A Message from our Rector,
Father Grant Wiseman
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments.” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “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.”
Mark 10:17-21
“Come, follow me.” This is the final instruction that our Lord gives to a young man who appears before him. It is something that the young man is trying to do. He has been faithful in giving his time—praying, studying, and worshipping. Presumably, he has been faithful in engaging in ministry—giving of his talents. He has, after all, sought out Jesus. What he is struggling with is giving his treasure. Jesus, in his love for him, helps him figure out how to be a more effective disciple.
Our Lord calls all of us to come and follow him. He has given each of us time, talent, and treasure and calls us to be good stewards of his gifts to us. The first gift that God has given us is the gift of time. God has given us 168 hours every week. A way to gauge how we are responding to God’s call to us is to examine what part of that time we return to God in corporate worship, prayer, study, and ministry.
God has also gifted us with many different talents. The gifts that we have from God are ours only so much as we exercise them; as we offer them back to the Church and to the World. God depends on us to offer our gifts as we participate in the Divine economy. I invite you to consider the talents and gifts which God has given you, and the various ministries in which you might offer them.
Finally, as the passage from Mark’s gospel illustrates, God calls us to be stewards of our material wealth. As we head into this “stewardship season,” the time of year when the Church begins to prepare its Statement of Mission, I invite us all to examine how we see our connection between God and money. Is money something to be grasped tightly, in order to secure the future? Does it define our identity and status? Regardless of how we answer these questions, the fact remains that how we utilize our wealth defines the way in which we exercise our power. I invite us all to consider a percentage or amount of our income that is a meaningful offering to God of all that God has given us. Let us take a moment to examine the relationship between our money and the Creator of money.
“Stewardship” is something that God calls us to practice year-round. It is intimately involved with our understanding of our part in God’s mission in the world around us. It is therefore something that we should take seriously, as did the young man in the Gospel. Yet it is also something that can be joyous: we can be stewards in the certainty that God does not look at us without loving us. It is in that spirit that we can offer a portion of our time, talent, and treasure to the God who bestows all upon us, trusting that God’s providence will indeed provide for us as we answer the call to “Come, follow me.”
Yours in Christ,
Father Grant +
Leave A Comment