Hello –
This Sunday, at both the 8am and 10am services we have our annual ritual where we gather up all the pledge cards, bring them up to the altar and bless them. I write to encourage you to bring your pledge card with you this Sunday. If you’ve already returned it (thank you!) your card will already be in the offering plate. If you forget, there will be cards in every pew so that you can still participate in the ritual if you wish.
As with nearly all things in the Episcopal Church, stewardship has the ethos of ‘all may none must, some should.’ But as I’ve been emphasizing in these last weeks, Christian stewardship is not just about supporting an organization you believe in and that has had a positive impact your life. It is also a spiritual discipline like prayer, worship and service of the poor. Jesus teaches way more on money than he does on sex. I suspect he does this because he knows that our values are expressed in how we use (and are used by) money.
Moving towards the spiritual discipline of the financial tithe is one way to become free of the heavy demands of the worldly kingdom and shift the burden of our lives to the easy yoke of the heavenly kingdom.
This may sound abstract. It’s not. It’s not any more abstract than shifting our daily schedules so we spend more time praying and less time watching TV. We are what we eat. We are what we watch. We are what we do with our money. So stewardship is best conceived as invitation to take another step in our intimacy with God and each other.
We are, always and already, children of God and so beloved by God. We are always invited to draw near to God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This year, may we offer our money in thanksgiving of the one who loves us best.
Blessings,
Christopher
p: (415) 456-4842