“Five of them were foolish, five of them were wise.”
Matthew 25
What a great stewardship gospel! The foolish bridesmaids – forgetting their oil, not being ready for the coming of the King. So we too, should not be foolish with our resources!
Except, of course, that Jesus time and time again is encouraging and uplifting people to be… foolish with their resources. Mary with the perfume, the multiplication of loaves and fishes, eating and drinking on the sabbath, destroying the fig tree… over and over Jesus reminds us that God’s economy is not the same as Christ’s economy. That the economics of the Kingdom are not the same as the economics of the empire.
So which is it? Responsible, sober, calculated common sense spending? Or just toss it all out there as God’s call us?
Okay, so maybe it is neither of those. Or some combination of the two.
Of course we do need to be careful and responsible with the resources that we have, so that we can best serve God’s Kingdom. That is why we have spent the last year rebuilding our finance team, revising our investments and taking a hard look at both our revenue and spending projections here at Memorial. We have sought outside grants from a number of institutions, right-sized our staffing and our programs, and begun to work hard to activate our space so that we can increase our building revenue.
But we also must ensure that our resources are doing Kingdom work and not Empire work. For this reason we have allowed ERICA to use the Rectory to house an Afghan Family for a small reimbursement, and why we continue to make investments in our reparations work in Baltimore with our time, talent and treasure.
“Rooted in abundance” doesn’t mean – spend like there is no tomorrow – it means we should trust that God has already given us everything we need. And usually that has nothing to do with money! We have an increasing cadre of volunteers and supporters to help with events, outreach and worship. Thanks to our new facilities manager, we are able to better manage repair and maintenance work and enlist volunteers to help with large and small projects around the Church. And our vestry is fully engaged in both the business of Church (the balancing of the books, the payments and debits, and the finances) as well as the business of Church (being Christ’s hands and feet in the world).
And if you are someone who is interested in being a part of either of those activities, please reach out, we could use you!
I hope you will consider joining me at R house in Remington this afternoon at 5:30 pm to further discuss the future of Memorial, or join us at Amy Rial’s home next Saturday the 18th for a similar conversation. We will bring the lamp oil.