I loved playing with Legos when I was a kid (honestly, I still love them!). My parents thought I might be an engineer or architect because I loved building things. I remember learning very early on, if you wanted something to be sturdy, tall, and strong, something that would last, you had to have more bricks on the bottom or you needed to build the structure on a solid and large Lego plate. If you just stacked 1x2 bricks on top of each other and then tried placing a larger object on top of the tower of 1x2s everything would collapse. You had to build a solid foundation if you wanted to build something that would last.
This is, of course, the case for all things, not just building Legos. The more solid the foundation (in a building, organization, family, etc.) the better chance the thing will last and grow.
The scriptures we are reading in the lectionary this time of year provide us with stories that point to key foundational elements of our faith. Each week we get to read stories about Jesus and his disciples that give us opportunities to consider foundational beliefs and concepts of our faith, that, if we believe them and understand them, could provide a wonderful base for our continued journey's of faith.
Things like:
How is God at work in our world and how we can identify those miraculous moments
Understanding who we say Jesus is
Realizing the role reversal of the kingdom of God, that the last is, in fact, first
Discovering that these journey's are not meant to be done alone but in community
Uncovering what the kingdom of God is
Recognizing the role of suffering in our faith stories
Connecting our generosity to our faith
In the weeks ahead, you will hear stories from members of our community as they share the foundations of their faith journeys right here in this blog. All of these stories help us consider the ways God is moving in our community and how we can come together to continue to build on the incredible foundation that we stand on at Christ the Servant. You will hear it called our annual stewardship appeal, but I believe it is much more than that. It is recognizing the strong foundation that has been built at CTS these past 50 years. It is being hopeful and trusting in what incredible things we could build on that foundation in the next year or two or five. It is considering new ways of trusting God and responding to God's own generosity in radical and rebellious ways through your generosity.
My own story of generosity and faithful giving began when I got my first job with an actual salary. It also happened to be my step into ministry when I was hired to be the Youth and Family Minister in my home congregation. I knew the biblical principle of tithing 10% of your income before taxes and because I'm a rule follower (and didn't really know much better) I figured 10% of my $30,000 salary was easy math. Plus I was making more money than ever and giving away $3,000 of it over the course of a year ($57.69 per week) seemed like a small amount in comparison. I was able to pay my rent and my student loans, put food on my table, and had some spending money. I wasn't saving much (or probably none) but the thing was, I didn't miss the $3,000.
The next year I got a small raise and the annual stewardship appeal came and I realized I could give a little more because I was making more. This trend continued until I got married. When Kelly and I combined our finances, we looked at our income, I did the math and said, "Well, 10% is xxx so do you want me to setup the auto payments with the church?" She was a little shocked at first. We talked more about it and actually created a budget! And sure enough, we were able to do 10%...and discovered we didn't miss it!
Since then, our giving has fluctuated. We moved to Virginia and weren't certain about the cost of living changes with the change in my salary. Kelly quite her job in cooperate America and began her own company. I went to seminary. Life happened and the amount we gave changed with it. Kelly taught me that the rules were made to be broken and that it would be okay if we didn't always give 10%. And the truth is, there were times where 10% just wasn't possible.
As I reflect on my journey of generosity, I realize that the times that we gave the largest percentages (not the most amount of money) were the times our trust and faith in God grew the most visibly. They were moments in life that might have been uncertain but we intentionally continued to give and it was incredible to see what God did with that. Not just in our lives, but in the life of the communities we contributed to.
Talking about money in the church tends to be one of those taboo subjects. Yet, Jesus talks about money more than almost any other subject, most likely because it is one of the top things we put our faith in. When we give that money away we are doing three things: 1) rebelling against the power of money to rule our lives in an attempt to be our lord, 2) demonstrating a trust and faith in God to provide and care for our needs, and 3) we show where our hearts lie with where we choose to give that money.
As we talk about continuing to build upon the faithful foundation at Christ the Servant, I want to encourage you to listen deeply to the stories being shared. Pray constantly over the hopes we have for this coming year. Reflect on the foundations that have gotten us to where we are and consider where the foundations we lay today could lead us (and those who come after us)! Every step of our generosity is an act of faith. Like putting together Legos, we build on that faith, one act at a time, one experience at a time, with each motion creating a more solid foundation for the next big thing to come! So let's build this faith together!