15th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 17B

15th Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 17B September 2, 2018 A couple of weeks ago, I started asking you to begin thinking about how we are going to observe Labor Day as a community today. I invited you to begin thinking about a symbol that you could bring, a symbol of your labor-either how you make your living in the world, how you make money or how you spend your leisure, how you spend your free time. Hopefully, you have remembered and brought this symbol with you because today, at the offertory, after the collection plates have gone past you, I’ll invite you to bring your symbol forward and lay it on the altar or at the foot of the altar. Why, you may wonder, are we doing this today? Or you may even be thinking those five words that are frequently heard together in Episcopal Churches: “We’ve never done this before…..” Our epistle reading for today provides a clue as to why we are doing this today in conjunction with the secular holiday of Labor Day. “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” All that we are and all that we have comes from God and through God’s generosity. This is what it means when we use the word: Stewardship. You may recall the definition I shared with you last fall that came from Terry Parson’s the former stewardship officer of the Episcopal Church: “Stewardship is all that I do with all that I have after I say, ‘I believe.’” The letter to James also reminds us that we are not just to be recipients of God’s gifts, or as James puts it “not merely hearers” of the word; but that we are to be stewards of God’s gifts, people who use those gifts in the service of God and others—or as James puts it “doers of the word.” What we do with the gifts God gives us matters; it is a part of our discipleship. We already acknowledge this every week, even though you may not think about it directly, during the part of the service known as the offertory: when we bring our gifts of bread, wine, and money to the altar. Liturgical theologians Charles Price and Louis Weil put it this way. “In placing on the altar bread, money and wine, the congregation offers itself and its world. Money represents the work of the congregation. As in every sacrificial act of time immemorial, a part stands for the whole. We give part of what we make. That part stands for ‘ourselves, for our souls, for our bodies.’ Symbolically we offer the bread to be the body of Christ. But the underlying reality of the action is that we offer our lives individually and corporately to become the body of Christ in the world. We acknowledge that what we offer to God is, in a certain sense, but [God’s] all along, given to us in trust as stewards of [God’s] creation.” (Liturgy of Living by Charles P Price and Louis Weil) So, today, we are intentionally offering this aspect of ourselves—the gifts God has given us to make our labor or our leisure. We are thanking God for these gifts, and we are offering them back to God’s service, so that we may become the body of Christ in the world. As we make this offering, this week and every week, we show our gratitude by singing (the doxology: Praise God from who all blessings blow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.) or by quoting scripture (“All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.” That’s I Chronicles 29:14). We are giving thanks to God, and we are offering to use these gifts in the world to be the body of Christ. So this week, I invite you to lay your symbol on God’s altar in thanksgiving. And then, as you use your gifts, through Labor or leisure in the world this week, remember the doxology, and ask yourself if you are using your gift to be Christ’s body in the world-as a doer of the word, and not merely hearers.