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Waves of Gratitude

16 Friday Oct 2015

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I don’t really know how it happens.  I am sure we could blame consumerism, capitalism, or competition.  Maybe we could even blame sin.  But somehow, in the midst of our abundance, we find ways to be dissatisfied.  We want more – more stuff, more security, more freedom.  There is something deep inside of us that sees what others have and covets.  Our maybe it is more subtle and quiet.  We look at our current situation, and think, “If I just had that, I would be happy.”  And whatever “that” is, it does not seem like too much to ask in our minds.

The other day, my family and I were driving in the city.  We turned the corner, and right before us loomed an enormous billboard.  But instead of trying to sell something (or convince me that I needed “that”), it simply said, “Gratitude.”  I was stunned.  I do not know who put up the sign or why, but what I can tell you is that it stopped me in my tracks.  Whether I am bustling around with my family or busy at work, I am rarely meditating on gratitude.  I am just not very good at holding gratitude at the center of everything.  For me, that sign was a beckoning back:  a beckoning back to a spirit of gratitude.  So instead of having my mind on wherever we were going that day, suddenly, I looked around the car.  There was my beautiful, loving, precious family.  We were sitting in a car that works, enjoying leisure time.  I was not sick or worried about my housing security.  A wave of gratitude swept through that car that left me stunned.

This week St. Margaret’s kicked off our Stewardship season.  Most of us think about Stewardship season, and we immediately start worrying about what we are going to be able to pledge this year.  But before you start crunching numbers, I invite you to take a moment to be stunned by the prayerful practice of gratitude.  Start at home.  Prayerfully consider your friends and community.  Think about St. Margaret’s and why you pull yourself out of bed every Sunday to be there.  Give thanks for the God that creates us, sustains us, and gives us all that we need.  The further out we move from ourselves, the bigger our gratitude gets.  By the time we get to God, that unfathomable One who is infinitely bigger and more gracious than we can imagine, our longings for anything else disappear.  All we are left with is humble sense of gratitude.

This week, I invite you to meditate not on your checkbook, but on this blessed life God has given you.  If you have to start with something as basic as being able to breathe – being on this side of the ground, then start there.  I imagine no matter how rough or dissatisfying life may feel, you will slowly begin to realize the enormity of abundance surrounding you.  Let that wave of gratitude sweep you into a stunned silence – and join our God who waits there for you.

Finding our way through priorities…

05 Wednesday Nov 2014

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This year, St. Margaret’s has been Walking the Way through our Stewardship Season, praying on what giving means to us, why we give, and how our giving shapes our relationship with God and our church.  Below is a guest post from parishioner Kimberly Irvine on why she is pledging this year, and how the Holy Spirit is moving in her on her Walk.  I hope you enjoy her words.

Writing this blog post was not an easy exercise for me.  My desire to find the exact words to express to you why stewardship and pledging are vital to our church, was keeping from saying what is my heart.

The fact is I’m truly grateful to God for allowing me to be part of this community of faith.  St. Margaret’s has always been for me, a place filled with faith, joy, and love.  I believe in the good work our church is doing. I see God’s love at work in our church all the time.

Part of me is also worried because the church budget is projecting that in 2015 our church will be operating at a deficit again.  The funds our church raises through pledges, and other fund raising activities, will not generate enough revenue to cover the operating expenses of our church.  This surprises me because as a parish, I believe we are all very blessed, we are generous when asked to support special initiatives, and we share a common desire to be part of this extraordinary community.

Learning of the church’s deficit, also makes me begin to question whether or not I’m giving my fair share to our church.  God has given generously to me; am I giving back as generously as I should?  This is not an easy question to answer. We all worry about money.  We need to pay our mortgages, and other bills.  We also want to go on vacations and have nice things.  I’m remembering part of sermon we heard earlier this month, where we were reminded that all we have comes from God.  Everything we have is not ours; it is all God’s, and we must give back to God what is God’s.  Can we prioritize and give to God first?

Since I believe strongly in the mission and vision of our church, I feel responsible to use the resources God has given me to financially support the church.   I make a financial commitment to St. Margaret’s because I really want our church to thrive and grow.  I want to see the good work of our church continue to expand in our community and the world.  This year I plan to increase my pledge, and try to be more intentional about giving to God first.  I pray that all parishioners of St. Margaret’s can make similar commitments in support of our church.

We are united in faith; let’s also be united in contributing financially to our church.

I found this prayer from this year’s stewardship bulletin very meaningful:

Gracious God, giver of all we have and hold; grant the people of this church a deep and abiding awareness that all things come from you – our health, our incomes, our jobs, our talents and our generous impulse.  Send your Holy Spirit to help us as we swim against the rising tides of materialism, envy, individualism and greed I our culture. When we are tempted to think of money as a private matter, remind us that you have asked for part of what we are given, to be returned to you as a symbol of our awareness that you give all we have. And finally, assist us as we help each other to embrace the grace of giving, for you are the lover of our souls and call us to nothing less than transformation in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Respectfully submitted by Kim Irvine

Sermon – Matthew 5.1-12, All Saints Sunday, YA, November 2, 2014

05 Wednesday Nov 2014

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Today we hear one of the most beloved pieces of scripture.  The Beatitudes from Matthew’s gospel have been the source of inspiration for Christians for centuries, for artists and musicians, for entire ministries, and even for comedians like Monty Python.  As soon as we hear that phrase, “Blessed are…” our eyes close and we let the words flow over us.  We nod in assent, and maybe even whisper, “Yes!”  And as the preacher for In-Gathering Sunday, getting the Beatitudes in the lectionary is like being handed a silver platter.  What other inspiration can we need on a Sunday like this than to think about blessings?  That is what our Stewardship Committee has been encouraging us to do for weeks: to think about the ways that we are blessed and to return that blessing to this community through the gift of our financial resources.  That message could not be better captured than in the Beatitudes from our gospel lesson today.

Or at least that is what I thought before I started really working with the Beatitudes this week.  The more I poured over the text, the more I became confused.  Then the questions came pouring in:  What does it mean to be poor in spirit?  How do we know if we are pure in heart?  I might prefer peace, but could any of us in our everyday lives be considered peacemakers?  And those are just the surface level questions.  When we read at a deeper level, ethical questions begin to emerge.  Our news outlets have been flooded lately with people who are reviled, persecuted, and having evil uttered against them.  All we have to remember are Christians in Iraq, Palestine, or Burma whose very faith means a life of oppression and sometimes death.  Is the word for them today, “You are blessed”?  Many a liberation theologian has balked at the idea of Holy Scripture being used to keep down oppressed peoples.

Luckily, I stumbled on two things this week that opened up the Beatitudes for me in a fresh way.  First I began to look at what the word translated as “blessed” really means.  There are a couple of words in scripture that are translated in English as “blessed,” but they do not necessarily have the same meaning.  In our Beatitudes today, one scholar argues that the phrase translated as “blessed are you when…” is more rightly translated as “You are on the right road when…”  For example, “You are on the right road when you are poor in spirit.”[i]  So blessed does not really mean, “Happy are you when people persecute you,” but instead, “You are on the right road when people persecute you.”  Somehow this translation makes for a much more sober, honest rendering of Jesus’ words.  Jesus is not saying that these things are cause for happiness in a superficial way.  Jesus is saying that we are fortunate in those experiences because they point us to a deeper truth:  that we are heading in the right direction, making the right decisions, and living a meaningful life.

The other source of insight I found this week was from The Message’s translation of this text.  If you are not familiar with The Message, The Message is a paraphrase of the Bible:  not a literal translation of the Biblical language, but a modern rephrasing of the text to make the text more accessible.  Of course, biblical scholars often cringe when they hear certain paraphrases of key texts, but in the case of the Beatitudes, I found this paraphrase quite useful.

I have taken the two ideas – The Message’s paraphrase and the new introduction of “You are on the right road when…” and want to read for you my hybrid rephrasing of the Beatitudes.  Our text now goes like this:

You are on the right path when you’re at the end of your rope.  With less of you there is more of God and God’s rule.  You are on the right path when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you.  Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.  You’re on the right path when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less.  That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.  You’re on the right path when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God.  God’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.  You’re on the right path when you care.  At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.  You’re on the right path when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right.  Then you can see God in the outside world.  You’re on the right path when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight.  That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.  You’re on the right path when your commitment to God provokes persecution.  The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.  Not only that— You’re on the right path every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit God.  What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable.  You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, God does!  And all heaven applauds.  And know that you are in good company.  God’s prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.

This Stewardship Season, we have been talking about “Walking the Way.”  Certainly Walking the Way is a metaphor for our journey into a time of reflection about the value our money holds for us and how our relationship with that money is connected to our relationship with God.  But the Walking the Way metaphor is one that goes beyond just our money too.  Walking the Way is a metaphor for our entire journey with God – a path that is ever winding, has steep slopes at times, is sometimes full of potholes and rocks, and at other times is as smooth as a freshly paved road.  Our entire life is a journey – one in which we mature in faith from the time of our birth and baptism to the time of our old age and death.  We are constantly Walking the Way with Christ, growing, learning, messing up, and returning to a loving God.

What I like about this reworded rendition of the Beatitudes is the affirmation in them.  When we are on a journey, Walking the Way, we sometimes struggle to know whether we are on the right path.  We wonder if we are where we should be and whether God is really with us.  This rendition of the Beatitudes gives us a tiny glimpse into that affirmation:  You are on the right path when…  Of course, the description is not all roses.  Mourning, persecution, and making peace are not easy roads.  But a sign of true discipleship, of Walking the Way, are those times when the path is in fact quite rocky.  Then we know that we are on the right path, and Jesus is walking right beside us.  Amen.

[i] Earl F. Palmer, “Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 238.

To whom does it belong?

31 Friday Oct 2014

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As St. Margaret’s approaches our In-Gathering Sunday, a day when we gather our pledges for the coming year, some parishioners have been praying on what it means to Walk the Way in this Stewardship Season.  Below is a guest post from parishioner Barbara Archer.  I hope you enjoy her words.

As I sat in the pew Out East four weeks ago, listening to the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33), I found myself thinking, “What could I possibly have to do with this awful parable that Jesus told over 2,000 years ago?”  In addition, I thought, “I can’t wait to see how the priest is going to use this is parable in his sermon.  “The priest admitted that this was one of the “hard” parables but I was quite taken aback when he compared the tenants in the parable to me!

For a quick refresher of the Parable of the Tenants, there was an absentee vineyard owner who rented his vineyard to tenants.  When the owner sent his slaves to collect his portion of the grapes, the tenants killed the slaves.  The vineyard owner sends a second set of slaves to collect his portion of the grapes and the tenants do the same thing as before, killing the slaves.  Finally, the owner sends his son to the tenants thinking that they would respect his son and give the owner’s son his share of the grapes.  The tenants decide to kill the son so that they can have the son’s inheritance.  The parable goes on further but I will stop at this point.

I think most would agree that the tenants were the greedy scoundrels of this parable so how could I be compared to them?  The priest went on to explain that even though the vineyard owner had given the tenants all of his property, they were unwilling to share any portion of their profits.  The tenants greedily wanted to hang on to whatever they had made regardless of the fact that the vineyard owner had given them everything they needed to be  successful.  The priest went on to remind us that God gives us everything we need to be successful yet, often times, we turn our backs on God.  We refuse to give God, His share of our hard earned dollars despite the fact that He has given us everything!

Are you giving back to God his fair share?  Are you like the tenants?  It is a sobering question to ask yourself and to reflect on.  As we find our Stewardship Campaign coming to an end and our In-Gathering or Commitment Sunday nearly upon us (Nov. 2), please continue to pray and return your blue card with your 2015 Pledge Commitment this coming Sunday.  Our Stewardship theme this year is “Walking the Way.”  Which way are you walking?

Faithfully,
Barbara Archer

Sermon – Matthew 22.34-46, P25, YA, October 25, 2014

30 Thursday Oct 2014

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I hear it all the time.  Whether talking to engaged friends or working with a couple in premarital counseling, inevitably the question will come up, “So why do you want to get married?”  And then I get the response, “Well, we’re just so in love.”  Though their googly eyes are endearing and make me somewhat nostalgic for a time long ago, my thought is almost always, “Cute.  I wonder how long that will last.”  Though I try not to squash their mushy moment, eventually we get around to talking about life outside of their love bubble – talking about what happens when they argue, how they will negotiate the in-laws, and who will balance the checkbook.  Those are the times when the warm emotions of love are sometimes difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.  I do not meant to suggest that those warm, fuzzies of love are temporary necessarily; I simply mean that the emotional experience of love is not enough to sustain any relationship – neither those between couples, family, nor friends.  We are right to assume that love is necessary for relationships, but our definition of love has to be much bigger if we are to maintain any kind of meaningful relationships with others.

Sometimes we forget the multilayered meaning of love when we hear passages like the one from our gospel lesson today.  When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind… and… love your neighbor as yourself.”  These commandments are so familiar to us that we sometimes forget how hard they really sound.  If our definition of love only includes the emotional kind of love that we might call “being in love,” does that mean we need to have googly eyes toward God?  I know very few people who profess to be “in love” with God.  In fact, I am not sure we would even say that we love God.  We might be grateful to God, we may revere God, or we might even be in awe of God.  But I know very few people who would say, “I love God.”  That emotion just feels strange to us.  And yet, Jesus says today, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Now the second commandment is a little easier.  We are used to loving our neighbors – loving people is what we are used to doing.  We love our friends and our family.  But Jesus says to love our neighbor, not just our friends.  Our neighbor includes those grouchy neighbors next door, that kid from school or that guy from work who always pushes your buttons, and most certainly that woman who cut you off while driving.  Our neighbor also includes those neighbors that often go unseen by us: the teen at JFK High School whose family cannot afford clothes and school supplies this year, that family who picked up our produce in Huntington Station through Food Not Bombs, that homeless man who received basic toiletries from St. Ignatius this week, or that Veteran’s family who is struggling to put life back together after returning to Plainview from war.  About these grouchy, mean, and unseen neighbors Jesus says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

When I work with those couples planning weddings, I am grateful when they choose the First Corinthians passage for their wedding, “Love is patient, love is kind…”[i]    I am grateful because then we can talk about what love really is.  We can talk about how love is more than simply a warm feeling or even a passionate desire.  In fact, when scripture talks about love, more often than not the kind of love scripture is talking about is not a passive emotion, but an active mercy.  In scripture, love is not something we feel, but something that we do.  To help us understand the difference, scripture will often translate the word for love as “loving-kindness.”  Love is not a feeling, but a choice:  a choice that we have to make over and over again.  As one person explains, “To love neighbor as oneself is to act toward the other as one would act toward those close to you.  We treat the stranger as well as we treat those that we love emotionally.”[ii]

So what does this active love look like?  For our neighbor, this kind of love is a bit more obvious.  The next time someone is rude to you or unkind to you, instead of reacting to them defensively, perhaps you take a moment to wonder what happened to them in life that made them act this way toward you.  Once you start to wonder about what things make them human and what has hurt them in life, your ability to be angry with them for hurting you lessens a bit.  In my early working days, I worked with a woman who most of the time was pretty pleasant to be around.  But there were times that she lashed out – and when she did I used to be both perplexed and angry.  I eventually started avoiding her altogether when, in a totally different context, someone who knew her shared with me that her father and an ex-husband had been alcoholics and were both abusive.  Suddenly the pieces fell together for me.  She had not known the kind of love that God commands – and I had not loved her as my neighbor.  The next time she snapped at me, her snapping felt less personal and awful – and instead I could see a vulnerable, hurting person who did not know how to love.  When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, this is the kind of shift in thinking Jesus invites.

In some ways, loving our neighbor is a tangible task we can imagine assuming.  But loving God still feels a little foreign, let alone loving God with all our heart, mind, and soul.  Luckily, God leads by example.  Our stories of God tell us of how, time and again, God chooses God’s people, makes covenants with them, forgives them, and invites them into relationship again. God’s love for God’s people is not an emotion, but an action.  Just recently we reheard the Exodus stories of how as soon as the people get out of bondage, they complain about not having food, not having water, and feeling separated from their creature comforts.  We heard again about how when God takes too long with Moses up on the mountain, they quickly revert to worshiping a golden calf.  And yet God keeps providing for, caring for, and loving them.  This is our model for how we are to love God too.  “We can love with our heart: through generosity to God’s people.  We can love with our soul: by worshiping God and praying for our neighbors and ourselves.  And we can love with our minds: studying God’s Word and letting it correct us, enlighten us, and send us out in loving action to the world.”[iii]

As we continue to prayerfully walk the way through this stewardship season, I first wondered whether this lesson really had anything to say about stewardship.  But as I thought about loving God and neighbor, I realized that is what stewardship is really all about.  Like love, stewardship is not something we feel or think about – stewardship is something we do.  When we make a financial pledge or contribution, we are expressing to God our gratitude for our blessings.  We take money from our pockets – money that certainly could be used for a hundred other things we want or need – and we instead give that money to God.  This is our full-bodied way of loving God with our heart, soul, and mind.  And, when the church uses that money for educating our children, serving our neighbors in need, and sharing the Gospel in our community, the church helps us to love our neighbor through our money too.  Jesus is certainly inviting us to change our feelings about God and our neighbor – but Jesus is also inviting us to change our actions toward God and neighbor.  That is what love is.

Next week, you will have the chance to act on that love.  We will process our pledge cards forward, as a symbolic gesture of our financial commitment to the work and ministry of St. Margaret’s.  We commit to funding the worship, which helps us love God with our soul.  We commit to funding the outreach and evangelism, which helps us love God with heart.  We commit to funding education and formation, which helps us love God with our minds.  And we commit to funding a ministry that enables us to not only love God, but to love our neighbor as ourselves.  I cannot think of a better way to invest our money than to invest our money in love.  Amen.

[i] 1 Corinthians 13.1-13.

[ii] Clayton Schmit, “Matthew 22:34-46 Commentary,” 2011, as found at http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1063 on October 21, 2014.

[iii] Schmit.

Sermon – Matthew 22.15-22, P24, YA, October 19, 2014

23 Thursday Oct 2014

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Today’s gospel lesson is one of those funny lessons in the Bible that is often quoted, but frequently misconstrued.  Jesus’ says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  As one scholar points out, “Some people point to this passage as proof that God and politics should be kept separate — that things like taxes have absolutely nothing to do with one’s theological commitments.  Others say that this story proves that religion is a matter of the heart, and that Jesus doesn’t really care about mundane things like what you do with your money.  And some have cited this passage as proof that Jesus taught that the law is the law, and our duty as Christians is to support the government no matter what.”[i]

All of these conclusions are based in modern assumptions, and ignore the context within which Jesus says these words.  Jesus is not laying out a treatise of how his followers are to navigate the tensions between church and state.  What Jesus is doing is navigating the various factions that would much rather have him eliminated than hear the real meaning of his words.  The Pharisees and the Herodians have little in common.  In fact, they are pretty much enemies, with the Herodians being dedicated to King Herod and the Pharisees being dedicated to Jewish Law – including being opposed to paying the tax to Caesar for religious reasons.  But despite these divided loyalties, the Pharisees and Herodians are united in their desire to remove Jesus from the scene.[ii]  And so they play this game, trying to trick Jesus into either angering the state or angering the faithful – either way cursing Jesus.  What they had forgotten is how clever and insightful Jesus can be.  And with this one response, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus answers a trick question much more broadly than the answer that either the Pharisees or the Herodians were hoping for.

Jesus is not really talking about the separation of church and state today.  He is not even really talking about taxes.  Jesus is talking about a new perspective on the whole of our lives – a way to think about money certainly, but also a way to put all things in perspective.  Now I do not know about you, but I am kind of a visual learner.  I need to see something in writing or have something in a chart or spreadsheet to really grasp a new idea.  So let’s take Jesus’ statement, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” and make a mental pie chart.  Are you ready?  First, let’s put our taxes pie piece in the chart.  What is that, like twenty percent, right?  So now we have a pie chart that leaves about eighty percent.  From that, let’s take our pledge out.  For ease of argument, let’s say you subscribe to giving a tithe, so we will take ten percent out.  That leaves us with seventy percent with which to play.  But Jesus says that the things that belong to God should be given to God.  If we have jobs or we go to school, our ability to do those things belongs to God.  So, we have to give that back to God.  That probably leaves us with about fifty percent in our pie chart.  Our good health is all owed to God as well, so now we are down to about forty percent.  Those friends and family that we hold so dear – those are also gifts from God.  Now we are down to about thirty percent.  And let’s not forget about food, shelter, and clothing.  We just dropped down to about fifteen percent.  Then there is the air we breathe, and God’s own creation upon which we rely.  Now we are down to about five percent.

Whew!  We have five percent of our “stuff” that belongs to us.  But wait – Jesus did not say, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s…and then keep the final five percent for yourselves.”  Surely Jesus knew we would need a night on the town, or a moment to just be self-absorbed, and not think about those suffering around the world.  But here is where the rub is in our lesson today.  The reason why the Pharisees and the Herodians leave Jesus amazed and go away is because they are shocked into silence.  If Jesus answers that the people should not pay the tax, the Herodians will be able to call him a seditionist.  If Jesus tells the people they should pay the tax, the Pharisees will be able to accuse him of not following the law of God because the use of the coin alone, which claimed Caesar’s divinity, was blasphemous.  Not to mention the fact that Caesar was oppressing the people.  If Jesus says they should pay the tax, surely the people of faith will turn on him.[iii]  But Jesus answers with “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

The reason Jesus is able to send the people away amazed is because Jesus point out one even trickier, harder truth – everything we have – our tax money, our tithe, our jobs, our health, our family and friends, our food, shelter and clothing, the very air we breathe – everything belongs to God.  What Jesus is really saying today is that our question – and yes, this is our question too, not just the question of the Pharisees and Herodians – our question today is laughable.  We can make all the pie charts and balance sheets we want.  The pie chart really only has one big piece – and that piece says, “God’s.”

This past week, my daughter and I were talking about the prayer rocks that we got from the Stewardship Committee last week.  If you have not received yours yet, there are some in the back.  The idea is that when you received your pledge card and stewardship packet, you would have a tool to help you prayerfully consider your pledge for the coming year.  The rock is meant to be your tactile way of praying about your pledge this year.  The other nice thing about the rock is that the rock is also a conversation piece.  That is how my daughter and I had a prayerful conversation this week.  We were comparing our rocks – both of ours says “love” on the rock, but hers is more oblong and black, while mine is rounder and grayer.  When my daughter asked me what we were supposed to do with our rocks, I told her that the rock was supposed to help us think about what we wanted to give to God this year.  I suggested she decide on a coin that she could take to church every Sunday.  Instead, my daughter told me she wanted to give a can of food every Sunday.  See, I wanted her to understand the connection of our money with God.  But perhaps my daughter understood the bigger statement of Jesus today – that everything, including the food on our shelves, belongs to God.  So we compromised, agreeing that she could do both.  Because she was right – our money, our food, our livelihood all belongs to God.  Our poor pledge coordinator is going to have to figure out how to calculate that pledge when we turn in our card on November 2nd.

I joke, but I think our pledge card this year might be some hybrid of our ideas.  The adults of our family will certainly be putting on a tithe.  The children in our family will have to calculate a dime or nickel times 52 weeks in the year.  And our cupboard will have to sacrifice 52 items as well.  Normally once a month or so, our family goes to Costco and gets a packet of something to put in our food drive.  But I like my daughter’s idea better – because my daughter’s idea reminds us that the food on our shelves – our food, not food bought for others – belongs to God.  And as Jesus reminds us today, we are to give to God the things that are God’s.  Amen.

[i] Lance Pape, “Commentary on Matthew 22:15-22, found at http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2201 on October 15, 2014.

[ii] Marvin A. McMickle, “Homiletical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 191.

[iii] Susan Grove Eastman, “Exegetical Perspective, Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 191, 193.  Other resources explain this duality as well.

Walking the Way…

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

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This past Sunday, St. Margaret’s kicked off its Stewardship Campaign, “Walking the Way.”  As part of the campaign, we have distributed information packets that include a pledge card.  You will be seeing guest blog posts from our parishioners here on this blog.  There will be articles written in our newsletter.  This promises to be a fun and engaging campaign.

But one of the things I am most excited about is an idea that one of our Stewardship Committee Members had.  The Walking the Way logo has both a cross and a stone path.  When we first looked at the logo, the path symbolized for us the “way” that we walk with God – our own spiritual journey with God.  But as we continued to look at the logo, the image became richer for us.  We began to imagine the stones as representative of each parishioner at St. Margaret’s, as we journey together on this walk with God.  Finally, as we played with the image of a walk and stones, we began to wonder whether actual stones might be a wonderful tool for us this year as we pray about our own stewardship this year.

And so an idea was born.  This year, in addition to our letter, narrative budgets, and pledge cards, we each received a stone.  The stone is meant to be a gift during this time for us to use during our prayer time – a tangible invitation into times of prayer in the coming weeks.  For those of you who have used prayer beads before, you know how useful tangible tools for prayers can be.  The tactile nature of something like a stone helps us focus our prayers, work through our anxieties, and ultimately cling to something that reminds us of our gracious Lord and Savior – as well as the community of faith who prays with us.

If you did not get your prayer stone on Sunday, don’t worry: there are more.  If you did get your prayer stone, I hope you will start using it, and discover what gift awaits you in your prayer time.  Each rock has a word painted on it to help encourage your prayers.  Mine happens to say, “Love.”  I look forward to meditating on how God’s love is a blessing to me, and how I hope to bless others through that same love.  Happy prayers!

A Lifelong Process…

14 Thursday Nov 2013

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This stewardship reflection is offered by St. Margaret’s Parishioner, Kim Irvine.  

It seems that people often associate stewardship with feelings of dread, awkwardness, and anxiety, when in fact the goal of a stewardship campaign is to generate excitement and energy about the achievements our church has experienced, and share the hopes and dreams for the future.  We as a community in Christ need to have intentional discussions about the financial standing of our church.  How can we know what the needs of the church are, without having these crucial conversations?  This year let’s try not to view stewardship as a time we have to “get through”, but instead embrace stewardship as a way of life; living each day knowing that all we have is a gift from God, and we are responsible to use what we have been given to the glory of God.

I believe we at St. Margaret’s are witnessing first hand how stewardship results in helping not only the members of our congregation, but also those in our community and beyond.  New programs are being developed, we’ve seen new initiatives launched, and the buildings and grounds we are blessed with are being maintained and improved.  None of this would be possible without your stewardship.  Your pledges and generous contributions are facilitating growth and change within and outside our church.

In doing some research for this blog post I came upon the following quote:

“Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘My church is always asking for money.  I wish I could belong to a church that never needed any money.’  Surely they don’t mean that.  Any church that is alive needs money.  Only dead churches do not call on their members for support.  If anyone should accuse your church of always needing and calling for money, regard it as a compliment.  Invite this person to rejoice with you that you both belong to something that is living and productive for Jesus Christ rather than a dead, stagnant organization from which glory of Christ has departed.”[1]

For me, these words were really eye opening; they made me grateful to be part of a church that is “alive,” and full of God’s love.

Please prayerfully consider your pledge for this year; your continued financial support of St. Margaret’s will propel us to do the amazing things God has planned for us, and keep us flourishing in faith!

Respectfully submitted by Kim Irvine

Homily – Luke 19.1-10, P26, YC, November 3, 2013

06 Wednesday Nov 2013

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I have always loved the story of Zacchaeus.  I am sure part of my love for Zacchaeus began when I learned that song from Sunday School:  “Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and wee little man was he…”  Perhaps I have also always loved Zacchaeus because I too am a bit “short in stature,” and so I have always felt a sense of kinship with Zacchaeus.  I can totally relate to not being able to see in a crowd.  The one time we went to the Macy’s Day Parade, I could only see the tops of floats as I strained to see on tiptoe.  What I wouldn’t have given for a sycamore tree that day!  Plus, Zacchaeus’ story ends so joyfully, that his story seems like a happy little adventure between Jesus and this eager, short man.

But the more I thought about Zacchaeus this week, the more I began to realize that Zacchaeus is not exactly a sweet, innocent, short man trying to see Jesus.  Zacchaeus is actually a pretty bad guy in the story.  Tax collectors are pretty notorious in those days.  First, they are considered traitors by most Jews because they willingly are employed by the occupying Romans.  Second, and perhaps worse, tax collectors make a great deal of money because part of the arrangement of being a tax collector is being able collect as much as they want over the Roman tax to pad their own wallets.[i]  Considering Jericho is a big city, and major center of taxation, we should not be surprised that Zacchaeus is not just doing well – he is rich.[ii]  We should also not be surprised when the people in the crowd grumble when this man, who betrays his people and extorts money from them, is welcomed so warmly by Jesus.

We know Zacchaeuses in our lives – those guys who always cheat their way to the top and seem to be rewarded for their cheating.  They do not even have to be attractive to get their way – they might even be some short guy with no physical appeal.  We much prefer stories like the man with the bigger barn who dies before he can enjoy his wealth, or the rich man who burns in hell without the help of Lazarus, because we like people to get what they deserve.  We like the stories of ultimate justice because we have some sense of justice as fairness ingrained in us.  So when someone is consistently rich, and consistently the recipient of favoritism, we sense justice is being violated.

Over the years, my understanding of wealth and what it does to people has varied over time.  In general, I think money has the potential to be corrupting, and so we all have to be careful about our relationship with wealth.  But I have also met many wealthy people who give away a LOT of money.  Whether the person is a wealthy alum from my college, a generous board member for a non-profit, or a wealthy parishioner at church, I have come to see the powerful way that the wealthy can turn their blessing into a blessing for others.  We hear in scripture all the time how hard life is for the wealthy, how money can lead to sinfulness, and how money can curse someone to suffering in the afterlife.  So we tend to prejudge the rich as being a group who has a lot of work to do – almost as if they must atone for something.  But what that kind of judgment does is allow us to judge others without seeing what in our lives is separating us from God too.  Money can certainly separate us from God and lead us to sinfulness; but so can envy, lust, jealousy, and drunkenness.

When we can see Zacchaeus as a man – not just a wee, little man or a rich, manipulative man – but simply a man who is a sinner just like each of us, then we can really begin to see the magic of Zacchaeus’ story.  The magic of Zacchaeus’ story is that despite his sinfulness, Jesus’ uncompromising love changes him.  The last part of the gospel today is where we see the magic unfold.  When Jesus shows Zacchaeus unconditional love and acceptance, Zacchaeus is entirely transformed.  Zacchaeus does not simply say he will start living his life in a different way.  Instead, Zacchaeus pledges to give half of his possessions to the poor.  Furthermore, he pledges to repay fourfold anyone whom he has defrauded – which given his position was probably quite a lot of money.  And in return for Zacchaeus’ overflowing generosity and repentance, Jesus’ love flows even more, as he declares Zacchaeus to not only be saved, but to be considered a son of Abraham – a member of the family of God!  The story almost becomes comical as Jesus and Zacchaeus try to one-up each other in showing love and grace, abundance and blessing.

For those of you who have ever given generously to church, you may have experienced this Zacchaeus phenomenon yourself.  Making a generous gift to the church actually feels really great – like you are a part of some cycle of gratitude.  When you give out of blessing and gratitude, you end up somehow receiving even more blessing and gratitude.  And somehow giving that generous amount – whether a tithe or some other amount makes you more generous in other areas too.  Somehow, that request at Christmas for needy Plainview families seems easier to accommodate; giving to charities and institutions outside of church feels like the right thing to do.  And giving your money generously makes you want to give your time generously too – because somehow in the midst of giving, you receive so much more.

This cycle of gratitude between us and Jesus is what we celebrate today.  When we bring our pledge cards forward a little later in the service, we bring them with a light heart, an overwhelming sense of blessedness, and a joy that almost makes us dance down the aisle.  This is Zacchaeus’ gift to us today – to help us reclaim the joy that only comes from generosity.  Zacchaeus’ joy can be your joy today too.  Amen.

[i] Laura S. Sugg, “Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, Yr. C, vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 260.

[ii] E. Elizabeth Johnson, “Exegetical Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, Yr. C, vol. 4 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 261.

A Loving and Thankful Heart…

01 Friday Nov 2013

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The following post is a guest post from parishioner Barbara Archer:

Courtesy of diapersanddivinity.com.

Courtesy of diapersanddivinity.com.

Our Stewardship Drive for 2014 is quickly drawing to an end and it is my hope that after receiving the Stewardship Committee’s letter and blue-colored pledge card you have been prayerfully considering your pledge to St. Margaret’s Church for the coming year. This year’s theme, “Flourish in Faith,” has a particularly beautiful association for me because it so similarly depicts St. Margaret’s and what has been happening in our parish during the past two years!

Since Jennifer became a part of our church family, as our parish priest, we have seen so many wonderful and overdue changes.  Most importantly, she has encouraged us to Seek, Serve, and Share in numerous ways. This is so important because as the song Day by Day tells us we now, “See thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day.” To me this is the crux of stewardship: Loving Christ and the Christ that we see and meet in others. I believe that our church family has truly stepped up in their efforts to serve Christ and our collective faith is flourishing! Christ is blessing us with his overwhelming love and in return we want to give thanks to God with an appreciative and thankful heart!

One way that we do this is by giving back ten percent of what He has financially blessed us with.  Many feel that this is a hardship. Some people ask if they have to give all ten percent to the church or can they give to others.  Others say that they can’t give ten percent. To me, this is something between you and Christ, and He knows your heart.  I would only ask you to make your pledge decision after praying and listening to what you are being called to do.

Jesus died on the cross for me and I never forget this. I am very grateful! I am a sinner like each of you but because Christ died on that cross, I have eternal life! This gift of God’s grace to me is priceless! At stewardship time, I give with a loving and thankful heart!

As you put your blue pledge card in the blue envelope and hand it in this Sunday, I have every confidence that with God’s help, our church family will continue to flourish in faith for at least another 50 years because of your generosity!

May God continue to bless you and our St. Margaret’s Church family!

Faithfully in Christ,  Barbara Archer

DON’T FORGET THAT INGATHERING SUNDAY IS THIS SUNDAY, NOV 3RD!