I want to start by saying a few things that I truly believe
about God and some things I believe about this church, St. Dunstan’s.
The first thing that I believe is that God doesn’t need my
money, and God doesn’t need your money
to do what God desires to do.
In the beginning God
clapped his hands and all that we know came into existence—the sun and the
moon, and the planets and animals and the oceans—everything came into being because God willed them into
existence—so God doesn’t need my money or your money to get done what God needs
to get done.
Second, and I may get myself in trouble, but again I believe
this is true-- this church will not go under if I don’t give and it won’t go
under if you don’t give this year-we are not that fragile economically—This
last year we lost some of our largest
givers –as a matter of fact we lost the largest giver—guess what we aren’t
going to go under---now that doesn’t mean that the vestry won’t have hard
decisions to make depending on the results of the stewardship campaign, but we
are not going under.
Third I believe that we will have all the resources we will
need to do the ministry to which God is calling us. We will have the money, the manpower, the
talent to do just what God is calling us to do over the next year.
So why do we give? why do we open up our wallets, why do we
pull out our checkbooks if the church isn’t going under and God doesn’t need
our money and we will have all that we need -- why do we give?
I believe we give because it is part of the fabric of who we are as
disciples, followers of Jesus— We follow the example Christ—I -believe that
part of my discipleship is expressed in my generosity. We don’t give to the
church because the church needs to raise an operating budget but we give cause
we are generous people and we are invited to join God in God’s work and that’s
what our gifts are joining God in God’s work.
I also believe that there is something in us spiritually that
needs to share, that we become better
people when we give ourselves away.
The crux of the Consecration Sunday program is not about a
fundraising effort to get to the operating budget, to raise 300,000 dollars but
rather the crux of the program is an
invitation to dive spiritually into giving and centers on this one question.
What is God calling me to give? What is God calling my family to give? Part of being a disciple, part of being a
follower of Jesus means that God gets a say in the important stuff— God gets a
say in the direction and trajectory of our lives—God gets a say in how we share
what we’ve been entrusted with.
I have to be honest it’s scary when God gets a say. Cause at least in my case when I gave God a
say I ended up with a white collar around my neck-- In the case of the Consecration Sunday—I find
it scary –Cause I have a feeling God may
ask me to be a little more generous than I might want to be or think I can
be.
For years I subscribed to the
idea of proportional giving,
giving a percentage of one’s income .
For years Chrishelle and I would
try to give a little bit higher percentage of our income as we worked toward
the tithe of giving away 10% of our income.
And for years that worked— we
would get our pledge card and adjust our pledge upward ever so slightly--the
last couple years though we got a little
bit derailed with some transitional financial sorts of things.
But believe it or not I have never seriously considered that
question at the heart of New consecration Sunday-what is God calling me to
give?
I have not really ever prayed over my pledge or gift. Now I am a little bit nervous about where
this may come down. Over the last week
or so, I am beginning to sense that God might want me to grow a step or two in
my giving.
So my invitation to you today is to take this question seriously and ask God the question?
It’s a spiritual question cause it gives God a say in the direction of our
lives.
There may be some who are sure about this pledge card thing-—let
me first say somethings about that—first we are not calling it a pledge any longer—we
are calling it an estimate of giving
cause that is really more of what we believe it is—an estimate of what someone
will give. The word pledge at time seems
to connote an obligation –let me tell you this I don’t see it this way, the
vestry doesn’t see it this way. We look
at pledge cards, or estimate cards and see them as you saying this is about how
much I expect to give to St Dunstan—I also want to say-we understand that things change-people lose
jobs, people get sick and sometimes we just can’t fulfill what we said at the
beginning of the year.
Let me assure you that we do not have Guido with a baseball
bat who’s going to come out and break your legs—no one comes after you if you
don’t fulfill your pledge/estimate of giving.
If you’ve been hesitant to fill out a card—I invite you
seriously to consider if God might be calling you to simply fill out an
estimate card.
I would like to end with a proverb I found this week— The
proverb says this--
Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
don’t try to figure
out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you
go;
he’s the one who
will keep you on track. [1]
I have to end by saying this when I have trusted God and
listened to God voice—some of the most amazing things have happened to me—I
have found a vocation that I ]absolutely adore and fits me to a tee. Because
I have listened ---I have met and come into relationship with the most
amazing people and you St. Duntan’s are
part of that and to think that had I not listened and missed out on the depth
of relationships I have had—that makes me pause.
I truly believe that when we ask God, “God what are you
calling me to do”—only good things happen when we are obedient to that so —I
invite you to listen for God’s voice in the midst of your prayers and then I
invite you when you get an answer to
trust God from the bottom of your heart—trust that you will have all that need
and please remember that in
everything God is holding you in the
palms of his hands and that God will lead you to amazing places and amazing
people.
AMEN
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