Pledging Our Troth

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
October 31, 2004

Pledging Our Troth
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
Luke 19:1-8

A man walked into the church not so long ago.
He was a stranger to me, his face not at all familiar.
He introduced himself and
told me that he was a member of another church in the community.
Then he told me how much he admired our church;
how he admired all the things we do.
He had helped out from time to time with the Food Pantry;
He had seen the dedication of the Women’s Association and the Men’s Council
as they held their Auction and White Elephant sales
in the midst of torrential rain.
And he had seen the full parking lot Sunday after Sunday.

He could feel the discipleship of this congregation,
the commitment of this Body of Christ.
He wanted to respond to what he was seeing.
He wanted to respond by making a contribution to the church.
And with that he handed me an envelope with a check inside.
I thanked him for his gift.
I didn’t know the amount, but it didn’t matter.
As Jesus reminds us in the story of the widow’s mite,
even a contribution of a few dollars is a wonderful gift
when it is made in love and given from the heart.

The man turned to go, and I went into my office and opened the envelope.
I was stunned when I saw the amount.
It was extraordinarily generous.
The man did not make this contribution because he was wealthy,
or because he needed a tax write-off;
He gave in response to the blessings that he had received in his own life;
he gave in response to what he sees us doing here,
as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his second letter to the church at Corinth,
Paul reminds the new converts to Christ
of the importance of responding,
responding to God’s gifts of grace and blessings;
the importance of responding to God’s presence in their lives.
He challenges the Corinthian Christians, and he challenges us,
“it is appropriate for you…not only to do something,
but even to desire to do something…
for if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable.” (2Cor8.8ff)

Do you hear what Paul is saying?
Do you hear how he is encouraging us,
even challenging us?
Yes, it is appropriate for us to do something.
Duty, guilt, a sense of obligation all motivate us to do something.
But that’s not what Paul is looking for.
He is looking for more, much more.
He is trying to inspire the Corinthians to more, much more:
What he wants from the Corinthians, and from you and me,
is a desire to do something,an eagerness.

Paul wants us to be motivated by a sense of joyful restlessness,
a restlessness that compels us, prods us, moves us,
so that we want to do something.
Our giving of our time,
our giving of talent,
and our giving of money,
should always be filled with a sense of eagerness,
a sense of excitement,
a sense of desire.

Our giving is a way for us to respond to the extraordinary gift
we’ve been given from God in the life of Jesus Christ.
We’ve been given God’s love, unconditionally.
We have been given God’s grace and mercy.
God has given us salvation for one reason
and one reason only: because of his love for us.
We have received a gift we can never possibly repay.

We can respond to God’s overwhelming goodness,
and his overflowing love in one of two ways.
We can respond from a sense of obligation:
“I’m doing this because I know I have to.”
Or we can respond with a sense of desire and eagerness:
“I’m doing this because I want to,
I want to respond to God’s love and God’s grace.
and I know that whatever I do
will pale in comparison to God’s gift to me.”

Paul says later in his letter that God loves a cheerful giver.
The person who gives cheerfully and joyfully,
understands this need to respond.
The person understands that everything he or she has
has been given to them by God.
That’s just what Zacchaeus does at the end of dinner,
when he stands before Jesus and his other guests
and announces he is going to give away half of everything he has.
Zacchaeus was a corrupt tax official.
His life had been devoted to earning money, adding to his wealth,
so he could have a bigger home, more things.
Zacchaeus’ life was all about accumulating treasure on earth.
As a result, Zacchaeus was a lost man.

But then he was found,
found by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation came to Zacchaeus that day.
Not because of anything he had done.
On the contrary, his life had been a litany of
corruption and selfishness.
But Jesus chose him,
chose him because of God’s love.
And Zacchaeus could feel that love;
It was so strong that he needed to respond.
When Zacchaeus told Jesus and his guests that he was going to give away
half his wealth, he wasn’t saying it to impress the group gathered,
and he was not saying it to buy his way to salvation.
He was saying it in joyful response
to the feeling that had overwhelmed him
as Jesus brought salvation to him that day.

The Bible tells us nothing more about Zacchaeus
but I have no doubt that he spent the rest of his days
filled with a desire to respond,
filled with an eagerness to respond,
filled with a longing to respond to the blessings
he learned through Jesus.

Our Annual Stewardship Campaign provides each of us with an opportunity to respond, respond with eagerness to God’s blessings in our lives.
The unhappy reality is that when we hear those three words,
Annual Stewardship Campaign,
we have a tendency to react in much the same way we do
when the local public television or radio station does their
annual fund drive:
We heave a sigh, accept it,
and hope that it will be over quickly.
But don’t you see: that’s exactly what Paul is telling us not to do!
Paul is telling us to embrace the opportunity to respond to God’s blessings,
to be filled with a sense of eagerness and desire.
Paul is telling us that we should be waiting by our mailboxes
for our pledge cards, so we can fill then out and return them.

Think back over the years as you have thought about your pledge of financial support to this church, or any other church you might have been a part of.
Were you filled with breathless enthusiasm, eagerness, joy
Compelled, filled with a desire to respond?
Paul would look you squarely in the eye and ask, “why not?”

This year we are trying a new approach to Stewardship.
There will be no Saddlebags, no FPC Express,
no route or trail bosses, nothing you’ve got to get to another person.
This year we are going to keep it simple.

In about ten days you’ll each receive a letter from the Elders of the church,
a short, simple letter inviting your joyful response.
Your pledge card will be enclosed, along with a return envelope.
When you get your pledge card,
the first thing you should do is reflect on your blessings.
all your blessings, blessings small and large.
Then offer up a prayer of thanksgiving to God
for all the gifts God has given you in your life.
Then look to God for guidance as you consider your pledge of support
for the work we do here in this body of Christ.

After you fill out the card, put it in the return envelope,
seal it up, but don’t mail it.
No, we are asking everyone to bring their cards to church
on Sunday, November 21st, which we are calling
Consecration Sunday.
We will provide an opportunity for everyone
to bring their envelopes up to the Lord’s Table
where we will ask a blessing upon them.
And that is all there is to it.
Simple, joyful.

When you make a pledge of support,
you are not entering into a contract.
Rather you are pledging your troth.
Troth is an old-fashioned word that simply means faithfulness,
fidelity. We used to hear that phrase in wedding ceremonies.
Your pledge of support is part of your pledge of faithfulness and fidelity
in support of the mission and ministry of this church.

We have grown considerably over the past five years, almost doubling in size.
Our giving has grown,
but it is still short of what we need to cover our expenses,
and a look at the budget will confirm that ours is a very lean operation,
in many ways, too lean:


-We have not had enough money in the budget to buy
new Sunday School curriculum we have needed:
the Women’s Association has underwritten the cost.
-We didn’t have the money to complete the replacement of windows
downstairs in the Overfield Room: the Men’s Council paid for them.
-We have not had the money in the budget to pay for the care packages
we send to our college students each year,
care packages our students love,
The money has come from different sources.
-A church our size needs a part-time sexton,
but we don’t have money in the budget for that.
-Cynthia, our church secretary, works just 22 hours a week,
which is not enough. As the church has grown, the administrative demands
on her have grown, plus she is now doing the bookkeeping work.
We need to add hours to her schedule, but we don’t have the money.
-The $4,000 we allocate to Mission giving each year is among the lowest mission
budgets of all the churches in the Hudson River Presbytery.

As you think about your support of this church,
think about why a complete stranger was so taken with this faith community
Think about what he saw and why he felt such a strong desire to respond.
Then think about your own desire to respond,
and respond joyfully.
Be filled with desire to respond, an eagerness
Respond with a sense of purpose,
for what God calls us to do in this congregation,
but also respond with a sense of joyfulness.

In the wonderful book the Gentle Reader’s Book Club have been reading,
Home to Harmony, author Philip Gulley, a Quaker pastor writes,
“It isn’t skill and pluck and hard work that gets us where we are.
It is grace, nothing else.
It’s God, pointing the divine finger our way, saying,
‘You there, with the squinty eyes, digging your toes in the dirt,
it’s you I want.’
Through Jesus Christ, God has said that to everyone of us.
How can we respond to such love with anything other than desire,
eagerness,
and joy.
Gulley adds to the picture,
“Sometimes I feel like I’m sitting at God’s table
and I’ve just finished one piece of blessing,
and God smiles and say, ‘Here, have another.’” (95-6)
Grace abounds,
for God’s love has no limit
His goodness, his mercy,
and his love are indeed from everlasting to everlasting.

Amen.