Dear Friends in Christ, 

It’s the middle of the most important season of a church’s administrative life: pledging season!  It’s the time when you are asked to consider your financial commitment to the church.

Your stewardship of money and giving are especially critical during this time. As has been said, “money makes the world go round.”  It’s a way of acknowledging that money is vital for most endeavors in life including church ministry.  And, while it’s true, as has been said and sung, money can’t buy happiness or love, it can fund love.  And, in and through the church, money continually funds Christian love.   

Your stewardship and giving are especially critical at this time because there are fewer givers committed to  church-giving today.  If you want to fund similar amounts of love that you have in the past, you’re called to grow in your giving.  It’s a matter of simple math – as well as spiritual practice.  

But, of course, giving isn’t simple. It’s hard.  Giving affects one’s purse, budget, and feelings.  Giving can be rewarding, but it can also be anxiety-provoking – especially if you’re challenging yourself to give more money.  Giving can be – as well as feel – risky.  It can make us feel vulnerable, and it requires courage and trust.   

The good news is this: there are ways to mitigate the anxiety of contemplating giving more, and there are sound methods for increasing one’s giving.  These include pledging (which can be adjusted), proportional giving, (percentage-based),  giving incrementally more each year, and estate planning.  I know because I embarked on a journey when young to become a tither – a giver of 10% of my income, and, over a period of 18 years, I increased my giving by 8700%!   And, when I die, at least a tenth of any remaining assets will go to churches and other charitable organizations. 

Now, maybe tithing doesn’t seem realistic for you, but surely, some percentage of giving does.  So I encourage you to set a percentage goal this year.  Then, each year increase your percentage giving incrementally to the degree you’re able.  And, don’t leave out your will or trust.  If you follow these strategies of faith, imagine what might happen.  And, then, imagine even more – because, before I embarked on my journey of faith, I never came close to realizing how much money I could give, let alone how rewarding – and powerfully freeing, it would be!

Blessings of Giving Proportionally,
Pastor Ed

Dear Friends in Christ,
Regularly, I read obituaries published in the Nashua Telegraph. Increasingly, I see people I’ve known and, sometimes, loved. And, after I read, I remember the person who’s died. It’s my way of honoring their precious, unique lives.

I’ve been reading obituaries and doing this for a long time. Maybe it’s because I’m a pastor who has officiated at many funerals and memorial services. Or, maybe, it’s me. My father died when I was five. And, I missed him a lot. Perhaps you, for your own reasons, read obituaries and remember persons as a way of honoring their lives, too.

Whatever your habits with respect to remembering and honoring those who’ve lived and died, there are two important dates coming on the calendar: All Saints’ Day, November 1st and All Souls’ Day, November 2nd. All Saints’ Day, celebrated on November 1st, is for remembering saints and martyrs of Christian history. All Souls’ Day, celebrated on November 2nd is for commemorate those who have died after living a notable life of Christian faith.

On Sunday, November 3rd we’ll mark both dates’ spirit. We’ll remember the saints of our lives and members of Christian faith who’ve died during the recent past. If you’d like to honor a “saint” or “soul” you carry in your heart during our worship, please email the name of your loved one to Bridget (mail@fcc-salem.org) by Monday, October 28th. Please include the year of death if you know it, and we’ll publish the name(s) in our worship bulletin as well as remember the person(s) in our prayer.

Blessings of Remembering Love and Loved Ones,
Pastor Ed

Dear Friends in Christ,

Next Sunday we celebrate this Thursday’s Ascension Day, the 40^th day after Easter, (Recall any other associations with the number 40?).  It’s an intriguing day when we remember that the once upon-a-time earthbound Jesus returns to heaven.  Luke reports that “while he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” (Luke 24:5).  Later, in the first chapter of Acts (verse 9), he offers another image: “as they were watching, Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”  As a kid, I had my own version.  I imagine Jesus as like an Estes model rocket blasting-off and zooming upward into the sky!  

Taken literally this story seems unlikely history and more likely fantasy.  That’s why I now understand it metaphorically.  And, I’m in very good company.  Of Jesus’ Ascension, Christian scholar, and great teacher, Professor Marcus Borg wrote of Ascension Day in a blog almost 20 years ago:

          For Christians  past and now, it meant and means that Jesus is now with God, indeed “at God’s right hand” and “one with God.”  These affirmations have two primary dimensions of meaning.  Like the traditions of ancient  Israel and Judaism, they are religious and political, spiritual and social. First, Ascension Day proclaims the lordship of Christ. To say that the risen and ascended Jesus is “at God’s right hand,” a position of honor and authority, means “Jesus is Lord.”  In the first century, when kings and emperors claimed to be lords, this claim had not only religious but also political meaning.  To say “Jesus is Lord” meant, and means, that the Herods and Caesars of this world were not, and are not God.

          Second, because the risen and ascended Jesus is “one with God,” he (like God) can be experienced anywhere. Jesus is no longer restricted or confined to time and space, as he was during his historical lifetime. Rather, like the God whom he knew in his own experience, he continues to be known in the experience of his followers.

          To use language from Matthew’s Gospel, for Christians the risen and ascended Christ is Immanuel: “God with us.” (For Borg’s entire reflection, see: https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/2000/05/the-ascension-of-jesus.aspx)

Now, I find in Borg’s expression an ongoing miracle of God more believable, more meaningful, more inspiring and more powerful than any magic moment of literal understanding.  But… how about you?

Blessings of Ascension Day,  

Pastor Ed