Christian Identities #7: Letting Go

I want to get back to the series on how we define ourselves as Christians both within and beyond that thing we call a church family.  Before I do that I want to thank the members of the vestry and others who contributed to the conversation necessary in moving from budget year to budget year.  There several excellent "testimonies" and some of them were repeated in the space my 'blurbs" usually occupy.  Thanks to you each and all for enriching our lives and our understanding, especially about from where your giving comes.

It's an easy segue to talking about this next way of describing faithful living because the interlude of testimonies was an adaptive process.  The vestry responded to the "facts on the ground" relative to budget, pledging and expenses and talked straight from the heart to their fellow parishioners.  I hope you heard them.  I hope you heard them witnessing to appreciation, gratitude, grace, honesty, commitment and much more.

I hope you heard a critical distinction about giving in faith as it compares to paying dues or helping those in need.  I hope you heard something about letting go in your giving.  Letting go is how our giving becomes an offering.

At Boulevard Baptist in Anderson, SC back in the early 60's our family sat behind a church lady I have always called Mrs. Phillips.  One Sunday night as the offering plate was passed she fussed and fidgeted to put something in the plate.  As it continued to the back of the church she craned her neck to keep an eye on that plate.  When we stood for the presentation she lunged toward the usher reaching as if to get out whatever she had put in earlier.  She lost her balance and fell.  The usher's first move was to protect the plate and its contents so he spun away from her causing most of the change and bills to spill out onto the floor.  It was a fiasco!  I think my dad turned to the organist and said, "play another stanza."

I learned something that night that informs my appreciation for giving, pledging, and budgeting now in the life of our church family.  Offerings aren't offerings until we let go of them.  Even worse we can make a mess of other's giving if we fail to finish our own giving by letting go.

Letting go is our imitating the sacrifice of the one we claim to follow.  It's that simple and it is a sacramental act that everyone of us is capable of accomplishing.

My prayer is that we can learn from our current reality both as a function of Christian identity, as a function of giving and budgeting, and as a function of meeting our obligations and helping those in need to find new ways to let go.