Giving
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2012 EMC: Put Me to the Test
At left and below: The Prophet Malachi in the Saint Thomas reredos. A line of nine Old Testament Prophets, each foreseeing the Christ, are located in a fine and delicate carving above the Saint Thomas scene and below the cross in the reredos. Malachi is the furthest to the right in the line of nine.
A mere fourteen verses before the end of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi conveys the Lord’s final message to Israel. After rebuking his people for failing to bring him the offerings he is due, God asks Israel to put him to the test: if Israel will bring “all the tithes into the storehouse,” God promises to “open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
Here God is inviting, even daring us, his people, to trust him with all of ourselves, and that includes trusting him with our treasure. If we do this, he says, we will be able to receive the prodigious blessing he longs to give us.
Father Mead has spoken on more than one occasion of the four practices that have sustained him in his ministry, and one of those is tithing. It may seem contradictory that giving away a tangible portion of our income might sustain us personally, but in Malachi, God says that it will. When we pledge, we are not merely entrusting our money to the church’s use; we are palpably binding ourselves to God and to God’s project. It is this attachment that will open the windows of heaven for us. The Lord is not promising to bring us more money, but he is promising to pour down personal and spiritual riches on those who offer an honest sacrifice of their treasure.
When we pledge sacrificially, we declare that we own our money—it does not own us. And we signal our desire for God to own us, to call us his own, and to bless us as his own “whom he has loved with an everlasting love.”
Read or listen to the Rector's sermon from October 2: "Put Me to the Test"
Proportional Giving
Christina Rossetti’s moving poem “In the Bleak Midwinter,” which we sing at Christmas, articulates in its final verse the principles of proportional giving, in all seasons, in the bounty of our harvests, or in the austerity of our bleak midwinters. Regardless of our circumstances, we can all give in proportion to what we have. Saint Thomas needs and values every pledge, from the widow’s mite to the leadership pledge.
Please think about what you pledged last year and see if you can increase the percentage, even if only by a small amount. It does not matter whether you calculate your pledge using income before or after taxes, but please consider trying to grow this percentage over time. Please remember also that pledges can always be revised—up or down—should your circumstances change.
If you are able to make a Leadership Pledge of $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 or more, thank you. We depend upon our leadership support which has been growing in the last several years and now represents over 60% of all pledge dollars.
It is easy to pledge online on our secure website. If you have any questions, please email Ann Hall Kaplan or call her at 212 757-7013, ex. 314.
Thanks to everyone who made a tile.
See pics of the EMC Coffee Hour here.