This past few days has been a collection of euphoria; from new beginnings to new life. On Friday two of my friends had babies…one E., was born to two loving parents who had planned for him for many years. The other baby H, was born to a single Mum who has wanted him since she knew he was coming. These two boys will grow up in different homes, in different circumstances, but one thing will be constant…love.
Yesterday I married M & J who have both been married before. They each have three children, very close in ages and eventually all 8 of them will be living under the same roof. M wanted so have his house renovated so that J and her children could move in. Through a series of misadventures, the renovation is not moving as quickly as planned and so, even though they are married, they will maintain separate residences for a couple of more months…hopefully being together in time for Christmas.
Today at our Church we celebrated Harvest Home, where there is a great deal of loving and giving happening. The readings today were all challenging us to step outside the comfortable, the “status quo” if you will. So, instead of my usual celebratory homily for Harvest Home, I “afflicted the comfortable” with my message.
If we believe that all we have comes from God, then it only makes sense we would give 10% of that away…after all, it means we get to keep 90% and that’s a good deal no matter how you slice it.
There was some uncomfortable silence in my homily, which was intentional. There were a number of people who would not make eye contact with me during the homily and again during communion. But there were others in the congregation who gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up for shaking up the status quo and for reminding us that we are not meant to be comfortable; we are meant to change the world.
I leave in less than a week for 10 days of vacation. It won’t be enough time to completely relax, but it will be enough time to walk in one of my favourite parts of creation; regardless of the weather.
As I prepare the homily for next Sunday in Tobermory and work on the story for St. Margaret’s (a first-person narrative of Mary Magdalene) and am reminded of the beauty and wonder of all that is Creation.
I defy anyone to see the changing leaves by the beauty of sunset and tell me there is no God.
So as I sent this post out into the ether I encourage you to ponder the same question as my congregation…if you do consider that all we have has come from God, then what will you do with the 90% you get to keep and what will you do with the 10% that you must give away?
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