The sermon series, “New Day, New Way” continues as we begin our annual stewardship emphasis. Over the next few weeks leading to Consecration Sunday on October 31, I want us to ask ourselves how we can best respond to all God has done for us. Aren’t you grateful to God for your life, your family, friends, work, for retirement, this church, for Jesus Christ?

Good stewardship will help us become transformed people as we strengthen our relationship with God and the ministries of the church. If we are going to claim a new day, if we are going to open up a new era in the life of this church we will take some risks for our faith. And as we do, we will discover that the opportunity to serve God and our communities will be worth every risk we take.

Have you ever done something that was not without cost, but because the cost was worth it, you did it anyway? Risk-taking removes us from our comfort zones, and puts us in a place where we might lose some security, or we might just gain more that we ever imagined. Risk is not easy, unless we are addicted to extreme sports or danger. Most of us are pretty cautious when it comes to risk taking.

Are you a risk taker? Someone has reminded us that :

“To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach for another is to risk involvement.

To expose your feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To live is to risk dying.

To believe is to risk despair.

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. Chained by their attitudes they are slaves, they have forfeited their freedom. Only a person who risks is free” (www.quotelady.com/subjects/risk.html , 6-7). And Tom Kimmel and Michael Lille tell us: “We rest here while we can, but we hear the ocean calling in our dreams, and we know by the morning, the wind will fill our sails to test the seams. The calm is on the water and part of us would linger by the shore, for ships are safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for” (quotelady, p. 7).

Think of your ancestors who risked their lives and their livelihood to make a better world, to build a better community, to make sure the generations following had food, clothes, shelter, places of recreation, houses of learning and houses of worship. It was every risk.

As we enter this season, let’s risk thinking about Christian stewardship in a new way. What happens if we don’t think of the stewardship season in the same way that we think pledge week at WOSU, or as we think of paying our monthly bills? I like the definition of stewardship that Dan Dick offers. For him, stewardship is “the process of appreciating and managing the resources and opportunities for ministry that God gives us. It is constantly striving to live up to our full potential from God’s perspective, rather than a more limited human perspective” (Dan R. Dick. Revolutionizing Christian Stewardship in the 21st Century: lessons from Copernicus.

As we move into our new day and new way, let’s continue to ask ourselves, “who are we, whose are we, and what are we doing here” (Dick, p.25). This year, let’s claim stewardship as a matter of our identity and of our purpose in God as we make our way in God’s world and God’s house.

Will we risk thinking of stewardship as more than money; not just our treasure, but our time and talent too? Did you notice that Dick’s understanding of stewardship does not center on money? The issue is not always dollars, it is about discipleship; it is about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. His reasons for doing so are clear. He writes: “the best way to get more money is to stop talking about money. Lack of adequate money is the symptom, not the disease. If a church is not receiving adequate monetary support, it indicates a crisis of faith, not of finance…stewardship is primarily about our relationship with God” (Dick, p. 36).

Yes, you will be asked to make a financial commitment to the church this year. Generosity and financial support for the church is a spiritual gift and a spiritual discipline. “We would be grossly remiss in the church if we did not ask the question, ‘what does money have to do with my faith commitment’? And conversely, ‘what does my faith commitment have to do with my relationship to money?’ While stewardship is always much more than money, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that stewardship is less then money” (Dick, p. 36).

Jeremiah is in the capital city occupied by a foreign power, while Nebuchadnezar’s army was doing its best to starve the city, while leaders are being taken into exile, Jeremiah the prophet has a vision. The vision is fulfilled when his cousin comes to see him and asks him to pay the price for redeeming the field.

When Jeremiah bought that field from his cousin Hanamel, he took a big risk in order to become the steward, the guardian of his family’s heritage – and at the same time, he protected the heritage of Israel. There he was, in the custody of the Babylonians, able to receive visitors, but unable to come and go as he wishes. Still, Jeremiah risked his future to show his trust in God.

Buying the field made no sense. Hanamel was selling it because he was unable to farm it, no doubt soldiers were settled there. According to the law, the oldest male relative could rescue the land by buying it.

So Jeremiah completes the deal. He has signed the deed in front of witnesses, he made sure the money was properly weighed and has the deed copied so that one copy is put away for safe keeping and the other will be available in a kind of clay jar hall of records.

Why would Jeremiah do such a thing? He knew that there was a reward for his risk. It wasn’t that the land would double in value or that speculators were going to buy it to build the newest mall. He bought it because he knew how to appreciate and manage the opportunities God had given to him.

Jeremiah is not just making a real estate deal. Jeremiah wants Israel to be part of the promise and plan God has for the future. He knows that “it is God’s plan for the future that normal domestic and commercial life will resume in the land. The story gives exiles a cause for hope” (New Interpreters Study Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2003, p.1106).

He risked what he had so that he could become a steward of the future. If he had the land, he could claim the promise. So, “against the best wisdom of all the financial planners of Judah, Jeremiah purchases the field at Anothoth. The prophet invests his money in the divine promise, in the outlandish conviction that God is faithful” (Texts for Preaching – Year C. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press. 1994, p. 527).

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be brought to this land” (Jeremiah 32.15).

Restoration will come whether the field is in Jeremiah’s family or not, but God wants the people to participate in the restoration. The church of Jesus Christ will grow whether we are faithful stewards are not, but I believe God wants us to participate in the growth. What if our participation in the growth of the church began with this prayer; it is being offered in another congregation working and praying for renewal. The prayer is: God how do you want to reveal yourself in this time, in this community, through this church? We become good stewards when we pray that prayer and risk finding out the answers. We are called by God to ask how God is being revealed among us, and what will happen to us when we do?

Our new Ohio Regional Minister and President, William Edwards has suggested some marks of a transformed people who are changed from the inside out to claim our role as leaders, who by the way are good stewards, in Christ’s church. You have already read a version of his suggestions in the September newsletter, and you may hear them again when Bill comes to guide our leaders in a retreat in January. We can discover that when we take some risks, if we will give to God what is important to us, and trust that God will do as God as done and take care of it, and us, we will know that God is revealed here, and we will know what kinds of risk-taking stewards we will be.