ACTS 6:1-9; 7-2a, 51-60
PSALM 23
1 PETER 2:19-25
JOHN 10:1-10
Sermon – April 17,
2005
“Something better’s
coming”
This is a sermon about a fork. To understand what I mean, stayed tuned...so, I guess we could consider this to be a “tuning fork.”
Easter
Season is a glorious time of year. At
this latitude in the Northern Hemisphere, we are (finally) getting the glorious
burst of Spring blossoms and warmer temperatures, with the promise of more of
both yet to come. Especially after the
dark, wet and often dreary winter, this can be exhilarating.
But
Spring is merely the “scenery” “on stage,” so to speak; the drama on
stage is what is important, and the drama of Easter Season is the story of our
liberation from the power of sin and the power of death by Christ’s crucifixion
and resurrection, and what those twin victories mean for our lives
today.
Christ’s
victory over sin means not only are we freed from the condemnation due us for
our sins of commission and of omission, but we are freed to do good things to
make this world a better place, not as a way to earn God’s favor, but as
a way to give thanks to God for the favor God has already shown
us. I reflected a bit on this theme
especially at the Great Vigil of Easter and on the Second Sunday of Easter.
Christ’s
victory over death frees us from the depression we would be stuck with if we
thought ultimate goodness had been snuffed out by the powers of this world and
frees us for a relationship of joy, growth and communion with the living Lord
of Life, as Fr. Breedlove affirmed last Sunday. We experience the living Christ directly and personally, through
the sacraments and through the Holy Scriptures.
Christ’s victory
over death also frees us from the
fear of death. Oh, there are plenty
of ways of dying that scare me, but if, as we believe in faith, the
loving Christ stands waiting for us on the other side of the portal of death,
then death itself has lost its terror.
If death meant utter personal obliteration and meaninglessness or
certain torture, then death would indeed be something to be feared above all,
and its advent put off at all costs, and even its reality denied as we do of
things we don’t want to face because they scare us too much.
This is one
place Christians need to take our belief in Christ’s resurrection and apply it
in our lives in very concrete, practical ways.
Death exists. Christ himself
died; therefore, we all can expect to die as well, unless Christ returns in
glory to usher in the Kingdom of God in its fullness while one or more of us
are still in our mortal bodies. While
that is certainly possible, I don’t think we should assume that to be true.
Christians
should recognize the reality of death.
Yet many Christians still do not wear seat belts, as though driving in a
car is not a potentially hazardous activity.
Many Christians with children and/or spouses do not have any life
insurance, as though caring for our heirs was not important. And many Christians do not have wills, as
though we are all immortal.
Reality check,
here in broad daylight, in this glorious season of Easter: we are all
mortal. We will all die. The fact that God has opened the door to
heaven for those who God chooses to welcome into it does not mean we have a
chance to bring our current bodies with us, nor any of our tangible or
intangible possessions. All those will be left behind. All of which raises a number of issues, one
of which I’d like to concentrate on today: all
Christians should have wills.
Not to have a
will is both to deny the reality of one’s own mortality and to deny
one’s own responsibility for our heirs.
This is especially important for people who are married and/or have
children under 18 years old. Minor
children must have guardians; if both parents die while a child is under 18, someone will be appointed by the court
as that child’s guardian. If the parent
or parents left a will in which a guardian was named, it is a highly likely
that person would be confirmed in that crucial role. If the parent(s) died without a will, the court has no clue who
they would have wanted, and it would only be by luck that the parents’ wishes
were honored.
Now, when my son
Tom was under 18, he always had a guardian named, and a back-up, because there
are some people in the family I would have been happy to have take care of him
– and others I would not have been thrilled with. Other families may have similar feelings if they consider who
might take care of their child or children.
Someone who dies
without a will would also guarantee that the maximum possible estate tax was
paid on that person’s estate, and that the most rigorous restrictions
and the largest amount of red tape be imposed on whoever the person’s heir or
heirs were. If you have no will right
now, you have the one the State of New Jersey wrote for you; and therefore,
guess who’s in charge? We have copies
of that will on the table in the Welcoming Area. It makes sobering reading.
So now, let me
assume that if you don’t have a will, you are now motivated to call an attorney
and write one. Part of the process is
“owning up to what you own” – making a list, and checking it twice. We also have a brochure on the table to help
with that. Many people are surprised by
how much their estates would be when they add everything up. It’s good personal stewardship to review
this every few years.
Some people who do
have wills may not have reviewed them for years. They may have had children or additional children since their
wills were written – or little Johnny, who was eight when the will was written,
may be 28 and an attorney in New York and may no longer need the provisions
written in for his benefit. Or, someone
may have specified an executor – or an heir – who has died. Certainly, laws have changed. So, it’s always a good idea to review one’s
will every five years – or more often, if a major life change like marriage,
divorce or widowhood or the birth or coming to adulthood of a child has
occurred.
O.K. So far, all that I have said would apply to
conscientious atheists as much as to Christians. Now is where we take a step further. Please pick up your copies of The Book of Common Prayer in
your pews and turn with me to page 445.
Let us read together the words in Italics in the middle of the page.
“The Minister of the Congregation is directed
to
instruct the people, from time to time about
the
duty of Christian parents to make prudent
provision
for the well-being of their families, and of
all
persons to make wills, while they are in
health,
arranging for the disposal of their temporal
goods,
not neglecting, if they are able, to leave
bequests
for religious and charitable uses.”
So you see, this sermon is not solely my idea: I am “directed to instruct the people” about these issues, and any of you who have had pre-baptismal or pre-marital counseling with me have heard a lot of this before. Now comes the other part: “not neglecting, if they are able, to leave bequests for religious and charitable uses.”
At the 8:30
service all year, when the congregation’s offerings are presented, at the
altar, we say “All things come of thee, O Lord; and of thine own have we given
thee.” At the 10:30 service during Easter Season we sing “Praise God from whom
all blessings flow...” It is a basic tenet of Christian faith that these
affirmations are true: God made the entire creation, including us and our
skills, energy and time and all the atoms in this universe – anything, in
short, that we use to earn a living, or to live off once we have retired. Nobody is a “self-made man” or “self-made
woman”; we only can earn because God made us and made us stewards of what the
Prayer Book calls “this fragile earth, our island home.”
Therefore, part of “walking the walk” of
Christianity is giving back – giving
to the glory of God and the well-being of all people that God may be faithfully
worshipped by the community of faith and that the community of faith may be
empowered to serve the world in God’s name.
This means
stewardship – disciplined giving – of time, talent and treasure. Financially, stewardship is “a chair with
three legs”: annual giving, giving to
capital funds, and planned giving.
“Annual giving”
is what we do with our envelopes week by week or month by month, which most
people do by making a commitment for the year called a pledge. Those pledges are what makes it possible for
us to have a church community: a beautiful building, clergy and all the
programs we enjoy and by which we serve each other and many people beyond our
parish.
“Capital giving”
means the Building Fund, which since 1998 has made it possible to build this
beautiful new worship space, the Bolmer Room, the Welcoming Area and the new
bathrooms, plus additional parking. For
those of you who are new in the last three years here, until July 2002, the
church used to end where the double doors now go into the Fellowship Area. We were able to build all this thanks to the
great generosity and devotion of our parishioners and friends.
Both annual and
capital funds giving is from living people who still have to support themselves
and care for their own needs, and often, those of other family members. “Planned Giving” is giving that living
people plan to give after they are dead.
That is the “third leg” of stewardship, one that St. Barnabas (unlike
many churches) has largely ignored.
To help us
reflect on the opportunity we all have “to leave bequests for religious and
charitable uses,” let me share another aspect of The Good News of Easter: heaven is all-expenses paid! (So is the other place, but we won’t get
into that now.)
So, since heaven
is all-expenses paid, we don’t need to take anything with us. In any case, we can’t! It all stays here. It has to.
In thanksgiving
for God’s blessings, we can consider designating a portion of our
estates “for religious and charitable uses.”
Of course, if you have family members you need or want to provide for in
your estate, that comes first. Your
will is a way to make your wishes clear in that area and reduce the chance of
disputes. But you will need to name
“contingent” beneficiaries if you were to outlive your primary beneficiaries,
and this church or some other charity could be such a contingent beneficiary.
A more general
situation is that a person could decide to set aside a percentage of his or her
estate for “religious or charitable uses”, and include St. Barnabas as
beneficiary of such a percentage.
Biblical stewardship is all about proportional giving, as you have heard
often from this pulpit, and often people find it easier to tithe (give 10% of)
their estates than to give 10% of their incomes to the glory of God and
the service of God’s people.
The simplest way
is to name the church in your will, but there are other forms of Planned Giving
also, like charitable Gift Annuities and the Episcopal Church’s Pooled Income
Fund, both of which offer an opportunity for the donor to receive an income for
life, certain tax advantages, and then to leave the body of the gift to the
church upon their death.
We have
information on these subjects available on the table in the Welcoming Area, and
I stand ready to respond individually to inquiries, with the assistance, if
desired or requested, of parishioners with areas of expertise in these areas as
well as your own attorney and/or tax advisor.
These are lots of ways to let your generosity last longer than your
lifetime, and to honor those who have or will be remembering the church in
their estate plans, the Vestry voted a week ago to establish The St. Barnabas Legacy Society. You will receive a letter this week, with
information, inviting you to join me and others as members of the Legacy
Society.
What will your
legacy be after you are gone from this earth?
Part of it could be a church which continues to grow spiritually and
otherwise with the added strength that comes from being remembered in the
estates of faithful parishioners who want St. Barnabas to be at least as
wonderful for the next generations as it is today.
Right now,
though St. Barnabas is strong and growing, it carries significant mortgages and
has very little cash reserves for emergencies and almost no investments to
anchor our income. Our investments,
which are either in the Diocese of New Jersey’s no load “Balanced” mutual fund
or in a money market fund, provide less than 1% of our church’s income. Our mortgage payments make up 19% of our
spending. All this means that we are
very vulnerable to recessions, when people need the church especially, and are
very limited as to how we can expand our programs. Bequests, over the next ten or twenty years, could make our base
more secure and raise our horizons as we give glory to God as a church
community.
The context
in which we think about writing our wills and about Planned Giving is
important. The context is that Easter
is the supreme reality and Christ is victorious over sin and death. And the hope which that gives us is
symbolized by...this fork.
There’s an old
church story about a widow who asked her pastor to call on her to discuss her
planned giving and funeral plans. When
she got to the funeral plan, she said, “I’d like to be buried with a fork in my
casket.”
The pastor was
puzzled. “Why?” he said. The lady smiled. “I’ve been to a lot of church suppers over the years, and at each
one, as the main course is being finished, someone shouts from the kitchen
‘Save your forks! Something better is coming.’ So, I want to be buried with a
fork, because I devoutly believe that something better is coming.”
(As I put the
fork on the altar, I say, “In the Name of the Risen Christ, Amen.”)
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard