The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on November 4, 1984. The title is, Put More In, Get More Out. 

A couple of years ago at our annual diocesan council, Reverend John Guernsey, who was that year's chairman of the Stewardship Commission of the diocese, recounted the story of one of the Little Peanuts cartoon strips. You may have seen it, in which the first box has Linus kind of rubbing his stomach and saying, I never ate so much chicken in my life. And Lucy comes along and picks out something from his plate and holds it up and says, This is a wishbone.

What we've got to do is we each make a wish, and then we break it, and whoever gets the bigger piece gets their wish. And Linus says, Do we have to make our wish out loud? And Lucy says, Of course, you dummy.

If you don't say it out loud, the wish answerer won't know what to give you. And Linus says, I apologize for being so stupid. So Lucy goes first.

And she says, I wish for a new doll and a new pair of skates and a new bicycle and four new sweaters, three new skirts, some new saddle shoes, new wristwatch and about $100. Linus thinks about it for a moment and he says, I wish for long life for all my friends, peace in the world, greater advancement in the fields of science and medicine. About this point, Lucy walks off in disgust saying, you always have a way of ruining everything.

And John Guernsey said, I'm introducing the subject of stewardship which a lot of Christians have the feeling always has a way of ruining everything. I'm introducing it this morning. It's before us as a congregation, as the family of Truro this month, and the newsletter has already commented on it briefly.

Stewardship Sunday is actually two weeks from today, but it seems to me that it would be well to introduce it a little bit in advance because my perception over the last several years is that somehow enough of us do have a feeling that that whole subject has a way of spoiling everything, that we don't really think much about it until it's upon us. And we don't pray about it, and we don't study the Scripture, and we don't talk about it in our families, And when Stewardship Sunday comes, we're not really prepared to act responsibly. And so I do introduce this subject, and it's not primarily because I've got a long wish list, although I do, but that's not why.

But rather, if I could borrow some words of St. Paul to the Ephesians, he said this. He said, My prayer is that you would begin to know what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God. It's a good prayer, isn't it?

My prayer is that you would begin to know what is the length and breadth and height and depth of the love of Christ and be filled with the fullness of God. and part of that you see involves our response to God it's His grace but His grace is rendered ineffective if we're not open to receiving it and open to responding to it and open to obeying what He says and part of that in turn involves our being responsible in the area of stewardship so it's not primarily to raise a budget but it's primarily to get in on God's plan for our lives. Get in on the blessings that He has.

Some of which involve being obedient in the matter of material possessions. I want us to think about it before it hits us in two weeks time. I wonder if you're aware of the fact, I heard this and I could hardly believe it.

I went and checked and it turned out to be true. that more than half of Jesus' parables and other teachings have specifically to do with the matter of money and material possessions. Did you know that?

More than half. And some people get all kinds of bent out of shape when the church presumes to mention this once a year. Jesus preached on it every other week.

Stewardship Sunday every other week. How do you like that? I know a lot of clergy who will never preach on it.

You see, they've bought into a mindset that says spiritual things are over here and material things are over here. And the clergy deal with spiritual things and somebody else deals with material things. That's not the view of Jesus.

Jesus' view was that your material possessions and what you do with them are part and parcel of being a spiritual person. One of the ways in which we express our spiritual commitments, whatever they might be, is in terms of how we deal with our money. No one clergyman who when he has to speak on the subject once a year, Stewardship Sunday, he comes down out of the pulpit and takes off his vestments.

Because it's not appropriate to speak on it as from the pulpit. No, that's dead wrong. Dead wrong.

Jesus says this is an intensely spiritual matter. As a matter of fact, if you go through the Scripture, both Old and New Testament, the subject of money and how you use your money and what you do with it comes up over 600 times. Did you know that?

It's a very important subject. And I think it's a fair generalization to say this, That whenever the Bible talks about money and possessions and material goods and so on, it's making one or the other of two statements. Almost every time, it's making one or the other of two statements.

The first one is that the greatest single threat to our relationship to God can be, can be, doesn't have to be, but it can be. The greatest single threat to our relationship to God can be money. And you can think of story after story, parable after parable.

Perhaps the most dramatic is when the rich young ruler comes to Jesus. You remember the story. He comes and asks the most important question that you could ever ask.

Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, keep the commandments. and this young man has really the audacity to say, I've kept them.

But strangely enough, Jesus doesn't rebuke him for that and say, you liar, you hypocrite, you haven't done that. It says Jesus looked at him and loved him. He loved him.

And he said, you may have done a pretty good job in terms of your human relationships. You may be a good citizen, you may be a good neighbor, but you know you lack one thing. You've made a God out of your money.

And that God stands between you and the real God. And until you get rid of that false God, you're never going to be rightly related to the real God. Tell you what you do.

Sell what you have. Give it away to the poor and come follow me. You remember the story?

It says the rich young ruler went away sorrowfully shaking his head because that was too much to ask. He wanted eternal life. He wanted to be rightly related with God.

He wanted to know Jesus. He wanted his life to be filled with the joy of salvation. But he had made a God of that which wasn't God.

And he couldn't give it up. And I'm interested that Jesus did not go running after him and say, Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, no, it's okay. You didn't understand.

Let me say it a different way. Let me lower the standard a little bit. He didn't do that.

He loved him and let him go. He left him the awesome, the frightening freedom to choose and let him go. Or you might think of the rich fool.

God himself says, you fool. He was a farmer and he was doing so well that he had to keep tearing down his barns and building bigger ones. He was accumulating so much wealth he couldn't contain it.

Build a bigger and bigger barn and God Himself comes one night and says, you fool. Because this night your soul is required of you. And you can't take it with you.

You've had your whole life you didn't use your money for any of the right things you never blessed anybody with it you never extended my kingdom with it you just hoarded it you got more and more you didn't even enjoy it you just put it away somewhere this night your soul is required of you and you can't take it with you I don't know about you I don't really want to hear God say to me you fool or even more devastating yet The rich man burning in hell. Mind you, this is Jesus teaching. A man sent to hell and burning in hell.

And he pleads to God, won't you please send somebody to just dip his finger in the water and come wet my lips with a drop or two of cold water. And God says, in your life, you never did anything for anybody. That's where you are where you are.

That's why you're there. And I'm sorry, I can't send anybody because the distance between heaven and hell is too great. Again and again, the Bible warns that if we make a God out of our money, a God out of our possessions, that will get in the way of the true God and in the end, we'll have no God.

Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven images to bow down before them. Don't worship that which is material. Worship that which is material and you'll end up having nothing.

because it's not the real God. Have no other gods before me or you'll end up with nothing at all. The greatest single threat can be our material possessions.

They end up possessing us. But secondly, the Bible turns right around and makes almost the exact opposite statement and says that money can be, can be, one of the greatest assets in our relationship to God. It's a matter of our attitude toward it.

It's a matter of how we use it. If we're using the money that God has allowed us to have in our pocketbook to bless people, to extend the kingdom of Christ, it can be one of the greatest assets in our relationship to Him. And again, you can think of story after story.

The poor widow who comes to the temple one day and drops in two little copper coins worth about a penny. And Jesus says, Hey, stop, everybody, stop. Did you see that?

That lady gave more than all those rich people writing their big checks because they just took a little bit that they'll never miss. And she gave her whole living. And some of the highest words of praise that He ever gave to anybody were for this poor little widow.

We don't even know her name. Because he used her money for what was right. Or Zacchaeus, the tax collector who had sold out his own people.

And one day Jesus comes to town and he gets converted and he repents. And he says, half of my goods I'm giving away to the poor. And if there's anybody I've defrauded, I'm going to pay him back four times over.

And Jesus says, today salvation has come to this man's house. Because he knew what to do with his money. or the woman of the streets who comes in to a dinner party and she's a scandal to even be there she comes in repentant weeping loving Jesus because he's loved her and she begins to anoint his feet with costly ointment and again Jesus praises her while Judas grumbles about it you remember the story or the Samaritan who most Jews wouldn't even speak to Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

But Jesus uses this man as an example because he's the one that stops and rescues the guy lying in the ditch. He binds up his wounds, takes him to the hospital, and then says, whatever his bill is, charge it to me. And Jesus said that man knew what it was to be a neighbor.

Mind you, every one of these examples are from the lips of Jesus Himself. Every one of them. And we've just scratched the surface.

and he's saying money can be used as a tremendously destructive force or a tremendously constructive force in and of itself it's neutral in and of itself it's neutral a lot of people misquote Jesus at this point they say money is the root of all evil he never said that he said the love of money the inordinate craving the lust the insatiable desire for money is at the root of all evil. But money itself is neutral. It's like bricks.

You can use a brick to build a cathedral or you can bash your neighbor over the head with it. In and of itself it's neutral. But money is a powerful neutral, friends.

You can either use it destructively or constructively. I submit to you that until our pocketbooks, until our wallets, until our checkbooks and our bank accounts are converted to Jesus, there's something that doesn't quite connect when we call ourselves Christians. When I say to Jesus, I accept You as my Lord, but I'm going to hang on to my wallet, there's something that doesn't quite make it.

It's like the Visigoths back in the Middle Ages. I'm told that when they got converted to Christ, they loved fighting and warring so much that as they went down to the river to be baptized, they'd hold their swords up high and they'd only be baptized up to here, you see. Keep the sword out of the water.

And a whole lot of Episcopalians have gone down to baptism. Your wallet never even got moist, I'll tell you. Two weeks from today we come to Stewardship Sunday.

And there are some materials in the mail. As I mentioned, the newsletter has already alluded to this. There are some things in the mail in about a week's time that talk about budget and program and so on.

And I commend those to your study. Hope you'll take those very seriously and be prepared to come on Stewardship Sunday. But you know, it's not primarily a matter of concern about the budget because in all honesty, next year's budget is rather modest compared to where we've been with the church expansion fund on top of everything else the last three years.

That's not why I'm raising this matter. I'm raising this matter because God wants us to take it utmost seriously. And they're blessings that accrue to us as we begin to.

In 1979, at this point of the year when we anticipated the 1980 budget, we studied this whole matter as a vestry, and out of that Bible study came a little booklet, and the vestry unanimously appended their names to it and sent it out to the whole parish. It was called, Bring in the full tithes and see. Bring in the full tithes and see.

Now that's a quote from Malachi, in which God Himself lays a challenge. He says, come on now, bring in the full tithes into my storehouse and put me to the test and see if I won't open the windows of heaven and pour down upon you an overflowing blessing. Now some of you say you believe in the scientific method.

Try it. See what happens. There's a challenge from Almighty God.

And we say we believe in Him enough to trust Him with our souls for all of eternity. Are you willing to trust Him with your bank account for one year? Bring in the full tithes and see what happens.

See what happens. This is for your sake. Okay?

And I try to be very careful whenever we get on to this subject. We're not talking about tithing to Truro Church. I think a case can be made for that, that you tithe to the place where you are primarily plugged in.

But I'm not making that case. We're talking about tithing to the Lord. And then you and He decide together where that tithe gets spent.

I want to submit to you that there are two major biblical principles that inform this whole subject. And I'd ask you to really let these begin to get into your mind and your heart and your will. And share them with your family.

Talk to your kids about it. Talk to your husbands and wives and allow this to be something that you really pray through together. The first principle is this, that you and I are called to be stewards.

It's a good word. Stewards. The steward is somebody who is given the management of that which belongs to somebody else.

And that's what we're called to be. And there's no escaping it. That's who we are, whether you like that or not.

If you belong to Jesus, if you really belong to Him, then that means that everything you have belongs to Him. And therefore, it really isn't yours. It's His, and you're managing it.

You follow what I'm saying? I wonder if that's ever really gotten into your head. What you call my clothes.

My car. My furniture. My books.

My food. It's not yours. All things come from you, O Lord.

And what? Of your own. They come from Him and they're still His even while we manage them.

Of your own have we given back to you. And the wonder of it is He gives us complete freedom in this matter. I mean, you can do whatever you like.

It's yours. Go ahead and use it as if it were yours, but it isn't. And one day there will be an accounting. And the king called his servants and said to them, What have you done with my money?

That's what it means to be a steward. That's what it means to be a Christian. We're under his lordship.

It's his. And the second principle that runs right alongside of it, in fact, is all interwoven with it. I've already alluded to this.

But it's probably one that most Christians balk over as much as they balk over anything. and that's the principle of tithing. Within the framework of being a steward of everything that God has entrusted to us, within that, there's the principle of tithing.

That the minimum standard, the minimum standard of what I give directly back to God for His direct use is 10% off the top. And an awful lot of Christians will quarrel with me on that one. I think that's partly through ignorance because the church hasn't taught it.

It's partly because we deliberately ignore what the scripture has to say because it's very uncomfortable. But it's a principle that goes all the way back at least as far as Abraham. Abraham gave a tenth of what he had right off the top to God 2,000 years before Jesus.

And it's been a principle that has continued all the way through holy history until now. Book of Leviticus, for instance. It says it over and over and over again.

I'll just read you one passage from the 27th chapter. All the tithe, you heard that? All of it.

All the tithe, the full tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. Do you understand that? we're not talking about giving.

That's what you owe God before you begin giving. That's why the Scripture makes the distinction between tithes and offerings. The tithe is a given.

You don't even begin to offer until after that. And people say, oh yeah, but listen, that's Old Testament. And we're New Testament people.

That's law and we're gospel. You know, that's rules and regulations and legalism and we're under grace and it doesn't apply to us anymore. That is not true, friends.

That is a total misunderstanding. Now let me tell you, it is true that we're under grace, but we always have been. Nobody was ever saved because they earned it.

Never. Okay? And it is true that Jesus repeatedly comes along and says, now you have heard it said, and He quotes from the Old Testament, but I say to you, something else, but you go back and look for yourself every single time that he does that he raises the standard he doesn't lower it he doesn't dismiss it he doesn't say that doesn't apply anymore he raises the standard that's found in the Sermon on the Mount you go back and check it out Matthew 5-7 and see if I'm not right Jesus says you have heard it said thou shalt not kill but I say to you if you hate your brother in your heart you've killed him already he didn't say that's not important he didn't say we're going to do away with the laws against murder he said it starts with the heart he raises the standard you have heard it said thou shalt not steal but I say to you if you covet you've stolen already he raises the standard you have heard it said thou shalt not commit adultery but I say to you if you look at a woman lustfully you've committed adultery with her in your heart.

Do you follow what I'm saying? Every time. Jesus says, don't think I've come to abolish the law.

I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And I tell you, not the tiniest dot in the law will pass away until it's all been accomplished. Now can't you just hear Jesus saying, you have heard it said, thou shalt tithe, but I say to you, that's unimportant, forget it.

No. I say to you, we're talking about everything belongs to God. And you're going to give an account for all of it. But within that, as the absolutely minimum standard, God has said, a tithe comes back to Him.

And the wonder of it is that He's promised to bless you. Open the windows of heaven and pour out an overflowing blessing at the point that you begin to do that. Jesus did make one interesting comment on this subject.

People say, you know, He really never speaks about tithing. Listen, He doesn't say much about it. It's not because He thinks it's unimportant or because He's doing away with the principle.

it's because everybody already knew it and he takes it for granted. But he did make one fascinating comment on the subject to the Pharisees. He said, woe to you hypocrites, for you tithe.

They were scrupulous in their tithing. It's one thing they really did do right. Woe to you hypocrites, for you tithe, mint and dill and cumin, but you've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy and faith.

you see he's saying you've kept the minimum standard that's good so far as it goes but your heart has not been there he says you ought not to have neglected those weightier things but listen that's not the end of the story the tag end these you ought to have done says jesus without neglecting the others you get it there are weightier things there are more important than tithing. Be involved in justice. Be involved in mercy.

Be involved in faith. These are the most important things. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others.

Without neglecting tithing. So those two principles form a framework. We're called to be stewards.

Everything I have, everything I have is lent to me by God. And I'm accountable for all of it. And he's going to ask me one day, what did you do with my money?

And within that, as an absolute bare bones minimum, it's not we're going to work our way up to the tithe and then finally made it, you know. Hey, that's where you begin. You don't even count anything until after that.

Not to Truro. To God. Let Him tell you where it goes.

it's a wonderful story of an episcopal clergyman who is invited to preach in a little country parish and he got there a little bit earlier early before the service was to begin and he looked around and noticed a little box on the back wall and he assumed it was an alms box for gifts to the poor and so he reached in his pocket and he only had a couple of quarters and he dropped them in and at the end of the service the senior warden came up to him and he was kind of apologetic and he said, Father, I need to tell you that we're such a small parish that we don't have anything in the budget for guest preachers. He said, but we do have this box on the back wall. And people know that they're to give for guest preachers and you've given us such a marvelous sermon today.

I'm sure there's going to be a very lovely honorarium in there. And so he opens up the box and sure enough, there are the two quarters. and the clergyman goes home and he's recounting this story to his family at dinner and they're all kind of chuckling over it and in the middle of the discussion his little boy pipes up very seriously and said, but daddy, you don't understand if you had put more in you'd have gotten more out let's bow our heads together Father in heaven, help us to put more in.

First and foremost, because you are so worthy of our offering back to you, gifts befitting a king. Secondly, because your kingdom here on earth needs to be financed and you've given us the privilege of sharing in the work of extending it. And thirdly, because though we excuse ourselves as being only middle class people, we live more prosperously than most of the kings and princes in all of human history.

And You've said unto those to whom much is given, from them shall much be required. Lord, we pray that You'd give us a sense of boldness and excitement and adventure as we begin to take You more seriously in the matter of stewardship of that which You've entrusted to us. For Jesus' sake.

Amen.