Risking Something Big for Something Good

This month we are worshiping a little differently.  As we prepare for a Season of Thanksgiving, it seems only right to focus on the theme of Stewardship. Each year we take time during the month of November to dedicate our gifts and talents to our church and to God.  As people of strong faith, we understand that all that we have comes from God and it is our responsibility and honor to share our blessing with others. Winston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”. This year as in years past, you will be invited to help in the life and ministry of our church through the gift  of giving. 

When we give of ourselves, we are changed in some way. Identifying talents or passions that can help others changes the way we see ourselves. Making a difference in someone else’s life is transforming. This month as we look at our own mission of giving, I want us to consider what it means to change and to be part of change.  In 2018 Rev.

Kathleen McShane and her congregation, Los Altos United Methodist Church, started The Changemaker Initiative. This program focuses on helping people become what they refer to as ‘compassionate changemakers’, just like Jesus. 

Each week worship uses the anchor image of birds to lift up themes of compassion, collaboration, creativity, and empowerment as agents of good change. During Children’s Time our worship focuses on Shadow and Jackie, two bald eagles as they build their nest and build and nurture their family. This image continues throughout our worship as we consider how compassion, collaboration, creativity, and empowerment affect our ministry as we work together  and share with others. 

One of the important key elements of the Change Makers series is the concept of ‘seeing’. Each week we will focus on the Gospel reading from Mark 6:30-44, the miracle of the feeding of the multitude as read from various interpretations. Through the exercise of Lectio Devina we will be invited to listen to the story in new ways and consider how God is working miracles in our lives and using us in good ways. 

Hopefully by the end of this series we will notice something good happening in our own hearts  and will be inspired enough to bring needed change to our community. Every week our closing blessing focuses on characteristics found in changemakers; reminding us of our call:

Blessed be you who are not asleep to the world’s pain and suffering; who lament for the way things are; who know, to the depth of your bones,

that this is not how things are meant to be; that don’t believe  the lie that

this is how they will always remain; who know that things can change,

who long for things to change; whose life’s ambition is to bring the change that is justice and mercy for all; who know that God has always employed the faithful acts of ordinary people to heal and change this world; who know that change begins today, change begins with us, and that we are blessed to be the changemakers.

Know that when we work for good change, God is working with us. Just as Jesus called on the disciples to “look and see” in the midst of the feeding of the multitude, God is calling us to see what we can do together with what we have been blessed with, risking something big for something good.

Rev. Julie Sterling