by Daphne Sahlin
A couple of years ago, our stewardship theme was, "It's all about Jesus!" I mentioned this to my friend Elizabeth, a retired English teacher, who challenged me by asking, "What does that mean? What does that mean to you?”
It means my relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in my life and encompasses everything. God has given me everything - my very life, abilities, opportunities, free will, good health, and friends, and helped me face challenges and adversity. It is all a gift from God that I did not earn and am not in charge of. I am not the owner of these things, but a steward of all that has been entrusted to me.
I have been extraordinarily blessed and am thankful and grateful for all of God's blessings.
And St Barnabas'...it was here, through Linda, Steve Shepard, Charles Brock, and the many wonderful people of St Barnabas' that my love and knowledge of God has grown and my faith has deepened and strengthened. We strengthen each other in our faith, we learn together, and we lift up each other. But all of this is really through God’s grace and not our action alone. I began to see and recognize that God was at work in the life of the Parish and of the people here, and in my own life. It gives me great joy to be a witness to and participant in all of this.
I love sitting up front as an acolyte and looking out at all of you. I love our passing of the peace and our worship and prayer together. I love that we are people who unabashedly and with joy proclaim our love of God and demonstrate daily our love for each other and our community. All of these things give me great joy. I thank God for you and for his blessings on us.
I have a confession: The first thought that comes to my mind when I hear the word stewardship is a denial of the meaning of the word as commonly understood. I want to say, "but stewardship is not about money!" I think this is because I still feel uncomfortable talking about money.
What I have come to understand is, stewardship is not just about money but it is about everything we do as believers, including what we do with money. We are all stewards.
And it is all about Jesus.
