Commitment Sunday
Ordinary Sunday 25, 18th September, 2005
The Rev'd Dr Craig D'Alton
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
What is your vision of the kingdom of God? What is your vision of the church? How easy is it to get in to either? How many hurdles need to be jumped before a new person is good enough to stand alongside the stalwart of fifty years? In short, how inclusive are we, and how inclusive are we meant to be?
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard."
And then he goes out again and he calls, and he calls, and he keeps on calling until the very last hour of the day.
Come wages times, all received the same. Those who had just started were, naturally, delighted. Those who had laboured all day were sullen, complaining, and unwilling to allow that their master should be generous. They wanted it all, and they didn't want to share it with the newcomers.
The human response to this parable is to say that the landowner is not really being fair. He's being honest and generous, but not fair. But perhaps that's the point. God is not "fair": God gives the reward as a free gift, even to those who have laboured for minutes rather than for decades. With the Kingdom of God, indeed, with the Church, if you're in, you're in. Sticking with the example of the Church: Baptism into the body of Christ is indeed the beginning rather than the end of a journey of faith. But it is also a rite of passage that is complete and effectual in itself. The sacrament confers God's grace, and just like the one baptised eighty years ago whose spiritual pilgrimage has been long, tiring, and sometimes plain hard work, the baby baptised today is as much a full member of the body of Christ, an inheritor of the kingdom of God.
For all these reasons it is vital that the Church should never become a closed shop. Our priorities must always be directed at bringing and welcoming new labourers into the Lord's vineyard, and delighting with them in the generosity of God's love toward them.
And we are all called to reflect that generosity. The generosity of welcome, but also the generosity of the landowner in giving of his substance that those in need might receive, in effect, their daily bread. It is not enough for the Church to be in maintenance mode; we must always be growing and being renewed, that those standing in life's market place may be drawn to us all through the day, and receive what they seek and need: spiritual sustenance in the sacraments, in teaching and in ministry, and that we, in turn, might be renewed by their enthusiasm and vigour.
But for this to happen, generosity needs to be concrete. With apologies to those visiting today, at the back of the church, there are two boxes of envelopes containing details of the planned giving stewardship program for the new year (which begins on October 1). Please take yours today. If there's not one with your name on it then it means we don't have your contact details. In that case, please take a blank envelope, and also fill out one of the red "Welcome" brochures and hand it to one of the clergy so that you can be placed on the parish role. The forms inside should be filled in and returned next Sunday or posted asap.
Why do I mention this grubby little matter of money in the context of this sermon? Because it's integral. The mission of a place like St Peter's is a complex and expensive one. And this little patch of the Lord's vineyard is not funded by rents and bank interest but by the generosity of the current generation. We have a heritage to maintain – and that is expensive. It would be so easy for a place like this, literally, to begin falling down if money was not spent every year on keeping the fabric together. And then of course there is our liturgical tradition; what many would call the raison d'etre and the life-blood of this place. And even just to maintain that costs money. As do the clergy and other staff employed for ministry.
In the past year our parish giving has risen by about 12%, which has been both pleasing and necessary. Yet even this has not provided enough to enable the annual budget of the parish to balance. We are going to have a deficit, and, frankly, there is no "fat" in the budget to cut. The only way to make a substantial cut in the budget would be to sack someone – not an attractive option, and certainly not an option designed to further our mission.
So the only option is to increase income.
If we could raise our total giving a further 20%, which I believe we can and should do, we would balance the budget, and perhaps have just a tiny bit spare to do something that was more than mere maintenance of building and ministry. Some are already exceedingly generous. Others of us could perhaps afford to do more to build up this place that means so much to us. Because the thing is, we are called to do MUCH more than maintenance. Our call is to grow: to go out into life's marketplace and to bring more and more labourers into the Lord's vineyard, and to grant them the same reward as the Lord has granted us. We are called to reflect the generosity of the God who has given much to us, that others may receive what we have. Here at St Peter's we value greatly and hold very dear the traditions of the church, and the theology that drives them. Historically we have always been a mission-oriented parish – calling forth clergy and lay leaders and sending them out equipped for ministry in the wider Church. We have liked to think of ourselves as leaders in the diocese, and we have acted as such. Yet in recent decades, just perhaps, our star has been waning. Too many more years of impossibly tight budgets and we will indeed become inward-focussed; one of those parishes that spend all their time and resources rewarding the few who have been long in labour, and failing to call new helpers to lighten the load and bring the joy of renewal.
So the challenge here is clear: to be and to become a more and more welcoming and inclusive community that is generous of our substance, that others might be called to join us, and see the excitement and the possibilities of the work of the kingdom of God. We are called to be the landowner: generous, energetic, never giving up on anyone. And at all costs we must not become like those who have laboured long, and grumble and complain that God asks too much, when God in fact gives more than enough to all his children.
Consider and pray, then, what your response might be to this challenge and call, and how you might be able to help the St Peter's community to grow and thrive in the coming year.
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