Last Sunday I began the sermon by saying,: "That was one of the shortest Epistles you will ever hear read ..." Well, this is one of the shortest sermons you will ever hear preached by me. That usually means, always means, I am very uncomfortable with the subject, but feel in good conscience and as a responsible priest I must preach on THAT subject form time to time. You've probably guessed ... Money. Stewardship - whatever that weird word means, giving to the church, contributing ... cash.

I know how fast I switch the channel when Public Television starts ragging on about Pledge Week which always seems to be Pledge Year not pledge week. Now while you cannot switch channels on me, except those of you who are already working your Play Station II below pew-level, you can, just as genuinely, tune me out. But please, maybe not so fast. This may be different from what you expect, what you usually hear. It is doubtless different from what the Episcopal Church expects her clergy to say on this ... ahem ... subject. The Episcopal Church grandly, loftily, and to my way of thinking, mercilessly, declares that the Biblical Tithe of Ten Percent of all income is the standard for Christian giving. No, wait, it's worse than that: The Tithe, the Episcopal Church declares, is the minimum standard - that is where you start, not what you aim for. After the Ten Percent, after The Tithe, that's when the "Giving" begins. Whew! Oh, give me Public Television, quick! I guess they weren't so bad after all!

I think the Episcopal Church just might have gotten something wrong. (Oh perish the thought of that possibility!), and this isn't what I have decided based on my own dithering, or what my curiously arrogant insecurity leads me to. I just suddenly realized it is St. Paul's idea, it is St. Paul's stated position. Guess St. Paul would have made a dreadful Stewardship Chairman. Guess St. Paul would be broken-hearted to hear it.

So, St. Paul disagrees with the Episcopal Church. Probably no surprise. St. Paul disagrees with PBS, less than no surprise. I agree with St. Paul, which shouldn't have been a surprise to me, though it was.

Here we go again - the Epistle again - two Sundays running, preaching on the Epistle! Seems I just cannot get away from that Epistle to the Romans. And you don't want to. Look at that list of gifts given to the Community by the Grace of God, and expected back, as gifts from Community Members to the Community, the Church, the Body of Christ as a whole - St. Paul said: (you heard it, I am not making this up!) "We are all members of one Body the Church - individually members of it." Therefor, all of us different, all of us with different gifts, and all of us equally precious, in God eyes, in Christ's eyes, in the eyes of the Faithful Church. All of us having different gifts, all of us given different gifts by God, and all of us giving back different gifts - all those gifts given by the Grace of God through his Christ and his Church. Different gifts. Quite different donations. Every Episcopal Church Pledge Card should be redone in a more Biblical way, in accord with this surpassing insight of St. Paul's, Scriptural through and through. We have different gifts, we are given very different gifts, and so we give different gifts. Not just different amounts - no, rather, different gifts, completely different gifts, different kinds of gifts, according to St. Paul. And we are better off, for a number of reasons, sticking with St. Paul than The Episcopal Church's stewardship guidelines.

In case you dozed off even sooner than this this point in this soporific sermon, let us hear it one more time: "We, though many are one Body in Christ and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service, in our serving, he who teaches in his teaching, he who exhorts in is exhortation, he who contributes in liberality, he who gives aid, with zeal, he does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

We are in desperate shape here, in mortal danger. Not spiritually, not liturgically, not musically, not pastorally, not fraternally, but we are in desperate shape, in mortal danger, financially. This is 21st Century America, where financial ruin compromises all the rest. Accordingly, as your priest, and a clear-eyed one I hope - stripped by events in my own life of foolishness and timidity and carelessness - I will send out a letter tomorrow to all of the parish, a very detailed, and not overly cheerful, letter, detailing the precise nature of the crisis, and what your priest, supported by your Vestry, has done to solve the problem for the rest of this year. But we need to solve the problem fully and finally in January. And so I will send out that letter, suggesting a way forward, outlining the remaining challenges, and asking for your direct and sustained help. But please, please, please always remember this Sunday, this Epistle, this St. Paul. He has the final word, the final and full Word, the Scriptural Word, the Word of God. Don't ever, ever, forget this morning's Epistle.

The Church, this church, this parish here, these people, this Body, needs your gifts, needs them, wants them, values then, appreciates them. And those are, and will be, and should be, different gifts. Some people will that gift they have been given, thr gift of of donating money generously - how did St. Paul put it - "he who contributes in liberality." This parish needs gifts given in liberality, financial gifts, money given liberally from him and her, from this one and that one, all those among us who have been given that Grace, that gift - the gift to give in liberality of their financial resources. And if I am to be faithful and responsible to my church as Priest in Charge of this place, I must appeal to that group, and appeal with honesty, directness, and an unashamed belief that some will, and will want, and really should, give money to a budget, our budget. But that is a gift they have been given by Grace - to give, to contribute in liberality.

But do not ever, ever, forget how long that list of gifts is in St. Paul. Giving such as that is one of the gifts. St. Paul, without apology, lists many others, all equal to, but very different from, this contributing of money. "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us, let us use them in faith" - not one is better than the others. Every time I speak to you or send a letter, it is to reach those whose gift it is to give like that. But all of us equally have those other gifts, and want to offer them, and should - knowing that they will be gratefully received. St. Paul did not rank these gifts. Neither will I. "Donating with liberality" is the 5th named of the list of seven gifts. Maybe your gift of Grace is to offer one of the other six. St. Paul approves. God Approves. Christ approves. How then could your parish, and your parish priest, also not approved wholehearted?

This sermon didn't end up being all that short, did it? When I am only, and simply, just agreeing with St. Paul, I guess I am less uncomfortable than I thought.