The Rev. Donald Benedict, director of the Chicago Missionary Society,
commenting on the societie's mission to the inner city and the slum areas

of Ch

of Chicago said, "the church must work twenty four hours a day Sto keep alive

the rumoor that there is a goa" Mr. Benedict's sobering statment could indeed

apply to the surban church and the church at large with a few modifications.

That there is a God is not the major problem facing most of christianity.

Our job is in keeping alive the rumor that God is present: and that in the

complexitiies of modern society the Christian Faith is relevant.

The facts seem to slap us in the face at the onset. Using the early

church as our guide, measuring the chirch of today against the church of the

: FAITH
first century, our c&nclusion must be one of the following; either the eBureh

as such, and the church of Yesus Christ are totally irrelevant, or else

modern day christians simply don't know what it means to be Christians.

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Our immediate concern today is Stewardship, but I hesitate evn to use the

word: for Syewardship is_not something other than Christianity. It is not even
Oo oné area or category of Christian activity. -- It_is Christianity s That we
—_— —€

must set aside a few weeks in the‘ fall to talkm about stweardship;/ that the
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church has to send visitors into every home to solicit funds ;/that the church
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in many instances has had to employ slogans, gimmicks, tricks, projects,

and dinners to carry on its mission is the most telling indictment that

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modern American Christianity is not completely christianity | For if it were

true all this rigamarole would be unecessary.
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If we had to lay our finger-on ont goint arddsay(" here is the basic

irrelevancy and weakness of tmexemurekz2x contemporary christianity" it would

have to be that somehow we hve lost any sense of the presence of goa. / the

Biblical witness,in the chosen people Israel, int the voices of the prophets,
inthe life » death, and resurection of Jessus Christ, and of t@enty cent,

of church history, Zis that God is present in his greation, that creation
———, "ihc stage ———

exists becuase of his grace and will, and that he is constantly bombarding

h hésctemakéanxuith wo creation

with self initiated acts of revelation. | The Biblical witness is that God

is present.that he has a will..an intention for hie rrea tian and anaatiimas

ey

a benevolent despot who has thouroughly spoiled his children by allowing them

to do as they please and thusly proven that he really doesn't care,’ If the

°

latéer_is true we are wasting our time.—My profession is a gentle joke on

all its members, this building is an expression only of a dream, and your

presence in it an aet of dishonesty. / 11 God is not present we might as

well go hone. / 12 he is present we have some thinking to do,

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—=s

We might ask where did we go wrong? At what point in history did

man begin to lose the sense of God's presence and purpose. | lt's a little
: ii
dangerous to be too specific here and yet I don't think that point is too_far

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in the past./ It wasn! very long ago when there was a certain basic unity

about life. A man and woman built their life out of the raw tools of nature;

if it was a Christian home these were obtiously God given girts / A man could see

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/
the magnificence of God;s craativity because he lived in and with it. /He slept

—— —_

in the house that he had constructed from trees he cut aon. /' He ate the

—
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food that he grew in his fiels. He dailty felt the warm earth on his hands and

=,

che hot sun on his back, He lived close to nature, he witnessed the drama

f life; living, dying, heing recreated in nature's miraculous regeneration,

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This was a man who could not helpt but feel the presence of Goa And if

‘his man was a Christian he could know that there was a purpose behind his

.lfe,

Needless to Say things are a little different today. We live in a

lorld so far removed from the world of nature that any sense of God's wondrous
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—S

‘orks is hard to come by. / the vast majority of people today never take the

lements of nature and create anything; never have the opportunity of adding
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he finishing touches to the work of their own hanas./ Carpenters that one

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ep

ay built homes in which to live, cabinets ana barns,now pound nails int

re-cut wood./ Housewives, the last bastion of Brewss-roots creativity, now
isi erve
ake cakes out of boxes, “seve-t.v. dinners and instant mashed potatoes (all

he women of this church not with standing). /It is simply very difficult to

eel that one is living in the presence of God's many gifts when every article

ad ee

Er
of God's goodness than the humble pow, / 1 had an experience once that has
determined my thinking about the presence of God ever since. /1 worked

in the Ford stamping plant one summer and it was an experience I will always

—

count as invaluable. / At first it seemed like another world into which I

had been thrust. From the early morning sunshine, the birds awakening

and the dew_on the grass one entered a world of grease, dirt, sweat and the

thunder of deafening nates | One mroning as I made this transition I found

mhself absent _mindedly humming the tune Ene Lord is in his Holy Temple .")
Gb>urck pk monument

It seemed completely absest at first, Surely this maxamant to man's

technological prowess, this monster that turned men into machines that

rotely pushe@ buttons all day was as far from a Temple of God as ayybhing

could be. / But then it occured to me that perhaps here is where I and most

of the world have been missing the point / Perhaps this was a temple of God,

—_———=

Here at the very basis of culture, where money is earned, where steel is

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turned into Sejects that are the essence of life, here perhaps God was truly
present, } Perhaps the stamping plant is a Temple--as truly_as_any other

place,

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‘The point is that we do not believe in_a God who restricts his

oresence to church, or who restricts his presence in our lives to our soft

and sentimental emotions / Our faith is not one that is dominant in ee aspect

9f life. To be Christian means to be Christian every minute of everyday.
[To say \I believe in God the Father Almihty, maker of heaven and ear th")

neans that God is present throughout heaven and earth, that his presence

ind his will pervade everything that is./ To affirmg this is to say thatI

vill always be alert to God's presence, ready to hear his call, willing to
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1eg&éte my will before his,

The church, however, instead of proclaiming this has teeteed tried to
Xxist by seelling something called religion. / We invite, persuade, beg, use high

xressure techniques, and subtle slogans to get people in the doors, When they

| nee

4,

Next Sunday is Stewardship Sunday; and on that day_visitors will

call in the homes of every member of the church. /'Their purpose will be to explair
= Anca

the why's and how's of the church's program and they will ask your commitment

to it. / When they finish you_will be given the opportunity of expressing

that commitment by pledging part of yourself, in dollars and_cents to Christ

and h&s church,

Ga &
Pics will interpret this as fund raising in disguise / but let it

a TN

be said that this church does not want a pledge made begrudingingly; we do not

ce,

want money that was given in resent. / our highest hope is that this periodic

emphasis on Stewardship will cause you to think about all I have sand this

ay

morning. /In the “xt week I ask you to think seriously about the presence

of God; to consider the source of all life, the source of your ability to

live and move and work and enjoy. Then you will be ready to decide in what

Sen

ways and to what degree does God will that you respond to his presence,

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Stewardship is Christianity, alive and vatar/ Christianity minus

STewardship is irre levancy ./ May God add his belssing to our efforts--

and may his presence envliven and awaken us to a new €level of service and

discipleship. Amen