The theme for this 3rd Sunday of our Stewardship month, is sharing. The image, which goes with the theme is the Best Supper, which you will see on the colored insert in your bulletin. It is a table at which 12 people and one animal are seated, each with a place setting, and with food in the center. What is unusual and significant about this table is its shape. It is a round table, large enough to accommodate 13 places. My guess is that most of us have rectangular, or square, or oval tables in our homes. So let me check that out by a show of hands: how many of us eat at home at a rectangular table? how many at a square table? how many at an oval table? And, how many at a round table?

The significance of the shape of the table, comes from how it feels to eat there with others. We set rectangular and oval tables with a place called the head of the table, for the head of the family or perhaps for an important guest, and there is also the foot of the table, at which the mother often sits. But round tables, and square tables, provide no obvious place for a head or a foot: all have an equal place, and therefore equal value. If you are not convinced of this, consider what happens when you are invited to a friend’s home for dinner. It is very likely that you will hesitate to choose your own seat at the table: you will wait to be told by your host, where to sit. So there is something very important about having a place at the table, and about which place it is.

Children grasp very early in life the importance of having an equal place. Each child wants an equal share of the ice cream, an equal numbers of toys, and equal time in grandma’s lap. The feeling we have, as adults, that we are entitled, or we have a right, to have food and shelter and medical care, arises from a deep sense that the world ought to be a place where everyone gets a fair share, and perhaps also a second chance. Whether we know it or not, that deep sense comes to us from the Torah, the 5 books of Moses from Genesis to Deuteronomy, in which a just God gives to his stewards, the people of Israel, fair and equal shares of that land flowing with milk and honey. Our American system of homesteading in the 19th century, leading to land ownership, may have been based on this historical background. In our Adult Education class, we have been reading, in the God and Empire book by Crosson, about all the commandments in Leviticus and Deuteronomy designed to limit inequality, such as the law against charging interest, strict rules on collateral for loans, and on collection of debts. It is made very clear that God’s generosity in allowing people to live on the land, is a pattern which the people are expected to imitate in their dealings with each other. In the Torah it is recognized that inequality in life, caused by weather, war, disease, disability, and bad choices, will lead to poverty and the loss of one’s livelihood. In our secular society the attitude seems to be: “tough luck: you made your bed, now lie in it”. But in the Books of Moses, the attitude is, the community should help those who are hungry or homeless: the community is responsible for their well-being, because everyone is of equal value in the eyes of God, regardless of their choices or experiences.

The other significant belief that comes to us from the Bible, is that everything we have in life is a gift from God, and we are responsible to God for how we take care of those gifts. That includes our personal health, our families and our talents, as well as our property. It all “belongs” to God; it is all loaned to us for a time, and we are God’s stewards, God’s tenants or trustees. We read one of the clearest statements of this theology every year at Thanksgiving: “Do not say to yourself, (when you have built fine houses . . . and when your silver and gold is multiplied), my power and the might of my own hand has gotten me this wealth, but remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth” (Deut 8:12, 17).

I have believed these things all my adult life; but recently my understanding of them has deepened. Several months before my mother died, she resigned as trustee of her living trust, and made me the successor trustee. So I have been managing her finances for most of this year, and it is only my second experience of managing someone else’s money. The first experience was the 4 year term I had as chair of Diocesan Council, managing the income and expenditures of the Diocese, but I was not doing that alone ~~ I had the bishop and 22 council members to help me. Now with my mother’s estate, it is up to me to \ decide. I find myself asking all the time, what would she want me to do, how would she want me to decide? And to answer those questions, I have needed to think about what her values were, and confer with my sister.

I propose to you that we stand in a similar relationship to God. We are each trustees of the life we have been given, and trustees of the education we have received, trustees of our families, and of the income, and assets we have. We must ask ourselves, how would God want me to spend my life, use my education, develop my skills, and put my income to use? And what are the values of God, by which I should make my decisions? I hope and trust that you all know what God values, but just in case there is someone in church today who is new to the Christian faith, I will say that God values love, compassion, forgiveness, generosity, humility, peace and justice. All that I have said, is the framework in which I hope you will think about making a pledge to St. Thomas of what you will give in 2008. There are two big reasons to make a pledge. The less important reason is that the Vestry needs to make and approve a budget before the end of this year, preferably well before Christmas! In addition to the usual cost of keeping the power on and the salaries paid, we hope to expand our ministry by hiring a part-time youth director, to take over from Rosemary a task that she has been doing, but is not part of her job description. For several years we have been trying to welcome more children (and of course their parents); now we would like to give more attention to our teenagers. You may be aware that we used to have a full-time administrator at St. Thomas, but we have not been able to pay for full time work for several years. Meanwhile, there are many things that our Administrator cannot do in the 25 hours a week she works. We would like to increase her hours.

The more important reason I hope you will make a pledge next Sunday, is that giving to the work of the church is part of our spiritual commitment to God as trustees of God’s “property”. Making a pledge is about our own recognition of ourselves as trustees or stewards. Along with that recognition, comes the invitation to imitate God’s generosity. This is part of what holiness is about: the willingness to give of oneself. Now, I imagine that most of you are with me on this theology--that there is real spiritual value to making a commitment of giving. And I guess that some of you are thinking, Yes, but . . . I don’t know what my income will be next year, Yes but I can’t afford to give very much . . .Yes, but what if I find I can’t fulfill the pledge I make? Well for this year of 2007, we have 108 pledges, but we are aware of giving by 25 or 30 additional households that give frequently but have not pledged. So I want all of you to know that every pledge is important to God, and to the parish, no matter what amount it is. I also want you to know that if you make a pledge, and discover halfway into the year that it is bigger than you can manage, you can always tell us that you need to reduce your pledge to a lower amount, and we can plan accordingly. Our pledge cards are signature-optional, as a way of emphasizing that the pledge is primarily a commitment we make to God.

The important thing is to participate in the spiritual principle that the more you give the more you receive. Today’s Gospel reading points to this in a paradoxical way. Probably when Jesus told this parable he expected his listeners to identify with the widow who begged for justice, and remember their own experiences of unjust treatment. Then when the judge gave in to the widow, some disciple probably said to Jesus, what does this story mean? And Jesus would have said, God is the opposite of that unjust judge. God really cares about his people, and God cares about justice! Don’t make the mistake of thinking God is too busy or too exalted to listen to your plea. Trust God to hear your prayer the first time . . .”I tell you” Jesus said, “God will quickly grant justice to them”. In other words, God is eager to give us the good things we need. There are many places where Jesus says this in a more positive way:

“Ask and it will be given to you . . . for everyone who asks, receives . . . Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake? . . . If you then, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good things to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:7-11). The best positive statement comes from early in the Gospel of Luke: “Give, and it will be given to you, A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give, will be the measure you get back” (6:38).

I ask you, therefore, to reflect on these spiritual principles of sharing, of trustee-ship, of receiving back as much, or more, than you give. And then I hope you will pray about your pledge for 2008, asking for God’s guidance.

Next Sunday, everyone who is making a pledge, will come forward to place our pledges upon God’s table, this altar. It is a table at which all are welcome, and all have an equal place. Come, prepared both to give, and to receive.