Message from the Rector

Christian Pilgrims on a Journey of Stewardship

I just completed reading a book on Pilgrimage (A Handbook on Christian Growth). The author Richard Peace’s quest is to aid Christians in avoiding the numbing complacency of Christianity. He presents the image of a settler, one who doesn’t move and doesn’t break boundaries, and contrasts it with the image of a pilgrim who moves towards a goal and is willing to pay the price of the journey. Though the price can be costly, Peace states, “the larger part of the road to holiness consists in enormous satisfactions, good feelings, and a deep sense of well-being shared with friends, if not with the whole universe” (p. 24).

You may recall that Aidan himself was quite a pilgrim. He was pictured as tall and lanky, and he refused to ride a horse from town to town, so that on foot he could meet and converse with fellow travelers about the faith. For Aidan the journey was as important as the destination.

Abraham Maslow, a psychologist active in the 50’s and 60’s, researched and studied individuals who were “self-actualized”. Self-actualization -- invented by Richard Dobbie, a mentor to Maslow -- is the instinctual need of humans to make the most of their abilities and to strive to be the best they can be. Though he interviewed 2,000 people, he could only find one whom he considered to be self-actualized. Many of his criteria are also criteria that Peace uses for pilgrims of the Christian faith:

• They embrace the facts and realities of the world (including themselves) rather than denying or avoiding them.
• They are spontaneous in their ideas and actions.
• They are creative
• They are interested in solving problems; this often includes the problems of others. Solving these problems is often a key focus in their lives.
• They feel a closeness to other people, and generally appreciate life.
• They have a system of morality that is fully internalized and independent of external authority.
• They have discernment and are able to view all things in an objective manner.

Being a Christian pilgrim and/or becoming self-actualized at its core requires an understanding and practice of stewardship. While in class last year at Fuller Seminary with an assortment of clergy – Assemblies of God, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Covenant, and Methodist ministers -- we all had quite different experiences of parish stewardship. A number of colleagues did almost no stewardship campaigning as they trusted that all their parishioners tithed. In fact, many parishioners used an automatic deduction system which took their tithe directly out of their paycheck and wired it to the church’s account. Others put their tithe on their credit card and set it up as a monthly payment. I was surprised how far we have gotten from the coins in the alms basin. Yet having one’s pledge deducted right alongside one’s tax deduction does make a radical statement: The first fruits of one’s labor are offered first to God, and then the remainder is for the livelihood of one’s family and self. This was the common harvest-time practice. When the first crop of the season came in, the farmers went directly to the temple to offer the best to God in thanksgiving.

Someone once asked me, “What’s the biggest cause of bankruptcy in the United States today?” I quipped back, “People giving too much money to the church?” Involuntary poverty, practicing the ancient Christian tradition of simple living, is not very popular. Sadly the #1 cause of bankruptcy is medical debt, far from holy generosity. Yet as pilgrims, perhaps the challenging journey of growth for us in this culture is to offer God our first fruits, our best, a tenth of our income… or to be making strides in this direction by each year giving an increased portion of our time, talent and treasure.

This month you will be receiving a stewardship letter from our senior warden, Chris Soper, along with a pledge card. Two members of the parish will also be offering a stewardship reflection on alternating Sundays. We will conclude with an ingathering of pledges and offerings on All Saints Day, November 4th. Blessings to you on this journey of stewardship.

In Christ’s Peace,
Reverend Joyce

Return to Newsletter

October 2007