There is a story in Exodus
16 which is too long to print here about the people who gathered
more than they needed of the bread in the wilderness and it rotted.
They had been told only to gather enough for the day.
I recently was having a
conversation with a friend from way back. When she found out that I
am a Lutheran pastor she immediately started telling me about a
church she had been to for an aunt's funeral. She told me that her
family had given a good sum of money to the church memorial fund in
honor of her aunt.
She wondered what they
would spend the money on. She said that she had noticed that they
could use a few things in that church. She noticed that they could
probably use a better piano. She noticed a few things that looked a
lot worse for the wear. She thought of the children who go to that
church. Maybe they would buy something to enhance the ministry of
that church with children and families.
Then she said a curious
thing. "I thought at the time that I might like to go to that
church, but there was no sign that told her when the worship was and
she was too shy to ask. Maybe they will spend the money that I gave
to put up a sign so that I will know when they worship, so that I
will know I am welcome."
I smiled kind of faintly
and didn't say much. I was thinking that if that church is like so
many of the churches that I know, if she wants to see where her
money went then she needs to go down to the First National Bank --
or whatever bank that church uses.
We are not being good
stewards of what God has given us if we put the money in the bank
that was meant to glorify God and to remember the people who have
faithfully served God in our churches.
We are being better
stewards when we spend that money. In the place I used to live, a
church lawyer told me that money given for memorials really should
be spent every calendar year unless there is some real goal with a
dollar amount that a church is saving toward. Anything else, he
said, is fraud. He added that people should be able to walk into
the church and see where their money went, even if it went to buy a
copier.
I hear many people saying
that they would never give to a memorial fund because so many
churches just memorialize a bank account. This leads me to believe
that if that church that my friend gave money to ever actually
started memorializing people with their memorials, they would get
twice as much more back.
Lord,
When are you ever going to give us enough faith to trust that when
we do your will and glorify your name, that you will continue to
provide.
Amen
