Sermon: Rethinking Generosity, Rethinking Stewardship
Koreans have a deep affection for dandelions. We grew up with children’s books about them. Some stories explain the brilliance of how they change, to scatter seeds on the wind. In one tale, a dandelion wipes away its tears and greets the sun with a bright yellow face. We are often told to be like a dandelion—a vibrant flower that pushes through cracks in asphalt or even blooms where no cracks exist. This love for dandelions reflects Korea’s history, marked by colonization and war, fostering a strong connection to stories of struggle and resilience.
Resilience is an essential spiritual practice, especially in our present, uncertain times. But we should never celebrate resilience just for its own sake. When we reflect on the dandelion’s resilience, we must also ask: Why was the land paved over with asphalt in the first place? True resilience cannot exist without the courage to resist—and it’s that resistance that allows communities to rise.
Two Sundays ago, I shared my personal jubilee statement: “Without heartbreak, there’s no jubilee.” What drives us to dream and hope Jubilee grows in the depths of our feelings. Here’s one more understanding about Jubilee: Jubilee is not just a statement of liberation in general, but also one of economic justice. The scripture defines Jubilee in explicitly economic terms: every seven years, the Sabbatical year requires the land to lie fallow, debts to be forgiven, and slaves to be freed and paid. Every 50 years, each family is to reclaim its ancestral land and return to its rightful place.
In our world today, what could be more connected to economics than land itself?
As we continue this journey of Stewardship Exploration, I hope we remain curious, asking big picture questions rather than seeking definitive answers. What exactly is church stewardship? And what should Christian stewardship look like? I hope that, just like dandelion seeds carried on the wind, new ideas will emerge from every corner of you.
The first principle I want to offer is this: stewardship must be accountable to our values. It must centre on understanding and discerning our values so we don’t unconsciously slip into mainstream societal financial patterns—such as neoliberalism.
One helpful way to define stewardship is this: It’s about God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. It is not merely about managing church finances.
With that in mind, here are two important questions to reflect on:
What are your values?
What are BVU’s values that help us resist defaulting to the financial and societal patterns around us?
I cherish this book, Serving Money, Serving God: A Path to Transformative Church Financial Practices Rooted in Justice, by Sheryl Johnson, published just last year.
This book moved me in new ways regarding stewardship. It made my heart race with its groundbreaking perspective and, for the first time, made me deeply resonate with church stewardship on a personal level.
Johnson says: “There are twelve values and beliefs (idols) that underlie many Christian stewardship practices.”
For us, I would translate “idols” as anything that can act as a barrier to sustaining Jubilee. In other words, idols are those unquestioned assumptions or dominant patterns within today’s financial systems.
Think of Jubilee as the dandelion blossom, and the idols as the asphalt that tries to suppress it.
The first layer of asphalt is: “What’s Mine is Mine.”
The idea that what is in my possession, “my property,” belongs to me and that I can use it however I please is so fundamental in our society that we have difficulty even considering an alternative.
We need to ask ourselves: What is truly mine? Is the land we claim to own or the property we can sell really ours?
We need to ask: What is truly “mine”? We must also ask where “our property” comes from and who has been harmed or affected along the way as it entered our lives. The history of colonization, slavery, Black communities in diaspora, ancestors, animals, and plants all come to mind.
Johnson shares a personal reflection:
“When I look at my life and my personal finances, I realize how much of what I have is the result of white privilege, my privileged socioeconomic class, my life in the Global North, and devastating processes that are impacting other people and species, the Earth, and future generations.”
If we live and build churches on traditional Indigenous territory and in gentrified or predominantly white communities,
If we profit and benefit from the land, its location, and these systems,
If the colonial and racist systems of migration and neighbourhood development have enhanced the value of our property,
What does “What’s mine is mine” really mean? What can Christian stewardship, rooted in scripture and teachings like Jubilee, show us about this idea—and how to question it?
The second layer of asphalt is: Giving Is Generous. We generally assume making a donation of any amount is a positive voluntary action. Just think of the phrase “Thank you for your generosity.” How often have you said or heard something like that? Why would we ever criticize it? Shouldn’t we praise and acknowledge people who give? After all, they didn’t have to! But once we discover the problem with “what’s mine is mine,” we start to see the problem with praising generosity. If what we have isn’t truly “ours” in whatever way we want, then giving isn’t simply an optional and generous choice. It’s an ethical obligation. This requires us to rethink the way we understand giving.
I’m not just talking about individual giving—I also mean the church giving some of its funds with local or global organizations and church partners.
The next idol, the next layer of asphalt, is: More is Better.
We often believe that having more is better than having less—especially when it comes to money and property. But is more always better? How much is enough?
In our society, power is often linked to things like size, growth, and influence. We’re encouraged—both directly and indirectly—to earn as much as possible. People with lots of money are often seen as successful, admired, and worth following. It’s not just individuals who are measured this way. The same applies to organizations. The larger they are, the more they’re considered successful. The bigger the better. But is that really true?
We need to avoid assuming that more programs, more services, more staff, or more property are inherently better. These might be the results of privileges we can utilize or the outcome of everyone’s hard work and efforts. I’m not saying we need to reduce them—I’m saying we need to ask the right questions. “What truly makes us a better congregation?”
We can remember Jesus praising the widow who gave two coins and receive this as an invitation to think differently about what gifts, and which givers, matter. Every small action of Jubilee is what creates the moment of the Kingdom of God - the yeast, the two coins, the smallest mustard seed, the million dandelion seeds, faithfully distributed, every day, -. More, or bigger, is certainly not automatically, or intrinsically, better.
Another asphalt layer is, We are All the Same
Deep inequality exists in our world. Deep inequality is the reality of some of the members of our congregation as well. Perhaps some of your friends, family, relatives struggle with social or financial inequality. Perhaps you struggle. We cannot assume we are all the same.
People face all kinds of challenges. They might be dealing with unemployment. They might need to care for struggling family members. They could be facing unexpected illnesses—either their own or a loved one’s. On top of that, inequality, bias, prejudice, or hatred against marginalized groups only make things harder for people – even when they are giving as much as they can.
It’s not greed that holds people back from giving. If any church or organization has ever made you feel like your inability to give or give more is due to greed, attachment to worldly goods, a lack of motivation, or even a lack of faith, I am truly sorry – we are truly sorry. What matters most to this church is you—your resilience, your presence, your resistance, your heartbreak, and your jubilee. Those are our deepest concerns.
Another common assumption— yet more asphalt—is the belief that scarcity is just a poor attitude. Some people hesitate to give more to the church because they fear not having enough. In church, we often say that we need to trust in God’s abundance. We believe that when we recognize this abundance with a new perspective, it frees us to give more.
But for many people, scarcity isn’t just a mindset—it’s a real, hard experience. Some of us have known and experienced scarcity—whether as children, teenagers, or adults—shaped by various social factors. For some, it remains a reality while living on a pension, disability, or dealing with precarious employment. These fears are real, shaped by life experiences, and they don’t go away easily. A lot of our decisions around finances are shaped by formational life experiences and long-term habits. We understand this, and we don’t want to dismiss or minimize the fears and doubts you might feel about how the church uses the money you have entrusted to us. I’ve felt that way myself in the past, which made me hesitant to give more.
If you feel this way, we invite you to help us do better with our Christian stewardship. Help us focus on what matters most. Help us move beyond the assumption that everyone’s circumstances are the same. Your resilience, your resistance, your involvement, your questions, your exploration, your heartbreak, and your jubilee are our deepest power.
Jubilee invites us to talk about money in open and honest ways. It encourages us to explore stewardship—not just as “giving”, a personal and optional choice, but as a shared ethical responsibility and journey.
There’s no church above, beside, or below you— you are the church—. We, as one church, explore together what Christian stewardship means and what we can accomplish. Along this journey, we can be honest about our mistakes and shortcomings, even as we recognize our true strengths and the power we hold together.
The Bible gives us a clear instruction—real Call to Action (CTA). Jubilee.
What are our specific calls to action at BVU? How are values and vision of Jubilee shaping the financial decisions we make?
If we’re thinking about money so often in our personal lives, why don’t we talk about it more openly in church, as a community?
The revolution doesn’t have a bank account. It won’t happen just because there’s money behind it. Instead, it arises from the human spirit— working for what seems impossible, knowing it must still be done. This is how we bring the spirit of God and the Kingdom of God into the world—to release millions of Jubilee seeds, like butterflies, spreading transformative growth that breaks through the world’s indifference.
What is church stewardship? What does Christian stewardship look like in practice?
Stewardship and church finances must follow the way of Jesus, grounded in God’s values, not the values of the current economy. We follow Jesus in his radical solidarity with the outcasts.
If you believe that we, Broad View United, can create a real impact —because the church isn’t above you, beside you, or below you, but is you—we invite you to join us in this dandelion work. Together, let’s be resilient and support resilient communities that, in turn, will support us.
Resilient communities aren’t just the bright yellow flowers pushing through the asphalt. They are also the roots—hidden beneath the surface, yet carrying the strength to resist—sustained by God, even when unseen. Church stewardship, Christian stewardship is to serve God.
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