reading and reflecting on  Diana Butler Bass’ book Grounded. Like the Bible, her book begins with Genesis and ends with Revelation. In between DBB explores God’s presence in our natural habitat and in the human geography of roots, homes, neighbors, and commons. In her last chapter, DBB writes:

Both Genesis and Revelation are creation stories. But they are not stories of a static creation, where God makes the world, gives it to us to have dominion over, and then goes away. Instead, they invite us to make the world with God. Genesis invites us into a world of agrarian creativity — to plant, produce, and procreate. Revelation invites us into a world of urban creativity — to be people who live by God’s light … From beginning to end, the biblical story is one in which we make a peaceable world with God. (p.274)

She goes on to describe what this means for us in our daily lives here and now:

If we understand that we are dirt, that God is the ground of all that is … we might think twice about how we treat soil. If water is the river of spiritual and physical life, we will care about what we doing to watersheds. If air sustains us and we are made of stardust, then the sky and what happens to it matters. Knowing our own roots is the first step in knowing ourselves and recognizing our common humanity. Making a home is a radical act of claiming a place in the world. Being neighborly is the path to empathy, of enacting the Golden Rule. Building the commons, the “we” of our world house, is to pull the vision of heaven out of the clouds to earth here and now. (p. 274)

This is the language of stewardship. Now, I am well aware that for many people, the word stewardship is almost as scary as the word evangelism. There is this idea that stewardship is about raising money, and yes, we in the church contribute to that idea because our annual stewardship season is inevitably connected with building budgets. But stewardship is so much more than money. 

When God first created human beings, God gave us a special responsibility for the earth and all its creatures. Specifically, we are responsible for "tilling and keeping" our garden planet as a home for all of God’s creatures. The biblical command to “till and keep” means to cultivate, grow, tend, maintain, sustain, support, nourish, nurture, manage, safeguard, protect, defend, shelter, care for … God has given us stewardship of the earth, stewardship of our bodies, stewardship of our families, and stewardship of the gospel of Jesus Christ — that’s a lot of stewardship. What was God thinking of  — to give us these responsibilities when all too often we can barely get out of the right side of the bed in the morning?

The wholeness wheel is a tool that shows us how our overall spiritual wellbeing depends on nurturing six inter-dependent areas of life: relationships, emotions, intellect, physical health, vocations, and, yes, finances. For example, physical health depends on access to housing, food, clothing, and safe places to play and exercise. These require meaningful work/vocation, healthy finances, and supportive relationships that nurture positive emotions and intellect. It all has to work together. When it doesn't we experience dysfunction and illness instead of well-being. 

When we look at the church through the wellness wheel we can see, how worship, learning and fellowship that engages our hearts, minds, and spirits depends on maintaining a place where all can safely enter and move about; on supporting and sustaining pastors, musicians, ministry and support staff; on acquiring resources and materials — all of which requires finances. Investing in non-gendered, barrier free restrooms, for example, ensures access that safeguards  a person’s privacy and dignity, thus nurturing their physical and emotional well-being. Sharing our space with Family Promise supports their mission of giving a hand up to persons experiencing homelessness. Family Promise in turn is willing to share their resources to support our mission and neighborhood ministry. Our building becomes a center of cooperative mission for the sake of our neighbors. Leasing the church house to our seminarian is about relationship and vocation, and yes finances (his and ours both). 

DBB’s book Grounded encourages us to see God present all around us in our world today, and to see ourselves having a God-given vocation to steward with love and compassion the ordinary things of our lives — the ground under our feet, the paths we walk, the gardens we plant, the watersheds we clean up. We steward our historical roots, families, homes, neighbors, and the commons by living out the Golden Rule. 

In this morning’s gospel lesson we encounter Jesus teaching in the temple. He is interrupted by chief priests and elders who want to know by whose authority he is doing “these things.” What are “these things” that upset the religious authorities? Jesus created a traffic jam by riding into the city on a donkey, surrounded by crowds shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Jesus upset the routine of the Temple by flipping the tables of money changers and sellers of doves. Jesus insisted the temple was a house of prayer. Jesus spent his time in the temple healing the sick and disabled, welcoming children, teaching and acting out God’s love for the least, the last and the lost. It is for “these things” that the religious authorities demand an explanation.

Jesus says he will answer their question but only if they answer his question about the origins of John’s  baptizing ministry. The religious authorities are afraid of how Jesus and the crowd will respond to their answers, so they say, “We don’t know.” “Well then,” Jesus replies, “neither will I tell you by whose authority I do these things.” Instead Jesus tells them a parable about a parent who has two children. 

The parent tells the elder child to go and work in the vineyard. This child says, “I will not.” So the parent goes to the younger child with the same instructions. The younger one, says, “I’m going.” The older child later changed their mind and went to work in the vineyard, while the younger who said they were going never went. Jesus asks, “Which of these two children did their parent’s will?”  Jesus’ point is that participating in God’s kingdom requires knowing what God wants us to do AND actually doing it.

In our first reading, we hear Paul share his joy and love for the church in Philippi. This passage always makes me think of St Stephen’s. A member once asked me what was the best job I ever had. My answer then and now remains serving as pastor here with you. I am proud of how faithful you all are in living out our mission of knowing, living, and sharing Christ; and deeply grateful for your personal support and compassion through the years, especially in the days following John’s accident, the derecho, and the death of our son James. We live in uncertain times with worry and anxiety, just as the first Christians in Philippi did. Yet, like Paul, I am confident that the one who began a good work in this place and community 76 years ago, will bring it to completion in God’s good time. 

Please pray with me:

Gracious Lord, ground us deeply and firmly in Christ’s love, empowering us to be good and faithful stewards of all your earthly blessings: earth, water, and sky; our bodies, minds and spirits our families, homes and neighbors; and this congregation, our spiritual home, where you meet us in word and sacrament. Amen.