[The Rev. Richard L. Schaper is the Gift Planning Officer of the Diocese of California. This is his first preaching engagement at Redeemer.]

Repent
The Rev. Richard L. Schaper, CFP
Redeemer, San Rafael
Advent 2C
December 5, 2004

Readings:

Isaiah 11:1-10
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12
Psalm 72 or 72:1-8

On a recent Advent morning I was folding the laundry and had gotten down to matching and balling the socks.

I don't know what procedures you may follow in laundering your clothes, and defending yourself against the dual threats of wearing mismatched socks, on one hand, (typically, a navy blue one on one foot and a black one on the other foot) and a wash machine and dryer that regularly eats them, on the other hand. I have found this to one of life's enduring challenges.

I had dumped the washed and dried clothes onto the bed for sorting and had already picked out and folded the larger items and the underwear, which are easy to identify.

Then comes the biggest challenge: finding and matching the pairs of socks from the 3 dozen or so left in a pile at the edge of the bed.

It was when all the other laundry had already been folded and I got down to the last handful of socks that suddenly I could see that this was a time when it was going to come out right: there was an even number of socks left, and each one had an obvious mate. I was somewhat stunned. I don't know why this happened, but the socks coming out right--as they hardly ever do--spontaneously put me in touch with our Advent longings for a time when everything will come out right:

when those who are hungry will be fed,
when those who are tired will find rest,
when the violence will stop,
the cancer will be healed.

Like you, I long for a day when it will all come out right, and this is what our Advent scripture readings are speaking to us about this morning--our longing, and the longing of God.

Our longing, as Isaiah expresses it, of a time when the whole earth will be ruled by

"a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of counsel and might,
a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord."
[When earth's rulers will with righteousness] "judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth."
[When we shall no longer] "hurt or destroy on (God's) holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

This is God's intended kingdom, the way that earth was created to be. This is how it was intended to be, and will be again when everything is made right, when it all comes out right.

It is God's longing, not our own, that comes to the fore in the preaching of John the Baptizer. John's call to "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near," is the call for us to get in synch with the world as it is intended to be, rather than with the way that it is. We are to live in such a way as to bring into being the vision of Isaiah, when compassion and healing and justice become an everyday reality in our world.

It would be as if the socks come out right--even and matched, with none missing--every time. And this is sign of the culmination of God's creation.

As for now, "the ax," John says, "is laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

God's longing is for lives that are being fruitful, bearing good fruit.

In Advent, we are offered the gift of placing our lives in their true perspective, as gifts which are meant to bear fruit. In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives and their constant demands, it is easy for us to lose sight of the fact that our lives do not belong to us, that we do not own them, and that we have a purpose that reaches beyond us.

It was a woman named Nancy who helped put my life in perspective.

It was after a conference at CDSP that Nancy and her husband hosted a reception at their home in Oakland. In the course of the evening I commented to her on what a lovely home she has and asked her, "How long have you lived in this home?" "In this home, since '94," she said, "On this parcel of land, since 1967." "We lost our home in the Oakland fire." The extent of such a loss was sinking in to me as she told the story of how she had been cleaning the house getting ready for guests who were expected the next weekend. Tom was out sailing….

Two days later they were able to return to their house. The fence was still standing along the road. They opened the gate, and behind the gate was… nothing.

Tom said, "All we have is two cars, two sail bags and a winch handle."

We stood looking into one another's eyes in silence.

Then Nancy said, "I learned that we don't ever 'own' anything."

"We don't ever really own anything." We don't own our children. We don't own our loved ones. We don't love our house, or our investments. We don't own our own life. I know that we don't own our health.

We only have them given to us by God's hand to enjoy and use and share for today, during this limited time that we walk this path on earth.

How we use and care for all that God give us is our stewardship toward God. Our stewardship isn't about the money that we give to the church; that is so tiny! Our stewardship is something far more profound. It is about how we use and cherish all that comes to us. Perhaps you know that old expression, "What we have is God's gift to us; what we do with it, is our gift to God."

Stewardship is about how we choose to spend our dollars and our days--each one of them.

Let me come at this from another angle. In the financial planning profession nationally, there is a movement among financial planners that is called "life planning." Life planning challenges the assumption that the role of a financial planner is to help the client to maximize their wealth. Instead, it begins with the question, 'What is the wealth for?"

Roy Dilberto, our former national CFP resident who has a practice in Kansas City, says that when they do an intake of a new client, they have the client come in and they bring the client into a comfortable conference room and they ask the client three questions. The first question is, "If you had all the money that you wanted, what would you do?" The second question is, 'If you knew that you only had 10 more years to live, how would you spend these next years ahead?' And finally, "If you were to die at midnight tonight, what would be your biggest regrets?" Here is where they bring out the box of tissues, for it is a question that stirs up deep feelings in us.

These are stewardship questions.

How do you wish to spend your life? How do you choose to use whatever God has given you? What do you want your life to stand for? If these are not questions of faith, then nothing is.

God gives us as a human being the opportunity to choose what values will guide our lives and express our faith in a living way. How can we arrange our dollars and our days in such a way that they express what we choose to stand for as we live this life that is given to us? And how can we arrange our plans for their distribution upon our death in such a way that these plans too express the chosen witness of our lives?

Suppose that someone were to give you today a million dollars with the only condition being that you give it all away? To whom would you give it? This can be a revealing exercise. To whom would you distribute the $1 million--Family? Charities? Friends? And in what proportions?

There will be a day within 100 years from today when each one of us will have the opportunity to give it all away. To whom will we give it? And how will this express what is deepest in our hearts, the true witness of our lives?

Sometimes, usually when I am traveling, someone will ask me, "What do you do?" When I had to break a recent trip to the East Coast in Chicago… "What do you do?" "I am a financial theologian," I replied. What is that? What do you do? I meet with people and help them articulate what is most important to them in their lives. Then I help them bring their financial assets into alignment with what they say is most important to them, so that their lives can make a consistent statement of their chosen values and their faith.

Nancy's experience of great loss in the tragic destruction of her home and all of its contents brought her to a deep realization of her life as gift from God. Earlier this year when I received the diagnosis of prostate cancer, my life, like Nancy's, was put into a new perspective. Suddenly moments spent with my daughter and my wife, or seeing sunrise, took on a new poignancy. I could no longer take my life for granted.

This is the Church's gift to each one of us in Advent: to place our lives into the perspective that one day everything will come to an end, but that we are given these precious days and whatever years to be with one another, to live out our lives on this blessed earth--to receive and enjoy and share and pass on all the gifts that God is giving us.

With the approach of the festival of Christmas, the church invites us to pause and to reflect on the deepest blessings our lives, and the choices that we are making to express our values and our faith. "Repent," says John, "for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

We gather this morning once again around God's Holy Table to share God's gift in Jesus. "This is my body," he says to us again, "broken for you." "My blood poured out for you, for the forgiveness of sins."

May our lives be transformed by the gift we receive.

"This is my blood. . ." (Pieter van
Mol, Flemish, 17th Cent.)

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