Temple Talk - John Elmquist
A message on stewardship - November 5, 2023
I guess I appointed myself to try and generate some activity on the stewardship front. I've been ruminating on how we could approach this maybe a little differently than in the past....to have it be more of a spiritual exercise than one tied to forms, pledges and measurable outcomes. I haven't come up with anything amazing, but my idea for at least this "stewardship season" as I call it, was to give us an opportunity to experience Ebenezer through the eyes of others, and on the 19th there will be an opportunity for whoever would like to, to share more experiences during the Education Hour. And of course, if anyone has any ideas or thoughts or suggestions about helping to shape our collective consciousness around stewardship, I would be delighted to hand this off to you!
Several years ago, I heard an interview with a man named Frank Schaeffer, who was once a prominent figure in the religious right. He left that whole scene behind, and when asked about his current faith life, he mentioned that he was a member of an Eastern Orthodox congregation near where he lived. What he liked about it was that it didn't rely on a charismatic leader or on emotional manipulation. That there was a steadiness, a calmness to it. That it would go week to week and year to year without much change in either the size or mood of the assembly.
And I thought of Ebenezer. An even, steady presence in the neighborhood, a patient place, a peaceful place that is trying to be neither more nor less than we are. I love this whole neighborhood parish thing that serves as an anchor in the community and offers a place to put down roots more deeply than just residing here. And as we are disposed to receive people wherever they are in their spiritual journey, it creates a setting where one feels safe to try and figure out a faith life that makes sense, and on one's own schedule. This has certainly been the case with me.
And as I have done this "figuring out" myself, two ideas from scripture have crept into my thinking and inform my sense of what this all represents: Adoption and Inheritance. I understand adoption to be a relationship that is formed by choice rather than by circumstance of birth - and it most obviously expressed by the church in baptism. And though it took me a while to trust that this was the right relationship for me, I ultimately came to adopt this congregation as my own, and to be adopted by it, by you, as your own. And we have adopted each other over the proposition that God is real, and that Jesus came into the world to reveal to us the human capacity for service, sacrifice and divinity, a standard that has been approached, perhaps even reached, by some of the people we refer to as Saints.
With adoption comes inheritance, the privileges and responsibilities surrounding the adoptive relationship. We inherit the church writ large, we inherit the Synod, this building, and, also quite significantly, we have inherited the liturgy....where we recite and rehearse what we seek in the world. The liturgy we practice and how it honors both the ancient and more recent past of the church - for better and for or worse - anchors me in this community and in this, our Sunday ritual.
In closing, I'll mention Bev and I often reflect on the fact that much of the meaning we derive from this community is just people continuing to show up. It seems really simple, and, in a way, it is. But showing up - what you are doing right now - is a significant stewardship of your time and effort and attention. And, at the end of the day, what I believe I have learned over the last 29.5 years is that if we simply persist in showing up, the rest of what we are looking for will follow.