MoneyMoneyMoney

Today some good news about your generous giving.

Even though Jesus talked more about money than any other single subject, we don’t.  Some of you appreciate that, others don’t. But just as President Obama delivered his State of the Union address earlier this week, I want to say a brief word about our State of the Church – financially.

We ended 2011 with a surplus of approximately $11,000.  In a time when so many congregations are running deficits and digging into emergency funds, having a 5-figure surplus is a real blessing.  Furthermore, this is the third year in a row that your giving has provided us with a small surplus.  This same time period has been incredibly challenging economically for our whole nation, so your level of generosity stands out all the more.

This surplus stands separate your gifts over and above our basic ministry expenses.  When we cluster all of the missions-related giving – special offerings, scholarships, disaster relief, donations, and so on – our end-of-year total balance for missions giving was just shy of $123,000!  I think this is simply phenomenal.

As for 2012, we are “cautiously optimistic.”  Our caution is rooted in the fact that we received significantly fewer pledges or estimates of giving for 2012 than the previous year.  Our base of reliable and committed givers is shrinking. 

I’m convinced that many of you who stepped up with a pledge for 2011 have simply forgotten to do the same for 2012 – or you may have forgotten how important that is for our planning.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him.” (Luke 14)  You can help your church estimate wisely … and avoid ridicule!  Pledge cards are available in the church office, or by email request.

At the same time, our optimism is grounded again in your generosity.  The average pledged amount increased from last year.  Last year’s average pledge was $4,593 per year, or $383 per month.  This year’s average pledge is $4,892, or $408 per month – almost a 10% average increase in giving.  The average means, of course, that some can and do give more, and others less.  That’s okay.  “If the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has – not according to what one does not have.” (2 Corinthians 9)

I don’t want to hem and haw about money.  It's a great thing.  As we say in our LifeSign offertory prayer, our financial gifts are “tangible love.” This is how love spreads beyond our small circles of influence. The heart that dares to be generous with money finds it easier to be generous in every other way, too.

And, a plug:  I recommend to you the website MattAboutMoney.com. Matt Bell was here a few years ago and was wonderfully wise and helpful.  His focus is helping families – especially those with children – grow to be responsible users of money.  Matt’s weekly blog is always full of humor, wisdom and good advice.  I recommend it whole-heartedly. 

Through the blessing of our generous God, may you grow in Extravagant Generosity in every way this week!

Pastor Larry

SOPA & PIPA

I wanted today to pass along some disturbing information I’ve been reading about two pieces of legislation that stand to threaten our church and thousands of other churches around the country – as well as millions of people around the world.  The two pieces of legislation are known as the U.S. House’s SOPA and the U.S. Senate’s PIPA. They stand for Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act.

Much of what I’m passing along here is from the website www.Readthespirit.com. (I don’t want to be accused of piracy myself!) I hope you’ll go there for more information.

The two acts before the Congress intend to protect copyrights and properly credit the work of other artists and professionals. Claims that websites are violating the act would lead to the websites being shut down until the issue is resolved. SOPA and PIPA target entire regions of the world where copyright infringement and piracy occur regularly.  We could agree that this is a good goal.

The danger, however, is that simply a claim of piracy or infringement is enough to black out the sites under accusation. This could affect us directly – and the world overall.

Imagine if an online search program reviewing our website spotted a photograph or a bit of text or music that wasn’t properly copyrighted.  Say a member of our youth group posts a YouTube video with some unknown music on a generic background. This search program identifies the music and the photograph and determines we don’t have permission to use that clip.  BANG!  Down goes our website.

This could happen to thousands of churches daily, in addition to millions of other sites. It’s overkill.

Even if we think that copyright infringement deserves a tough response, this legislation poses global problems of major concern. More critically, it gives dictators tremendous power to shut down internet communication by accusing freedom movements of “piracy” and “infringement.”

For example, in the waning days of Egypt’s dictatorship, unsuccessful attempts were made to black out the Internet. What if our Congress gave every dictator threatened by the “Arab Spring” movement a legal way to shut down internet communications among freedom fighters?  What if this legislation gave China or Iran the right to block religious freedom sites for their people? Or Afghanistan the power to keep certain sites dark that they believed brought comfort to our soldiers?  I don’t want to make it one bit easier for brutal dictators to repress grassroots movements for freedom by claiming simply to be “getting tough” on copyright laws.

We have the Bill of Rights in our DNA – especially freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press. I believe that freedoms such as these derive from our being created in the image of God, human beings made worthy of dignity and freedom. We live in an increasingly democratic world, where information is shared instantaneously. I support the right of creators to own their intellectual property. But the SOPA and PIPA bills are dangerous in the license they provide.

What should we do?   First, familiarize yourself with these bills.  Check out the www.ReadTheSpirit.com website; read legal expert Laurence Tribe’s opposition to SOPA and PIPA. (Here is a story covering Tribe’s decision to oppose these bills.)

Note that Senator Mark Warner says, "… both SOPA & PIPA go too far. Online piracy is a real and serious problem, but there has to be a better way to go after rogue sites without fundamentally changing the way the Internet works."         (from his website)

I encourage you to express your opinions directly to our members in Congress:

http://www.connolly.house.gov/

http://www.webb.senate.gov/

http://www.warner.senate.gov

 

God bless you.

Pastor Larry

Rear-Ended

I got rear-ended yesterday morning.  A new experience for me – not one I want to repeat – but one I now share with many of you.

I was approaching a stoplight on Braddock Road, getting ready to turn left.  In a quick glance at the rear-view mirror I noticed that a car that should look this big (Ѿ) looked this big (Ѿ).  I didn’t have time to process it, I just remembered it later after a big WHUMP shocked the car.  A weird blur of chaos, then nothing. I sat for a few seconds, then got out to talk to “the perp.”

The young man who hit me was maybe in his early 20’s, running late to his college class.  “I .. I ... just didn’t see you.” He seemed so stunned and scared, and I was basically all right, so I said, “Have you ever been in an accident before?”

“No,” he murmured.  “Never.”

“Well," I said, "here’s how this works.” And I asked him for information, shared mine and so on til we were ready to go.  His car had a dent and some impact places; my trunk and bumper need work, and my neck is sore (have been to the doctor), but all in all we were fortunate.

So that’s one of those insights that comes vividly true when it happens to you.  Anything can occur anytime. We are fortunate.  Life is risky business. You just never know. No one gets out of this world alive, but we can be grateful for the days and blessings and near-misses we do get.

That means it takes a certain degree of courage just to live.  Paul Tillich once wrote a book called The Courage to Be, and I think the title alone makes enough of a point to me.

The moment of impact, while not great, was a flash of disorientation.  It was a split-second reintroduction to those forces bigger than I am, way out of my control, that lurk around us every day. It seems melodramatic to say it reminded me of death, but death often comes in just that way. And in that flash of WHUMP and what the --?!? I at least knew that would be the moment when God would be there – and was there – and will be there – even in my disorientation.

And I felt blessed that I could be of some help to this stunned, guilty young man. Let me be clear – I don’t have a long history of auto accidents!  But the experience of a few extra years can give one some perspective and serenity in the midst of a crisis. That experience and that calmness can be a gift to others in frightening times. Surviving a crisis brings us a unique wisdom that we can use later on to help others.

For those of you who spend a lot of time in your car, we pray traveling mercies on you. May God keep you safe and alert, that we can gather with gratitude each week.

Through many dangers, toils and snares, we have already come.

'Tis grace hath brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us home.

Doing the Right Thing When It's Hard

One of the most enjoyable movies I saw over the holidays was “The Descendants.”  George Clooney leads an excellent cast through a difficult story that showed some rare glimpses of a deep morality at the core of very-human people.

Clooney plays Matt King, a workaholic lawyer living in Hawaii. His lovely wife Liz has been left in a coma due to a tragic boating accident at the beginning of the film. As Matt struggles with his shock and grief over the approaching end of her life, he soon learns something more painful:  Liz was cheating on him when she was injured.  Matt is stunned, angry, and hurt.  He has a lot to sort out as he also tries to learn how to be a decent parent to his rebellious daughters.

Two scenes spoke to me very powerfully of people struggling to do the right thing when it’s hard.

In the first, Matt goes to visit Liz’s parents.  Liz’s angry father starts in berating Matt and praising his daughter.  The older man repeatedly sings the praises of Liz's faithfulness and attentiveness to Matt and their marriage; he repeatedly reproaches his son-in-law for being an absent workaholic. His diatribe intensifies. As an audience member you finally want Matt to say, “Oh yeah?  Well, let me tell you about your precious “faithful” daughter. You want Matt to set the old man straight.

But Matt doesn’t. He resists telling her father that Liz, in fact, wasn't nearly as faithful as he believes.  He bears the old man’s anger and reproach instead and does nothing to damage his love for his daughter.

In a separate scene, Julie Speers (the wife of the man Liz has been cheating with) comes to visit Liz in the hospital.  She brings flowers and wants to talk to Liz. With tears coming down her face, Julie says to the comatose Liz, "I forgive you. I'm angry, but I forgive you. I forgive you for sleeping with my husband. I forgive you for trying to break up my family. I should hate you, but I forgive you.”

In the book Julie’s speech comes across calmly, as you may have just read it, as serene and at peace.  In the movie, though, Julie seems to be raging against Liz even as she speaks her forgiveness. It’s obvious that she wants to forgive and knows she needs to forgive – but she’s fighting back her rage all the while she’s saying what she knows she has to say. It’s a powerful moment.

Liz’s selfish betrayal has exacted a terrible cost in human pain. But Matt and Julie show us two people with a moral center, each working hard to be a decent and loving human being, each trying to take “the high road” in the face of anger and pain.

Bearing unjust accusations and staying silent.  Speaking forgiveness at the hardest moments. Resisting the temptation into vengeance and retribution. Staying true to one’s core beliefs. These elements ought to be familiar to anyone of us who knows the story of God’s dealings with us.  We find parallels in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Wouldn’t you like to have the strength to do the right thing?  Even when it’s hard? 

See you in church.
              Pastor Larry