Thanks-for-Giving

“Thanks-for-Giving”

© Rev. Thomas B. Cundiff, Pastor

November 18, 2012

 

Exodus 35: 4-9  and 21

As I read a short portion of scripture, please know that a complete reading of chapters 35 and 36 in their entirety will give you a full picture of what this text says to us about Moses and the gracious people he led……let us now hear the Word of God from Exodus 35: 4-9 and vs. 21.  

4 Moses said to all the congregation of the Israelites: This is the thing that the Lord has commanded: ⁵Take from among you an offering to the Lord; let whoever is of a generous heart bring the Lord’s offering: gold, silver, and bronze; ⁶blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine linen; goats’ hair, ⁷tanned rams’ skins, and fine leather;^* acacia wood, ⁸oil for the light, spices for the anointing-oil and for the fragrant incense, ⁹and onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and the breast piece.

²¹And they came, everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and brought the Lord’s offering to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the sacred vestments.

AND ADDING THIS VERSE I will put into context in the sermon:  “Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp:  “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary (tabernacle or church).”  Vs. 36:6   

Colossians 1: 3-23

 

3In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

 

9For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

 

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

 

 

I.  Moses -- Background

 

Imagine this setting twelve thousand years before the birth of Jesus:  An orphaned baby found in a papyrus basket among the reeds and bulrushes along the Nile river by the daughter of Pharaoh.  As the ancient story goes, this baby receives the name that the world would praise and respect forever:  Mosheh which means “he is good” – or MOSES.  (Exodus 2: 1-10)  This baby grows and matures as a young adult….a complex man, a great leader to be revered by tens of millions who would follow his law and commandments – all who have access to God’s Holy Word!  For if you read and study the bible, you know about Moses.         

 

What we don’t want to hear about often in reading about Moses?  As a young adult he does a horrible thing.  He commits a murder.  Look it up in the second chapter of Exodus.  Moses murders an Egyptian slave master and buried him in the sand. (vs. 15)  Interesting how we slide over some of these facts when teaching Sunday school classes….how easy it is to make this type of murder seem, almost, glamorous!

 

Murder was an inexcusable crime in the eye of the Pharaoh….yet we also know the Pharaoh was a man who also did some horrible, outrageous things to torture his followers.  Surely, regardless his reason for killing the Egyptian slave master, Moses if found would be put to death. 

 

What really makes this story interesting?  Moses fleeing from the Pharaoh’s wrath would become a great leader among all those who were the ‘suffering children of God’.  He would lead these afflicted, tormented and tortured people on a 40 year Exodus out of Egypt to the promised land of freedom and security and hope.  [one has to wonder if there are those in Palestine today looking for someone to lead them from the war-torn region toward a new, promised land!]         

Moses is best known for his laws – Mosaic Laws as we know them. The ‘Ten Commandments’ remain to this day an anchor in civilized societies.  Moses was a role-model for Jesus who would also become an advocate for the suffering, tormented and tortured people of the world.  It was Jesus who summarized all the laws of Moses with his own summary of the law:  “You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourselves.”  (Paraphrase, Matt. 22: 36-40)

II.  Digging Deeper

 Digging deeper into our scriptural lesson:  In context, Moses brings the these tormented, enslaved people seeking freedom from the Pharaoh in Egypt to a land where they could prosper – a land rich with “milk and honey” (Exodus 33:3).  These people who had to bare excruciating pain and suffering suddenly, because of Moses, had more than they could have possibly dreamed.  They are overwhelmed and overjoyed with where Moses brought them.  The were survivors of the trials of their exodus discovering new life and new freedoms and a wonderful, rich new covenant relationship with God.  So richly blessed, these humble and enriched and empowered people of God would build a wonderful tabernacle in which to worship God. 

This week before thanksgiving, I have to wonder if these ancient sentiments of God’s people aren’t similar to what we feel as Americans, crossing an ocean to embrace freedom from tyrannies and enslavement in our lives.  Our national pride as Americans is found in taking time this thanksgiving to “glorify God” for blessings received.  And what do people do when they feel so blessed from God?  What do we do?  We build temples and synagogues and cathedrals and tabernacles.  We build churches in order to give glory to God for blessings received.      

Getting really specific, the scriptural story teller talks in our lesson today of the offerings of the people given as a matter of personal conscience—so enthusiastic and overjoyed about giving.  “They cannot restrain themselves!”[1]   Just look at this list of gifts outlined in our scripture today:

Gold, silver, bronze

Blue and purple and crimson yarns

Fine linens

Goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins and find leather

Acacia wood

Oil for the lights

Fragrant incense

Onyx stones and gems….

 

There is a secondary level of giving in this lesson – giving of time and talent and the actual labor in building the tabernacle – with the women spinning from goats’ and rams’ skins in making of vestments; and the men constructing the sacred Ark of the Covenant. 

 

And then this valuable verse we need to hear – not part of our scripture lesson today -- Exodus 35: 29: 

“All the Israelite women and men whose hearts had made them willing to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the lord.”

This subtle and significant point:  Moses does not require the people to give.  We don’t require your giving to the church. We give you opportunities to give and to pledge as a response to God for what God has given us.  Yes, pledges do help us plan a budget.  But we do not require any payment of dues.  We don’t demand the payment of any kind of tax[2].   In this church we continue in the tradition of Moses in asking for gifts from the heart—from what you can return to God from blessings received. 

Going further with scripture – Exodus 36: 6 says of a Moses who is so overwhelmed with the generosity of all these people:   

“…{he} gave the command and word was proclaimed throughout the camp:  ‘No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.’  So the people were restrained from bringing:  for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work.”

Another subtle and significant point:  The people had more than enough to give!   This is powerful scripture, given all that people had gone through in their forty year exodus from Egypt.  These people had really suffered.  Family members had died.    Yet under the steady, forward leading direction of Moses they found the Promised Land feeling so blessed as to give God, through the building of the tabernacle, more than was needed.  In this church, with all that I see YOU give in time and talents in maintaining this church….you too give back to God more than what is often needed!

 

III.              Thanks-for-Giving

I would invite you now to do something…..something different.   Ready?   I would ask you to stand.  Join hands.  Find someone in front of you or in back of you or across isles…. And join hands!

We gather this week in our colonial-American tradition of feasting on wonderful bounties of harvest.  At family tables near and far we bow our heads in gratitude for blessings received. 

In this tabernacle—this church—we join hands and pray and say to God—repeat after me:

Thanks-for-giving us life and family and friends.

Thanks-for-giving us this bountiful country in which to live.

Thanks-for-giving us this church!

Thanks-for-giving us, Lord, all that we need!  AMEN.

 

Please remain standing as we open our hymnals to # 375 – a song of dedication for YOUR GENEROSITY, let’s sing:  ‘LORD OF ALL GOOD, OUR GIFTS WE BRING TO YOU’  

 

AMEN                                                                                           

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[1]  Sermon at the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, September 16, 2012, “Restrain that Giver!”

 

[2]  Per Capita a Tax?  Perhaps!  At the same time, we do not require the payment of this per capita tax…..

 

Stewards of Ideas, Dreams and Visions

“I Wonder if….?”

2012 Stewardship – Simple Gifts

November 11, 2012

©Thomas B. Cundiff

Joel  2: 28-32

Matthew 6: 21

Joel 2: 28-32  [Also found in Acts 2: 14-17]

God’s Spirit Poured Out

 

^{28 *}….. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹ Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.

30I will show portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. ³¹The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. ³²Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

MATHEW 6: 21

 

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also….”

 

 

I.   I WONDER?

I have been wondering……

 

In thinking about stewardship of EVERYTHING God has entrusted our care, I wonder…..     

 

Are we not called to be stewards of our ideas, dreams and visions for the future!

We already talk a lot about stewardship of time and talents and money.  Last week I shared a message on what it means to be stewards of God’s creation—this beautiful earth.  But what about those things that drive us spiritually?  In our thoughts?  Are we not also called to be stewards of our ideas, dreams and visions? 

 

FAMILIES:

Within the context of family, what do we hope and dream and envision for our children and grandchildren?    

 

I think about these things knowing that in just a few months, in March, Nancy and I will become proud grandparents of a little baby boy—named Kenneth Thomas.  We saw some more ultrasound pictures this week.  The baby is about the size of a pop can, 1lb 1oz.  We already have our hopes and dreams for his future…..the future of all our babies – all our children!  We dream about HIS future!  In what ways are we responsible along with Ken and Emily as stewards of all God has given us in life to help with his parents and their friends to build a solid FAITH foundation for him…

 

Of course we long and pray for happiness and stability with our families and friends.  We dream of safe neighborhoods, good education, secure work and a comfortable home.  We pray for health.  Prayers emerge from our dreams of ‘peace on earth and goodwill toward all people!’  This idea I have been tossing around in thinking about today’s scripture:  Young and old, in what ways are we called to be stewards of our ideas and dreams and visions in building and sustaining healthy families and communities for our babies—our children?

 

II.  AND THE CHURCH?

 

As much as would like to continue dreaming and visioning what I hope for the future for my family and children, I now turn my attention to the ideas, dreams and visions we have for the church and our babies—our children who are the future of the church.  Isn’t part of our stewardship of all life a call from God to find ways to translate our ideas, visions and dreams, into specific, tangible planning we do as Christ’s church?    

 

A serious question we are all asking in this church:  As membership declines and resources dissipate in part through the care of this large building:  Are we going to let ‘time run out’ for this church? 

 

Hopes and dreams and visions in hand, what can we be doing to create a framework of ideas envisioning a future for this church and our babies and their children who need the church in the future?  Maybe not this particular church – but the church we know is important in helping our children grow believing in Jesus Christ?

 

Are you with me?  I wonder?  I wonder what comes next for us as we work to discern God’s will for us as the Warren Avenue Presbyterian Church?  I wonder?  What’s the church going to be for our children and grandchildren?    

 

II. FIRST POINT:  TOGETHER THE BODY OF CHRIST

As stewards of our ideas, dreams and visions:  My first point is something we always carry with us – TOGETHERNESS.  I pray that we will always work as stewards of all that God has given us to pass on to our children and their children the importance of being a Christian community—the “living Body of Christ”.

It’s like the ancient African proverb that says “It Takes a Village to raise a child”….. It takes just two or three gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord – to be the church! 

The children’s song says, “I AM THE CHURCH, YOU ARE THE CHURCH, WE ARE THE CHURCH TOGETHER!  ALL OF GOD’S CHILDREN ALL AROUND THE WORLD, YES, WE’RE THE CHURCH TOGETHER!”

Each of us as stewards of all that God has entrusted our care, TOGETHER, need to prayerfully and proactively consider what we are going to do with the ideas, dreams and visions we have been entrusted to care for in the name of our generous and gracious God.      

While it is difficult knowing where God is going to take us in the next two or four or six or more years, we have certain responsibilities RIGHT NOW in discerning what God wants us to do and become in the future. 

I wonder?  Can we take more time in all of our meetings to think “outside the box” about the future?  Together, what would God have us become in being creative, in using this building;  in nurturing more collaborative relationships with others who share our values?  If we don’t do this work, who will?  It is our responsibility – all of us – to be the stewards of this wonderful idea—being Christ’s Church! 

III. SECOND POINT: MISSION?

My second point, we have an established mission.  Let’s study it.  Let’s follow it.   Let’s use it in planning for the future.  Let’s dream of ways we can do the things we say we want and need to be doing

We have a mission statement that next to scripture gives us some directions on where we need to go. 

The first bullet-point in our mission statement: 

-- REACHING UP TO GOD IN REVERENCE AND THANKSGIVING FOR THE MANY WAYS GOD HAS BLESSED US -- As your pastor I hear from you loud and clear, worship is the primary and most important thing we do TOGETHER in REACHING UP TO GOD IN WORSHIP & PRAISE!  In all of our wonderment and dreaming and planning:  we are called to be stewards of worship that will continue to meet the spiritual needs of our children and their children….well into the future.

The second bullet-point: 

-- REACHING IN TO USE OUR HUMAN AND PHYSICAL RESOURCES TO NURTURE – in a variety of ways, the use of all the gifts and blessings God has entrusted our care—including this building.  In thinking about this I would like to add to our mission Statement: “Using our spiritual resources” as well in envisioning and planning our future.

The third bullet-point in our mission statement:

n     REACHING OUT TO SHARE THE LOVE OF GOD WITH OTHERS. We continue to be in this location as a church because it is from this corner of Warren and Millard we open our doors to the neighborhood.  Is this part of our collective identity and vision for the future?  I wonder?  In what ways can we continue to open our doors to the community around us? 

Through the Women of Colors and health Delivery we will be hosting in our building the “Parent Action for Healthy Kids” workshop down in the Gym…..finding ways to bring parents of middle and high school age youth into our building to learn and develop their parenting skills?  This is important work we are already doing in REACHING OUT TO OTHER WITH WHAT WE VALUE – THE LOVE OF GOD!

IV.  THIRD POINT:  MINISTRY

In addition to the mission of the church, I envision something we will always want to dream about for the future:  Meaningful, uplifting, enriching MINISTRY.  MINISTRY!  Consider this definition:    

“Ministry is our using all the gifts God has given us as the “body of Christ” to serve our Lord in TOGETHER responding to the needs of each other and those in the larger community around us.”

I wonder?  I wonder if good solid caring and compassionate ministry aren’t key component to becoming and sustaining the church of the future?  I truly believe these ministries of care and compassion are part of our spiritual DNA we must pass on to future generations of Christians.    

To this day, with over 147 years of dreaming and visioning behind us, it is our ministering to and with each other in times of need that will sustain us and keep us moving forward as Christ’s church…..in the end all that’s really important isn’t the structural church as much as the spiritual church and what we do together in loving and caring for each other!          

VI. I WONDER….

We had a meeting back on June 3^rd.  Most of you were at this meeting. This was the gathering we had in the Memorial Lounge to talk about our future.  This was a good time of conversation in sharing some of short-term visions and dreams. 

At this meeting we put out some difficult facts….sobering details about where we are as a church.  Some of these facts: 

Fact One:  We are a small church.  Back on June 3^rd we were a 90 member church.  We are now an 87 member church.   The fact remains, we are a ‘maturing’ congregation and “we cannot predict how quickly our membership may drop”[1]  (A side note:  About half of this presbytery, 23 churches are our size or smaller—we are not alone!  There is still one church, Ithaca Lafayette, that still worships with a congregation of 10 members, The Elkton/Chandler church with 21 members). 

Fact Two:  It is more and more difficult to make up pledges we are losing through the decline of membership—that’s why every pledge—every increased pledge that helps us make up what we are losing—is vitally important….helping us take dependency off investment funds…..investment funds that are fast being depleted if we keep on doing what we have been doing!

The good news that came out of that June 3^rd meeting was the enthusiastic, passionate and positive things you had to say about this church! 

Simply, this was an important meeting back on June 3^rd because we are dreaming dreams and realistically envisioning our future.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            So now I wonder…..what kind of church can we become with fewer members, a large building, and a small budget?  What kind of new things can be developed in collaboration with others?  Are there new ways for us to think about fund-raising?  What are others doing in situations like ours?  There are lots of questions we need to be asking! 

VII.   WHAT IS THIS SERMON ALL ABOUT

So now I ask myself the critical question:  What has this sermon been all about?  As I said at the beginning of this message:

There are many things we need to be doing as stewards of our ideas, dreams and visions—in using them to create a path into the future….so we can do some serious planning for the future. 

 

And this final point:

Absolutely critical to our future!

We need to have fun in what we are doing!  We need to do things that bring smiles to our faces.  We need the laughter.  We need to be friends in doing the important work we have been called to do.

I am still having fun doing what I am doing. I enjoy being with you. I may not always like the work that needs to be done.  I never really enjoy hearing the phone ring to share someone is hurting or ill….but I get a great deal of satisfaction in knowing this is what I have been called, ordained and trained to be doing as your pastor.  I enjoy being your pastor.  .

I enjoy the fact that NOBODY HAS GIVEN UP ON THIS CHURCH!  We haven’t lost any pledges.  People aren’t leaving this church because they don’t like what we are doing.  I THANK GOD YOU’RE NOT WALKING OUT ON MY SERMONS—AT LEAST NOT YET! 

I hope and pray that with all our dreaming and visioning—we make sure there is time to enjoy what God has given us – that we have fun doing Christ’s work.  That’s why we are going to have a special Harvest dinner after worship next week…so we can have some fun together! 

So now my friends—it’s time for us to put our faith next to our dreams and visions so that our sons and daughter can continue to prophesy, our more mature members can dream dreams, and the young adults in our midst see visions for the future – and TOGETHER WE HAVE FUN planning and serving our lord and savior Jesus Christ.   

I wonder?  What comes next?

AMEN

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[1]  From June 3^rd Meeting of the Congregation

 

Garden of Creation

“Garden of Creation”

November 4, 2012

©Thomas B. Cundiff

 

Genesis 2: 4-9

John 15: 1-11

 

 

THE SECOND ACCOUNT OF CREATION

Genesis 2: 4-9

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; ⁶but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— ⁷then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground,* and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. ⁸And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

JESUS THE TRUE VINE

John 15: 1-11

15‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes* to make it bear more fruit. ³You have already been cleansed* by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become* my disciples. ⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

 

I.  Introduction – Scriptural Images

 

“’Stewardship’ is one of those words”, according to Thomas J. Pappalardo of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Seminary, “that people in the church use often, yet I’m not sure they’re fully aware of its definition.  For some it only means that on two Sundays each year, their pastor preaches about giving to the church.  For others the meaning might extend to how they manage their resources, namely, their money.  But ‘stewardship’ has a much richer meaning than both of these surface definitions communicate.”[1]  Today’s sermon helps us look at one of these broader definitions of stewardship.

 

The root of the term “Stewardship” is found in the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis and the Garden of Eden.  God tells Adam and Eve to be stewards of the Garden – to care for “God’s Garden of Creation”.  What Adam and Eve didn’t recognize was the fact that the garden did not belong to them.  The garden will still and always belong to God.  While God gave Adam and Eve the free will’ to live in and use the garden, God did not give them ‘title’ to the garden.  Likewise, while God gives us this beautiful earth—this world in which to live and use, this glorious earth—this world still and always belongs to God.

 

Some scriptural references from Genesis one verses 1, 24 and 27:

 

“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth” … “to bring forth living creatures of every kind … creating humankind with God blessing all that God has created”.   (vs. 1, 24 and 27 paraphrased)

 

And Scriptural illusions of stewardship of “God’s Garden of Creation”:

 

• Psalm 24:1  "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."

 

• Deuteronomy 10:14   "To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it."

 

• Job 4: 11  “Everything under heaven belongs to God.” (Job 4:11)  

 

The gospel of Jesus points to where we are now in this time and this place when Jesus says in the gospel of John:  

 

John 15: 5  “I am the vine, you are the branches.”  Jesus is talking to ech of us!  “Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5)

 

II.  Earth Stewardship

 

There is a small organization in the church called the “Presbyterian Earth Care Network”.  These are dedicated Presbyterian advocates for the care of God’s created earth and all who live on what they call the “Vine of Creation”.   Consider this rather complicated definition from the Earth Stewardship Association—

 

“Earth stewardship involves shaping trajectories of social-ecological change at local-to-global scales to enhance ecosystem resilience and human well-being.”

 

Leave it to  a group of Presbyterians to come up with this kind of a definition …. you must be kidding:  “Trajectories of social-ecological change …. to enhance ecosystem resilience and human well-being.”? Are they talking about Earth or Mars?

 

So trying to be straightforward with a clear question that defines the issue:    

 

With a world that is going through numerous changes with the serious degrading of natural resources that support life, what can we do as stewards of this earth to slow the progress of all that is negative and doing harm to our earth? 

 

For each of us, assuming we too are called to be proactive stewards of this earth who live on the “Vine of Creation”, what are some stories and illustrations of what we can be doing to understand and then get involved in protecting our earth? 

 

 

 

 

III. STORIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

 

Of course I have to begin with the super-storm that hit the eastern coast of our country this past week.  Some of the best minds in the world have been trying to explain what happened…..global warming, the melting of the polar ice caps creating the depths of the oceans, combined with the temperature changes that helped to create a “perfect storm”.  Whatever you may believe is happening, our world is going to be seeing some dramatic changes as weather patterns shift for years to come.

 

We have all been hearing about the power outages.  I can’t even imagine millions of people without any electricity, lights or heat.  I laugh at all the people lining up in public places to plug in all their cell phones and computers….and this really, isn’t a laughing matter!  I have kept a back-up battery for my cell phone now for several years.  Seriously:  these little phones are the only connection millions of people have with family, doctors, insurance companies, utility companies, and those who can help them recover from the storm.  

 

There is no doubting the fact we have become dependent on many types of energy—energy that uses various fuels ranging batteries to coal and oil and gas engines that probably brought all of us to church this morning—energy that is expended all around us—power that is the driving force in our lives that help us move and get around: even the natural and free power that comes from riding a bicycle or walking or running. 

 

There are new “earth friendly” sources of energy that we see in wind-farms planted (like crops) all around us—take a drive toward Alma and you will see hundreds if not thousands of them.  Some seeds of new wind-farms are taking root in Saginaw Country. 

 

And the cost of all this energy?  Not cheap!  There is a price to pay for all this energy that places a burden on all of us—but mostly the poor, that makes this a social issue in assuring all people have the heat they need to get through antherr cold winter.   

 

There is a new television series titled REVOLUTION that takes place in a post apocalyptic world – a science fiction series that has been created that depict what life would be like without the sources of energy/power we have grown to be so dependent. 

 

Imagine if we were forced to return to living without electricity?  No batteries.  No televisions or computers.  We would, for sure, be stock-piling firewood and purchasing shoes and boots preparing for a lot of walking.  Get out those warm blankets—it gets cold in Michigan! 

 

Imagine what life was like when settlers first came to the Saginaw valley?   Just go back and look at the television show, Little House in the Prairie of you want to recapture an image of what life was like when things were simple and power—steam engines and the like were just being born. 

 

For a small commercial – if you get a chance get tickets to the “North Poll Express” in Owosso beginning Nov. 24^th…..learn more about the Steam Railroading Institute and the importance of “steam energy” in our world through the years.  I am sure Roger could get you more information …..

 

There are also some examples / illustrations of those who work hard to protect the environment:

 

The local residents and owners of the Savoy Grill, on Federal and Washington Avenue, Steve and Jim,  who have also helped develop an urban garden behind their grill…. 

 

The Farmers Market, Jeff Bookmeyer is the manger, doing a fantastic job in promoting the use of natural, locally grown produce…..a huge success with dozens of vendors and local customers sensitizing us all the benefits of growing and purchasing our food locally.

 

Churches like First Methodist in Frankenmuth that promote the “Plant a Row” program encouraging local farmers to plant an extra row of their crops to be shared with others….if you will, giving back to the earth an “agri-tithe”!

Many more examples including the gardens that our own Roger nurtures, sharing fresh and tasty produce with us throughout the year – and his harvest of maple syrup!  [We have our own in-house Michigan State University-trained expert who could teach us all a thing or two about what it means to be a steward of God’s Good Created Earth!]

 

I know there are many in this church who rescue and preserve foods through canning and freezing….something more of us should be learning how to do…

 

We, also in the church, have been changing light bulbs….making sure we have good protection for our windows, insulation, and an efficient boiler and timer that has saved us thousands of dollars because we are trying to use only the energy we need to use!    

 

The list goes on – and I sure wish I could share with you the twelve examples I couldn’t list in this sermon because of time constraints!!!!

 

IV.             STEWARDSHIP LESSONS

 

Dr. Randal Bush, pastor of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church, was recently asked to preach in Geneva, Switzerland in giving a theological grounding to what his church is doing in reclaiming and reusing water that runs off the roof his large church—a 10 million dollar project and largest of its kind in Pennsylvania![2]  He has shared some rules to consider as stewards of creation:   

 

The first rule:  “We are partners with God in taking care of the Garden.”  This comes from the Genesis 2 account calls us to partner with God in taking care of all that God has given us….all kinds of life….and sources of energy…..oh so much more to care for than the MONEY it takes to pay for things….. 

 

The second rule:  “To live righteously and justly in promoting the well being of all”.   We are called to be stewards of all life – every form of life.  Life is sacred.

 

And from this sermon from Dr. Bush:  There are solutions to the problems that exist with our environment and there is hope.  The church has responsibility as stewards to not just take care of internal budgets….but to preach a gospel of care for all creation.  This is the simple message.  We are called to care, in partnership with God, for the simple gifts God has given each of us.   

 

V.  Conclusion

 

So what is our task?  As stewards?  We need to pay the bills.  That’s why we ask for pledge cards and financial contributions to help pay for programs and ministries of this church….pledges that we try to use responsibly in caring for this building.  To say this as simply as I can:  “We are called to care for God’s church, God’s people whoever/wherever  they may be, and “God’s Garden of Creation”.  

 

In all this we hope for a better future, a glorious use of all God has entrusted our care.

 

Amen

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[1]   Grounded, article by Thomas Pappalardo, Vice President of Strategic Advancement and Marketing, Pittsburgh Seminary, Panorama, pg. 17

[2]   Article written in BLOG by Christian M. Stempert, for the Presbyetrians for Eco Justice….a lot of my own paraphrasing.