“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…”
—Matthew 6:21
Dear friends,
It’s hard to believe another year has come and
gone. Doesn’t it seem like it was just yesterday we were planting our gardens, tilling and weeding, watering and tending? Now it’s November, the harvest is over, the Christian Explorers herb box has been put to rest for the winter, and we take a moment to pause in thanks for the abundance in our lives. But, like gardening, the cycle of our church life continues, and it’s also time think about how we will tend the soil of our gardens and our church for the seeds of faith to flourish in the coming year.
Rev. Rochelle Stackhouse, wrote this about stewardship…“My grandfather was a farmer most of his life, and he had a tremendous love of soil. As children, my brothers and I would laugh as he looked out a car window at a field and would say, ‘That’s beautiful dirt!’ As suburban kids, for whom dirt was something that got us in trouble with our mother, we didn’t really get it. But what Grandpa saw in the dirt was the promise of seeds sprouting and crops producing a hundred-fold. It was just dirt to us, but to him it was gold.
“It’s all how you define treasure, I guess. Our churches are like that soil my grandfather loved. They are places where seeds get planted and nurtured. If the soil is strong, if we see it as treasure, then what grows in our churches are strong disciples, equipped to go into the world and live Christ. The treasure where our hearts are could refer to our individual bank accounts, or it could refer to the treasure that is Christian community that needs our work of tilling and planting and fertilizing and weeding and praying for a good crop.
“Just as my Grandpa’s heart was in the soil, so mine is in the congregation I call my home, and in the wider church others call home. Treasures, gifts from God, gardens ready to grow.”*
Day after day I see the promises of our faith take root and grow…into the bright minds and smiles of our children, into the ways we care for each other as we journey together, into the generosity and compassion of our many Love and Justice ministries. As we celebrate the harvest this month with friends and loved ones, let’s also give thanks for all the gifts we have received here at Edwards Church. And let us renew our promise to continue to work this soil of this church—this treasure—that God has entrusted to our care.
Blessings, Karen Nell
* God is Still Speaking, UCC, November, 2010