November 2007
 

From the Pastor

“Generosity is not how much you give, but how much you give in relationship to what you have…”

Dear Friends of Christ,

            Imagine for a moment that an alien from another planet were to attend our worship service.  Our friendly alien, who does not speak our language and has never attended church, observes some very unusual practices.  This stranger listens and observes how some parts of the service are spoken by the many and some parts from a designated leader.  At one point, small shallow bowls are passed from one person to another and little green pieces of paper are put into the bowls, along with other white pieces of paper.  These bowls are then brought to the front, everyone stands, and the leader raises her arms and addresses someone who seems to exist beyond the pew and the large white building in which the alien has found himself today.  The alien is most puzzled by this.

And sometimes so are we.

            A few of the persistent questions which clergy are often asked are: why do we receive an offering in church?  Why do we collectively ask God to bless this offering?  And a more general question follows, why do individuals need to give at all?

            These are good questions.  And they are not fully answerable by this pastor.  No, they are ultimately only answerable by you—by your relationship with God, the Holy Spirit, and your understanding of what Jesus Christ stands for – and against—in our world.  These questions are also only answerable if one examines what is “alien” (strange) about giving in our culture, in our church, and in our very own hearts.

            The church emphasizes giving not simply to pay the bills, but to counteract some common myths and misconceptions about giving in general, myths that can stifle our relationship with God.

These misconceptions are:

1. Give only if it benefits you.  We are accustomed in our culture to give only if we get some reward for our giving.  We then grow to expect some return percentage or response from the recipient(s), and if we don’t receive it, then we restrict our giving.

2. Give only if there is anything left over.  Many times we won’t give until we have satisfied the majority of our individual needs, wants, and desires.  The trouble with this is that we often do not place an internal “check” on what we think we need and desire.  Regular giving helps to form this internal “check and balance.”  When we give 10 percent to God “off the top” from the 100 percent we’ve been given, we begin to work within healthy parameters of what are our true needs, wants and desires.  We start by giving God top priority in our lives and, with this healthy discipline, we are better able to reorder our priorities and commitments accordingly—rather than letting our desires run amok. We also remind ourselves that we are responsible to God for how we steward God’s resources—which are, in fact, only on loan to us for a brief span of time.  Remember the man in the bible who wanted to build bigger barns to hold all of his stuff?  (see Matthew 12:13-21)  We are called to be “rich toward God,” not ourselves.

3. Give primarily out of a sense of duty.  When we focus only on this, we tend to become bitter and resentful to others for not exercising the same duty, or bitter and resentful to God for asking us share what we really don’t want to share with others, but feel that we should because that is “what a proper Christian does.”  Jesus did not ask people to worship God out of a sense of duty, but out of a sense of love both for God and neighbor.

Here are some reasons why God asks for an offering of your time, talent, and treasure:

God wants us to give—so that we will be a free people, not bound by dollars and cents, credit cards and creditors, duty, envy, addiction or greed, but truly open to create and share more channels for God’s love to flow.  We give in order that God may cultivate in us that wonderful virtue of generosity that can turn even the most closed of relationships into open wells of trust, peace, and goodwill.

Why do we give as disciples of Christ?

v     We give as a response to God’s goodness.

v     We give in order to shift our focus onto God as our source of security, thereby challenging other false sources of security, all of which will fail us in eternal terms.

v     We give in order to bless others.

v     We give to challenge the hold that money has on our lives.

v     We give in order to achieve economic justice in the world; in other words, to share the wealth which, rightfully understood, belongs to God alone.

            Friends, on November 11^th, Pledge Sunday, we covenant with God and each other to share our abundance and to invite God to help us to become a people, a church, and a group of disciples who celebrate God’s blessings in our life.  We have, by the grace of God, a beautiful community to celebrate, share, and to be challenged to translate our faith into mission and action.  We have, by the grace of God, more than enough resources among us to help us become a free people, unencumbered to do and live God’s will in the world.  We have, by the grace of God, more than enough hours in our day to celebrate and to honor the priorities that God wants us to pay attention to.

            In some church communities, receiving the offering from individual congregants is a time of dancing, as people joyfully make their way to the front aisle.  This is not done for show or to make an impression.  It is a physical, visceral response of praise and thanksgiving for the good things that God has done in people’s lives. 

            Please come joyfully on November 11^th to make your promise to God and to this faith community.  Come, not because you have to, but because you yearn for God’s holy vision to be manifest in this place.  Here, you don’t have to dance your offering forward, but if you are so moved by God’s Spirit in your life, so shall we be moved, praise God.

Yours in Christ,

*A few of the ideas expressed above were distilled from a workshop that I attended  last year, entitled Good $ense, which is a personal budget ministry currently offered and copyrighted by John Tolfilon and Dick Towner through the Willow Creek Association. A sampling of the Good $ense workshop was offered by the MAUCC.

 We are SHARING GOD’S MISSION,

            and ANSWERING GOD’S CALL

The mission of our church is to worship and glorify God.  It is our task to learn and teach, through thoughtful appropriation of the Gospel, that we might grow in faith and knowledge.  We welcome all who seek God through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  We will seek to be the Good News by:

·        living His word through service to others;

·        being a community of caring and support for each other;

·        encouraging and celebrating the uniqueness and the varied gifts of our membership and

·        being a voice for peace and justice in the world

Please Remember: 

        Pledge Sunday is Sunday, November 11^th