A Serious Purpose for a Serious Place

We are now, as I believe most of you are aware (and if you’re not, let me know because that means we left you off the mailing list somehow!) in the middle of our pledge-ingathering time.
I’ve taken to calling it pledge-ingathering, because while a bit clunky it evokes the sense of gift that I think the time is all about.  Last Sunday morning (10/21) and in the letter I sent out with your pledge card, I mentioned the late Becky Higgins’  comment that we are encouraged to give until it feels right.  Her line has been my springboard because it is so correct on so many levels.  Supporting your church is like giving to your favorite charity — its an opportunity to give back and an expression in confidence moving forward.  But unlike giving to the Red Cross, I think, giving to the church is an expression of gratitude for the gifts of our lives that are not the work of our own hands.  What is right then, expresses not just what is correct, but what is ultimately only good — something we might call the basic confidence in life, the primordial lure to fullness and to humanity itself.
That kind of giving is qualitatively different from the rest– it is serious and it calls forth a serious and quantitatively different response.  I hope and pray you’ll heed that deep call and respond with a pledge card by November 18 so that our Board of Finance can put together a serious budget for 2019.  Thank you.