The C Word

As we gather in the Estimate of Giving information for First Church and try to develop a budget to undergird our ministries next year, I'm having to help people deal with the C word, commitment. Churches are told these days that asking for commitments puts people off and keeps them from wanting to be part of the church. Well I'm not real found of stop signs either, but my desire to avoid them doesn't mean they aren't a good idea for my own health and safety. One of the big differences between just being a spiritual seeker and accepting the role of steward is commitment. It's not for everyone, but then neither is marriage. That's really the best analogy I can think of. I don't think God sits around thinking up ways we have to prove our faithfulness to him, setting us up with trials we have to pass so we can prove we love God. (I know there is that Job story but that's for another day.)  There are just certain things we have to do in order to progress in our faith.

Let's take the marriage analogy up for a minute.  There are several stages to romantic love. We see the object of our attraction, we spend time with them, we enter into the euphoria of love. Then we have to make some decisions. Either we try to continue in the romantic euphoria indefinitely (not really possible) or we decide to get married. When we decide to marry, we decide to give up some things in order to have others. We make a commitment. We give up exploring that euphoric relationship with someone else. There is nothing wrong with that exploration in itself, but if we are going to have a deep and honest marriage relationship, we forgo seeking that relationship with someone else. We may stop going out for drinks after work and go home to our spouse instead. There is nothing wrong with socializing with other people, but we make choices about how that socializing affects our relationship with our spouse. We don't make the commitment in order to make our lives narrower and sadder, but in order to make a specific relationship deeper and more meaningful. We learn to make our first thought in any situation not how will this affect me, but how will this affect us.

We commit to practices of, prayer, attending worship, service to others, intentionally devoting a percentage of our material wealth, sharing the good news, not because those are penances or rules, but because our tradition tells us those are the ways we live in order to maintain our close relationship with God.

As we approach Christmas and the usual music of the season, I'm reminded of the composer Handel who wrote the famous Messiah. The story is legend about how he sat down without stopping and scrawled out that masterpiece. What isn't in the legend is the years he spend studying his instrument, composition, form and analysis, voicing, instrumentation, honing his skills. That's how I see the Steward's way. Sometimes is feels good, sometimes it doesn't, but every step is progress with faith that the destination and the journey are one.