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Stewardship
SERMON - 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 24th September 2005
Revd. Matthew Vernon
Matt 25.14-30. (Stewardship)
Did I mention the cricket last week?
Earth to earth; ashes to England; dust to Australia.
Once again there's a good reason for this gloating.
Cricketers, like other professional sportsmen and women are amazingly talented.
The ball flies at them faster than 90 mph.
Not only do they hit it.
They hit it where they want it to go.
This is in cricket, in baseball, in tennis,
• in all fast ball games.
The sports psychology department of Hong Kong University research sports abilities.
How on earth do they see the ball,
• let alone get the bat in the way?
Apparently top sports people anticipate and pick up visual glues from their opponent's body language.
A large part of sports ability is natural.
Some people are born with those skills.
They are a gift.
Top athletes of course have to train hard and practice.
But even the disposition for that is mainly in built.
It is a gift too.
Thirdly, there's luck in sport too.
One of England's cricket players, Simon Jones, was unlucky to be badly injured a few years ago and had to stop playing.
Fortunately, for England, he recovered.
That luck is outside a sportsperson's control.
Being lucky and avoiding injury is another gift.
Science tells us more about this.
Our abilities, whether in sport or other areas, are determined by our genes.
Our genes are a gift to us.
A gift from our parents
• and from their parents in turn and their parents,
• back to the beginning of time.
Bill Bryson, in his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, says that we are the result of many, many couplings.
We're on a winning streak!
Have you ever wondered how you'd be different if you parents had made you a day later or a day before?
Some say that can make the difference between a boy and a girl!
As well as genetics, science tells us about evolution.
That we have evolved from earlier forms of life.
If we could track evolution back through time,
• we'd see we're the result of countless couplings and chance changes in our genes.
All of which is out of our control.
All of which is gift.
Faith tells us that all these gifts come from God.
The fact that we are alive is the most wonderful gift we receive.
Combined with the gift of faith, our lives have meaning.
All that we are is given to us.
• Our life is given to us by other people.
• Our height, our breadth, our eye colour, our talents, our …
• We are in a state of giftedness, for all is gift;
• and all is a God given.
Of course we do achieve things by ourselves,
• but rarely without the help of other people.
We do have our responsibilities,
• but always in relation to others.
So if we are inclined to puff up our pride too much it is good to remember that what we are is given to us.
We might be proud of our intellect,
• or our appearance,
• or our voice,
• or our skills.
But since these are given to us,
• we might as well be proud about the colour of our hair.
The fact that some of us are (hand through hair) shows how misplaced our pride often is!
It is wonderful to appreciate this more and more.
It's wonderful to appreciate that everything comes from God.
It's wonderful to appreciate the depths of God's generosity.
God who created us out of His love;
• who redeemed us through His love;
• and who sustains us with His love.
All that we are is a gift from God:
• from the air we breathe
• to the family and community of which we are a part.
All that we are is gift from God through other people:
• from the colour of our hair
• to our sports skills
• (or lack of either).
And God gives freely and generously,
• not demanding anything in return,
• but hoping that we might respond to His love with our love.
Our Stewardship review is based on the booklet "Including People".
In it we find examples of how members of our community give their gifts to the ministries of our community.
The examples are from the whole St. John's community:
• the Cathedral and the daughter churches and the outreach ministries.
From Emmanuel we have:
• Don reading from the Bible
• and David too under "Helping at the Services".
Under the Ministry of Music, there's a photo of me playing the piano.
• Not exactly representative or an average week here!
There's a section for Sunday Schools and Education.
Then there the Outreach ministries and their Boards of Management.
Some of us here use our gifts and talents for those.
• CLARES and Castaways – the Cathedral's second hand shop.
• Help for Domestic Helpers.
• HIV Education Centre.
• The Counselling Service.
• The Mission for Migrant Workers.
• And, last but by no means least, Mary's Bookstore.
The Booklet illustrates beautifully the many ways people use their gifts.
And the opportunities for other's to share their gifts.
Not in it are the Pokfulam charities which we support as Emmanuel Church.
• The Riding School for the Disabled.
• Ebenezer School for the Visually Impaired.
Nor are the many other charities that you're involved with
• and which benefit from your gifts and skills.
Today we give thanks to God for those things.
And we dedicate ourselves anew to use the gifts God gives us for the benefit of other people and for God's glory.
We give thanks for the times we judge success by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity,
• rather than the index of our salaries or the size of our cars,
• to misquote Martin Luther King
• on the front of the pewsheet.
I'll end with some words of Nelson Mandela.
Someone who's service and relationship to humanity is beyond doubt.
• and who this week was given a cricket bat by Brian Lara,
• one of the greatest cricketers ever.
On the bat Lara wrote "to a man that has inspired the world."
Mandela has said:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves: who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
God calls us to use the gifts we have been given.
When we do we share God's love with the people around us.
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