Stewardship Reflection - Give to God the Things that are God's

Give to God the Things that are God’s
By The Rt. Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce

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Once again in today’s gospel the Pharisees are trying to trip up Jesus. If Jesus supports the paying of the tax, his Jewish siblings who are rebelling against the Roman occupation will shun him. If Jesus says it’s unlawful to pay the tax, he’ll be in trouble with the Roman authorities. What does Jesus do? He asks them to look at the coin. It is a Roman coin. Pay the tax – meaning give the Emperor back his own coin! Then Jesus adds that wonderful line — give to God the things that are God’s.

What exactly IS God’s? Well, we are! Our Christian faith in God points us always to live a life of gratitude and generosity. God showed us how we are to live and how to give to God the things that are God’s: God gave us God’s son, God’s first fruit, and we are asked to do the same, remembering that everything we have, everything we do, everything we are is a gift from God — and it is a gift that is meant to be shared. When we share from our first fruits, as God shared God’s first fruit with us, we are modeling the same generosity God has shown us.

Remember, we have two sets of three legged-stools in our Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement: scripture, reason and tradition, and time, talent and treasure. The first shapes our faith; the second is how we use the gifts we have been given to live out our faith.

The Rt. Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce is the Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Her ministry focuses heavily on stewardship, financial sustainability and New Community development.

Mrs. Sandra Provan Reflects on Stewardship

News from the Red Doors - October 16, 2020

This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker

Dear St. Paul's Family,

As our nation prepares for one of the most controversial elections we've likely seen in our lifetimes, regardless of the outcome, we must be deeply in prayer.  The election process will continue to be foremost in the news and social media through election day and beyond.  Again, regardless of who is elected, it will be contentious.  There will be winners and losers.  How we handle our reaction to "winning" or "losing" is critical.  As believers, we must be prepared to shine the light of Christ in our words and deeds.  We must be deeply in prayer.

As your priest, you are loved regardless of how you vote.  I respect that you have opinions and perspectives either similar to or different than mine.  It is my desire for you to feel loved and accepted regardless of your personal voting preference.  St. Paul's has room for a wide variety of beliefs.  We all love and worship the same God!

To that end, I would like to offer the following items:

• Beginning October 27th, I urge you to join me in a novena of prayer for the election called "A Season of Prayer: For An Election".  The novena (9 days of prayer) we will use has been gathered from the Book of Common Prayer and shared in conjunction with The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations and Forward Movement.  These will be posted to our Facebook page daily.  Handouts from this website will be available for you to pick up over the next two Sundays at church.
   

• On election day, Tuesday November 3rd, the church will be open for prayer from 9am-4:30pm.  At 9:15am, 12:15pm, 4:15pm we will offer a said Morning, Noonday, and Evening prayer.  Stop by for those offerings, or slip in for your own time of private prayer.  (Masks are required.  Please maintain social distancing.)
   

• The Presiding Bishop's Office recently shared a resource entitled “With Malice Toward None”.  It is a program designed for churches and groups to provide a way for understanding and healing for all sides of our political divisions, both before and after the November election - https://braverangels.org/what-we-do/with-malice-toward-none/. 
  
  While I don't intend to implement the whole group study aspect of this, please visit the website and review their intention and pledge and consider how you will also love _even_ the neighbor who voted differently from you and wants to argue about it with you!

Friends, this is a time for us to be in prayer and to shine Christ's light.  We are uniquely positioned to do so in our faith tradition.  Let us lead by example and share Christ's light brightly over these next few weeks! 
Blessings!

Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 

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A Sermon Not to Miss …

Please take 15 minutes and enjoy last Sunday's sermon which discussed tithing, pledging, and has an entertaining twist of lots of dead batteries for the speaker system!  (With special thanks to our organist John for always being prepared and ready to help!)

LIVE from St. Paul's - October 11, 2020

Stewardship Reflection - Living Into New Ways of Being Church

Living Into New Ways of Being Church
By The Rev. Melanie S. Donahoe

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Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; for you are with me. – Psalm 23

The comforting words of Psalm 23 have taken on new meaning as together we have walked through the “valley of the shadow of death” created by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

It has not been an easy time, yet God’s “goodness and mercy” have been abundantly reflected as God’s people have faithfully cared for strangers and for one another.

You have reached out to help bear the pain of those who have lost loved ones. Through simple acts of kindness — picking up groceries for elderly neighbors, regularly calling those who live alone in fearful isolation, sewing masks, serving in food pantries — God’s Holy Spirit has inspired you to be Christ’s daily loving, healing presence in the world. Our physical church doors may have necessarily been shuttered, but “the Church” has never been closed.

And God has never been absent. God has shepherded us, leading and guiding us along us pathways we could not have imagined a year ago. Perhaps it is in the hardest times when we most clearly recognize how God continues, always, always to sustain us.

Even when we could not gather together for Holy Communion, God continued to feed us — with God’s Holy Word, with live-streamed services and “virtual” coffee hours.

And now as some of us slowly, carefully begin to gather again inside our churches, we will learn new ways of including those who still need to “shelter in place” — and innovative ways of welcoming those who have never been “inside’ our church buildings, but joyfully discovered Church on the internet in a time of pandemic.

As we live into new, exciting (yes, exciting!) ways of being Church, God will continue to reveal opportunities for us to welcome everyone so that, together, we may “dwell in the house of the Lord our whole lives long.”

Melanie S. Donahoe is the rector of The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in San Carlos, California.

LIVE from St. Paul's - October 4, 2020

Stewardship Reflection - Surrendering Privilege and Wealth

Surrendering Privilege and Wealth
By The Rev. Ed Gomez

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This Sunday falls on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and, as if by design, all the readings speak to his exemplary life of practicing generosity. Living church in the time of COVID-19 has reconfirmed my views of poverty and generosity.

As I ponder today’s readings, Paul’s words pop out at me in Philippians, where he writes:

“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.”

He continues:

“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ.”

In reflecting on the life of Francis and these words, I wish to suggest that we not romanticize his embrace of poverty, but rather focus on his Faith-Filled Generosity. His generosity allowed him to surrender his privilege and wealth, and to embrace and consider them “rubbish,” in order to be Jesus to those who need Him most.

When the church where I serve, San Pablo in Houston, closed doors for public worship, we opened a new way of church... one that provided drive-by food distribution and rental assistance for Houston’s most vulnerable people. Donations and volunteerism increased tenfold and online viewership flourished more than any Sunday attendance record in recent memory. The gifts came mainly from those we called “unchurched” or who do not consider themselves religious. The joy exuded in giving included dancing, socially distant high-fives and laughter through masks.

Our worship became solidarity and compassion, the religious became spiritual, the unchurched found their worship, and the poor heard and felt the Good News. I learned that practicing Faith-Filled Generosity as Francis did transforms and unites us all.  A new Church for a new world.

Ed Gomez is pastor at Iglesia de San Pablo in Houston. He also serves on the boards of The Episcopal Network for Stewardship and Christian Church Homes.

Mr. David Sirugo Reflects on Stewardship

News from the Red Doors - October 2, 2020

This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker

Dear St. Paul's Family,

October marks not only cooler weather (which we've clearly felt ... I turned the heat on this week at home) but also our annual stewardship campaign.  And like everything else in this curious year, we're doing a few things a bit differently.  

Utilizing the resources developed by the wider church, specifically by The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS), we have updated our pledge form, are including weekly shared reflections on stewardship (from all over the country), have a fancy theme of Faith-Filled Generosity, and will be sharing both some videoed and written reflections on stewardship from our own St. Paul's family.  (As a side note, TENS resources have been provided free to us by a Diocesan subscription.)

Our official stewardship kickoff is this Sunday.  A letter from our Stewardship Chair - Margie Bender, with a pledge form, will be mailed to you late next week.  Please look those over carefully and let us know if you have any questions.  We hope to have our pledges gathered by Sunday November 15th in order to celebrate our bounty during Thanksgiving week.

We know that each of you give what you can to support your church home.  THANK YOU!  Thank you not only for pledging and giving but also for maintaining your contributions during the time our church doors were locked for those long months.  With deep gratitude for your gifts, we ask that you look carefully at what you pledged this year via the Giving Statements that will also be shared next week.   If your actual giving is less than your pledge amount please: 1) do your best to catch up by the end of the year, if possible, and 2) note whether your pledge for 2021 should be adjusted to reflect your current financial situation.  What you pledge will constitute our budget for next year so pledge accuracy is important for church financial planning.  

Our church family and community is about so much more than money.  And yet, without your financial support we would be unable to be in ministry.  In our recent Thursday morning study of Corinthians we were reminded that the Early Church members were encouraged to sell everything they owned and give it all to the church, living in community with each other.  I think we can all be appreciative that the 21st century version of stewardship is a bit less harsh! 

Friends, my prayers are with you, not only as we look at stewardship but as we live amidst a country preparing for a rather contentious election.  Be kind to yourself and to others.  Remember to put God first.  Say your prayers and join us on Sundays (in-person or virtually) to be refreshed by the Spirit!  Have a great day.
 Blessings!
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 

LIVE from St. Paul's - September 27, 2020