Reflections
This week 2025 financial pledge cards are being sent out to the Nativity congregation. If you do not receive one and wish to make a financial pledge to the ministry of this church, you may pick up a card and a letter from me on the table in the rear of the church.
As we live into this season of Stewardship at Nativity, it becomes terribly important to ask two questions, “What does it mean to be a steward?” and, more personally, “ What have I been given for which I now find myself a steward?”
Last night in the latest of the “Woven” series at TIN, Dawn Denham read a moving section of a book that she is writing about her father. She read to the audience about his early life as a disc jockey in the Washington, D.C. suburbs , the impact his life had on her and her challenges to care for him in his years of increasing dementia. I was reminded of how we are all stewards of the memories of events that have shaped us and the importance to us and others that those memories be shared and preserved.
I awoke this morning to a cool clear morning with the relatively clean air to breathe in, and was reminded again of my responsibility to be a steward of this beautiful earth that is a profound and foundational gift from God. I had had a good night’s sleep and climbed out of bed with minimal aches and pains, and reminded myself that this old body, too, was a gift, and my stewardship of it in things done and left undone, suggests my faithfulness( or otherwise) as a steward of this gift.
The faith that nurtures us and that we celebrate week after week in a shared liturgy of word and sacrament, is not something that we made up. It has been passed down to us through the life and witness of those near and dear to us, as well as from those countless others that we will never know. The religious tradition out of which our personal faith grows is a gift. Our call is to be faithful stewards of this incredible gift so that those we love, as well as those we will never know, can be pointed toward the living reality of Jesus Christ in their lives.
This season of Stewardship is about a grateful response to the gifts that we have received. If it can evoke in all of us a sense of “joy and wonder”, as the baptismal prayer says, it will be successful, regardless of the amount of money that is raised. If we raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the motivation has been simply guilt, we will have failed.
May the Lord of all things give us open eyes, open hearts and open minds to see, feel and appreciate the ultimate giftedness of life. May the Spirit that sustains us give us the wisdom to be faithful stewards of the grace that has been poured into our lives so that we might share the goodness and bounty of this life with all.
Other Matters of Importance:
Compassion Ministries- Food Packing Volunteers Needed October 22 @ 6:00pm
We are once again going to try to restart our food packing work in cooperation with First United Methodist Church. I made a mistake in my publicity of our last effort and we were not able to help! I am still chagrined over that miscue. We’ll try again on October 22 at 6:00 pm when we will meet at the Compassion Ministries facility just north of Water Valley on Highway 7. We’ll need 5 or 6 people to help pack the food boxes. A sign up sheet will be in the rear of the church.
See you at church on Sunday!
Blessings and Peace,
Duncan
(601)260-1937
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