Stewardship is the spiritual practice of gratitude. It is the acknowledgement that we have been entrusted with something precious. Something bigger than ourselves. Something calling us to place our trust in God and God’s work in this community.
If you are sitting here today, you have been called into the life of Saint George’s as a participant. You will be accounted for in her books. You will feed at her altar. You are her.
Read MoreThe prophet Amos’ fiery condemnation, or ‘naming and shaming’ of those in Israel who live lives of gross overabundance while neglecting the needs of the poor among them is one of the most common themes spoken about by all the prophets. Amos happens to be the most prominent example of this. His concern with rampant economic inequality is not just a concern about a disordered earthly economy, but it is concern about a breach of covenant with God and God’s divine economy.
Read MoreSo often, what comes between us and truth is us. The truth is, after all, dangerous. It confronts us. Convicts us. Destroys the worlds we build for ourselves, the lies we tell ourselves, the reliance we place in ourselves, in favor of submission to something beyond ourselves.
We stubbornly and all too often believe we know the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God.And we hold tightly to what we think we know, when really the pathway to truth is one of surrender. You see, it’s hard to see the truth with a closed heart and a clenched fist. To journey towards truth requires a letting go.
Read MoreHow do Jesus’ words today help us to see God at work in all of these events?
“Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”
The shepherd in the parable today knows each and every one of his sheep, the ones who stick with the herd and the ones who wander off to do their own thing. The shepherd is so attentive, so watchful, that he notices immediately when one goes missing. And he will not rest until he finds the one lost sheep.
All of us can relate to this story on some level, whether as a sheep or a shepherd.
Read MoreMoses sets before us this morning a choice: life or death; blessings or curses. The Common English Bible translation suggests that we are meant to choose between “life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong.”
This doesn’t seem to be a particularly difficult choice. It seems most people would choose life. In fact, the will to live, to survive, is quite strong –both in us, as human beings, and in our fellow creatures, big and small. We are hard-wired to survive.
And yet living, not merely surviving, is something different.
Read MoreThe Letter to the Hebrews is one, small book in the New Testament, but it has had a disportionately large impact on the Christian imagination over the millennia. Some of the most beautiful and enduring images that we have of Jesus come from the Letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews tell us that Christ is the “exact imprint of God’s very being ” and later, that Jesus is “our great high priest who has passed through the heavens”, and still later we are told that we are surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses,” faithful followers of Christ who have gone before us to show us the way.
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