Dear Friends,
We are continuing our journey through what I’ve decided to call this ‘amazing month of October’. And it is an amazing time! It is a time we have set aside to think about stewardship in our lives, about what that means, about our lives here at Church of the Resurrection, about our response to God’s presence.
So......for just a few moments I’d like for you to think about God’s actual presence in your life. It’s sort of like an experience you might have sometime when you are with someone who knows more about you than you are comfortable with. That’s sort of what it’s like with God. What is it to be laid bare before God, to think that God knows absolutely everything about us? Well, it’s a bit frightening to think that God sees us without our defenses, that he knows us behind closed locked doors, beneath our rationalizations, self-justifications, and that he’s able to read our most secret thoughts.
Think about it - nothing about us is hidden from God. Not the good things - the gifts, talents, skills, jobs we do well, thoughtfulness, love for one another, mercy, compassion. Not the bad things either - our weaknesses and failures, tasks left undone, pettiness, selfishness, dishonesty....and the things well the things about us that are best left unspoken.
God knows our virtues and our sinfulness better than we do. Now we might wonder to ourselves, is all of this a cause for alarm? When we are finally called to account, what will we say? Well, to say the least, it’s a bit of a sobering thought.
In Christ, God fully entered our human nature. Jesus knew and so God knows what it is like to be us. He knows how much it can hurt to do the right thing, how hard it is to know what the right thing is sometimes, and how easy it is to yield to temptation and do something which is much easier, more comfortable, or just more convenient than the right thing.
Jesus had all the temptations, all the opportunities to fail that we have and so God fully understands our vulnerability to sin. But being God incarnate did not exempt Jesus from the anguish and the struggle of being human. AND this is where our hope lies. For “we receive mercy and grace in time of need”.
Paying attention to God is difficult - there is so much to distract us - it was difficult for Jesus too, which is probably why he went off by himself so often.
This is also what leads us to our conversation about stewardship. I like to say that stewardship is the main work of the church because it is a response to what God has done in our lives. A recognition that there is not a person or a place in which God’s presence is absent. There is not a part of who we are or what we have done that God has not touched or been present in. This is true of both the good things we have done as well as those things which might not be so good.
So.........think about where we began - about how we get a bit uncomfortable with those whom we think might know too much about us. Amazingly, we discover that it works just the opposite with God. The more he knows about us the more comfortable we seem to get for we discover that we are able to relax in the assurance that God is present within us (each of us) and that if he is willing to do that even with knowing the full story of who we are both good and bad, then we also know that our salvation is not reflected in our weakness but rather in the incredible unwavering love God has for us. It is here that we discover the ability to follow and to respond to God.
I have often said that stewardship isn’t about money, that it isn’t about how much your pledge will be. Rather, it’s about responding to God and giving your heart to him. Each of us make that response at whatever level we are able. So, as your priest (even if temporary), all that I ask is that you simply take as much of God as you understand, open your heart to him, and then leave the rest to God. Just leave the rest to God...........
