Sermons

The Very Rev. Tracey Lind
The 23rd Sunday after Pentecost
October 19, 2008
Stewardship on Euclid Avenue

I want to begin this morning by saying how grateful I am for something called the lectionary. Most of you good Episcopalians know what the lectionary is. It is the ordering of our readings from Holy Scripture through a three-year cycle. And I have to say I'm really glad that we are a lectionary people and that I am a lectionary preacher because it forces me to work my way through all of Holy Scripture and not to simply pick and choose that which would be most convenient for the day.

And I have to say it's pretty funny that we determined the date of Stewardship Sunday about, oh I don't know, maybe six or eight months ago, without any idea that these would be this morning's readings. One of the things that I love about the lectionary is that it always surprises us and provides just the text we might need to hear. I also want to share with you that I bring greetings from St. Petersburg Florida from St. Peter's Episcopal Cathedral where I had the occasion to deliver their stewardship talk this past week on Thursday.

Now, it was quite a challenge, not the least of which because the economy was falling apart, stock prices were dropping, and I was talking to a principally retired congregation. But it was also challenging because I had to give a stewardship talk on a night when their baseball team was in the playoff finals with the Red Sox. And they were in the same situation we found ourselves in a year ago, and so I had to find a way to make sure I had a way to say something of substance and get them out of there on time.

And I remembered a headline from the Plain Dealer: "Stewardship on Euclid Avenue." Some of you probably remember that headline. I couldn't have said it better myself. These words were on the editorial page of the Plain Dealer on the Thursday before Stewardship Sunday in 2002. Unbeknownst to us, as we were about to open and to dedicate Trinity Commons, our local newspaper, the bastion of secularism, recognized our building project as stewardship. "Stewardship on Euclid Avenue," were the words as big and as bold as they could possibly be in the top editorial of the newspaper that morning. And yes, stewardship is what Trinity Commons is all about: the stewardship of our property, our endowment, our environment, and our community.

Trinity Commons also represents the stewardship of the time, talent and treasure of so many dedicated people, past and present--and yet to come. Thank God, in the midst of our crazy, mixed-up world, the efforts of Trinity Cathedral and the Diocese of Ohio were recognized for what they were intended - an act of stewardship. You know we say, "Stewardship is everything we do with all that we have all of the time." As you know from the readings over the past few weeks, we really are tenants in God's vineyard. And so everything we do with everything we have all of the time represents living as responsible and good tenants of God's vineyard.

Stewardship is about our money, time, talent, influence, bodies, environment, families, work, and I would like to suggest this morning that it is also about our vote. The stewardship of our citizenship. Stewardship collectively is about our buildings, endowments, operating budgets, human resources - volunteer and paid. Stewardship is about giving back the first portion of the gifts that God has given us.

You know, when I was a kid, I really got the message about the old 80-20 rule. Live on 80 percent of what you make, give away ten percent and save ten percent. Now the truth of the matter is I've been really good about giving away ten percent since I started working. I wish I'd been as good at the second half of that; at the saving ten percent. But I wasn't; I guess I never thought I'd get old enough to worry about it. And so like some of you, my hunch would be more of a few of you, I'm playing catch up right now. But my experience is giving away that first ten percent has been a powerful transforming experience all the days of my life. And I will tell you there is nothing more rewarding in my life then when at the end of the year Emily and I sit down and say "where is that ten percent going to go for the rest of the year." It is a way of putting our money where our values are. It is a way of getting to change the world. It is a way of making our efforts really count.

And I would like to suggest to you this morning that there is no better place to emphasize stewardship, to embody stewardship, to incarnate stewardship than an urban cathedral. While the word cathedral is derived from the Latin word cathedra, which literally means, "the seat of a bishop," the great cathedrals of western civilization have served as centers of urban life. They have been sacred places of beauty, safety and serenity as well as powerful institutions of worship, education, service and social change, even in the darkest times of humanity. I believe in all of my heart that modern cathedrals, especially urban cathedrals, are called to continue in this noble tradition. If a cathedral lives into its fullest God-given mission and its fullest God-given vocation, it literally becomes the crossroads of a city and the heartbeat of its people. It really truly becomes a piazza. Like the grand cathedrals of old, our urban cathedrals can and should be reflections of the best of our faith, living and breathing monuments for all who struggle to set the spirit free. And they are places of stewardship, profound stewardship, generous stewardship, lifelong stewardship from cradle to grave where the time, talent and treasure of God's people is called forth for service in the world.

Almost eight years ago, we did set off on a big, hairy, audacious vision to become a great cathedral, to become a vibrant and inclusive and growing community of faith, to become leading institution in this city. We set out to be sacred public space in the heart of downtown for all of God's people to share. And that's what the Plain Dealer recognized in that editorial as "Stewardship on Euclid Avenue."

Eight years later, Trinity Commons has become a success beyond our wildest imagination. Forty thousand people a year come through our doors, not for worship, not for diocesan events, not for cathedral meetings, not even to shop or eat in the storefronts. But over 40,000 people a year come through our doors for over 2,000 community events. My friends, in a shrinking city, that's a lot of people. And you know about what we do here. You know about the music we make, the hungry we serve and have fed for a quarter of a century, you know about our educational programs, you know about our worship because you experience it, and about our Sunday school and our youth groups, about our small groups, about our outreach into the community, about our work with Marion Sterling and the garden, our efforts for peace and justice.

But I want to tell you about something else, something you might not know about. Trinity Commons, this campus, Trinity Cathedral, this holy place, is not only a place for concerts and art exhibits and dinners and worship. It is also a place of difficult and important conversation. Trinity is the place where the RTA decided to have its union negotiations. Because it was safe space and holy space. And people could get away from the negotiating table to pray, or walk the labyrinth, or buy a cup of coffee.

Trinity is the place where the ACLU gathered with gang leaders and the police and neighborhood community activists to talk about ending gang violence in this city. Why? Because it is a safe space, a respectful space, a place where, when you enter, it says "Leave your guns behind."

Trinity is the place where the NAACP called law enforcement officials together, and community leaders, to talk about racial profiling. Why? Because it is a safe space, and a holy space, and a respected space.

Trinity Commons is the place where the local food movement, where sustainability groups gather, because we do our best putting our money where our mouth is, because Trinity Commons is a sustainable space. Trinity Commons is the place where neighborhood groups and community development corporations are meeting to talk about rebuilding the city. Why? Because it is a safe space, a sacred place, and because they know we deeply care about this city.

Trinity Commons is a place for board retreats and staff retreats and Vestry retreats, a place to have hard and complicated conversations. It is the place of public launches and peace demonstrations and press conferences and gatherings of celebration and of protest. Because it is God's space.

Trinity Commons is the place where the National Council of Jewish Women, in this very nave, were able to gather and to invite their Palestinian neighbors here in Cleveland to talk about Israel and Palestine. Why? Because it is a house of prayer for all of God's people and we are intentional in all we say and do and the ways in which we work to honor people of other faiths. Because Trinity is a safe place, a sacred place, a place of the community.

A couple weeks ago we had a crazy day here, I think it was a Tuesday, and the Minority Health Disparities Conference was going on here. Hundreds of community leaders, city leaders, and county leaders and the governor's office and representative of the hospitals were all gathered here in the nave around round tables to talk about health disparity, to talk about how we become a healthier city.

That same day Senator Sherrod Brown asked if he could come and hold a press conference on the impact of the recent financial crisis on the middle class. We said yes, so long as it's not partisan. He said of course I will respect that.

And that same day, unbeknownst to me--and I'm the Dean! I didn't even know this!--we received a telephone call from the Mayor's office asking if they could use our Chapter Room, the bastion of old white male industrial Cleveland, if they could use that Chapter Room to gather the wounded and vulnerable family with the deputy chief of police, some chaplains, some clergy, and the director of community relations to be together when the indictment was announced about the fire where eight children were killed.

Why? Why Trinity? It wasn't the church of any of these people. But they asked Trinity because this is the cathedral of the city. It is safe space, sacred space, it is holy ground.

You and I have the privilege of worshipping on this holy ground, and you and I have the privilege of being the stewards of this part of God's vineyard, and you and I have the privilege of, through our generosity of our time and our talent and our treasure, to make this place accessible to the community that so desperately needs it and so wants it and so appreciates it. That is our vocation. That is the mission and ministry and vocation of a cathedral. We are changing the face of this city and the conversations. And we finally said to ourselves, "What's next?" And so we adopted that other big, hairy, audacious vision, to inspire the rebuilding of Greater Cleveland through conversation and action based on a public theology of the Commons, on what it means to be safe, sacred and holy space; and invite and equip all of us to join in and promote this conversation and its resulting action.

And wouldn't you know it just after we launched this big vision, the stock market crashed and we headed into one of the nation's worst financial crises in all of history. But guess , folks? The same thing happened just after we broke ground to build Trinity Commons in 2001. And I will never forget as long as I live that muddy, tattered, wet American flag that hung from the construction equipment out in our parking lot as they were digging all of those geothermal wells right after 9/11. During our year of construction, our endowment lost 20% of its value in spite of all of our conservative investment strategies.

You know what that says to me? That says to me that this current financial crisis cannot stop us, it must shape us. We have to see it as an opportunity for a deeper commitment to stewardship. The world needs the community of faith, especially places like Trinity Cathedral, now more than ever before. It needs our vision and our energy and our faith and our witness.

In the 1990s there was a New York Times magazine advertisement, a big full-page full advertisement for an investment bank that no longer exists. And it said this: "Keep your money yours." It went on to say: "Money knows no loyalty. It doesn't care who you are. It doesn't care how much you love the people who depend on you. Keeping it or not keeping it is up to you."

As I said, it was an ad for an investment bank that no longer exists. What an ironic commentary in today's financial world. Because now you and I know, no matter how cautious we've been, no matter how careful we've been, no matter what good stewards we've been, that no one is really able to keep their money for him or herself, unless maybe you hide it in your mattress. There are too many variables in the equation. The real challenge is not to keep our money, but to be faithful stewards of our money using it to promote that which we value. This morning's lesson from the Gospel of Matthew clearly illustrates this challenge.

Jesus says to the crowd, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and give to God the things that are God's." The bottom line for our Lord is very simple and very direct: Put your money where your life is. And very little in this world really belongs to the emperor, but everything, including our money, belongs to God.

It is God who puts food on our tables.
It is God who puts a roof over our heads.
It is God who puts oxygen into our lungs.

And it is God who gives us the ability to work, and to save, and to invest, and to give our money. The current economic and political and religious climate calls us to take account of what we value and then to live into that fully.

You know, my favorite story in all of the Gospels, or at least one of my favorite stories, is the story of the feeding of the 5000. I want to remind you of it today because it is so appropriate for the world in which we live and the decisions we have to make.

You know the story, Jesus is gathering all of his friends, thousands of men and women and children around him to hear him preach. And evening comes and the disciples say, "Send them home. Send them home so they can go eat." And what they're really saying is "Send them home so WE can eat!" And Jesus says "nuh uh. You feed them! YOU feed them!" And the disciples say, "C'mon Jesus, give us a break! We don't have enough money to feed all these people!" And Jesus says, "What do you have? What do you have? Show me the money! What do you have?" And they say, "We have a couple loaves of bread and a few fish." And Jesus says, "Give them to me." And he takes them and he holds them up in the air and he blesses them and here's what I think he said:

"Oh God, thank you. Please make sure there's enough! Do something!"

And then, what does he do? He gets them all to sit in communities. See, there's a secret to all of this and that is that Jesus was a community organizer. That's not a political statement, that's a fact.

He gets them all to sit in communities just like you're seated today, he gets them to sit in circles to look at each other, and my hunch is they placed in your hand just one little piece of food. But you're now sitting in a circle looking at your neighbors. And when you're sitting there with this one little crumb of food you're thinking, "That's not going to feed us."

But in those days people didn't go out into the wilderness empty handed, nobody went to the wilderness empty handed. So somebody says I have an apple, somebody else says I have a piece of cheese, somebody else says I have some wine, I have some water, I've got some apricots. They put it all in the middle and they had enough to eat. I think the miracle in the feeding of the 5000 was that it was the first potluck. They shared. And you know how it is at potlucks, not only is there enough food to go around, but there's always leftovers.

That's the attitude that we have to live in this world. That there is enough to go around if we share what we have.

Two parishioners have come forward. They've come forward and they have offered a match to us. They have offered to match 10% increases, up to a total of $10,000, over and above their own pledge. And today we are well on our way to meeting that challenge. It is a challenge for the support of our vision, of transforming this city by who we are and who we hope to become and how we want to share that. And it is big and it is audacious, but we're called to do it.

Sisters and brothers, I know that some of you are hurting now. Some of you have lost your jobs, and some of you have lost retirement income. But I also know that the majority of us have jobs, have savings; we have the ability to give.

So what I'm asking you to do this day, on behalf of the Vestry and the Cathedral Council and the Stewardship Committee, I'm asking you to be as generous as you are able to be, I'm asking you to invest in what you value, I'm asking you to recognize that in the end it's not your money, it's God's money and to realize that in the end, no matter what happens, no matter how rich or how poor you are "you can't take it with you." You really can't.

If stewardship is everything we do with everything that we have all of the time after we say "I believe," and if the Church is the place where we get to practice what we believe and how we want to live in the world, then sisters and brothers, I suggest to you that we are called to be faithful and brave and take a risk on God this time

And be amazed, be absolutely amazed, at what might happen.