The following sermon was presented on Stewardship Sunday, November 18, 1984, at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The speaker is the Rev. John W. Howe, Rector of the Parish. The title is, What Did You Do With My Money? And the scripture reference is the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, Verses 14, 15, and 19-25. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew, written in the 25th chapter and beginning at the 14th verse. For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his ability.

Then he went away. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward bringing five talents more and saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents.

Here I have made five talents more. And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, Master, you delivered to me two talents.

Here I have made two talents more. And his master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also who had received one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you did not winnow.

So I was afraid, and I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant!

You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gathered where I have not winnowed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the who has the ten talents, for to everyone who will be given more.

and he will have abundance. But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness.

Their men will weep and gnash their teeth. The Gospel of the Lord. One of the very biggest debates that went on behind the scenes when they were revising the liturgy was whether you should put the sermon before or after the offertory. Either way is chancy. I'm reminded of one clergyman who was called in by the treasurer one Sunday afternoon.

He said, I don't know what to do with this. I got this in the offering plate and there was an I.O.U. He said, I owe you $10.

And they all thought it was a joke. And the next week there was another one. IOU $750.

A week after that, there was another one. IOU $25. Came to the end of the month, and there was a check made out for the sum total of all those various IOUs.

And that became a pattern. And the clergyman decided finally that there must be some correlation between how he did in the sermon and what the size of the IOU was. And that was definitely borne out when one day he got a note that said, You owe me $426.

Believe it or not, I really didn't pick the gospel reading this morning. It's the one assigned by the lectionary. What an appropriate one for a stewardship Sunday.

You remember the story. It says a man was going on a journey, and so he called together his servants, and he entrusted to them his property. And then after a while, we're not told how long it was that he was away, he came back again, and he called his servants back together, and he said, give me an account.

What have you done with my money? And I submit to you that that's the stewardship question in a nutshell. Jesus Christ has gone away.

We don't know for how long. He's left us here on earth entrusted with what belongs to Him. And one day, He's coming back.

We don't know when. And we'll behold Him face to face. And I suspect he'll have rather a good deal to say to each one of us.

And some piercing questions among them will certainly be this one. What did you do with my money? How did you use it?

What did you do with my property that was entrusted to you? I'm sure that none of us who had the privilege of going to Shrinemont in 1982 will ever forget Pat Robertson's meditation on this particular passage. He called it the law of use.

And in fact, it became one of the chapters in his book on the laws of the kingdom, the secret kingdom, the law of use. And he said that this particular parable reflects a law that is built into the fabric of the whole creation. Everything in the universe is subject to it.

Some people will recognize it, most won't. but it is built into the way things are that what you use will grow and multiply and what you neglect will atrophy and wither away. And that's true whether we're talking about money which you invest and make grow and earn more money or whether we're talking about physical exercise that will build up our bodies or whether we're talking about having a natural singing gift and developing it and getting lessons and vocal exercises and hours of practice as Sheila has done so that you bring it to the highest possible level of excellence. What you use will grow.

It'll get better. It'll multiply. And what you neglect will wither away.

Interesting. You stop and think about it. If you were to start doing push-ups today, however few you might be able to do, and you do them every day for six months and add a couple each day as you go on, hey, by the end of that time you're going to be bursting out of your shirt like the Incredible Hulk.

But you know, if you were to take your arm and strap it to your side, as some Buddhist monks have done as a form of penance, six months later you'll never use it again. Because the joints will have calcified and the muscles will have atrophied. And the law is, use it or lose it.

Use it or lose it. And that's the point of this parable. But don't twist it and don't miss the real heart of this.

It's not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's that God wants us to use what He's entrusted to us for His purposes. And that doesn't apply only to money, mind you.

It applies to everything. Whatever He's entrusted to us, He expects us to use for Him. I think it's a fascinating play on words, a lovely accident that the currency spoken of in this parable is called a talent.

Because God has given to each one of us many talents. and He wants us to use them for Him. What have you done with the gifts, the talents that God has given to you?

Are you using them for His purpose? That applies not just to money, but it certainly includes our money. And then there's this one fellow in the story and he says, you see, I didn't have a chance.

You know, if only I'd had what He was given, I mean, he started with five talents, and look what he did with them. Now, if I'd had that guy's chance, I really could have done something, but I just had this one measly little talent. And Jesus says, it's not how much you start with, but it's what you do with what you've got.

I'm interested in a little phrase. I wonder if this struck you. It says, he gave to one five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.

Maybe you've only got one little talent, but that's what God has entrusted to you. And he says, you can handle that one. Now what are you going to do with it?

Well, I wish I had his chance. And this fellow takes his one talent and he buries it in the ground. He says, I'm not going to take any risks with it.

I'm going to protect it. His master comes back and he says, here it is. Haven't lost any of it.

Take what is yours. Listen to the words of Jesus. But his master answered him, you wicked and slothful servant.

You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I have not winnowed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming I would have at least received what was my own with interest.

so take that talent away from him and give it to somebody who knows what to do with it that's very sobering isn't it take it away from him use it or lose it this subject of stewardship has been before us as a parish for the last couple of weeks and I've had four different people come up and speak to me about it, and I thought I'd share with you their comments this morning. The first one was a young woman who spoke to me after the 9.30 service last week. I came out the door, she was standing in front of the church, and as I came out the door she burst into tears, and I thought, I can't look that bad.

And I said, what's the matter? And she said, I've just come back from Guatemala. I've been on missionary work there.

And what she thought she heard Jim and Dave saying as they bore witness last week was a kind of a gospel of prosperity. Just press the right button and get your blessing. And she said, I've been in a part of the world where there is horrific poverty.

And some of the folks there are trying desperately to be very obedient to God and they're still impoverished. And she said, it just, it troubles me so much to hear that. And I said, you know, you're absolutely right.

You're absolutely right. There is terrible, devastating poverty in various parts of the world. Ethiopia is starving to death.

And praise God that the church is rising up at last and doing something about it. There's a note in your service leaflet. We have opportunity to participate in that effort through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.

and I hope you heard the epistle this morning because Paul said the point of your prosperity is that you would be able to do something about those who are in poverty that's why he's given you prosperity but I said I don't think that's exactly what Dave and Jim were trying to say I think what they were trying to say was that they have begun to trust God in this particular area of their lives and they found Him blessing them in unexpected ways. And I hope you heard the one comment that Jim made. It went by very fast, but it was very important.

Did you hear him say about one of his clients who started tithing and said a year later, I'm making less now than I was a year ago. And Jim said, how's the rest of your life? And he said, my marriage is better than it's ever been.

My kids are doing fine. God does promise blessing when we obey Him it's not necessarily going to come in financial terms but hey, He promises to bless us whenever we obey Him in whatever area we're talking about and Dave and Jim were simply bearing witness to the fact that they've begun to trust Him with their finances and sure enough God has fulfilled His promise and blessed them in wonderful ways you know so far at least I have yet to meet anybody who has begun tithing and then backed away from it maybe there's somebody here who has done that but they've never told me about it I have yet to meet anybody who has begun tithing and then it's turned sour and they've given up on it because God calls us to do this and He promises that He'll provide for our needs and there will be overflowing blessings attending our obedience. Well, a second lady called me a couple of days after last week's service and she said, I wanted to somehow share this during the service but there wasn't any opportunity.

She said, I want you to know that during the communion time last Sunday I was having visions. And I saw as clearly as I could see the Lord Jesus moving among us, walking up and down the aisles of this church, stopping with this one, stopping with that one, putting an arm around a shoulder, whispering to somebody, and He was encouraging us. And she said, I just had the sense that so many people are fearful of trusting Him with their finances.

and Jesus was moving among us to encourage us. And she said, I heard these words. Don't evaluate your relationship to me by your service, but evaluate your service by your relationship to me.

Does that sound vaguely familiar to you? Peter, do you love me? If you do, then serve me.

Care for my sheep. If your relationship with me is what it's supposed to be, then translate that into service. How's your relationship with the Lord?

Where are you? A third person wrote me a note and asked me to comment on the teaching that is very prevalent these days, that one's tithe should go to the local church, and then one's offerings go wherever you feel the Lord is directing you, to other special ministries. And I said, I think a case can be made for that, but I refuse to make it.

I think that's a matter of personal conviction, and you need to seek out the Lord, because the real issue is, is he Lord of your finances? And if he is, then he can tell you where the tithe is supposed to go. I joke about the fact that I got converted by my own sermon in 1977 and doubled my pledge.

But what happened, in fact, was in the midst of that service, I really felt God speaking to me and saying just exactly that. Up to that point, I was giving half my tithe to Truro and half elsewhere, I felt him saying to me, give it to Toro. But that's a matter of personal conviction.

But I added this. I said, I think it's awfully exciting that when we do give together, then we can disperse together. And as a body, we can seek the mind of Christ and we can do things corporately that are so much beyond anything that any of us could do individually that it really is terribly exciting.

and then just a couple of days ago I got another note from a fourth person that said this dear John about stewardship with so many of us already committed to tithing I'm wondering if we aren't ready to be challenged by some questions that push us into the gray areas regarding lifestyle For example, is it truly representative of biblical stewardship to own a luxury automobile when a Ford would do? Is it ever right to be extravagant? Is the bargain cotton shirt made in India by children under virtual slave labor a legitimate purchase for a Christian?

stewardship, this person said, is more than concurring with God about the dollar amount we will give to the church in particular and His work in general. Stewardship is our whole life. And that's the point.

I think that's the point Jesus was making. That's the point of this Sunday. we're not really about the business of raising a budget we're about the business of being faithful to the Lord as our Savior our God one day we will behold Him face to face are you looking forward to that?

one day we'll see Him in all His glory and among other questions he'll ask us what did you do with my money it's an intensely personal question what did you do with my money for those of you who have not been part of a stewardship Sunday at Toro before I need to explain. We do it somewhat uniquely here. The ushers will come among us in just a moment and distribute pledge cards which have two parts to them.

I have the sound of a thousand pledge cards tearing here. On the left-hand side, there's a place to fill in the dollar amount that you believe God would have you give to Toro. and then a place to check off whether that's weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually.

Please make sure those agree. In other words, if you put down an annual figure, don't check weekly, even if that's how you're going to give it. I mean, Billy will be very excited, but that will get us all in big trouble.

It also has a place where, if you're ready, you could check off either of two statements. I hereby commit myself to the biblical standard of tithing and this dollar amount represents a portion of that given to Truro or two, I hereby take a specific step in a definite program to get there because it may be that you've come to believe this teaching but you couldn't do it in one step and it has to take two or three years or whatever it might be. notice that there is no place here for a signature you may sign it if you wish and some of you may wish to do that but this is between you and the Lord we want you to fill in a card because we want to make responsible decisions in dispersing that money and we need to know at least roughly what to expect in terms of income but we don't need to know what you in particular are giving in response to what Jesus is saying to you.

The other half of the card gives you the opportunity, if you like, to write yourself a little note of what you think God is saying to you at this particular moment. And then you seal it. We're not going to open this.

This also is between you and the Lord, but we'll mail it back to you in a few months' time just as a reminder of what you sensed God was saying to you today. On the bottom of the letter half it says this, All things come from You, O Lord, and of Your own have we given You. Let's bow our heads together.

dear Lord Jesus you've given us so much you've given us everything Lord help the fearful among us to trust you help all of us to hear you speak personally specifically to each of us Lord we want to be faithful in this area as in all areas of our lives and we ask you to be exalted here in our midst and throughout the world for your own namesake. Amen.