One Body with Many Members

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all of the members of the body – though many – are one body… so it is with Christ.”  (I Cor. 12:12)

So it is with stewardship!

As you know… a Church is dependent on the generosity of its many members.  We are all unique and blessed with different gifts, but we feed the same fire… we serve the same purpose.  As a pastor, I give thanks for the ways that you bless this ministry.  Your faithfulness, your creativity and your financial gifts are the wellspring of our day-to-day functioning.

Over these past few years… we have received a series of very significant gifts that have helped to pay down the debt of our renovation project, our budget deficit and our outreach ministry to the neighborhood.  I am humbled by these gifts and I give thanks to God in prayer.

Now… as most of you know… we have recently been given another financial gift… but this one is different.  This is a match gift.  This means that every contribution that you give… above and beyond your normal offering… is automatically doubled.  So…

If you give 1 dollar… it becomes $2

If you give 10 dollars… it becomes $20

If you give 50 dollars… it becomes $100

Isn’t that incredible?  Isn’t this fun?  All you have to do… is put your donation into the green envelope that was recently mailed to you.  Or you can simply pick up one of these envelopes at the back of the church.  If neither of these options is available… you can simply send in an envelope and identify the contribution as a match gift…

What this means… is that every dollar counts.

What this means… is that no contribution is insignificant.

What this means… is that every single one of us can contribute.

What this means… is that we really are one body with many members.

Thanks be to God,

Thank you for your generosity,

Thank you for your participation,

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Mark

This year, Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent, falls on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day…and if you haven’t looked at your calendar, Easter is on April 1 (April Fools J). It truly is a quirky calendar coincidence that hasn’t happened since 1945.

The Lutheran observance of Lent is commemorative as well as penitential. We regard this season as a time of special spiritual opportunity to contemplate the Passion of Christ, a time of self-examination and repentance, and a time of growth in faith and grace. While it is a somber time of remembrance, it is also a time for joy and rejoicing, for we are saved through the death and resurrection of our Lord.

Therefore, consider how fitting it is that the same day we begin our Lenten journey falls on the day that we traditionally celebrate the very essence of our God…love. After all, it was because “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.”

The fact that these two events fall on the same day may actually lend some real meaning to Valentine’s Day which has become so secularized…the day is mostly about sending flowers, chocolates, and pajama-grams, and not at all about the “no greater love” that made St. Valentine so famous.

So perhaps Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday can work together. They remind us that real love isn’t about cute little cherubs shooting  arrows through hearts…it’s about the joy of giving oneself to another …it’s about the Love of all Loves, a love that suffered and died in order to teach us what it means to have “no greater love.”

Pastor Laura