Wealth and Poverty in Christianity

This homily was preached at Union Theological Seminary´s James Chapel on November 30th, 2022. Dean Sandra Montes asked me to offer a reflection based on my book, The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today .  What is money? What is its purpose? And how are we, the leaders and future leaders of religious institutions, supposed to think about and use it?  This book - and many of these questions - began rumbling around in my mind back in 2010 when I was working for the Episcopal Church Foundation.  Part of my job at ECF involved traveling around the country and presenting workshops to small churches and other faith-led institutions on annual fundraising campaigns, oftentimes called stewardship campaigns. And so on one very hot day in June 2010 I found myself in Hendersonville, North Carolina presenting at Nuevo Amanecer, a conference for Latino Episcopalians conducted almost entirely in Spanish.  I was there to present on how most mainline congregations pr...

All Saints Park Slope. Photo credit: Ron Hester This homily was preached at All Saints Park Slope on Christ the King and Harvest Sunday, November 20th, 2022.  Happy Christ the King Sunday. And thank you for inviting me to be here today. It is a joy to be back at All Saints and to be able to bring greetings from Fr. Francisco Rodriguez and the community of San Andrés. All Saints is always in the thoughts and prayers of San Andres and I am so proud and honored to be jointly sponsored by both congregations in the ordination process.   On Christ the King Sunday we celebrate Christ’s sovereign rule over all creation, including his Kingship over all “earthly thrones, dominions, rulers, and powers.” Christ the King honors that peculiar title for Jesus which is scattered across a number of places in the New Testament, where we hear Jesus called the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” These titles for Jesus are ancient but this celebration of Christ the King is actually a relativel...

This homily was preached at St. James Fordham on November 6, 2022 on the Feast of All Saints and Consecration Sunday. It is based on research done for The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today available through Forward Movement.  Happy Feast of All Saints.  Thank you for inviting me to be here with you on this Feast of All Saints and Consecration Sunday, and on behalf of Episcopal Divinity School at Union, thank you also for welcoming our seminarian Brendan Nee into your community. Brendan speaks so highly of Fr. Matt and of all the people at St. James and how important this congregation is in their formation.  Today we celebrate all the saints, the saints known and unknown, who gave their lives to God and to the building up of God’s Kingdom. As I’m sure many of you know, there are many, many saints and there are many categories of saints. There are biblical saints like Peter, Andrew, and Mary the Mother of God. There are mystics like Teresa of Avila and ...