“Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43-45)
In the name of the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
I want to tell you about a friend of mine. His name is Dennis. I first met Dennis about 5 years ago. We were both members of the Crossing, an Episcopal worshipping community in Boston. I have to admit that when I first met Dennis, I tried to stay as far away from his as possible. You see, Dennis is homeless, living on the streets of Boston. He didn’t have access to a shower to use regularly or to clean clothes and you could tell as soon as he walked into a room. At the time I worked a few blocks away at a day shelter for people who are homeless. I felt like I “deserved” a break when I came to church. At least that it what I told myself. I constructed walls around my heart as I carefully avoided Dennis. But God has a way of breaking down those walls.
After a few weeks I noticed that during the prayers of the people, a time at the Crossing in which all people are invited to share their prayers aloud, Dennis prayed the most inspired and heart felt prayers. And they weren’t for what I had expected. They were not for himself. They were not that he would find a job or housing. His prayers were always for others. He prayed for his brothers and sisters on the streets. He prayed for the people who walked past him and looked the other way. He prayed for places of violence and hurt in our world. He prayed that people would come to know the healing power and abundant love of God.
I slowly moved past some of my selfishness and got to know Dennis. He doesn’t know how to write so he would ask me and others in the community to write down his words. They were beautifully crafted poems. Poems he shared with people who were struggling. I got to know about the people he helped who couldn’t afford food. I heard about the people he helped who were being held down by drug and alcohol addictions.
“Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
In this mornings Gospel reading we encounter the disciples at not one of their finer moments. In the verse just prior to what we heard read this morning, Jesus has predicted his passion, death, and resurrection for the third time. And for the third time the disciples just don’t know what to do with this information. Perhaps out fear or their inability to grasp what Jesus was telling them, James and John ask Jesus for the honor of sitting at his right and left hand in glory. The disciples were seeking their own glory and honor. They just didn’t get it. They didn’t get what Jesus had been trying to teach them all along. Being a follower of Christ is not about our own glory, it is about serving God by serving our sisters and brothers. It is about lifting up others, not ourselves.
This is something my friend Dennis understands. And it is something so many in this congregation understand. I was reminded of this yet again on Friday night as our vestry gathered for a time of conversation and prayer.
We spoke about the many reasons we love Christ Church, and what makes us a unique community.
We spoke of the people of Christ Church who serve one another with such open and loving hearts. Those who visit parishioners in the hospital, who provide a listening ear to someone who is hurting, cook a meal for someone who is sick, knit a prayer shawl for a person grieving, and who offer their intercessory prayers for so many in need.
We spoke of the people of Christ Church who serve beyond our congregation by donating food or preparing and serving a meal at the Monday Lunch Program, by volunteering with the B-Safe program during the summer, sorting clothes for Circle of Hope and driving the donations to homeless shelters, supporting and participating in the Youth Mission Trip, and traveling to Haiti.
And, as the vestry was gathered I was so aware of how the women and men serving in this leadership capacity give so generously of their time and their gifts. We have investment experts, communication gurus, people who remind us to look beyond our own walls and others who are experts on keeping our walls standing and our basements free of water.
We have so many, who like Dennis, understand what it means to seek God’s glory rather than our own, to serve the needs of others rather simply our own needs.
Let me tell you one more story about Dennis, another way in which he seems to understand so much of today’s Gospel reading. Another way he taught me about being a follower of Christ, a servant of all.
At the Crossing, the community puts a basket on the Altar for people to place their financial offerings. People are invited to bring their gifts to the altar during what the community calls “Open Space,” a five minute portion of the service in which people can enter into one of a variety of spiritual practices (meditatively walking through the Church, silent prayer, healing prayer, lighting a candle). One of the spiritual practices is pledging. One Thursday evening, during open space, I was praying near the altar. I noticed Dennis walk towards the Altar and reach into his jacket pocket. From his pocket he pulled a plastic baggie filled with change. He placed the entire bag into the basket, stood in silent prayer, crossed himself (make cross), and walked away.
He placed all the money he had on the altar of God and walked away trusting that all would be well. I’ve seen him make this offering several times. It is how he fulfills his pledge to God and to the church in which he is a vital member. Dennis is so grateful for all God has given him, that he is moved to give of the little he has, the baggie full of change, recognizing that what he does have does not belong to him, he is simply the steward of it.
This is when I finally started to understand financial giving as an essential piece of what it means to be a servant of all. In his simple action, Dennis invited me to think of my own habits of giving and how giving affects me and the communities I’m a part of. I didn’t grow up with the idea of pledging, it wasn’t a part of my churches tradition. As a child and young adult, I don’t remember learning to think of the resources I had as truly belonging to God and not to me. These are lessons I’ve only begun to learn since joining the Episcopal Church. I’ve had a taste of the freedom that comes as I hold onto my financial resources less tightly; as I give more freely to the communities I’m invested in. There is a sense of joy in knowing that we are returning to God what is God and that it is being used faithfully to further God’s mission. The choice to pledge, to prayerfully discern what we will offer back to God in this coming year, has the potential to bring us closer to God. It increases our trust and faith in the goodness of God.
I’m not saying the pledging is easy. It is still something I struggle with. The bills pile up and the anxiety increases. I worry about paying off my seminary loan, about the cost of living in Needham. I think about whether or not I’ll ever be able to afford my own home and whether or not I’m saving enough for retirement. I imagine many people in this congregation have similar anxieties about money.
But over the last two weeks, Skip and Myra in their sermons, have invited us to pledge from a place of grace and hope, not from a place of fear. Skip spoke about pledging as planting seeds of hope. We have so many reasons to be hopeful at Christ Church. Our ministries are flourishing. People are coming to know God more deeply. Our sisters and brothers are being cared for in meaningful ways. New families are coming and experiencing this community as a place of welcome, a place that feels like home.
I want to be a part of this season of planting and invite you to as well. Skip has invited us this year to increasing our pledging by 10%. This increase will allow us to further the ministries of Christ Church as we seek to serve God. When my pledge card comes in the mail, I will respond to Skip’s invitation and will increase my pledge by 10%. I hope you will prayerfully discern whether this is something God is inviting you to do as well.
And if you haven’t before made a pledge at Christ Church, try it on. Pledging for the first time, increasing our pledge to a place that is more of a stretch, is the only way to discover for ourselves the joy and grace available to us through the spiritual practice of giving. And it is a way we live out Jesus’ call to us to be servant of all.
Know that I’m walking this path with you and I look forward to seeing where it leads us as individuals and as a community. I’m confident it will deepen our relationship with God and will increase our capacity to live in service of God and God’s mission for us at this time and in this wonderful place.
Amen.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Pentecost XX - Myra Anderson
Take my lips and speak through them. Take our minds and think with them. Take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen.
My big brother, Trey, is a lanky 6 foot 6 agronomy professor at Michigan State University. Trey often tells his students, many of whom grew up on farms, that life boils down to one simple question:
Are you a chicken, or a pig?
Because when it comes to breakfast, the most important meal of the day, the chicken is a critical contributor, but the pig is committed. He’s all in.
If Jesus had been from Arkansas, he might have used this analogy with the rich man in our gospel story. Instead, he was a bit more blunt.
When the wealthy man approaches Jesus on the road, the man seems desperate. He has wealth, he has security, he has followed all the rules – but now there’s this talk of “eternal life”. He has everything he thinks he needs in this life, so now he needs to know how to secure the next life.
The first thing we’re told Jesus does in response to the man’s question is love him. Love him.
But then, what Jesus tells him seems of no comfort. He tells a man who thinks he has it all and has done it all just right, “You lack one thing: go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
We’re told the man goes away “shocked…and grieving, for he had many possessions.” I find Jesus’ words troubling as well. I know I won’t be able to bring myself to give everything away. I like to think of myself as generous, who doesn’t, but am I willing to engage in the sacrificial giving that Jesus calls on the man to do? It’s a tall order.
I think the rich man’s problem in this Gospel, though, and therefore ours, is that he doesn’t listen to the second half of Jesus’ formula for receiving what he lacks: after giving it all to the poor, Jesus tells the man, “then come, follow me.” Later Jesus tells the disciples that no one can save themselves: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Jesus loved the man. What the man lacked was full acceptance of that love. What the man needed to do was shed himself of what kept him from accepting that love and following Jesus. Jesus asks the man, as he asks each of us, to give up our reliance on wealth, or status, or self, or whatever it is that keeps us from God, and instead to accept God’s divine love and live into the grace God pours freely upon us, and to live in its abundance.
Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews that we heard this morning, sums it up perfectly: “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
No matter where we come from, or what we have, we all can approach the throne of grace with boldness. In my brother’s words, be a pig. Be all in, with whatever it is you have been given in abundance – wealth, talent, time, compassion.
I had the privilege of attending the annual Project Hope Rise & Shine breakfast last spring. Project Hope is a Boston-based program that serves poor and homeless women, providing everything from emergency shelter to job training and placement. Christ Church’s own Circle of Hope is an important partner in Project Hope’s mission. We provide not only clothing for women and their children in shelter, but also business clothing to the women in the job training program. The Rise & Shine breakfast celebrates these women, the Ambassadors of Project Hope, women who overcome personal setbacks and struggles to persevere on the path to economic self-sufficiency.
The keynote speaker at the breakfast was television personality and evangelical preacher Liz Walker. She spoke about the abundance of grace that we receive when we recognize that life is a gift, a gift of God’s boundless love. It is not an “achievement”. It is a gift to be celebrated and shared. And when we awaken to this grace, we return grace. And she spoke of Project Hope, a place where people give so freely of their time and their resources to help the neediest among us, as being a place where grace abounds.
This is the time of year, the season of Christian stewardship, when we give thanks for the grace we have received and think about our gifts to the church for the following year. We will soon receive a letter with a pledge card, asking us to carefully consider our gift for the coming year and to please be as generous as we can – to be our most generous selves, as Skip says, in what we give of our treasure and of our time. But if you’re like me, you’ll put that card in your bill pile, the one pile you know you have to go through at some point in the coming weeks. And you’ll sit down to pay your bills, and get either a little or a lot anxious about the ever increasing expenses of taxes, utilities, tuition, food – all of those expenses of daily life. And you’ll worry that you can’t afford to be as generous as you would like. I’m maybe not my most generous self at that moment.
Or maybe instead of with your bills, you’ll put that card with other requests from various charities for monetary gifts. You’ll look at your overall budget for charitable giving, and give the church what you consider to be a generous share. But none of these other charities are asking what the Church asks: that you give of all that you have – treasure, time, talent. So you may not be your most generous self in this setting either.
You could approach your stewardship pledge one of these ways, but I think in today’s Gospel Jesus is showing us a better way. Jesus is telling us that grace comes from being all in. The United Methodist Foundation defines Christian Stewards as “those who awaken to God’s abundant, freely given grace permeating all creation…every dimension of their lives becomes a witness of the living Christ and a channel of God’s grace poured out to all.” Being all in means being open to receiving God’s grace through giving: of our wealth, of our time, of our hearts – of all that we have, and of all that we are.
I suggest this year that we live into that grace, that we try to be all in. So try this: Keep that card near you at all times, pray with it, and wait. Wait to fill it out when you encounter one of those little moments of grace that abound at Christ Church:
And then just imagine with me the grace that will flow when we follow Jesus’ call to be all in. All in. Our money, our time, our hearts.
May this be the year we approach the throne of grace with boldness – together. May this be the year we receive God’s grace, and pass it on.
And may Christ Church always be a place where grace, amazing grace, abounds.
Amen.
My big brother, Trey, is a lanky 6 foot 6 agronomy professor at Michigan State University. Trey often tells his students, many of whom grew up on farms, that life boils down to one simple question:
Are you a chicken, or a pig?
Because when it comes to breakfast, the most important meal of the day, the chicken is a critical contributor, but the pig is committed. He’s all in.
If Jesus had been from Arkansas, he might have used this analogy with the rich man in our gospel story. Instead, he was a bit more blunt.
When the wealthy man approaches Jesus on the road, the man seems desperate. He has wealth, he has security, he has followed all the rules – but now there’s this talk of “eternal life”. He has everything he thinks he needs in this life, so now he needs to know how to secure the next life.
The first thing we’re told Jesus does in response to the man’s question is love him. Love him.
But then, what Jesus tells him seems of no comfort. He tells a man who thinks he has it all and has done it all just right, “You lack one thing: go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
We’re told the man goes away “shocked…and grieving, for he had many possessions.” I find Jesus’ words troubling as well. I know I won’t be able to bring myself to give everything away. I like to think of myself as generous, who doesn’t, but am I willing to engage in the sacrificial giving that Jesus calls on the man to do? It’s a tall order.
I think the rich man’s problem in this Gospel, though, and therefore ours, is that he doesn’t listen to the second half of Jesus’ formula for receiving what he lacks: after giving it all to the poor, Jesus tells the man, “then come, follow me.” Later Jesus tells the disciples that no one can save themselves: “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Jesus loved the man. What the man lacked was full acceptance of that love. What the man needed to do was shed himself of what kept him from accepting that love and following Jesus. Jesus asks the man, as he asks each of us, to give up our reliance on wealth, or status, or self, or whatever it is that keeps us from God, and instead to accept God’s divine love and live into the grace God pours freely upon us, and to live in its abundance.
Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews that we heard this morning, sums it up perfectly: “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
No matter where we come from, or what we have, we all can approach the throne of grace with boldness. In my brother’s words, be a pig. Be all in, with whatever it is you have been given in abundance – wealth, talent, time, compassion.
I had the privilege of attending the annual Project Hope Rise & Shine breakfast last spring. Project Hope is a Boston-based program that serves poor and homeless women, providing everything from emergency shelter to job training and placement. Christ Church’s own Circle of Hope is an important partner in Project Hope’s mission. We provide not only clothing for women and their children in shelter, but also business clothing to the women in the job training program. The Rise & Shine breakfast celebrates these women, the Ambassadors of Project Hope, women who overcome personal setbacks and struggles to persevere on the path to economic self-sufficiency.
The keynote speaker at the breakfast was television personality and evangelical preacher Liz Walker. She spoke about the abundance of grace that we receive when we recognize that life is a gift, a gift of God’s boundless love. It is not an “achievement”. It is a gift to be celebrated and shared. And when we awaken to this grace, we return grace. And she spoke of Project Hope, a place where people give so freely of their time and their resources to help the neediest among us, as being a place where grace abounds.
This is the time of year, the season of Christian stewardship, when we give thanks for the grace we have received and think about our gifts to the church for the following year. We will soon receive a letter with a pledge card, asking us to carefully consider our gift for the coming year and to please be as generous as we can – to be our most generous selves, as Skip says, in what we give of our treasure and of our time. But if you’re like me, you’ll put that card in your bill pile, the one pile you know you have to go through at some point in the coming weeks. And you’ll sit down to pay your bills, and get either a little or a lot anxious about the ever increasing expenses of taxes, utilities, tuition, food – all of those expenses of daily life. And you’ll worry that you can’t afford to be as generous as you would like. I’m maybe not my most generous self at that moment.
Or maybe instead of with your bills, you’ll put that card with other requests from various charities for monetary gifts. You’ll look at your overall budget for charitable giving, and give the church what you consider to be a generous share. But none of these other charities are asking what the Church asks: that you give of all that you have – treasure, time, talent. So you may not be your most generous self in this setting either.
You could approach your stewardship pledge one of these ways, but I think in today’s Gospel Jesus is showing us a better way. Jesus is telling us that grace comes from being all in. The United Methodist Foundation defines Christian Stewards as “those who awaken to God’s abundant, freely given grace permeating all creation…every dimension of their lives becomes a witness of the living Christ and a channel of God’s grace poured out to all.” Being all in means being open to receiving God’s grace through giving: of our wealth, of our time, of our hearts – of all that we have, and of all that we are.
I suggest this year that we live into that grace, that we try to be all in. So try this: Keep that card near you at all times, pray with it, and wait. Wait to fill it out when you encounter one of those little moments of grace that abound at Christ Church:
- maybe after you make a delivery for Circle of Hope to a family shelter in Boston, or drop off clothing donations to Barbara Waterhouse and experience her enthusiastic gratitude; I know that’s one of mine.
- maybe after you sit in on a presentation by Emilie Hitron and the medical team returning from Haiti, or you go to Haiti yourself
- maybe after you drop your food donations downstairs for Shelter Cooking, or accompany Nancy Langford on a Monday trip into the Cathedral
- maybe after you set the altar for the next day’s service with Liz or Bea or one of the other members of the Altar Guild
- maybe after you receive the gifts of the bread and wine on Sunday morning in communion with your brothers and sisters in Christ
- maybe after you witness the joy of seeing your children learning the stories of God’s people in Children’s Chapel
- maybe after you receive words of sympathy and reassurance from Julia when you put a loved one’s name on the Parish prayer list
- maybe after you receive laying on of hands and prayer for healing at the rail on Sunday morning
- maybe after Skip or Lynn or one of our lay Eucharistic ministers brings you communion in the hospital, or the Pastoral Response Committee brings you a meal if you are homebound after surgery, or from illness or loss
- maybe after you experience the community of the Women’s Spirituality retreat, or the Men’s Cuttyhunk retreat
- maybe after hearing the choir sing a particularly moving or glorious anthem, or the children sing “Let There Be Peace on Earth” as we all did in the service a couple of weeks ago.
- Or maybe after hearing a really good sermon.
And then just imagine with me the grace that will flow when we follow Jesus’ call to be all in. All in. Our money, our time, our hearts.
May this be the year we approach the throne of grace with boldness – together. May this be the year we receive God’s grace, and pass it on.
And may Christ Church always be a place where grace, amazing grace, abounds.
Amen.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Pentecost XIX - Skip Winsdor
Planting Seeds of Hope
“Why did you go into the ministry?” Over the past several decades of my ordained ministry this question has been posed to me many times. The short answer, that since I was previously a banker, I said, “I wanted to be a full service banker.” The longer answer is that my grandmother, Gertrude or “Gertie” believed in me. She planted seeds of hope in me that I could be ordained.
This morning I would like to speak with you about planting seeds of hope. Like the seeds scattered on fertile ground, our gestures of generosity, our actions on behalf of others, our willingness to listen to other people’s dreams, and our desire to help others grow in the Christian faith and life bear fruit far beyond the present into the future.
As members of Christ Church, we know that this place and this community has been fertile ground for people to be generous, for people to help enable and heal others, for people to listen to other people’s dreams and visions, for people to instruct and teach others by word and example what it means to be a follower of Christ, and for countless others to be touched by the power of the Holy Spirit by merely walking through our church doors to see the beauty of this chancel and of our beautiful stained glass cross.
At this time of year when we prayerfully consider what financial pledge to make to Christ Church for 2013, I invite us to consider pledging as planting – planting seeds of hope.
My grandmother, Gertie, held the hope for me that I could become a minister. When I had little money and held two jobs while starting seminary: one at the Harvard Coop Bookstore and the other in the kitchen of Episcopal Theological School, she paid for my seminary tuition. By her generosity, she held the hope for me that my call to ministry was a real one.
The same holds true in our church. When we make a financial commitment to Christ Church, we are holding the hope not only for ourselves but also for countless others. By believing in the Christ Church community we:
Our 2012 church budget is $536,000. Our pledges are $356,000 (66%). Our endowment income where we draw no more than 5% is $67,000 (12.5%). Rentals for the church, rectory, and the library parking lot are $88,000 (16.5%). And fundraising and gifts is $25,000 (5%).
Expenses for ministry and mission for a balanced 2012 budget is $536,000. Salaries for staff (two f/t clergy, parish administrator, p/t director of music, p/t facilities manager, organist, and p/t bookkeeper) are $317,000 (59%). Our mandated diocesan assessment to the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is $65,000 (12%). Annual maintenance, repairs, and upkeep on all church owned property is $102,000 (19%). Operations such as office, technology, and altar guild & worship plus educational program materials for education add up to $32,000 (7%). And outreach through Community Concerns, Circle of Hope, and the Millennium Goals is $18,000 (3%).
The 2012 budget represents the support of the infrastructure of Christ Church that is comprised of the church buildings, the church staff, the diocesan assessment, and the operations, programs, and outreach of the church. The importance of maintaining and sustaining the infrastructure of Christ Church is that it allows it to be a place for ministry and mission to occur:
Many good things are happening because of this growth:
But more planting and more seeds are needed to sustain and enhance our church infrastructure. Here is my invitation to you as your rector:
To see the outgrowth of our vibrant and vital ministries in the future, we must consider how we plant now and how much we will plant. As a bishop of the Episcopal Church once said, “Money is a spiritual issue and how much we give is a faith statement.”
My grandmother, Gertie, loved the Gospel text for today. No. She did not like the first part. What she loved was the last part especially the last verse in Mark 10:16 about being a little child coming to Jesus.
She liked it because of the comfort it gave her. You see, in her lifetime, she lost two husbands and survived all three of her children.
For years she looked for meaning about why these tragedies happened. No words, no book, helped her until she turned to this passage in the Bible. Nothing rational could explain her losses only a simple childlike faith in God helped her.
My grandmother believed that somehow those she loved but saw no longer rested in the loving arms of the Creator. “Only as a little child will I enter the kingdom of God,” she said. This was her faith. This was her hope. She held the hope for me when I first went to seminary. It is a hope I carry now because of her.
Christianity is all about hope. In the prayer book’s Catechism, it says that, “Christian hope is to live with confidence in the newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory and the completion of God’s purpose in the world” (p. 861).
You and I are called to be planters of hope by supporting Christ Church both for us and for others. During this season of sowing, let us be generous, sowing seeds of hope so that all people will come to know the loving and redeeming power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord at witnessed here at Christ Church.
Let us pray:
Almighty and most gracious God, we give you thanks for our community of Christ Church. Strengthen and guide us in all things knowing that through the power of your Holy Spirit all things are possible. All this we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Why did you go into the ministry?” Over the past several decades of my ordained ministry this question has been posed to me many times. The short answer, that since I was previously a banker, I said, “I wanted to be a full service banker.” The longer answer is that my grandmother, Gertrude or “Gertie” believed in me. She planted seeds of hope in me that I could be ordained.
This morning I would like to speak with you about planting seeds of hope. Like the seeds scattered on fertile ground, our gestures of generosity, our actions on behalf of others, our willingness to listen to other people’s dreams, and our desire to help others grow in the Christian faith and life bear fruit far beyond the present into the future.
As members of Christ Church, we know that this place and this community has been fertile ground for people to be generous, for people to help enable and heal others, for people to listen to other people’s dreams and visions, for people to instruct and teach others by word and example what it means to be a follower of Christ, and for countless others to be touched by the power of the Holy Spirit by merely walking through our church doors to see the beauty of this chancel and of our beautiful stained glass cross.
At this time of year when we prayerfully consider what financial pledge to make to Christ Church for 2013, I invite us to consider pledging as planting – planting seeds of hope.
My grandmother, Gertie, held the hope for me that I could become a minister. When I had little money and held two jobs while starting seminary: one at the Harvard Coop Bookstore and the other in the kitchen of Episcopal Theological School, she paid for my seminary tuition. By her generosity, she held the hope for me that my call to ministry was a real one.
The same holds true in our church. When we make a financial commitment to Christ Church, we are holding the hope not only for ourselves but also for countless others. By believing in the Christ Church community we:
- Listen to other people’s dreams. To dreams the good dreams of God for reconciliation, tolerance and peace.
- Help and assist others, both young and old, to be the people God calls us to be. As the prophet, Micah, proclaims, “What does God require of us: To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
- Create a place and a space where families find teachers and mentors, who by their word and example instruct our children and youth to grow into the full stature of Christ.
- Bring the Good News of Christ to the least, the last, the last and the lonely through clothing to the Long Island Shelter, through hearty and healthy lunches with the Monday Lunch Ministry, through our commitment to the Millennium Development goals at the school in Lazile, Haiti.
- Maintain a beautiful church building as a place of prayer and worship but also as a resource to the wider community whether it be a pre-school like First Bridge, an outreach program like AA, or a meeting space for the Needham High School or a diocesan event like Episcopal City Mission.
- Serve as a home to us where we can meet for fellowship, knitting, lunches, dinners, breakfasts, or to have fun for Halloween or Christmas.
- Stand as a visible symbol to the Needham community that there is a place with a history and a tradition that anchors all who come here in the Episcopal and Anglican ethos where liturgy and music is practiced with piety and professionalism.
Our 2012 church budget is $536,000. Our pledges are $356,000 (66%). Our endowment income where we draw no more than 5% is $67,000 (12.5%). Rentals for the church, rectory, and the library parking lot are $88,000 (16.5%). And fundraising and gifts is $25,000 (5%).
Expenses for ministry and mission for a balanced 2012 budget is $536,000. Salaries for staff (two f/t clergy, parish administrator, p/t director of music, p/t facilities manager, organist, and p/t bookkeeper) are $317,000 (59%). Our mandated diocesan assessment to the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts is $65,000 (12%). Annual maintenance, repairs, and upkeep on all church owned property is $102,000 (19%). Operations such as office, technology, and altar guild & worship plus educational program materials for education add up to $32,000 (7%). And outreach through Community Concerns, Circle of Hope, and the Millennium Goals is $18,000 (3%).
The 2012 budget represents the support of the infrastructure of Christ Church that is comprised of the church buildings, the church staff, the diocesan assessment, and the operations, programs, and outreach of the church. The importance of maintaining and sustaining the infrastructure of Christ Church is that it allows it to be a place for ministry and mission to occur:
- Education and formation: Children’s Chapel, Church School, Youth Group, Adult Forums and Adult Bible Study.
- Witnessing and testifying: A good example is Katie McCracken’s testimony of her recent visit to Haiti in this month’s Visitor.
- Faith and practice: Living in a safe Christian community where mutual pastoral and healing support happens every day while allowing members to worship together every Sunday enjoying our beautiful choir and hearing and receiving both God’s holy word and receiving the Spirit of Christ through the Eucharist.
Many good things are happening because of this growth:
- The addition of two talented choir section leaders in Mark and Chris
- Circle of Hope reached over $1 million in clothing given out – in 4 years
- The Cuttyhunk Men and Women’s Spirituality are most active in years
- Renewed partnership with St. Luc Haiti through the MDG’s
- Community Concerns making a difference to others thru grants
- Shelter Cooking (MANNA) involves over 70 volunteers
- PRM, LEM’s, Knitting Ministry, Intercessors, Healing Ministry active daily
- Wednesday Morning Bible Study the largest class ever
- Children’s Chapel, Church School and youth under Lynn and Kim
- Property Committee: Drainage, paint HND, refurbish chapel, etc.
But more planting and more seeds are needed to sustain and enhance our church infrastructure. Here is my invitation to you as your rector:
- Increasing operations revenues for office equipment, communications and technology
- Building repairs, deferred maintenance, rising fuel, and unexpected property needs require more funds over time
- Increase outreach of Christ Church from 3% to 5%
- Prepare for rising ancillary staff expenses: as mandated by the diocese for pension and health insurance
- Enhancing education and fellowship programs with current books, curriculum and entertainment
- Creating a reserve fund of 5% for emergencies in next year’s budget
To see the outgrowth of our vibrant and vital ministries in the future, we must consider how we plant now and how much we will plant. As a bishop of the Episcopal Church once said, “Money is a spiritual issue and how much we give is a faith statement.”
My grandmother, Gertie, loved the Gospel text for today. No. She did not like the first part. What she loved was the last part especially the last verse in Mark 10:16 about being a little child coming to Jesus.
She liked it because of the comfort it gave her. You see, in her lifetime, she lost two husbands and survived all three of her children.
For years she looked for meaning about why these tragedies happened. No words, no book, helped her until she turned to this passage in the Bible. Nothing rational could explain her losses only a simple childlike faith in God helped her.
My grandmother believed that somehow those she loved but saw no longer rested in the loving arms of the Creator. “Only as a little child will I enter the kingdom of God,” she said. This was her faith. This was her hope. She held the hope for me when I first went to seminary. It is a hope I carry now because of her.
Christianity is all about hope. In the prayer book’s Catechism, it says that, “Christian hope is to live with confidence in the newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory and the completion of God’s purpose in the world” (p. 861).
You and I are called to be planters of hope by supporting Christ Church both for us and for others. During this season of sowing, let us be generous, sowing seeds of hope so that all people will come to know the loving and redeeming power of God through Jesus Christ our Lord at witnessed here at Christ Church.
Let us pray:
Almighty and most gracious God, we give you thanks for our community of Christ Church. Strengthen and guide us in all things knowing that through the power of your Holy Spirit all things are possible. All this we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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