October 2014 – Pastor Anthony’s Letter

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the next 8 months we will be exploring the question, “What are we doing?” As children of God, claimed through the waters of baptism, God calls us to do things for him and his kingdom. From Acts 2, we will learn that we are to SHARE with others, REJOICE in the Lord, FELLOWSHIP together, PRAY to God, and WORSHIP the Lord.

The first word we are going to focus on is SHARE. To share means to let someone else have or use a part of something that belongs to you. We share our time with others by taking time out of our busy lives to help someone or help our church. So serving on church council or parish council is a way of sharing our time because we could be using that time for ourselves, but some have chosen to share that time with the church. We also share our resources. Maybe it’s buying some paper towels for the church, or buying material to make quilts, or mowing the church lawn, or bringing in some farm equipment for Harvest Homecoming. And we also share our money because neither our time nor our material resources that we share will pay the electric bill. The electric company wants a check, not a combine in their mailbox. So we share our money as well.

In Acts 2, the Christians knew what God was calling them to do as children of God…to share what they had with others.

“…they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” – Acts 2:45

The Christians looked at the possessions and goods that they had and were generous with what God had blessed them with. Notice, the text does not say that they sold ALL of their possessions and goods. They sold a portion of what they had to share with others. They could have sold everything, but then they wouldn’t have anything. As a church, when we talk about sharing, it is helpful to talk about sharing or giving in proportion. We can’t give all of our time to the church, otherwise we wouldn’t have time for our families. We can’t give all of our resources to the church, otherwise we wouldn’t have cars to drive places or dishes to eat off of. And we can’t give all of our money to the church, otherwise we wouldn’t have money to buy food for our families.

But from Acts 2 we do learn that the early Christians were generous with what they had. God calls us to be generous with what he has blessed us with. We are called to share with others, both individually and as a church. So as we enter into the Fall/Harvest season, remember that everything that we have has come from God and we are called to be generous with what we have towards our neighbors, towards others, and towards our churches. God bless you this month!

In Christ,

Pastor Anthony