Thursday, February 23: Shirley E. Deffenbaugh

John 17:4,6: I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.…I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.

In John 17, we find Jesus’ final prayer before his crucifixion, offered up as the last supper ends (John includes no prayer in Gethsemane). It is sometimes called his “high priestly prayer” because commentators see parallels between it and the prayers of the high priests who offered animal sacrifices to Yahweh. But that’s not what I see. I see a prayer from the heart rather than a ritualistic act.

First, Jesus acknowledges who he is – the Son of the Father – and calls himself “Jesus Christ,” recognizing his earthly (incarnated) and divine (transformed) Self. He does not focus on himself as a sacrifice, however, but prays for his disciples and for the world. His is a beautiful intercessory prayer in which he summarizes his earthly role and its import. Verses 4 and 6 are instructive: “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. . . . I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”

These verses and Jesus’ opening words suggest what it means to live in the dynamic of the “Christlife.”

First, I must recognize and acknowledge that I am God’s child; He has given me the gift of life in Him through His Son and the Holy Spirit; my gift to Him is to become the person He created me to be and to glorify Him through my presence in this world. Then, I must answer two questions:

What is the work I’ve been given to do?

Whom have I been given from the world to love and to serve?

Living out the answers to these questions (my incarnation) is my fulfillment in God (my transformation). It’s the message for each of us.

As Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, writes:

Whatever happens to Jesus is what must and will happen to the soul: incarnation, an embodied life of ordinariness and hiddenness, initiation, trial, faith, death, surrender, resurrection and return to God. Such is the Christ pattern that we all share in, either joyfully and trustfully (heaven), or unwillingly and resentfully (hell). (Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, [St. Anthony Messenger Press: Cincinnati, OH], 2008, p. 198).

— Shirley E. Deffenbaugh

Wednesday, February 22: Ash Wednesday

But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:3

Sometimes the news is bad, before its good. That is what a sage in my life once taught me. This passage, and what I intend to say about it, may be one of those times!

This passage is often used to support those who would say, our giving is between themselves and God. To do that with this passage is to miss one of the most important distinctions about giving in Jesus' time. First, it should be made clear there is a difference between tithes and alms. When I was in the Philippines recently this was lived out, in just about every church I entered. There were, in most, a board of envelopes with numbers, which matched with people, and it was called the tithing/pledgers board, and then a list of actual giving was literally put up and listed as well.

When this passage was written the tithe was expected, it was required of the faithful person, the first 10% of what comes to you. Alms, were what was given after that. The equalizer in the community was the tithe, everyone was expected to do that. The amounts would be different, yes, but no matter, everyone gives the first 10%. Alms on the other hand, was that given beyond the tithe, beyond the expectation, and you see why that might be as it is described in this passage.

For that, yes, you just give it. You don't make a show of it. In this ancient practice, this was the giving that was between you and God, alms, given above and beyond the expected giving, the giving that made you part of the community. Alms, true giving, started beyond what we do. Our tithe was the way we were accountable to one another in community. Alms was the giving above and beyond the tithe.

Somewhere we lost track of that. So, perhaps this Lent you might think about it. Most people don't even know what percentage of their income they are actually giving to the church and other charitable organizations. Maybe you could use this Lent to calculate that amount? And, think about the distinction of tithes and alms.

Lent is a time of honesty, and at the very least, we should be honest about the fact that the passage above does not remove the expectation of our supporting the communities of faith we call our own, but does reveal a way for us to give above and beyond that. This is really good news, but sometimes it does appear bad, before it is good!

— The Rt Rev Greg Rickel, Bishop of Olympia

Introduction to the St Thomas Lenten Devotional: The Rev. Karen Haig

For Christians, Lent is a time set apart. Forty full and rich and long days to reflect and to pray, to look within, to seek out the things in our lives that create distance between God and ourselves. Lent is a time to discern how God may be calling us. What might we take on, or let go of, in order to more freely love God, our neighbors and ourselves?

We offer you the St Thomas Lenten Devotional and invite you to spend some time each day
reflecting on Holy Scripture with our St Thomas community. These reflections have been written with great care and attention by the people of our community, and they offer us an opportunity to move more deeply into our relationships with God, with one another and with ourselves.

My heartfelt thanks to all who prayed and pondered and wrote so beautifully from the riches of
their own lives to make this booklet happen. This little devotional is a great gift to us all, and it has been my privilege to have had a hand in bringing it to you. I invite you to use it to pray with, to come closer into community by coming to know a bit more of the people who have written these reflections. May this Lent be an especially rich and holy season for us all.

Faithfully - Karen

Feasting on Gratitude

2011 Stewardship Letter from Patrick and Sunni Bannon

Dear St. Thomas family:
Hanging on our refrigerator, tucked between John’s tee-ball photo and Clara’s preschool calendar is a bright green index card with the hand-written reminder, “Everything we have is a gift.”

Three years ago our financial lives changed dramatically when Sunni resigned from her paid full-time work to be a full-time at-home parent. Living on a tight budget with two young children we felt exhausted and overwhelmed. We supported St. Thomas with a modest annual pledge, but we fulfilled our commitment with no more thought than we gave to paying our utility bill. At the end of each month, we were relieved to find a few dollars left in the checking account. Or more often, we dipped into our savings account to make ends meet.

Last fall, we were thrilled to hear the plans for the new Life Center at St. Thomas – what a wonderful facility for our children, their friends and the generations to follow! At the campaign banquet we stared at the pledge card and listened as Lex asked us to move beyond what we could give with comfort to a level of sacrifice. We realized we didn’t know what the figure would be at either of those levels. With our faith as the lens, we re-focused and looked closely at our lives, our blessings and our money. It was obvious we had enough. Not enough for a new car with a third row seat or for a golf round every month. But enough to pay our bills, cover basic needs and provide for a small indulgence now and then. We found room in the budget to increase our annual St. Thomas pledge plus make an equal pledge for the Life Center.

“Everything we have is a gift.” The words blend into the kitchen scenery surrounded by magnets, photos and crayon art. They gently nudge us to slow down and practice gratitude. God is good. God will provide. It was only last year that we recognized and responded with faith to the intrinsic question – a query found in Psalm 116, “What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?” Making and keeping our pledge to St. Thomas has not made our lives stress free. Parenting is a rollercoaster, and we worry about many of the same things that concerned us before. But giving to St. Thomas no longer feels obligatory or optional. We are glad to return to the Lord from the richness we receive.

Just like all of you, our stewardship is a journey. This fall we’ll increase our annual pledge percentage as we move toward the goal of tithing. We’re inspired by the work, love and abundant hospitality at St. Thomas. We’re amazed and humbled by the examples of stewardship surrounding us. Please join us on November 20th for Ingathering Sunday. We, along with John and Clara and each of you, will bring our pledge cards to the altar as we come together to share the Eucharist and to celebrate the bounty and blessings of our church family. What a wonderful feast!
Joyfully yours,
Patrick & Sunni Bannon

Isabel's Stewardship Talk

Isabel shared this talk with the St. Thomas congregation
on November 6, 2011.

My name is Isabel Williams. I’ve been coming to St. Thomas with my parents and brother Connor since I was in the second grade. Now I’m in the sixth grade.

A few weeks ago I found a joke that I think is pretty relevant to what I’m here to talk about: A family goes to church one Sunday morning. When they come out, the father complains, “The sermon was horrible!” The mother cries, “The choir was terrible!” And the little girl says, “But you have to admit—it was a pretty good show for just a dollar.”

But seriously… When Father Lex asked me if I would talk about how our family practices stewardship at St. Thomas, my first thoughts were something along the lines of, “Um… what does ‘stewardship’ mean?” According to Dictionary.com, stewardship is “the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.”  As soon as I heard that, I knew it was the perfect definition. Our family definitely thinks that St. Thomas – and all the gifts God gives us in this world – is something worth caring for and preserving.

After all this you must be wondering: How does my family practice stewardship at St. Thomas? What do we do? For starters, we put a check in the offering plate each week. Mom and Dad have been putting money in the offering plate for years, and Connor and I give a third of our allowance each week as well. There are other things you can do for stewardship besides just giving money – you can also give time to church. I help with church services as an acolyte, lector, and Chorister. Mom and Dad are active Sunday School teachers, and Mom is also a Eucharistic Minister and is on the Vestry. And there’s another way you can give time – you can give it to outreach.  Connor is in Kids Club and I am in Youth Group, and we participate in service projects with those groups. Our family as a whole also helps with Thanksgiving meals, the Giving Tree, and Congregations for the Homeless.

Now that you know what we do, it’s probably best if you know why we do it, so you might like to do it, too. First, it’s a way we “care for and preserve” the St. Thomas community that means so much to us. After we left our old church, for weeks we searched for a new one that would be special to us and would keep us coming back each Sunday. As soon as we came here, we knew that St. Thomas was the church we were looking for. St. Thomas is what we make it – so we all need to do our part to support it. Second, stewardship is a way to show our thanks and give back for all the wonderful gifts God gives to us. I don’t like to hear sad stories about all of the horrible things that happen in our world, but I’ve heard enough to know that we are so, so lucky. Mom and Dad both have jobs; our family is healthy; we have a nice house, warm clothes, and plenty of food; and we haven’t suffered any major natural disasters.  We want to show our thanks for that by giving back. And finally, it’s a way to follow the lessons that Jesus teaches about caring for our neighbors. What’s the point of coming to church every week and listening to the lessons from the Bible if we’re not going to learn something and follow those lessons? 

That’s just a little bit about what St. Thomas and stewardship means to our family. I hope you will think about what it means to you and your family and make a pledge on the ingathering Sunday in a few weeks.