Done. We’re done. Well three fourths of the Weber family on Candlewick Drive are done. La Donna is off fulfilling her obligations as a Conference Officer of the United Methodist Women today. So I took Rhys and Maddie and went to vote. She has classes on Election Day, and is out of state, and didn’t arrange for an absentee ballot, and we thought this was important. Not just usually important. But especially important this time. So, I drove six hours on Friday to bring her home and we stood in line for three hours this morning and then will drive her six hours back tomorrow. So she could vote. Will the lines be longer on Tuesday? Don’t know. School is important too, so this made the most sense.
Some might think it was a bit much, twelve hours of driving, three hours of standing and shuffling along. We tried to think of other things we stood in line for. Rides at amusement parks. To get into museums for special exhibits. For tickets to once in a lifetime shows. Maddie said she stood eight hours in Time’s Square to watch a ball drop that they couldn’t really see. So, yeah, we did it. This seemed as important as anything else we’ve stood in line for. Will our three votes matter? That’s harder to determine. In one sense, probably not. I know there are elections won by the slimmest of margins. But in all likelihood, that won’t happen here in Indiana this time. My mom and dad used to joke that their votes always canceled each other out, so why bother. But they did, bother that is. Bother to vote. It matters in the sense that we are blessed beyond measure in this nation, we are great in more ways than we will often acknowledge. And part of what makes us great is that we have this obligation, responsibility, privilege call voting. Maybe it isn’t always about who wins and who loses, maybe it can be about the exercise of this small freedom.
Yeah, it’s worth it. Worth the hours, worth the time. When the election is over on Tuesday I may be happy or I may be sad about the results, but either way I’m proud to have participated in the process. And proud that I got to show and encourage my kids - who are no longer kids - that it is worth the effort. A small thing? Maybe, but still.
Luke 16:10-13 "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
We’re finishing our Stewardship emphasis this week. Another series telling us what we already know. Telling us that Jesus took money seriously, the use of money was an indicator of the condition of the soul, that giving was a gift to do not just to receive. The central essence of stewardship is that it isn’t ours, that all we have, all we are belongs to the One who gave us life. And our relationship with God demands that we use the resources, the gifts, the abilities and opportunities in ways that honor God, that give glory to the Glorious One. That it is indeed a blessing, a joy to give generously.
Not really news, we should say. Something we hear year after year, if not more often. Even though we manage to forget. Even though we recognize that there are certain demands on our resources. I mean, we owe certain obligations, we made contracts, agreements, it isn’t like we don’t want to give, we’ve just gotten to the point where there isn’t much left after all the other things that we have to have, commitments and promises, liabilities and debts and duties. And once all that is done, then out of what is left, when we can, then we’ll ...
OK, maybe I’m preaching to the choir. That isn’t us. We know better. We know that you can’t serve two masters. We know that while it feels like we are in control of our money, in fact we can become slaves to a culture of more. So we choose not to. We choose to only follow one master, one Lord. We put God first, set aside our tithe and then make additional offerings when the need arises, because we are prepared. Prepared and planned to be generous. And we rightly feel good about that. Part of what we celebrate when we bring our pledge cards forward is the satisfaction of faithfulness, the righteousness of the follower of God.
But Tom Berlin, the writer of the book Defying Gravity that we’re using for this series, says that’s not the real joy. The real joy is in knowing that what we do, when we’re generous, we aren’t the only ones affected. That the real blessing that comes from our generosity, from our decision to be faithful to God, is not internal but external. We bless others. We lift others. We launch others into a life of giving and generosity and blessing.
When we get it right, he argues, there are ripples. When we are faithful in the little things, they get bigger, they become bigger. And we find that faithfulness easier to claim, easier to live. It becomes a way of life, and a way to life. To the kind of life that Jesus tells us about, a life full and rich and fruitful. The kind of life we’ve always wanted.
The kind of life that seems like it should come from a culture of more. Of looking inward, looking out for number one. The kind of life we’re being told we can buy with the next and latest and upgraded. When in fact it is a life that comes from giving away. Of living outwardly, mentoring, teaching, investing in those around you, those in your care and those you haven’t even met yet. Of being a part of something bigger than yourself.
During the rain delay of the seventh game of the World Series this past week, the Cubs who had led throughout the game until the eighth inning and now were tied after nine, called a team meeting in the dugout. An interviewer asked Jason Heyward (I think it was) what the meeting was about. He just shrugged and said we just said “remember who we are.” A team, not just one, not a superstar and the rest, not an ace and the minions. Remember who we are. We are more than we appear on the surface. Because we belong together. Because we lift one another, because we teach and lead and mentor and guide. Remember who we are.
It seems a little thing. Yet they remembered enough to win the World Series. A little thing. Yet we stood in line and remembered who we are as citizens of a nation with dreams. We were faithful.
Shalom,
Derek
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