We as modern people are very practical and worldly when it comes to what we have. We have a system. We have a plan. We use our resources for the “important things” -  paying of bills, providing for food and shelter for our family, putting our children through school, making sure the family has a few luxuries, vacations, adequate leisure time activities. When all that is done, we look at what is left over and then we give a portion back to God.

God would have us shift our priorities, when it comes to our resources and our very lives. We are called to put Him first, to give Him His share of all that we are and all that we have, to give sacrificially. This is not my crazy idea, but it has been a principle of our faith since the beginning.

Israel was an agrarian society. You survived on what you raised. Israel showed its faith in God, not merely by divvying up assets at the end of the harvest but by giving abundantly out of the first fruits, which were gathered in each year. This was a powerful act of faith on their part because first fruits were not always an indication of what the harvest would look like. Drought, hail, flood, blight, and a host of other things could wipe out all the expected fruits, with a lean period to follow but Israel was expected to trust in the Lord and give until it hurt as a sign of their great trust in the one true, living God.

How much do you and I trust God? Does He get the leftovers in our lives or does He share in the first fruits? Are we willing to give sacrificially believing there will be enough for us in the end and more than enough?

It is the Stewardship season. The question goes way beyond whether there will be money to keep the lights on in the Church or pay the Rector’s salary. The real question is – Are we willing to invest in the mission of the Church? Are we willing to give sacrificially of our time, our talent, our treasure that the Gospel may be lived here, shared here, and proclaimed boldly in the neighborhoods in which we live and in the world as a whole.

-- From St. Andrew’s The Messenger, November 2008