Stewardship: the care of everything under your authority part II

One way of thinking about our stewardship choices is to consider what else out there is competing for our attention, our money and our time.

Our neighbor Tom Henry (writing as Stewardship Teacher for St. Marks, Baldwinsville) reflects on the competition between everything else and the enormous entertainment industry (think video, iPad, iTouch, gaming, TV, sports).  Talk to my grandparents or play Candy Crush on my phone?  Participate in a fundraising event or watch a movie on my computer?  Get dirty planting trees or play a little golf?  Sacrifice for others or entertain myself? 

"This is the reality of being in stewardship. Everything is a choice and not all the choices have the same marketing budgets.  How do we, as God's people, compete with the tempting and expensive world of entertainment? How do we convince anyone that their money and time buy more in service to others than in amusing themselves here and now? There is a multi-billion dollar industry working to convince you that I am wrong. I have a single, 2000 year old book to convince you otherwise. 

I am convinced that we at St. Mark’s [and Luther Memorial for that matter] can fund any ministry we think is important enough to fund. We can afford our building and every program we can think of within it and outside it, if we truly believe in its importance. It is a faith challenge to give money. So [any] stewardship drive will be about money, but it also must be about faith. In the face of overwhelming competition for dollars, dedication, and devotion from a very entertaining world, the love of God through Jesus Christ must still be most important. And the stewardship challenge is to convince congregations to demonstrate that in their giving."

Thanks, Tom, for laying this out for us.  

Fear not! Not a Hallmark angel.

Angels must be perfectly fearful creatures (Hallmark aside) because their first words are "Fear not!".  How ridiculous!  Of course we react in fear.  We are in the presence of Divine Power - or at least a Messenger of Divine Power.

[I write all this without ever having encountered an angel as so described; I'm just speculating based on the Bible's stories.]

The folks in Gerasene never got a warning.  No one stood up and said, 'Fear not!'  Jesus simply stepped ashore and set a man free of the demons which had hounded him for too long.  Jesus simply took a man who lived among the dead and gave him the chance to live among the living.  Jesus simply stepped into a place controlled by darkness and made the light of the Creator shine. 

It was more than the folks in this town could handle.  In fact it was so frightening, they told Jesus to leave - to take his bag of tricks and get out of town.  And he did; Jesus left.  However, he did not abandon them; he insisted the man remain among them.  Even if they never listened to this 'crazy man's' words, they would always have his very person there to remind them of the great power that came into their midst......and how they sent it away.  Out of fear. 

Fear that kept them living among the dead, in the darkness.  No judgment here, just observation.  But I wonder: How is our relationship with Jesus crippled by our fear?  Where could we go if we truly trusted the power of this one, the Son of God?  Who do we know that is living in the darkness?  Could we be a part of inviting them into real life?

because they were overcome with fear

My daughter is afraid of spiders.  I almost laughed as I wrote that sentence because, really, how afraid can you be of something which you outweigh by 300%?  But there you have it; she's afraid. Although this fear managed to cost us $500 in doctor's bills once, she really doesn't believe her life is in danger when encountering a wandering arachnid.

Fear has something to do with power.  In fact I think there is a direct correlation:  the greater the power the greater the potential for fear.  Or perhaps one could say that great fear is related to the potential for disaster - or what we at that moment would consider disaster. Walking carefully on an icy sidewalk might make us anxious; careening down an icy highway sideways at 65 mph is occasion for fear for disaster looms.

And disaster is that moment when the world turns and 'what has been' is replaced with an unwelcome 'what is coming.'  Great power is capable of bringing great changes, disasters even: ergo, great fear.

The people who lived in Gerasene (a place with alternate spellings and locations according to the various gospels) were overcome with fear, and so they asked Jesus to leave town.  I can't quite figure out what it was that scared them silly, but it clearly has something to do with the power that Jesus' revealed when healing the man possessed by demons.  Perhaps this healing was not trusted as benign; perhaps they expected someone as powerful as Jesus to use that power to make their lives different then they were.  I would guess that they were fairly certain that tomorrow was going to be vastly different than today.

They were right, of course.  Jesus had the power to make their tomorrows vastly different from today.  Jesus had the power to change their lives, right down to the very core.  Jesus wasn't benign; he wasn't some generic itinerant preacher.  He was the Son of God.  Right there!  In their face!

Following this Jesus is much more than adding Christian to your resume.  A relationship with Jesus is a relationship with the Divine (notice the capital letter), the Cosmic Force, the Creator of All.  You are tapping into great power - and once you do, your tomorrows are different from your todays.  Perhaps this is why the psalmist wrote 'the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.'  Just saying.




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All thorns, no roses

 

You have reached the point where you hesitate to say, "It can't get any worse" since that's what you thought 3 days or 3 weeks or 3 months ago....and it did.  It got worse.  Lots worse.  And you wonder when the free fall is going to stop.

It doesn't matter where you started, how high you were; it doesn't matter if your free fall looks like child's play to someone else.  It's your free fall and you wonder, how come all I get is thorns and no roses?

Truth be told, if you are still able to even utter those words, you haven't reached bottom yet.  You haven't reached the point where all you can do is concentrate on breathing in and breathing out.  You make no plans for tomorrow since you are not sure you even want tomorrow to come.  You put one foot in front of the other.  You get through today, this moment.

Now the word abyss has real meaning and in the midst of this crushing 'nothingness' you can not forms words of supplication; you can not even form thoughts or hopes.  You are as close to the living dead as you ever want to be.  You are naked; living among the dead; held in bondage by the darkness.

Hold on.  Jesus knows where you are and who you are and what you need, and he will cross into enemy territory, brave wild waters, risk hostile and powerful forces for your sake.  For your life.    For you.

There is no creed you must recite, nor ritual you must perform.  Saving you is just what Jesus came to do.  He is the presence in the darkness that wants to lead you to light.  Trust me, I know.  I've been in the darkness myself.

Romans 8.18ff, Luke 8.26ff

Dare to believe

Dead is not dead to God.
 

 

"It is a challenge to live 'in the faith' in our times."

  Bishop Marie Jerge  at Synod Assembly June 7th 

 

We have a skewed perspective about the times in which we live; we are simply too close to the subject.  However, those who study these things speak of our times as 'transitional' and 'rapidly evolving.'  The technology I worked to understand 3 years ago is extinct and everyday something new is on my door step.  The economy is so unpredictable we must run to keep up with the jobs we have in order to be able to do them in the next 5 years.  For the middle class, the middle is rapidly shrinking as we are squeezed by the changing job market, the cost of living and our own expectations of how life should be.

God speaks to Ezekiel and tells him to prophesy to the dry bones of the valley - bones of soldiers  who died years before in an unsuccessful attempt at defending their homeland.  Mixed in were the bones of exiles dragged from their place of comfort and livelihood and forced into life in a foreign land and culture.  The bones were dry - no flesh, no muscle, no life.

Then God commands the bones to come together, bone to bone, and flesh to appear, and sinew to grow and skin to cover and then finally, breath to enter into them.  These bones will know life again, God announces.  Dead is not dead to God.

However you understand this powerful story, it illustrates the incomprehensible core of our faith: in the hand of God, the dead can live again. 

It is not only challenging to believe that, it is even more challenging to live your life as if it were true. When our path seems strewn with dry bones, when signs of life are difficult to find and more difficult to trust, our faith stands naked in the bright sun.  Then we tell the story of Ezekiel, the story of the widow of Nain, the story of Hannah's child, and ultimately the story of our Lord: in the hand of God, new life is but a breath away.

A life of generosity in all things

You chose to skip the chemical weed killer on your lawn this year.  You are convinced it is not a good choice in the long run for you or the environment.

Recycling is a way of life in your household.  You don't even really think about it any longer.  Waste and landfills sum up your reasons.

Six different activities demand your attention on a weekend and you decide that your family needs to slow down, eliminate distractions and play together more often.

Perhaps you have never realized: you are a steward: of creation, of resources, of your time.  Although we generally call it 'budgeting' you are also a steward of your financial resources.  You decide to devote a portion of your earnings here (mortgage, summer camp, Wi-Fi) and you decide not to devote money there (snowmobile, European vacation, designer clothes).  We devote our time to the causes we think are important.  We devote our family's resources to activities that build us up as family.  Lots of things cry out for your attention, your time and your dollars.  You need to make choices and allot varying amounts of each in your role as steward. 

What we value is revealed in the choices we make.  That is, we wish to support those things we value with our time and resources, and allow the others to fall by the wayside.  We put our 'money' where our values are.  "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Thank you for giving me the time it took to consider this post. 

belonging.....

It is what we want most, ahead of money or status.  Belonging.  Community.  Or to quote Cheers, 'a place where everybody knows your name.'

We want to experience being a part of it - and this includes our spiritual longings as well.  What a religious community says is secondary to how it 'is' with and for one another.  When I look at the group here gathered, do I want to be one of them?  Do I want to grow into one of them?  Do I want to live my life as they live theirs?  Do I experience good in this group so that I see it at work and trust what I see?  Is this where I could belong?

For those who gather around the Christian cross, the question then becomes, 'Who am I when I belong to Christ?'  This question marks the beginning of a rich and vibrant spiritual life - for the individual and for the community at large.  You can translate that into: How have I experienced Christ?  How has Christ changed my experience of the world, and the world's experience of me?  What might it look like if Christ was in, with and under each of my words, thoughts and deeds? We might ask as a community:  How do we reflect the life we have experienced in Jesus to the world?  How does it change how we act and what we decide to do as a community? 

In fact, our life of faith together should go beyond community (which could easily define Buffalo Bills fans) to communion - a set of relationships that both reflects our passions and shapes them at the same time.*  That is, we belong because of who they are.  We are who we are because of where we belong.

All too complicated for you? I get it.  It comes down to this: folks who are spiritually seeking are looking for a community where those who belong reflect the very values they espouse.  They have seen something they want to imitate. 

They aren't seeking answers to questions; they are seeking a place where they can belong.  They expect that the answers to complicated questions are to be discovered way down the road.  First they want to trust the folks with whom they are making the journey.

Be attentive to your own imitation of Christ.  Invite others to walk with you as you grow and learn.  Don't feel pressed to have the big answers.  Belong and invite others to belong as well.

That's what Jesus did. 

*Once again, I acknowledge the writing and wisdom of Diana Butler Bass in her book, Christianity after Religion, from which I took inspiration and a quote or two.  Do read it.