Springwood Presbyterian Church: Whitsett, NC

Greetings in the name of the Lord, to the saints of Springwood!

It’s time to clean out my gutters.  Rainwater backs up in them, because they are full of leaves and pollen and little sticks.  I tell you this because it seems to me that Christian stewards are a bit like gutters.  We can let God’s presence and God’s blessings flow through us--or not.  Stewardship is a year-round work for Christians who realize that all we have—life and health and family and friends and possessions and the earth itself—are gifts from God.  There is no simple formula for “doing” stewardship.  As individuals and as church, we need to take a hard look at ourselves regularly to see if we are using God’s gifts well—if we are taking care of God’s gifts and managing them for God—if we are being channels between God’s abundance and those who need it, whether that abundance be money or a listening ear or a helping hand or a word of grace.  And so, just in case there’s something hindering your stewardship, consider this prayer by Walter Brueggeman, Professor Emeritus of Old Testament at Columbia Presbyterian Theological Seminary, preacher, theologian, author.   

On Generosity

On our own, we conclude:

that there is not enough to go around

we are going to run short

of money

of love

of grades

of publications

of sex

of beer

of members

of years

of life  

 we should seize the day

seize the goods

seize our neighbor’s goods

because there is not enough to go around.

 And in the midst of our perceived deficit:

            You come

            You come giving bread in the wilderness

            You come giving children at the 11^th hour

            You come giving homes to exiles

            You come giving futures to the shutdown

            You come giving Easter joy to the dead

            You come—fleshed in Jesus.

 And we watch while

the blind receive their sight

the lame walk

the lepers are cleansed

the deaf hear

the dead are raised

the poor dance and sing.

 We watch

and we take food we did not grow

             and life we did not invent

and future that is gift and gift and gift and

families and neighbors who sustain when we do not deserve it.

 It dawns on us—late rather than soon—

that “you give food in due season

you open your hand

and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity

override our presumed deficits

quiet our anxieties of lack

transform our perceptual field to see

the abundance…mercy upon mercy

blessing upon blessing.

Sink your generosity deep into our lives

     that your muchness may expose our false lack

     that endlessly receiving, we may endlessly give,

so that the world may be made Easter new,

     without greedy lack, but only wonder

     without coercive need, but only love

     without destructive greed, but only praise

     without aggression and invasiveness…

          all things Easter new…

          all around us, toward us and by us

          all things Easter new. 

 Finish your creation…in wonder, love, and praise.  Amen.

                (prayed at a chapel service at Columbia, September 26, 2002)

In this stewardship season—in this year—in every year, all year--may we be channels for God’s abundance to flow freely through us.  Dale