Emmanuel Mennonite

ThanksLiving

"So what I got from your sermon is you're asking for money," someone said to me recently. Well, yes and no - my annual stewardship sermon this year was about money, but also our time and our abilities, and most of all about being thankful as the starting point for giving and good stewardship.

At one point, I quoted from Rick Warren who suggested that not only should we give money, but also the first part of our week to worship and the first part of our social time to fellowship with other Christians.  At the time, I said we might not agree with every detail of the quote--after all, there are many Christians who worship at some time other than the first part of the week--but I hoped it would challenge us to think.  In response, I received an email asking "wasn't it a big priority for Jesus to spend time with people on the edges, people not in the inner fellowship circles, people like Zaccheus and the Samaritan woman at the well?"  That's important for us to remember too.

For those who expressed interest in the George Herbert quote, here's the first and last part of the poem that I read as part of my sermon:

Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more - a grateful heart.
Not thankful when it pleases me,
As if thy blessings had spare days,
But such a heart,
whose pulse may be thy praise.
 

The entire poem is available at http://www.ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/Gratefulnesse.html