We have all been given many good things from God. What have we done with them? Have we used the good things that God has given to us for others or kept them for ourselves. In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazaros found the in Luke 16.19-31, the rich man who kept everything to himself was in hell when he died. When we consider our stewardship to God’s Church, will we find ourselves in the torment of hell because we did nothing with God’s good things? We must act now!
My brothers and sisters, November is stewardship month here at the cathedral. I wrote to you in my letter in the bulletin that I want you to dream with me about the future of our cathedral. I want you to dream that when people drive by our cathedral, when they think of our cathedral, when they look in the doors of our cathedral they don’t just see a beautiful church, but they think of the hope that there is in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
You see, my brothers and sisters, God has given us many blessings, not the least of which is this beautiful church in addition to our wealth, in addition to all of our talents, in addition to all the good things that God has given us. And this morning’s gospel is a beautiful opportunity for us to launch our annual stewardship campaign, because God gives us a warning in this morning’s gospel. The two characters, some unnamed rich man who had everything he could ever have imagined, so wealthy that it even mentions in the gospel that he had purple clothing. Purple clothing back then, was reserved only for the wealthiest people. And he had everything he wanted, but when he died, he was being tormented in hell. Lazarus, the poor man who had nothing, he would have been satisfied, it says in the gospel, just eating the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. He had to be comforted by the dogs coming to lick his sores. That man was in heaven being comforted by God.
And so it gives us an opportunity to evaluate what we are doing with what God has given us. I can’t answer the question for you, I can only answer the question for myself. But I ask you to think how are we as a community, how are you individually as families, how are you using the good things that God has given you for other people, not for yourselves. It isn’t a sin to be wealthy, it is a sin to keep our wealth to ourselves. It isn’t a sin to have a good job, it is the sin to work only for our own needs. It is not a sin to have this beautiful cathedral, which by the way is in need of a lot of repairs, it is not a sin to have this beautiful cathedral, but it is a sin if any citizen in this city thinks that they do not have a place here, thinks that they cannot come here to be comforted by God and to meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
This is the warning of this morning’s gospel, that we have been given so many gifts from God. And my brothers and sisters, we’re not doing enough with it. Forget about just the fact that the building needs to be repaired. Our responsibility as stewards, as the ones whose God has given the gifts… The word steward, οικοδεσπότη, the caretaker of God’s house. Look around, are we doing a good job? There’s plaster falling from the ceiling? But it’s not just the building, it’s the work of the church. 10,000 men, women, and children call this their church, 10,000. Do you think two priests is enough for 10,000 people? We can’t even get to every house for a house blessing. We have a lot of work to do, and this is the invitation that I want you to dream with me about the great future of our cathedral.
When you consider your stewardship this year, I want you to ask yourself, “How am I using the good things that God has given me to do the work of God and to bless other people?” It’s our finances, it’s our time, it’s our talents, all of it together, my brothers and sisters, is how we serve God. But time is limited. The gospel also mentions the great chasm. The great chasm, my brothers and sisters, is not a physical thing. There is not a physical separation between heaven and hell. But the chasm in this morning’s gospel, the Holy Fathers help us understand that it is the moment of death. The rich man was in hell because he didn’t do anything with what God had given him by the time he died.
We have to act now for our salvation. What’s going to happen if we die tomorrow? None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Many of our own families know that we can wake up tomorrow and someone in our family is gone or we find ourselves in the other side of the chasm. It’s too late to change our hearts then, it’s too late to change our minds then. It’s now that we must act.
And the final thing that I want to remind us about, the rich man asks for Lazarus to go to warn his family. Abraham says, “If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, even if someone was to come back from the dead, they would not believe.” Is that where we find ourselves? We say we believe in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but has it changed our life, has it changed our priorities? Or are we still living that life that is totally consumed by ourselves and our own? That is the life of the rich man, the unnamed, anonymous rich man.
But we can be known by God. We have been given a name by God, and it’s up to us to live and to give so that others have the opportunity to encounter God and to find the hope of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to keep it to ourselves. Our job is to bring the church and the work of the church, and most importantly, the hope of God to every citizen of Tarpon Springs. So dream with me. Dream of a day when the parish council does not have to beg for money to pay bills. Dream of a day when we have enough staff, clergy and office staff, to do the proper work of the church, where every house can be blessed.
10,000 men, women, and children is approximately 3,000 houses. It would take two priests, which is what we have, two priests five houses a day, seven days a week just to visit every single home once a year. And that doesn’t leave time for the other things. Only because we’ve been keeping our good things to ourselves instead of giving it to the church for God’s work. This is what stewardship is about: allowing God to use our good things for His glory. Glory to God for all things.
