Why We Give
Stewardship Sermon Series finales don’t make a lot of sense. Ideally, over the last few weeks your pledge for 2020 has already been on your mind. If you’re in a serious relationship, ideally, you and your partner have discussed your relationship with LUMC, your convictions around giving, and maybe even thrown out a number or two as suggestions of what you’d like to give. If you have a family, ideally, you all have talked over dinner or before bedtime about what it means to have values and how our words and actions are how we communicate our values to our friends, neighbors, and even strangers.
Now, all of these are ideals. And, something in my pastor-brain tells me that this Sunday’s sermon will impact the framework through which you and the other members and constituents of LUMC will understand and practice tithing. (Even though ideally we’ll all have this figured out before we arrive on Sunday morning.) No one said my pastor-brain has it all figured out.
On Sunday morning I will have a completed pledge card for our family. Megan and I have discussed our tithe for both Louisville UMC and Arvada UMC at length, and in addition to the resources offered during children’s time, whenever our children receive monetary gifts, we revisit the conversations about giving. It is a practice we try to be intentional about.
We give because, as I mentioned before, it is a way to practice our values. Despite the conflicts and challenges in organized religion, Megan and I believe both in the teachings found in scriptures about giving of your first harvest and in the potential for the church to be an agent of good in the world. The teachings of Jesus, the teachings of the Hebrew Bible, the teachings of the Koran, the teachings of Buddha, and even the teachings of Hinduism all are convictions of prophets calling us to recognize that society is stronger and healthier when we care for each other and we practice equity. Megan and I just happen to believe the teachings of a man named, Jesus, and his words and actions compel us to practice what he taught. Jesus taught all who would listen to give and care for the other.
We give because we want the church on the global level as well as the local level to be an agent of change, a beacon of light, and an instrument of peace. And, we can only be more like Jesus if we practice each and every day.
I want to personally invite you to consider your values and beliefs. Please take time to be in prayer this weekend. Please invite your family members into a conversation about how you’d like to utilize your resources in 2020. And, if you believe in the mission and ministry of LUMC, please complete your pledge card and bring it with you to worship on Sunday, November 10th. We as a community will celebrate and lift up our hope for 2020 and beyond doing what we call church!
Thank you for being a part of this faith community.
Peace,
Rev Elizabeth