Pastor's Pen - October 2005

Dear Friends in Christ,

In the Old Testament, when the harvest began, the people of God would bring their offering of first fruits to the Lord. They recognized God as the source of their bounty and wanted to share the first and best portions of that bounty with God. Today most people are far removed from the earth and have lost the connection that it brought with God. Even we who are in a rural area tend to think much more in terms of our own efforts, certainly important, and the effects of science and chemistry as the sources for a good harvest. God has been pushed to the edges of life in so many ways and the idea of offering first fruits to God seems more than antiquated. Yet it is in fact the first fruits that we are encouraged to continue to give to God in response to what God has done for us in the Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Good stewardship is a matter of faith and trust in God to care and to provide for God’s children. We have been blessed with God’s love and grace and redemption. Our giving is done in response to God’s graciousness. Having nothing to earn or to gain, we are free to give generously for the sake of the mission that God has entrusted to God’s people, the Church. Many often complain about giving to the Church, saying that the Church is always talking about money or always out begging for money for this project or that. In reality, the Church does not give money the same importance that Jesus gave to it nor doe it speak about it often enough or clearly enough. In addition, as the Church carries out its commitment to the proclamation of the gospel of our Lord and Savior , it is never "begging" for anything. Rather it gives its members good opportunities to share the abundance that God has given them with others who are in need.

Unfortunately, the human response to any discussion of stewardship and giving tends to be one of defensiveness and resistance. However, such a discussion is absolutely necessary on a regular basis. Giving of oneself, one’s time, talents, and resources to the point at which it feels good does not come naturally to us who are a part of this world. We talk about giving until it hurts only to realize that it will always hurt until we address the issue clearly and in faith. No one is expected to give beyond his or her means. However, each is asked to give as generously as God has given. As we have been blessed by God, so others will continue to be blessed as a result of our generosity, whether in regular benevolence or in times of natural disaster.

You are invited to make this time of harvest an opportunity to consider your gifts to the ministry of the Savior through the congregations. Prayerfully consider what God has done for you and the blessings that are yours. Then prayerfully consider your regular, faithful, and generous response. You will know when it feels good.

 

 

Across the Pastor's Desk - 16 September 2005

Donald F. Rose

Mansfield and United Lutheran Churches

Across the pastor’s desk for September 16, 2005

Caring for Those in Need

 

It has long been a common saying as well as perception of life that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This saying can be illustrated in many ways in the current news headlines.

Machinists asked to take $10 less per hour for their work while airline executives cash in large amounts of stock options gaining hundreds of thousands of dollars. State budgets are balanced by reducing benefits to those who make up the most economically weak and defenseless portions of society. Tax benefits are given to those who are most wealthy because somehow there is the belief that they have more to offer to the world than others do. Thousands who have been victimized by hurricane and natural disaster are once again victims when it is suggested that because they have only known poverty, their plight really isn’t that important.

Unfortunately there are any number of other reports and stories that tend to support, this culture’s misplaced emphasis on wealth and status as the mark of success, value, and worth. Though such attitudes and their subsequent behaviors are not new, one would like to think that we have learned something throughout the ages.

The prophet Amos gives an example of the understanding that no nation can be right with God as long as the poor and oppressed remain the victims of injustice and poverty as a result of the economic greed of a few. The prophet clearly understands that every day and life and practice is much more important than simply mouthing the words and/or going through the right motions of worship. The prophet speaks of faith and a relationship with God as being measured in the person’s relationship with the neighbor no matter the economic status. In the time of Amos there was a much clearer understanding of the importance of the community as a whole rather then an exaggerated emphasis upon the individual and the individual’s rights. For Amos and the prophetic tradition of Israel, the strength of the community was found in its faithfully living in the word of God.

For Christian believers, Jesus continues in that prophetic tradition and has more to say about wealth and its misuse and pitfalls than virtually any other subject. Jesus clearly understood how easy it is for individuals and/or nations of wealth to begin to believe that their security is of their own making and that they more they can obtain or acquire, whatever the cost to others, will only increase their place in this world. Jesus saw such attitudes and behaviors as stumbling blocks to a living relationship with God, the source of all life and security. The early church understood the hazards of granting status based upon wealth and economics rather than faith.

Misguided economic biases have long plagued the world. It is time for the community of faith to heed the word of warning and blessing that come to us from Scripture. In so doing we will care for those who are most in need rather than simply looking out for our own wallets and ourselves.