Saints and Stewardship

I find hope and support in the fact that All Saints’ Day falls in the middle of our annual stewardship emphasis. It’s not that I think saints are those who “paid their way into sainthood” with extravagant gifts. I see the saints of our lives—those who are “famous” and those who are known only to us—who lived their life with God in open and generous ways. Saints are those who lived life all out—loving, serving, giving, helping, befriending as if there was no tomorrow. Saints are those who devoted themselves to standing for justice and seeking peace as if tomorrow mattered in urgent and vital ways. Saints are those who lived a life with money and possessions that ranged from rich to poor, from well-off to struggling, but regardless of where they existed within that spectrum, they never forgot—not for one day—that life is a gift from God, and everything we have is a gift from God.

So we celebrate All Saints’ Day and we look toward stewardship. Stewardship can be a hard thing. Especially the way the economy struggles, stewardship can seem like such a challenge. The good thing—the best thing, really—is that we have models to help us along the way. You could even say that we are surrounded by a cloud of witness who are supporting us and cheering us on as we live completely and fully as God’s, cherishing every day and everything as a gift.

Purpose

Yesterday in worship, our liturgist Bill Rupp, led us in this prayer of dedication for our offering:
“Lord, these gifts we bring are not payment for services rendered. They are not dues for being part of this church. We know that you have made us with a purpose and we now freely give in our personal response to that purpose. Continue to work your purpose through us. Make us your hands, outstretched on purpose. Amen”

It really struck me that this is exactly what stewardship is all about. Of course the church needs money to operate and do all the things we are trying to do, but it’s really all about PURPOSE. God’s purpose. Our purpose serving God. We’re not trying to earn anything here. It’s about how we can serve.

Saints

Without a doubt, All Saints’ Day is one of the most important days for me in the church. It’s a day to remember those who have gone before us and showed us what means to live out a life of faith. From notable people known by many – Dorothy Day, Flannery O’Connor, Dietrich Bonheoffer – to those who were simply saints to me – Louis, Sybil, Ruby Nell – I think we all have people to whom we owe a deep debt. These are the people who by their public acts or private kindness showed us a live with integrity and grace in God’s world.

Frederick Buechner calls saints “handkerchiefs” that God drops in God’s continual wooing of the world. Graham Greene, in his novel The Power and The Glory, tells of a feeble priest in Mexico who goes terribly wrong with his life, only to realize at the end that the “only things that matters in all of life…is to be a saint.”

This Sunday, we will gather for worship. We will read the names of those in our church who have died in the past year. We will give thanks. We will gather around the communion table to receive the nourishment we need from God to continue on our own paths toward sainthood.

Mark Ramsey

More Motivation

What motivates you in your life?
Companies have made lots of money producing those posters which show Olympic athletes, mountain ranges, and soaring birds to motivate people to excellence. Likewise, bumper stickers have a whole enterprise built around motivation. (“Make it happen!” one announced to me at a stoplight last week. I also saw one, “My ferret can eat your honor student” though I’m not exactly sure what that is supposed to motivate.)
But deeper than that, what motivates you in your life to do or be anything significant? Jesus came to Jericho one day and encounters Bartimaeus, “a blind beggar” who wants Jesus to heal him. It may seem obvious what Bartimaeus wanted and what motivated him to seek out Jesus, but the more I read our text for this Sunday--Mark 10:46-52--the less obvious the real motivation becomes.
We’re tying motivation to stewardship this year—what motivates us to give. Motivation, however, goes to many places in our life, including stewardship. In fact, stewardship in church is about money to be sure, but it also goes to many different places in our lives.
What motivates you in your life?

Motivation

"What's your Mo(tivation)?" is the theme for stewardship/annual giving this year.  I'll be preaching on that on Sunday October 25.  So, what most motivates you to do the important things you undertake in your life?

Is hope a motivator?
How about fear?
Loyalty?

What most motivates you?

New Web Site

We're launching a new web site for the church early next week, probably Tuesday.  It will be updated often so it should be worth using regularly:  www.gcpcusa.org

Become what you receive

That's where we left the Lord's Prayer series that ended last Sunday:  Become what you receive.  If we receive forgiveness, we are to be those who forgive.  If we receive daily bread, we need to share bread with hungry people.  I'm all for habit--for praying something like the Lord's Prayer over and over and over again.  There's a lot to be said for that being a spiritual discipline.  

But to really embrace this prayer, we have to live it.  We have to strive to be the prayer we are praying.  Challenging as that may be, it's the only thing that keeps a prayer like the Lord's Prayer alive in us and in our community.

Thanks for all the great comments and participation through the five weeks.