“Christians are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.” 1 Timothy 6:18
Dear People of St. David’s,
I pray that you and yours are well and there is gratitude in your heart and grace about your lives. Gratitude for all the gifts that God has given you, grace to accept the gifts you have not earned, and grace to share your gifts with others.
Sharing who we are and what we’ve been given is at the very center of the Christian life. I like to think of it as giving ourselves away. As followers of Jesus, you and I give our lives away to God in some way every day, as we enter into the life God is calling us to live. We give ourselves away when we are kind and generous to people without expecting anything in return; when we share the gifts God has given us for God’s purposes and not for ourselves alone.
In many areas of our lives, we give of ourselves expecting something in return. Whether it’s in our families, among our friends, in our work life, or in the wider community, most of us give ourselves away. We give ourselves away but are consciously or unconsciously expecting something back.
The Christian life or the life in God starts from the other direction. God has given us life: all that we are, and all that we have. We’re not expecting to receive something in return, because it has already been given to us. Instead, we are called to share what we’ve been given in response to God’s grace already at work in our lives. We are giving away what God has already given us and the promise is that, because God is such a God of abundance, God will give us more. When we live by giving ourselves away, our lives and the life of the world are enriched to the fullest measure.
We’re finishing up the 2023 financial stewardship campaign and are thankful for all that has been pledged to our mission and ministry. We have hope for all that God will accomplish through our shared giving. Just to be clear, we do not pledge to “keep the lights on,” or to pay some kind of “club dues.” We pledge and give out of gratitude for all that God has given us, in the anticipation of how God will multiply our gifts for our lives, and for the life of the world.
Let me invite you to give yourself away today. You have an infinite store of love, gifts, and resources that have come to you from God and God will readily replenish. Giving yourself away will connect you more deeply to God who loves us and will let you and others see how good God is.
Grace and Peace,
The Rev. W. Frank Allen
Rector