Stewardship Sunday October 26 2008

This Sunday, October 26th, 2008, is our first Stewardship Sunday. It is your chance to bring in your pledge card as part of your special offering as we celebrate our 139th anniversary.
Don't forget that it is really important that each person declares their own personal commitment to our congregational vision, to regularly attend worship and to be involved in the ministry of the congregation. We understand that there is really one household budget, so when it comes to the regular financial support section of the pledge card, please feel free to fill that in for the whole household rather than each individual. If you opt to do this, just let us know by indicating it on the pledge card where the financial support is indicated.
It is through generous givers, those people who commit themselves to our vision, attend worship, donate their time and talent and provide regular financial support, that we are able to affect the lives of people in Lyn and Brockville. With your continued stewardship we can truly be an open community that welcomes everyone throuhg the love of God shown to us in Jesus our Christ.

Stewardship 4 - Thanks-Giving

This is the fourth post in a four post series that are linked to 4 a four sermon stewardship series that were preached between September 21 and October 12 2008. On October 12 we focused on the text Luke 17:11-19. This was thanksgiving Sunday and the worship time that we picked to launch our Annual Stewardship Campaign. The reading from Luke contains a story of Jesus healing 10 people who were suffering from some form of skin disease. After each of them is healed as they walk to visit with the priests, one returns and gives thanks to Jesus for his healing. One in ten, that's not a great return on Jesus' investment and to a certain degree he says so when he asks if there were not ten people healed and where are the other nine. While one could get caught up in why the other nine did not return and give thanks, this Sunday we focused on the one who did. After experiencing the grace of God in his life, the one gave thanks. He actually had to stop what he was doing and return to Jesus to do so. In this action the person demonstrates a level of sincere gratitude that is simply missing in the other nine. The one who returns lives out a call to give thanks and lives a life that embodies that sense of thanksgiving. This Sunday we looked at how God has blessed each and every one of us. There is not one person who has not been blessed by God. We looked at how our lives are to be like the one who returned and gave thanks. And we looked at how we do that in our world today with our financial resources, the fourth part of holistic stewardship. After commi

tting ourselves to a common vision, regular worship attendance and active involvement - w e acknowledge that if we don't financially support the vision and m inistry we have in common, we're like the nine who simply took from Jesus and went on their way. At the end of the day we have that choice, to be like the nine or be like the one. The choice is left up to us. Which will you choose.

Stewardship 3 - Living the Way

This is the third post in a series of four that are linked to a Stewardship Series as part of our Annual Stewardship Campaign. On October 5th, 2008 we focused on Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20.This very familiar reading contains the Ten Commandments that were received by Moses on Mount Sinai as an expression of God's care for the people. Within them a way of life is laid out for all of us. A way that is rooted in God and God's mission for the world first and then in our everyday interactions with one another. When it comes to our actions with one another, they are not passive but active. The voice used is one of command - you will not commit murder. One of the interesting observations of some scholars is that while Moses records begin giving a series of "don'ts" the implication of them is that as a community what we are to be about is just the opposite. If murder is taking life then the opposite is giving life. Here is a perfect example of what kind of community God is calling us to be: one that is life giving. As we look at the third facet of holistic stewardship we examine the calling of each of us to a commitment of active involvement in the ministry of our congregation. As the other commandments lay out, we are called to live actively in community. It is not enough to let life pass us bye as we exist on the side lines watching everyone else. Rather as Christians we are called to grab life by the horns and jump in. Ministry is not a spectator sport. Ministry is an active engagement with our faith as we seek to deepen our relationship with God through Jesus our Christ. You and I, each and everyone of us, are called to actively participate in the ministry of Christ United and in doing so actively engage in the ministry of Jesus our Christ. Are you ready to commit?

Pop Goes the World

Is it just me or is the Men Without Hats song “pop goes the world” a potential theme for the last couple of weeks? Every time I turn on the radio or read an e-zine I’m constantly bombarded with the news that the financial markets have gone p p p p POP! and supposedly along with them the whole world. Of course the most preposterous event associated with this so called “melt down” is that George W. Bush is going to be the saviour of the world market by dumping 700 billion USD into the coffers of Wall Street to bail out the very people whose greed and avarice created the problem in the first place. Essentially he’s asking those who bear the burden of an imbalanced financial system to bail out those who profit from that same systemic imbalance. Don’t believe me, think about mortgage rates. Those who need a lower interest rate can’t get one because they’re a risk, while those who don’t need the break pay a much, much lower percentage and its those people who benefit the most from large corporate tax cuts and billion dollar bonus packages that created the current economic fiasco. Its amazing to me the way that we have institutionalized greed in North America while others around the world and in our own back yards pay the price. Just ponder these two comments from a CBC radio program on October 1, 2008: 700 Billion USD the proposed “bailout” – 30 Billion USD the total amount of cash aid sent to all of Africa; and that Canada had pledged 0.7% of its profits to foreign aid only to renege on it because our economy is growing too fast and people’s incomes are rising faster than expected. Perhaps its time to once again take up the call for a Jubilee.

If you look at Leviticus 25 you get an interesting picture of a real solution to the sub-prime bubble that’s burst in the US and that’s affecting global markets. Don’t bail out the rich and powerful elites of Wall Street – forgive the debt. I think 700 Billion USD is a wonderful solution – as long as its used in an appropriate manner and I’d suggest that there is nothing more just and appropriate than the biblical model of Jubilee. Instead of bailing out banks that have been making tens of millions if not hundreds of millions in profits over the last decade use that “bailout” fund to pay off the mortgages that are most at risk. Forgive the debt and give those who are most financially vulnerable some real help. Forgive the debt and create a new paradigm wherein people don’t have to choose between shelter and food. Create a new environment where children don’t have to go to school hungry. Establish a new way of looking at the role of government so that stress is reduced and people’s physical and mental health improves. In essence solve the current financial “crisis” by addressing the real issue instead of applying another Band-Aid and lining the pockets of those who need it least. At one level that’s what Jubilee is all about.

Of course why this might seem logical, its almost counter-intuitive and certainly we don’t hear any talk of this kind of solution, even during our own election campaign…”Pop goes the world.”