Giving Tuesday and Christian Stewardship

Giving Tuesday and Christian Stewardship
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Originally called the  Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA) founded in 1874, the “92nd Street Y”, as it known today, is a juggernaut of cultural offerings and community service. In 2012 community advocates at the 92nd Street Y, in response the takeover of Thanksgiving (our only "purely national" holiday) by the rampant commercialization of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, initiated a local giving campaign urging people to give back instead of spending more. They called it “Giving Tuesday,” celebrated on first Tuesday after Thanksgiving.

Since 2012, Giving Tuesday has become a separate organization from the 92nd Y with participants all over the world. In 2022, single day donations to charitable organizations topped $3.1 billion dollars! In the wake of the spending frenzy of late November, Giving Tuesday encourages introspection and awareness of the greater need, and of our participation in our world.

Why have people given so much money on a single day? Why does it take an established organization and a (let's face it) commercial campaign to rouse such philanthropy? The answers to these question are found in the two prior “celebration” days, "Black" Friday and "Cyber" Monday. Surely there are those who wait for these days to save on much-needed resources for the greater good, but the majority of expenditures are on the self.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday stand in stark contrast to our innate sense of inclusion and connectedness. God has made us to be in relationship with God first and each other second. There is no other model. Even in this--and perhaps especially in this time of national division--people do not stand alone. We seek out like-minded people to share our concerns, passions, obsessions, and delusions precisely because we were created to be together. That innate drive to share and care drives us no matter what we believe or how we worship, we were made this way for a reason.

God’s purpose was love. Look at John 3:16, one of our much beloved Advent verses. God loved us so much, He gave His only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in him shall not perish but have ever lasting life. The action of God to give God’s self to us is relational and the living example we were meant to embody. Giving Tuesday offers the secular world a way of excising the need to give amidst the drum beat of accumulation. A single special day was created to do that which we are made to do always.

Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service, you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already. – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The biblical doctrine of stewardship defines our (all humans) relationship to God. It identifies God as owner and us as managers. God makes us His co-worker in administering all aspects of our life. The apostle Paul explains it best by saying, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Starting with this concept, we are then able to accurately view and correctly value not only our possessions, but, more importantly, human life itself. In essence, stewardship defines our purpose in this world as assigned to us by God Himself. It is our divinely given opportunity to join with God in His worldwide and eternal redemptive movement. Stewardship is not God taking something from us; it is His method of bestowing His richest gifts upon His people.

Christian Stewardship is a responsive act which embodies gratitude to God. It is not a single day, month, season, or year; it is an integrated part of who and what we are by the God to whom we belong. Stewardship is about exercising our God-given dominion over His creation (Genesis 1), reflecting the image of our creator God in His care, responsibility, maintenance, protection, and beautification of His creation.

When we hear the word stewardship, we mostly think our commitment to our local parish and our faithfulness in paying God’s tithes and offerings, but it is much more than that. You have heard this before, stewardship is how we manage our time, our talent, and possessions. Money is one of our possessions. Money is just a part of Stewardship, and Stewardship is our obedient witness to God’s sovereignty. Stewardship means that we fully acknowledge we are not our own but belong to Christ, the Lord, who gave Himself up for us.

Christian financial stewardship means our money is seen as being God's money. At the 8 a.m. service after the alms basin has been brought to the Altar, these words of acknowledgement are spoken: All things belong to you, O Lord, and of thine own have we given you. All we have is from God and belongs to God. We are called as His disciples, to use it for God's purposes and glory. We did not receive God's grace so that we might own more, but that we would be set free to praise God with all that we have.

The mission of the church, in part, is the proclamation and education of God’s truth to God’s people. The church is the presence of belief and faith of people in community with God and each other. The church is the palpable invitation to those who do not know to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. You are the church.

We gather together here at Creator to do all these things and to take them out into the world. We decide how we are going to this as faithful followers of Christ. Our ability to do these things is a result of our desire to give to God for the purposes of God, reflected in our purposeful giving.
This Sunday we will collect pledge cards for 2025. Our financial support of Creator’s mission and ministry is an extension of our gratitude to God and our desire for God’s grace to be spread. Please bring your pledge card this Sunday and place it in the alms basin, or you may mail it or drop it off at the Church office. Or you may use the online giving portal. Gratefully, purposefully, and prayerfully is how I ask for you to consider your support.

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for you, an offering and a sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2) 
 
One steward among many,
Fr. Bill†