BREAD FROM HEAVEN

Dear Friends in Christ:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.'' (Exodus 16:4)

This text is from one of the lessons read on the Sunday before the kick-off dinner for our capital campaign. It is a reminder, and a stern one at that, that trusting in God is at the heart of the Christian faith. C.S. Lewis once said that out faith is like rope, the real test of which isn’t whether we could wrap packages with it, but whether we can use it to escape from a burning building.

We live in a world in which more seems to be on everyone’s mind. We want more, and in some ways, God wants us to have more and to be more. But  the desire more can be very tricky, even dangerous for us. More things, more gadgets, more horsepower, more money – the desire for these can lead us away from God, away from others, and away from our true selves. To be more loving, to have more awareness of God’s presence, to be more thankful, more willing to serve others, more willing to follow Jesus – these desires can lead us deeper into the heart of God, into a deeper relationship with God, into deeper relationships with others, and into a deeper relationship with our true selves.

Raising money, especially the $360,000 we intend to raise in the capital campaign, is not something that I have always wanted to do. But I believe that God has called us to be good stewards of these buildings that are tools for the parish’s ministry. And part of that stewardship involves raising the money needed to restore these buildings for the use of future generations.

Christian stewardship is grounded in the belief that of God’s abundance we have and are and will be provided with enough. The witness of Scripture, the witness of two thousand years of the Church’s history, and the witness of the history of our parish all affirm that God’s grace is sufficient, that God’s gifts to us are enough. The challenge for us in our generation is to learn to trust God’s grace.

Your brother and priest,

Father Dan