I am glad that I have been on retreat this week in order to gather up my courage for this sermon, because despite the subject of money being one of Jesus’ favourites in his teaching and preaching, it is certainly not one of mine. But I must take a deep breath and speak about it, because there is much to be said about having a positive rather than an idolatrous relationship with money. It is a central fact of life and as Christians we must consider it seriously. That is why we are devoting this week to the subject of financial stewardship in our discipleship course.

Each of you has, I hope, picked up a packet of information about stewardship renewal, a process that needs to be an annual one in every parish. Lent seems an appropriate time to do it. Some of you may have already opened it and started to read. I had originally planned to try a little quiz about the St Mary’s finances, but those of you who have peeped inside will already know at least some of the answers, so I’ll just give you some headlines.

To keep St Mary’s open costs about £370 a day or £140,000 per year. Our biggest single expense by far is the Common Fund, to which our contribution this year is £64,000. The Common Fund goes to the diocese and pays for ministry costs. The money pays for clergy selection and training, stipends, housing, National Insurance, council tax and pensions, and it supports the diocesan infrastructure by paying a share of administrative costs and giving a small subsidy to parishes that cannot pay their own way. So basically paying Common Fund is the way St Mary’s pays in order to have a full-time vicar in this parish. That amount is non-negotiable and it is the first call on our budget.

The rest of the money we spend goes on all our bills: maintenance, utilities, insurance, music, church supplies and so on. We pay for professional leadership of our choir and youthwork programme, and as you know we have a part-time parish administrator. The social inclusion youthwork is paid for by external funders, but we bear the costs of the office and the other church space that is used, and of course we pay for all church-based youthwork.

Where does the money to do all this come from? Basically it comes from our pockets. Only 13% of our income is currently raised by renting our space, putting on money-raising events or interest from investments. Not a single penny comes from historic funds or the state, contrary to what many people believe. The only exception to this is when a specific piece of repair work attracts a partial grant from English Heritage because of our status as a listed building.
Some churches raise half or much more of their income through renting property or land that they own. We have nothing but the church itself. The number of groups paying to use our building is increasing, but we will never make a great deal of money this way because the space is so limited and is often needed for our own activities.

So the hard facts bring us back to a very important theological principle. Our thankfulness to God for all the blessings we receive should spill over into generous giving. If we all did this we would have more than enough for our present needs and our dreams for the future. Throughout the Bible the principle of tithing is a constant refrain. Tithing means that we take off the top to give back to God. Rather than wait and see what is left that we can spare, we dedicate the first-fruits. So it means regular, planned, proportional giving, according to our means. We give away before we spend on ourselves.
Let me give you an example. I know of an elderly lady in a church in Hackney who lives on a state pension and carer’s allowance for the several relatives she devotes herself to looking after. Every week she puts £12 into the plate at her church. That is a true contemporary illustration of the widow’s mite. £12 a week would be a trivial contribution from someone earning a professional salary – it is the cost of a West End cinema ticket or a rather nice bottle of wine, and its absence would barely register in the household budget. But for a person on a state pension, it is a sacrificial tithe. Every week there will be decisions for her to make about what she can afford to buy for herself and her family that will be affected by what she has promised to her church. She must feel that sacrifice every day.
The teaching of the Bible, of Jesus, and of two millennia of the Christian Church challenges each of us to make a similar sacrifice. What are we prepared to give up so that the gospel may be preached, beautiful worship may be offered, community service may be given, and an ongoing Christian presence may be assured here at St Mary’s, Primrose Hill? The truth is that if we are not prepared, all of us, to commit to sacrificial giving, there is no guarantee of a sustainable future. The diocese has no pot of gold.

The question might well be asked, if we are going to be generous, why give it to the church instead of another charity? And the obvious answer is, give to both. Many Christians start by deciding what their tithe will be. It may range from 10% of their gross income or even more – C.S. Lewis gave away one-third of his -- down to a much smaller figure, perhaps 5% of discretionary income after paying for housing and other necessary costs. They then give half that amount to their local church and half to other charities. And lest there be any misunderstanding, the tithing principle applies to clergy just as much as laypeople.

I have often spoken of the experience of living in a multifaith environment in Stamford Hill and how much I learned from my neighbours. Many of the practices of observant Jews and Muslims are irrelevant for us, rules concerning food and dress and so on. But there are at least three practices that are common to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, that I wish we took as seriously as many of our neighbours of other faiths do. The first is daily communal prayer. The second is fasting. And the third is proportional giving to support one’s religious community.

Prayer and fasting may well come up in the Lent group discussions this week. I won’t attempt to talk about them this morning. But regular sacrificial giving, not in order to get a guaranteed return as the prosperity gospel peddlers suggest, but simply as a heartfelt thank you to God, is an aspect of our faith that will test its genuineness. The word “stewardship” that we often use is very important. What we have is on trust to us from God and we are responsible for the wise use of it. It is not ours outright to do with just exactly as we like. We are stewards, not landlords.

We need to share this understanding with our children. Again, this is something Jews and Muslims take a great deal of care about. We too must be educators by example to the youngest members of our community. Children at St Mary’s are now being invited to receive Communion, with appropriate preparation, from the age of seven or eight. We should be teaching them that thankfulness for God’s gifts leads naturally into generosity towards others. A strong memory of my childhood is being given my own set of stewardship envelopes from the age of eight or so. They were perforated into two sections, for the home church and for foreign missions. Every Sunday I would carefully put 25 cents into each section and proudly add my own offering to the collection. I would like to see St Mary’s children doing the same, and the commitment form in your pack invites you to request envelopes for your children.

So what is St Mary’s asking you to do right now? A number of us on the stewardship committee of the PCC are ready to talk to you about money and to try to answer any questions you may have. We then ask you to take away the material you have been given. If you can take a pack for someone who is not here today, that will save the church a stamp, because all the uncollected packs will be posted this week.
Please spend time prayerfully with both the Bible and your household budget and talk to your family members. Then complete the form, which encourages you to pay by standing order if possible and to Gift Aid if you are a taxpayer. Don’t give it back today! Please bring it to church, in the enclosed envelope, on Passion Sunday, 21st March, when we will formally offer all of our stewardship commitments at the altar. If you cannot attend that day, please post the envelope back in the preceding week so that your commitment can also be offered.
Some of you are already proportional givers. In fact just 15 people in this congregation give half of all the money that is donated in stewardship. We would still invite you, the current givers, to review your giving, as we will ask you to do every Lent. Even if it stays the same, we need you to complete the form for the sake of stewardship planning.

The only person who will see the form you fill in is the Stewardship Secretary, Roddy Monroe. I will not know what you give. Stewardship is completely confidential. But those who do not return their forms will be reminded to complete them so that we know we have successfully contacted everybody on the congregational roll. And if you have not been given a pack in your name, please tell one of the stewardship committee members so that we can get you one.

We do not come to church as customers, as we do in nearly every other walk of life these days. Church is not a club, for which we pay a subscription and expect certain benefits. Church is the gathering of God’s people in response to God’s invitation, to hear God’s word, be fed at the Lord’s table, and be sent out with the good news to serve God’s world. What we are given completely overwhelms what we can offer in return, and yet God does ask us to offer ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a living sacrifice. That opens up every aspect of our lives to the transforming love of God.

Amen