Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow – The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams, October 1, 2023

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW

Oct. 1, 2023 – The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

St. Titus Episcopal Church, Durham, NC

Stephen Elkins-Williams

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”  So we proclaimed in song this morning to begin our service.  The words of that beloved verse were written by Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath and Wells in the late seventeenth century, and then happily married to a tune a century and a half older called “Old 100th” – although none of us have ever heard of “New 100th”!  The resulting combination has formed and nourished and lifted up the faith of Christians for over three hundred years.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow:” What a simple, profound, joyful expression of what our lives are to be about!  Everything we have and are and experience and love and count on comes from God.  Nothing that we use or see or touch or think or learn about or enjoy does not come from God.  God is the loving creator and the joyful giver of all good things, the source from whom all blessings flow.

Our role is to be receivers, to give thanks always for what we continuously receive, and to bear as much fruit as we can with what we have been given.  That is how we praise God, the one from whom all blessings flow: by joyfully receiving and giving thanks for those blessings and by putting them to the very best use possible.  In the words of the Prayer Book, we are to show forth our praise “not only with our lips but in our lives.”

As Jesus reminds us in today’s Gospel, we are not just to say the appropriate thing to our Father and then not act on it.  Of two sons, one of whom says all the right things and tells his father what he wants to hear but does not follow through, and the other of whom backtalks the father and refuses to obey but later does what he is asked, Jesus extols the latter.  Now understand, Jesus is not trying to encourage sass and obstinacy here! –  although this story does give hope to those of us who argue some with God along the way.  The point of the story is that action is important, not just saying “Lord, Lord,” but doing the will of our Father.

When it comes to “praising God from whom all blessings flow,” we are to do so with prayers and psalms and beautiful hymns.  That is how God created us; and when we lose ourselves in worshipping God, we are most like the “Angels and Archangels and … all the company of heaven, [who] laud and magnify [God’s] glorious Name… saying Holy, holy, holy Lord,” as we will sing in a moment.  But we are also to praise God by what we do with our blessings, by how we take care of what is on loan to us, by how fruitful we are with what God has freely put us in charge of.  In other words, we especially praise and give thanks to God by being good stewards.

Good stewards know that what they have charge over is not theirs to keep, but only for them to be caretakers of for a time.  Good stewards define themselves not in terms of what they have charge over, but in terms of what service they can be to their master.  Good stewards accept the responsibility that their master gives them and willingly do all that is necessary in order to give a good account of their stewardship.  Good stewards are confident of their master’s faithfulness, and so discharge their duties out of love and hope, not out of fear.

You are stewards, individually, of all that is in your life, of all that you have, not control over, but charge over.  You are stewards, for example, of your health.   You will not have it forever, but you are to take good care of your body, your mind, and your spirit as well as and for as long as you can.

You are stewards of your education.  Whether you are still engaged in your formal education or whether it was completed long ago, it is a great gift to be used to for the glory of God and the benefit of others.  Your volunteer work and any careers you may choose should reflect this sense of stewardship.  As Paul exhorts us in today’s Epistle, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”

You are stewards of your relationships.  The opportunity to be a genuine friend to another or to be someone’s spouse or to be a child’s parent or grandparent or to be a child of an aging parent is a great gift and not to be squandered.  Be attentive to those opportunities.

You are stewards of your sexuality.  Not matter what age, your gender is a great gift from God, a creative and energizing force in your relationship with others.  It is not to be used selfishly nor manipulatively to deceive or to control.

You are stewards of your anger.  All of us have our share, which can be a powerful source for good, for constructive energy, for building up the Body.  Or you can use it for destruction both of yourself and of others, for poor stewardship.

You are stewards of your failures.  Although God did not necessarily choose these difficult situations for you, they are opportunities to grow, to become wiser, to have your heart of stone broken that God may give you a heart of flesh.  You are accountable for how you respond to your failures and disappointments.

You are stewards of your money.  We tend to think of stewardship only in terms of money, and perhaps that is because it is the primary paradigm.  Jesus used the parable of the talents to teach us about being fruitful stewards and about being accountable to God.  He held up the widow’s mite as the example of how we all are to give back to God of our substance.  If you are free and generous stewards of your money, if you can praise God by returning a significant portion of what you have been given, you will make significant strides in grasping all of life as a matter of stewardship, as praising in action God from whom all blessings flow.

As a parish, you are corporate stewards of all things that make up your life and ministry.  You are stewards of your buildings and grounds.  Much of your resources, of your time and your finances, must be devoted to taking good care of these treasured facilities you have been given.  Providing hospitality to others is an important way that you as a parish are to exercise good stewardship.

You are stewards of your worship.  Worshipping God in the beauty of holiness requires not only the talents and the untiring efforts of the Altar Guild and the choir director and all those with assigned roles in the liturgy and now those with technological expertise, but also the faithful and reverent participation of the whole congregation.  Making your worship welcoming and accessible to others is part of your corporate stewardship.

You are stewards of your children.  Even if you personally do not have or will not have children or if you have already raised yours, the children of St. Titus are all your children, entrusted to you by God.  At each Baptism, you promise to support them in their life in Christ.  You are to bring them up “in the Christian faith and life” and “by our prayers and witness help [them] to grow into the full stature of Christ.”

You are stewards of your outreach.  Providing meals to the students at the Episcopal Center at Duke, supporting NCCU students with cookies, food ministry at El Buen Pastor, gathering school supplies for C. C. Spaulding Elementary students, hosting National Night Out, and many other efforts during the year are all ways that as a parish, you put the words of your common faith into action.

You are stewards of your future.  For nineteen months you have been engaging in a communal process, envisioning your future and what kind of rector you need to lead you in your common ministry.  Soon you will have a chance to welcome that person and to nurture and to encourage that leader in helping you move forward into the future.

One of the most vibrant ways that you can all live out your corporate and individual stewardship begins today.  The St. Titus Every Member Canvass not only provides the parish with needed resources for carrying out its important ministries, but it also invites each of you individually into a unique opportunity to praise God from whom all our blessings flow and to return a significant portion of what you have been freely given.  I say “invites” because it is so easy to see your annual pledge as simply a duty or an obligation, and a burdensome one at that.  But do not approach your giving with reluctance or guilt!  Good stewards are confident of their master’s faithfulness and so discharge their duties out of love and hope, not fear.  God loves a cheerful giver because in so doing we show our genuine gratitude and our faith in God’s generosity and our trust that what we are given is enough.

Let Jesus’ words this morning and the soaring melody of the Doxology speak to you of God’s lavish generosity.  May they implant in your hearts the seed of the love of God to be spread throughout the world.  May they call you to be good stewards of all that God has given you, praising God not only with your lips but with your lives.  May all that you do, individually and as a parish, proclaim in word and deed that uplifting exhortation, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Phil. 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32