I begin by bringing you greetings from my own Diocese of Ontario, which you may be interested to know, also happens to be the 'mother' of the Diocese of Ottawa.

I also want to say just how pleased I am to have been invited to preach here in St. John's. Little did I know - or even dream - back in the mid 1970's - when I used to ride by here on the bus - on my way to St. Paul's University - little did I know - that one day I'd be standing inside this church - preaching.

Another thing I'd like to say - before launching into my message - is a word of thanks to you - here at St. John's - and especially to your rector and staff - for being - as your advertising clearly says - for being different. As I'm sure you many of you know and have first hand experience - being different comes at a cost. And I want to thank you for that.

Now that I've got all that out - where to begin?

Should I focus on the week of prayer for Christian unity - which our church calendar tells us ends today.

Should I focus on one of the three scripture passages you've just heard?

Should I talk about my role in the diocese of Ontario?

Like most Sundays - there's a virtual smorgasbord from which to choose.

What I propose to do this morning is spend most of my time talking about stewardship. However, by the time I'm done, I also hope to have said just a word or two about our readings, as well as about Christian unity.

And no - I don't plan to stand here - talking at you for 25 or 30 minutes or more!

One of the things I do in my position is go around my diocese - to different parishes - offering various kinds of workshops.

Some months back I was asked by a parish to do a workshop on biblical definitions of stewardship.

And so off I went - and about a dozen of us spent a productive morning - reading different Bible passages and using them as we worked on a definition of stewardship.

At the end of the morning -when we were doing a bit of evaluation - one of the participants said: (and - just as an aside - I had asked that people bring their Bibles) - this person said to me: "I didn't get the word about bringing our Bibles. I knew this was going to be a morning about stewardship. So," reaching into his pocket, he continued, "I brought my calculator."

The fact is - that over the last 40 or 50 years or so - we - in the Church - have allowed the meaning of stewardship to be defined almost strictly as money - dollars and cents - and even more narrowly - as the raising of money.

I see my present task as one voice - among others - trying to expand on that meaning. I'm not really doing anything new or innovative.

I believe that people need to rediscover stewardship with a much broader - fuller - richer - kind of meaning.

Let me stop for just a minute here.

Let me ask you - if you were going to try to get people to think and talk about stewardship as meaning more than just money - where would you begin? How would you start?

I'm looking for your input here.

Now - let me tell you where I believe we need to start when talking about stewardship.

We need to start - as I heard Peter Mason - the former bishop of Ontario say once - we need to start: "in the BIG inning." Or - for non-baseball fans - "in the beginning."

Stewardship has its roots in the Book of Genesis - "in the beginning God created."

With all the other advances we've made over the years - in science - in medicine - in just about any field you'd care to mention - with ALL the advances we've made - I often wonder - if maybe today we simply pay lip service to the whole idea of a creator God.

And so - if we're going to be serious about stewardship - we really need to wrestle - we need to struggle - and that's exactly what it's going to be for most of us - a real struggle - to come to a place where we can say - "Yes, I honestly and truly - and way deep down in my gut - I believe - I accept - that God has made EVERYTHING - that God OWNS - if you want to use that word - God OWNS EVERYTHING.

God made - and God owns - my spouse - my children - my very body. God made - and God owns - the car I drive - the clothes on my back - the job I have. God made - and God owns - and we can go on - and on - and on. Because it doesn't end - does it.

And this creator God - who made - and who owns EVERYTHING - this creator God - who loves me so dearly - this creator God - has said to me - and to you -

"Take care of this for me."

"Take care of your body."

"Take care of your relationships with others."

"Take care of the material things I've given you."

"Take care of this planet."

"Take care of this for me."

"And you know what," says this loving creator God, "Im going to make each and every one of you special - unique."

"Not only am I giving you all this - as an added bonus - because I love you so dearly - because I want you to be like me - loving and giving - I'm giving each of you some gift - some characteristic - some trait - that will make you stand out - that will make you unparalleled - that will make you an original."

"Take care of this gift."

"Nurture it."

"Help it grow."

"And the more you do - the more you'll be like me - loving and giving."

I firmly believe that this is where we need to start if we hope to begin to understand what stewardship is really all about.

Do you believe that you are here - on this earth - to take care of things for God?

Do you believe that you are here - whatever your station in life - to nurture and use the gifts God has given you?

Do you believe you are here - in this parish - to join with others - in helping God's dream for the world come true?

By the way - do you know what God's dream for the world is?

If you know your Bible at all - you'll know that it's mentioned there all the time.

The Old Testament prophets refer to God's dream a lot. The Law - which we heard about in our first reading today - the Law - was one way of describing part of God's dream.

Jesus, throughout the gospels, keeps giving us glimpses into God's dream. And we've got an example of this in today's gospel, where we heard Jesus reading from Isaiah - giving us - like I said - a glimpse into what God's dream looks like - and telling people that the dream had begun to come true with the arrival of Jesus on the scene.

Even Paul - in today's epistle - can be seen as talking about how God's dream can be lived out. And it's certainly not in the endless bickering that seems to highlight so much of the dialogue between and among different Christian denominations.

God's dream?

In a word - I believe God's dream to be shalom. Not just the narrow meaning of shalom that we often use - meaning peace.

But shalom in the sense that everything - and everyone - live in harmony. - That the love which God showed - from the beginning - that this love be the foundation - that it be at the very core - of all that happens between two people - among a whole bunch of people - between we humans and the rest of the world.

God's dream.

So - do you believe that you are here - in this parish - to join with others - in helping God's dream for the world come true?

If you can say "yes" to this - then I would suggest that you already know what stewardship is.

And - if this is the case - then I would invite you to take the next step on your journey as a steward.

"The next step?" You ask.

Putting what you know and what you say into action.

Because you see - stewardship is a WAY OF LIFE - not just a set of ideas and beliefs.

Stewardship is a way of life based on seeing God's relationship to us - AND - of ACTING on it by giving testimony. Testimony not only with our lips - but perhaps more importantly - testimony with our actions - with how we live out what we say we believe.

It seems to me that if we take our baptismal promises seriously - what that means is that we have made a conscious decision to follow Christ - no matter what the cost.

Sometimes - when I used to officiate at a wedding, I would say a few words about love and about Christ's example of sacrificial love - giving his very self on the cross - to show the extent of his love.

And I'll go on to say that if the newly married couple are honest and sincere about their love for one another - then they should be prepared to carry it to the same extreme that Jesus did.

But - we all know that's not likely to happen, don't' we.

We know that their love for one another will be a life-long process of give and take - an on-going process of learning and growth.

I would suggest that we can say exactly the same thing about stewardship.

It's a life-long - an ongoing - process. It's an expression of our discipleship.

Actually, it's the "lived evidence" if you will - of our decision to be followers of Jesus. You've all heard the question, I'm sure: "If you were charged with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence found to convict you?"

If we are going to be followers - disciples - of Jesus - it follows that we're also going to be stewards.

You really can't be one without being the other.

Stewardship - taking care of things for God - is nothing new.

The challenge we face - our task - our mission - our calling - is to show the world - to show our society - maybe even to show ourselves - that what we say we believe is actually how we LIVE OUT our lives.

I'm going to end with a story I heard a while back.

This story takes place on another planet. A planet that's inhabited only by ducks. And the ducks on Duck Planet are different from the ducks on our own planet in that they all waddle around and, they can all talk.

So, if you were to fly over Duck Planet, and observe what was going on below, you'd see all these ducks waddling around here and there.

And on Sunday mornings, you'd see the ducks waddling down the street and into their church.

And the duck choir waddles up the aisle, followed by the duck minister, who waddles into the pulpit.

The duck minister reads a passage from the duck bible. It's a passage that's very similar to one from our own bible, where we hear words from the prophet Isaiah, talking about 'those who wait upon the Lord" having wings, and soaring like eagles.

The duck minister puts the duck bible down, and says: "Ducks, we've all got wings."

The ducks look down at themselves, and then at one another, and nod in agreement: "Yes, we've got wings."

"Ducks," says the duck minister, "our bible tells us that with wings we can fly!"

The ducks again nod in agreement, and some say, "Yes, we can fly."

"Ducks," says the duck minister very loudly, "with wings we can SOAR LIKE EAGLES!"

"AMEN! YES! WE CAN SOAR!" respond the ducks, now all worked up.

And, at the end of the service, all the ducks get up, and waddle back out again!

What we say we believe is actually how we live out our lives!

And so I invite you - to take the next step on your stewardship journey.

The Venerable Michael Pollesel
Stewardship Education Coordinator
Diocese of Ontario
90 Johnson Street
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
K7L 1X7