This morning I would like to speak to you about the gospel according to JB - that is Jack Benny! Just as a matter of interest, how many present have never heard of Jack Benny?

One of Jack Benny`s classic skits depicted him being robbed at gunpoint. A masked robber rushes to ward him pointing a gun and says, "Your money or your live". This excited exclamation is followed by a period of silence during which Benny assumes his well-known pose (something like this). The gunman waits in agitation while Benny stands there. He repeats in a louder voice, "Did you hear me? I said, your money or your life, what are you waiting for?"

Finally Benny replies, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking."

Jack Benny amused generations by portraying himself as someone entirely devoted to his bank account. Through self-directed lampooning Benny invited all his fans to think about themselves and their possessions and to ask themselves the question, "Am I a generous person or a Jack Benny type of person?"

By now you probably have assumed that I plan to speak to you about money. Well, not really. That would be far too crass coming from the pulpit! Rather, I invite you to think, very briefly, about the spirituality of your money, that is, to evaluate the level of personal integrity which you presently have, or would wish to have, in the way you use your wealth.

For Jesus, there was no better way to evaluate the level of one`s spiritual maturity than by asking yourself questions about money. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke 1 out of every 6 verses deals with money. That is an astounding statistic! And, of the 29 parables Jesus told, 16 deal with a person's relationship with their money. From this biblical emphasis someone once said, "God judges what we give by what we keep."

The Christian world came up with a powerful word to describe this relationship: the word is "stewardship." The Christian ideal for one's relationship to money is that we see ourselves not owners of what we possess but stewards- we are entrusted with what really belongs to someone else. And in using that word the church places money in the same league as all of the other gifts and resources which we possession. In other words, stewardship goes far beyond, but includes, our relationship to money.

It is for this reason that any conversation about money in the church is unlike a conversation about money anywhere else. First and foremost the church wants to know why you give. The hospital foundation doesn't really care why you give but the church does care because the church's job is to shape souls devoted to justice and right living. I am reminded of the story of a mother who wanted to teach her daughter a stewardship lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church and said, "Now dear, put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself." When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. "Well," said the little girl, "I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that God loves a cheerful giver. I knew I would be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter and kept the dollar for myself, so I did."

The fact is, the little girl did learn a good lesson-she learned that she should not try to be something she isn't -to be hypocritical. One can only hope that as she grows in faith she will also learn to be cheerful giving the dollar. When that happens she will understand what we mean by stewardship.

Thus, we are stewards of our quarters and our dollars, of our children and the children of others too, of our environment, and of our own bodies and souls. And as Christians we are also stewards of the promises of Jesus Christ, or as the bottom line on the letterhead of this parish has stated for 12 years, we are..."Stewards of God`s gifts of creation, redemption, and empowerment."

The stewardship concept of living fulfils, in my view, the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in this morning's gospel when Jesus says to him, "..no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above" (John 3:3). When we get to the point in our spiritual journey when we see everything that we are and everything that have as a trust held for the glory of God then, I would say, we are truly born from above. And then we can see the Kingdom of God.

Deep down we all covet what we have. Deep down we feel we deserve every bit of it and no one else has any claim on my money.

Once, a man said, "If I had some extra money, I'd give it to God, but I have just enough to support my myself and my family". And the same man said, "If I had some extra time, I'd give it to God, but every minute is taken up with my job, family, my clubs, and what have you-every single minute." And the same man said, "If I had a talent I'd give it to God, but I have no lovely voice, I have no special skill. I've never been able to lead a group; I can't think cleverly or quickly, the way I would like to."

And God was touched, and although it was unlike God, God gave that man money, time, and a glorious talent. And then God waited..and waited...and waited...and after while God stopped waiting and took back all the gifts from the man, the money, the time, and the talent. And the man sighed and said, "If only I had some of that money back, I'd give it to God, If only I had some of that time back, I'd give it to God, if only I had some of that talent back, I'd give it to God." It's a bit like it is when you play a country and western song backwards, the guy gets back everything he has lost: his girl friend, his horse, and his truck!

And God said, "Oh, shut up."

And the man told some of his friends, " You know God never hears my prayer and I'm not sure that I believe in God anymore." (An adaptation of God is No Fool, 1969, Abingdon Press)

Because what we possess is so dear to us we have a remarkable capacity for rationalizing why we have a right to keep it. We can so easily justify a lack of generosity:

"I won't give to that, the money will be wasted"
"I don't have much, let all those rich folk pay their share"
"If others worked as hard as I did they wouldn't need my money, why should I subsidize a bunch of lazy louts"
"I work hard, I really need my winter vacation in the sun every year."
"I just don`t know what I will need next month or next year, I can't decide now."

Now there may be truth in these assertions but they many also be ways in which we refuse to be stewards. Some of us think that if we had more we would be more generous- the famous trickle-down theory. It doesn't work as a theory of economic justice and it doesn't work when it comes to charitable giving. Research done in the United States revealed that households with the lowest incomes gave away an average 2.8% of their income, while households with the highest incomes gave away only 1.5%. I believe that I am correct in stating that, in Canada, still, the highest per capita giving to charity is to be found in Newfoundland. But remember, stewardship is not really about the size of the gift, it is always about the attitude with which the gift is given.

Well, it's not a secret. At the end of this service Monica Patten and Ross Hammond, co-chairs of our Heart and Hands in Action Campaign will officially launch our parish funding raising effort -the one which we all endorsed at a special vestry meeting a month ago in order to renovate the basement. Please remember that while we do have a dollar objective in mind the campaign is first for all of us to look is into our hearts. If we do that the pocket book decision will easily fall into place.

Each of you will be invited to sit down with a couple of volunteers from the campaign leadership team over the next couple of months. I hope that you will accept their invitation to meet with you. But for now, and in preparation for this visit, I hope that you will be thinking through the decision that only you can make - a decision which I trust will be a made as a good steward. In preparation for these visits will each of you will ask yourself this question, "What contribution on part would allow me to say of myself, 'I am a good steward of what God has given me'?"