"STEWARDS OF CAPACITY"

Sermon ‑ "Laity Sunday"

United Methodist Church of New Canaan

October 13, 2002

(Delivered by George P. Bauer)

Good Morning!

We used to have a saying in IBM where I spent thirty‑one of the best years of my life. The saying was: "When you want to communicate with a group, tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them, and sit down." I plan to do that this morning.

I'd like to reflect today on some of the capacities which we all have or have been given and what our stewardship role may be with regard to these capacities. I'm going to deal with them in these categories:

First, physical capacities, like the assets of our economic system, or this church building (but more of the latter)

Second, our intellectual capacities and the responsibilities we have to develop these in ourselves and others, and

Lastly, our spiritual capacity which I would suggest we have in abundance, but which we have so much difficulty grasping.

First, our physical capacities. I spend many of my waking hours working in our economic system, and I often talk to young people about what they want to do with their lives. So often I hear them say, "I want to go into business and make a lot of money". I hasten to respond that they may have the cart before the horse. The first objective of a business should be to produce a superior product or service and be good stewards of the firm’s productive capacities. I suggest to these young people, the extent to which one earns a profit is a measure of how well one performs that role.

For example, in the airline industry, "seats" are the raw material or the "capacity". The airline industry measures its performance in terms of seat occupancy and it is a tough thing to forecast. A good friend of mine until he passed away recently, was John Van Arsdale, one of the pioneers of commuter aviation. John began flying in 1948 from Provincetown on Cape Cod to Boston, a distance of 39 miles and 15 minutes by air. He reasoned that since it is 120 miles from Boston to Provincetown and three hours by car, that would be a good service for an airline and the rest is history. John used his capacity wisely and today there are over 50 airplanes doing that and similar routes in Florida and the Caribbean. But not all commuter airlines make it! Some don't use their capacity so well.

When asked once how to make a small fortune in the airline business, John said, "Start with a big fortune!" John always maintained the way to make a go of it in his business was to be a good steward of your capacity. As he put it, "You must have a seat in every seat" (He expressed it in a more earthy way but you get the gist!)

. . .and speaking of a seat in every seat and getting a little closer to home, what do you suppose our stewardship role is with regard to this sanctuary capacity (namely, seating.)? First, how much capacity is there? Any idea? Well, I was curious and measured it this week. There are a combined 518 feet of pews on the ground floor and balcony. If we think of Christmas and Easter, when the ushers scrunch us all up, and assume 18 inches per person, the capacity is 350. If you assume more normal Sundays and the room most of us take up, especially as some of us get older and wider, 24 inches gives us a capacity of 260, so probably an average of 300. (I asked Sven what our capacity was and he said 300.) And what about our attendance? This August 76 people, on average attended per Sunday, and thanks to a big Rally Day of 176, an average of 161 people came in September. We only use 50% of our capacity. Your first response may be, "My, My, Pastor Edwin has his work cut out for him! It may be that we all have our work cut out for Us.!

But what of this perhaps less‑tangible, but nevertheless "real", and I would suggest "God‑Given" intellectual capacity we all have. What is our stewardship role with regard to that capacity? John Nasser will be focusing on one aspect of that debate in the Academy for Christian Living after this service today as he addresses the Creation story. I get a monthly publication dealing with the relationship of science and religion and how it is evolving. There are many who believe the more we discover about this world in which we live, the more we get insights into God and how He created our universe. There is a growing body of Theology that suggests we are "Co‑Creators" with God, and learning about God is a life‑long journey. I've been at it awhile and yet studying the recent book by Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time has given me incredible new insights. (I guess it's an indication that an old dog can learn new tricks.)

But lest I get too esoteric with regard to our stewardship of our intellectual capacity, I'd like to point out a recent example I had of a potential stewardship of this capacity, specifically in others.

As some of you know, three years ago Carol and I adopted 43 second thru seventh graders at the Washington Village Housing Project in South Norwalk to help them graduate from High School and if they do, help them find an appropriate college or trade school experience. We and a staff (mostly the Staff) work with them two hours every day after school, the first hour academic enhancement (hear this as "doing their homework") and the second hour cultural enrichment such as art, drama, Maritime Center work, etc. etc. When we first began, the children weren't used to getting their homework done. The elementary schools in Norwalk give homework for the whole week on Monday and it's due on Friday. Eighty‑five per cent of our households are single parent (all mothers), many of whom work two jobs to keep the family together, so there isn't much time for homework help. The first week of the program, one of our second graders came in on Friday with a very troubled look on his face, and said, "Mr. George, I'm afraid I'm in trouble! I think I messed up!" This was the first time he had ever completed his homework and his teacher had gone a bit overboard and had written "Magnificent" on his paper. He didn't have a clue what that meant. I said, "James, let's look in the Dictionary and see what 'Magnificent' means." As I read the definition with words like "outstanding, great, fine, impressive", I wish you could have seen his face light up. I was witnessing what every teacher knows: the pleasure of seeing or helping an individual utilize his or her God‑given intellectual capacity. If intellectual capacity is a gift from our Creator, then seeing that it flourishes is certainly one of our stewardship roles. . .and many would say a God‑given opportunity. It seems to be the epitomy of the old adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life."

But perhaps the most elusive and mysterious capacities we have are our spiritual ones and our stewardship of these capacities is not always obvious.

How do we know what God is like and what He asks of us. To me, the best evidence comes from our life experiences. I'd like to point out two:

The first is Parenthood and perhaps ,more importantly Grandparenthood. The Grandparents in the group will understand what I'm about to say. Those who aren't yet Grandparents, I covet for you the time when you are. I, like many of you, have a pillow in my den which reads, "If I'd have known Grandchildren were so much fun, I'd have had them first!"

Some of the most insightful times I have in my mature years are watching my children react to their children. I am amazed and sobered by the commitment and the unselfish effort it takes to raise children. Yes, of course, I went through the same experience. I had a colicky baby and Carol and I took turns walking the floor at night, but I never realized the capacity that I had for being completely committed to this child. This mysterious, often irrational, spiritual capacity deep within us to commit so completely to another human being must certainly come from God. If God is like a Father or Mother to us, then certainly His love for us must transcend even our human spiritual capacity and makes the stewardship of that capacity a sacred trust.

Another life experience that illumines our spiritual capacity and I believe, the nature of God, is this incredible ability of human beings ‑ particularly men and women ‑ to love each other unconditionally. Have you ever watched couples at a mall and wondered what attracted them to each other? Or spent an evening with a couple and wondered how they dealt with each other when you weren't around? It's a mystery to me.

My own experience tells me that I am not a lovable person all the time yet, my wife treats me as if I am and with respect. That spiritual capacity to love another person unconditionally may be one of the ways God has of showing us his true nature and again suggests the stewardship of that capacity is a sacred trust.

Well, what have 1 been trying to say? First, that we have many capacities and we are called to exercise good stewardship over them.

Some are hard and tangible physical capacities, in this world of ours and we are called to use them for the good of a!!= Some are intellectual apacities and we are called to develop them ourselves as well as help others to develo theirs, and lastly, we have special spiritual capacities and I believe they are a reflection of God's nature. I believe all of these capacities are gifts from God and carry the demands or burden of careful stewardship.

My family and I have spent some part of our lives living among people whose first language was not English. While in Paris, I had an assignee from Africa who told me something of the Swahili language. He told me there is only a present tense in their grammar and if one wants to express something in the past tense he simply motions like this. (Hand backwards over shoulder). If the future tense ‑like this. (Hand stretched forward. )

I'd like to close with restating Luke 12, verse 47, particularly to this community, in Swahili:

"To Whom much has been given. (Hand back) much will be required!" (Point toward congregation.)

Amen.