Tag: baptismal covenant

The Spiritual Discipline of Tithing

Occasionally, I am asked about tithing. Since we are in the season when churches traditionally emphasize faithful stewardship, I thought it might be helpful to share a few thoughts on the subject.

A “tithe” is 10% of something. Tithing has meant several things throughout history, including tribute, tax, and charitable contribution. Years ago, my wife and I came to understand the tithe as a spiritual discipline, by which we acknowledge that everything belongs to our Creator and our role is that of stewards. The discipline of tithing helps us maintain a healthy relationship with our possessions. As we see in the teachings of Jesus, if we are possessed by our possessions, we aren’t truly free and if possessions harm relationships with our neighbors, they undermine God’s vision of a world where people live in peace. As a priest, one of the most important things I can do for the spiritual health of those given into my care is to help them have a right relationship with possessions.

When we give the first 10% to God, we are reminded that everything we have, whether spent, saved, or given away, is a sacred trust from God. Each time we write a check to the Church for the tithe, we are reminded to be faithful stewards of the remaining 90%. We are also reminded that Jesus Christ doesn’t ask us for a small portion of our loyalty – he asks for 100%, "our selves, our souls and bodies."

Because we are unapologetically committed to the mission to which God is calling The Episcopal Church, that is where we bring God’s tithe. Other organizations have many different ways to solicit and raise funds to sustain them. The Church has us. Most secular organizations, governments, community chests, and businesses cannot contribute to overtly religious communities. We consider additional charitable giving to be an “offering.” God’s tithe and our offerings equal about 20% of our gross household income. By the standards of most of the world, the lifestyle sustained by the remaining 80% is luxurious.

Once we saw the difference this discipline could make in our lives and in Christ’s ongoing mission, we set out to work toward the goal of tithing. With God’s help, we modified our spending and saving patterns so we could step up each year toward a tithe. Then, we continued to take steps that would allow us to make offerings beyond the tithe.

I commend the discipline of tithing to you. Try it and discover for yourself how blessings flow in as treasures flow out. It will give new meaning to phrases found in the baptismal liturgy, such as placing our “whole trust in God’s grace and love.” It will change the way you understand our Lord’s summary of the Law, to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Blessings,

The Very Reverend Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

September 10, 2020
Remember Who You Are!

Sunday is the Feast of the Baptism of Christ. It is one of the days in the liturgical calendar when we renew the Baptismal Covenant. We do that from time to time so that we can remember that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters whom God has invited to live in a covenant relationship. A covenant relationship is one in which each party is bound to remain in relationship even when the other does not live up to the promises of the covenant. The most important thing to remember about our covenant relationship with God is that God always remains faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to God. God is always there, calling us back into that unique relationship.

I suppose the most impressive thing about this God of ours is the fact that, instead of sitting upon a throne, aloof and disinterested in the affairs of the people God has created, our God has chosen to enter into a covenant with us. This is a difficult thing for some to believe. I even find myself sometimes asking, when I sense my own unfaithfulness and that of the world around me, “What's a nice God like you doing in a covenant like this?”

As God's covenant promises were declared and established in the Baptism of Jesus – so God’s covenant promises are declared in our Baptism. In our Baptism we, like our Messiah who has gone before us, are anointed and our identity as God's children is established. Through Baptism we become members of God's family and are ordained to the priesthood of believers.

Whenever Baptism is administered, it is a sign of God's action and God's intentions toward us. God gets involved with us in a covenant relationship because God desires to be in fellowship with us and wants to work in and through us toward the fulfillment of our lives and the life of all creation. Who we are determines what we do, how we respond to the world and all the people and events of life.

Carl Sandburg once told a group of students at a Harvard commencement, “you need the spirit of Lincoln, who in the divided house of his day knew what to do because he knew who he was.” To be taught that we are children of God and to define ourselves in that way changes what we do with our lives. It is news we can embrace or resist. The fruit of our lives reveals which we are doing.

In Baptism we are marked as Christian disciples and heirs of God's grace. Few of us can actually remember our Baptism – its precise details. But we can remember that we are Baptized just as we can remember that we are born. In remembering our Baptism, we get back in touch with who we really are, God's children, called and set apart for a special purpose. We renew the covenant God has established with us so that there may be a renewal of forgiveness, faith, and ministry in our task as God’s own beloved people.

In Alex Haley's book, Roots, there is a memorable scene the night the slave, Kunte Kinte, drove his master to a ball at the big plantation house. Kunta Kinte heard the music from inside the house, music from the white folk's dance. He parked the buggy and settled down to wait out the long night of his master's revelry. While he sat in the buggy, he heard other music coming from the slave's quarters, the little cabins behind the big house. It was different music, music with a different rhythm. He felt himself carried down the path toward those cabins. There he found a man playing African music, his music which he remembered hearing in Africa as a child – the music he had almost forgotten. Kunta Kinte found that the man was from his section of Africa. They talked excitedly, in his native language, of home and the things of home.

That night, Kunta Kinte went home changed. He lay upon the dirt floor of his little cabin and wept. Weeping in sadness that he had almost forgotten, weeping in joy that he had at last remembered. The terrifying, degrading experience of slavery had almost obliterated his memory of who he was. But the music had helped him remember.

This is a parable about Baptism. It is a parable about how easy it is to forget who we are and whose we are. So the Church is here to remind us, to remind one another, that our freedom has been bought with a price, that someone greater than us has named us and claimed us, seeks us and loves us, with only one good reason in mind – to love us for all eternity. Whenever we see the water poured and each time we feast on the bread and wine of the Eucharist, let us renew the Baptismal Covenant, which we, from time to time, have broken. Each time someone is brought to these holy waters, let us remember our Baptism and be thankful. And each time we step back into the mission field at the Church’s doorstep, let us remember that we are beloved of God so that we can share that blessing with others.

I once had a small piece of one-way glass on my desk with an inscription that said, “Lord, make my life a window for your light to shine through and a mirror to reflect your love to all I meet.” That is exactly what God hopes will come of my Baptism, and yours as well.

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River
Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him
with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his
Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly
confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy
Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

I’ll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi

January 10, 2019
Claim the High Calling…

To have a vocation is to be called by God to do something. Some vocations are rather specific, such as a call to Holy Orders, a call to teach the Christian faith, a call to work for peace and justice from a religious perspective. All believers share a call to serve God and our neighbors as stewards of what God has provided to sustain and enrich creation. Each time we renew the Baptismal Covenant we promise to live by the implications of our Baptism.

In the biblical stories of creation, the vocation of stewardship is given to human beings alone. I think it is fair to say that the vocation of stewardship is one of the things that makes us human. No other creature is given such responsibility nor the ability to exercise such responsibility. Along with the call to be faithful stewards of God's creation, human beings possess the ability to act with purpose, to create, to communicate in complex ways through many languages, and to live in a conscious relationship with the Creator. Because the story of our faith says this vocation was given to humans by the Creator "in the beginning," I sometimes say that stewardship is in our DNA.

Last Sunday, I was reminded twice of the call to faithful stewardship.

At the principal service, our retiring hymn was "Come, Labor On." It's a hymn that stresses divine call and human response. The first part of one stanza got my attention; "Come, labor on. Claim the high calling angels cannot share." Not even the Holy Angels are expected to do what humans are called to do. To each order of creation is given certain roles that are not given to other orders of creation. Among the roles human beings are given is the vocation to serve God as stewards of creation. That responsibility does not belong to angels or any other creature. As beautiful, mysterious, powerful, and wondrous angels are, their vocation is different from that of humanity.

Later in the day, the Cathedral was full of the creatures with which we share the planet earth – dogs, cats, fish, snakes, ferrets, and other pets – that their human protectors had brought for our annual blessing of the animals. People have a special relationship with their pets. Pets bring a lot of joy to our lives. But as wonderful as these creatures are, they do not share the calling entrusted to their protectors. The Creator did not call them to do the things humans are called to do and they are not endowed with the same abilities and responsibilities as humans.

All this is to say that our annual emphasis on stewardship, which happens in many Christian churches in the fall of the year, is more than a fund raising campaign. It is an opportunity to celebrate God's call to be faithful stewards of God's bounty. It is an opportunity to take a closer look at our relationship with our possessions, our neighbors, and our planet. It is an opportunity to see how we can grow in generosity. It is an opportunity to invite God to use us more and more as instruments who move the world toward the vision God has for it. It is an opportunity to address our need to give as a central aspect of our humanity. It is an opportunity to celebrate the life God gives us through a new covenant to give to God in gratitude for what God has given us and to share our life and treasure with God's people.

Over half of the teachings and proclamations of Jesus have to do with possessions. I believe that is because he realized how easy it is for us to be possessed by our possessions. I believe he also understood that possessions are those things that are most likely to come between us and God, us and our neighbors, us and creation, and even to come between our selves and the selves we are meant to be, our spiritual identity. And, I believe Jesus wanted all people to be liberated from whatever enslaves us. The story of Jesus' encounter with the rich man who came to him seeking eternal life is recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Jesus told the man that the only thing he needed to do was to sell his possessions, give the money to the poor, and follow him. Mark's version of the story is slightly different. Mark's version of the story reads, "Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Jesus said what he did out of love. He knew the man was enslaved by his wealth and true liberty for him would not be possible until he ceased relying on his stuff more than he relied on God. He was inviting the man to be a faithful steward of God's bounty, to become fully human.

And that is the invitation that is annually extended to each follower of Jesus during the fall stewardship emphasis. That is why I look forward to this time of year. Every year, I hear from people who took the next step in pursuit of "the high calling angels cannot share." I hope you will be one of them this year!

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
Saint John’s Cathedral
Denver, Colorado

October 4, 2016
A Response to the Mass Shooting in Orlando

On Sunday morning, shortly before leaving for the early service, I turned on the news and heard about the mass shooting in Orlando. At that point, the estimate was twenty dead and forty-two wounded. Then, just before the ten o'clock service, a parishioner showed me an update on his smart phone. The estimate was fifty dead and over fifty wounded. All I could think of to do was to add the victims of this horrific act of violence to the Prayers of the People.

For the past two days, when I have had an opportunity to watch the news, read responses, and ponder what happened, I have felt an overwhelming sense of sadness and loss. Sadness for those killed and injured, their loved ones, friends, and colleagues, for my country that seems to have lost its way. Loss of a way of life, of a sense of security, of civility in public discourse, and of effective leadership in public office.

A friend asked me in a Facebook post why someone's faith would make them murder in cold blood. I don't think he liked my response because it included looking at the implications of our own faith and for placing stronger restrictions on certain kinds of guns. James told us, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26). Our trust in God and the beliefs we have about God's will for humanity should lead to action. Our faith should lead us in renewed efforts to "persevere in resisting evil", "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being," and all the other imperatives of the Baptismal Covenant.

We have a Christian duty to live our lives according to the example of Christ and to proclaim the good news. Yet, there are those who are both inside and outside our Christian community over whom we have little or no influence. Just as there are those of other faiths who twist the teachings of those faiths, so there are those within the Christian community who have perverted and abused the Gospel. There are people in all faiths who embrace an archaic interpretation of teachings and who rail against more contemporary and progressive viewpoints. Faith communities are struggling internally and externally in the context of a global cultural change. I believe that change is inevitable and that people of faith have an opportunity to contribute in positive ways to the new cultural ethos that emerges. But we will not succeed in that positive contribution through means that are in conflict with the primary values of world religions that call for peace, love, and well-being that supersede images of violence and hatred in our sacred texts.

Neither shooting dozens of LGBT people in a nightclub, nor inciting fear and conflict in political statements, nor being a "murderer at heart" (1 John 3:15) are pleasing in the sight of God. So, let us resolve to resist all of these things that harm God's children and work for common sense measures that are for the common good within our faith communities, across the lines that divide us, and within the body politic. I don't have all the answers. Neither do you. But we do have a faith that promises God can work through us to bring peace and goodwill. It will be hard work. If there were simple solutions, we'd have already prevented tragedies like the massacre in Orlando.

So, let us join hands, listen to one another, and get to work. All the while, let us pray for those who have died, those who suffer, those who are our neighbors, and those who are our enemies, in the hope that God's will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Gracious God, preserver of all things in heaven and earth, receive the souls of those murdered in Orlando into the arms of your mercy; envelop the Orlando community with your love; and grant us all–Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters–the courage and wisdom to speak with one voice in favor of your peace, which passes all understanding. Amen.

I'll see you in Church!

June 14, 2016
An Abundance of Prevention

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I’ve always believed it to be true and a piece of wisdom worthy of attention. However, in a two week period I’ve become involved in several prevention campaigns; Prevention of Sexual Violence, Prevention of Domestic Violence, Prevention of Gun Violence, Prevention of Suicide, and Prevention of Child Abuse to be specific. Each one of these programs deserves our undivided attention and I am grateful that they are available to our community. However, all together they are certainly more than “an ounce.”

All of this comes at a time when I am feeling the impact of terrorism at home and abroad, more mass shootings, the suicide of a colleague’s son, and news of the rape of a woman I know in another state. And it is Advent, the season of expectation, hope, and preparation for the birth of the One sent to save us.

In each of these prevention programs, we review recent data concerning the prevalence of the social ill we are trying to prevent. In most cases, the problems are escalating at an alarming rate. Something is wrong with a culture when we have to work so hard at prevention of such things. Our core values as a culture have obviously eroded.

I caught a glimmer of hope in conversation with the presenter of the workshop on domestic violence, The Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune, when she said that faith communities can present obstacles or opportunities for people facing behavior that needs to be prevented. For example, a biblical passage can be interpreted in ways that make a victim of violence believe it is their fault, that the abuser has a God-given right to hurt someone, or that the violence is somehow God’s punishment. Or, the passage might be interpreted in life-affirming ways that help lift a person out of harm’s way.

It makes me even more grateful that our Church emphasizes God’s grace, love, and forgiveness. Each of us who has received that hopeful message is in a position to share it with others, especially those who are vulnerable. In so doing, we may not only help someone discover an abundant life, we may also provide just the thing that actually saves a life.

We also belong to a community of people who can hold one another accountable for our harmful actions just as we encourage good works. Watching over one another in love, we support profound behavioral change. Jesus didn’t just preach repentance, he formed a community to surround penitents with guidance, care, and the means of grace that are necessary to sustain the new life that is emerging when the old life is left behind.

In the Baptismal Covenant, we affirm that with God’s help we will persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever we fall into sin, we will repent and return to the Lord. We affirm that with God’s help we will seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves. And, we affirm that with God’s help we will strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

That’s our ounce of prevention, which we ourselves have received and which we offer to cure the social ills swirling around us. It’s about more than stopping something; it’s also about offering hope. It’s not just about protecting the victims; it’s also about redemptive change for those who do violence. It’s more than an ounce or even a pound; it’s the offer of immeasurable possibilities for good that will reverberate beyond our own generation.

It’s something to think about.

I’ll see you in Church!

December 4, 2015
The Renewal of the Baptismal Covenant

Yesterday, on the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, we renewed the Baptismal Covenant. We do that from time to time so that we can remember that we are God’s beloved sons and daughters whom God has invited to live in a covenant relationship. A covenant relationship is one in which each party is bound to remain in relationship even when the other does not live up to the promises of the covenant. The most important thing to remember about our covenant relationship with God is that God always remains faithful to us, even when we are unfaithful to God. God is always there, calling us back into that unique relationship.

I suppose the most impressive thing about this God of ours is the fact that, instead of sitting upon a throne, aloof and disinterested in the affairs of the people he has created, our God has chosen to enter into a covenant with us. This is a difficult thing for some to believe. I even find myself sometimes asking, when I sense my own unfaithfulness and that of the world around me, "What's a nice God like you doing in a covenant like this?"

As God's covenant promises were declared and established in the Baptism of Jesus – so God’s covenant promises are declared in our Baptism. In our Baptism we, like our Messiah who has gone before us, are anointed and our identity as God's children is established. Through Baptism we become members of God's family and are ordained to the priesthood of believers.

Whenever Baptism is administered, it is a sign of God's action and God's intentions toward us. God gets involved with us in a covenant relationship because God desires to be in fellowship with us and wants to work in and through us toward the fulfillment of our lives and the life of all creation. Who we are determines what we do, how we respond to the world and all the people and events of life.

Carl Sandburg once told a group of students at a Harvard commencement, "you need the spirit of Lincoln, who in the divided house of his day knew what to do because he knew who he was." To be taught that we are children of God and to define ourselves in that way changes what we do with our lives. It is news we can embrace or resist. The fruit of our lives reveals which we are doing.

In Baptism we are marked as Christian disciples and heirs of God's grace. Few of us can actually remember our Baptism – its precise details. But we can remember that we are Baptized just as we can remember that we are born. In remembering our Baptism, we get back in touch with who we really are, God's children, called and set apart for a special purpose. We renew the covenant God has established with us so that there may be a renewal of forgiveness, faith, and ministry in our task as God’s own beloved people.

In Alex Haley's book, Roots, there is a memorable scene the night the slave, Kunte Kinte, drove his master to a ball at the big plantation house. Kunta Kinte heard the music from inside the house, music from the white folk's dance. He parked the buggy and settled down to wait out the long night of his master's revelry. While he sat in the buggy, he heard other music coming from the slave's quarters, the little cabins behind the big house. It was different music, music with a different rhythm. He felt himself carried down the path toward those cabins. There he found a man playing African music, his music which he remembered hearing in Africa as a child – the music he had almost forgotten. Kunta Kinte found that the man was from his section of Africa. They talked excitedly, in his native language, of home and the things of home.

That night, Kunta Kinte went home changed. He lay upon the dirt floor of his little cabin and wept. Weeping in sadness that he had almost forgotten, weeping in joy that he had at last remembered. The terrifying, degrading experience of slavery had almost obliterated his memory of who he was. But the music had helped him remember.

This is a parable about Baptism. It is a parable about how easy it is to forget who we are and whose we are. So the Church is here to remind us, to remind one another, that our freedom has been bought with a price, that someone greater than us has named us and claimed us, seeks us and loves us, with only one good reason in mind – to love us for all eternity. Whenever we see the water poured and each time we feast on the bread and wine of the Eucharist, let us renew the Baptismal Covenant, which we, from time to time, have broken. Each time someone is brought to these holy waters, let us remember our Baptism and be thankful. And each time we step back into the mission field at the Church’s doorstep, let us remember that we are beloved of God so that we can share that blessing with others.

I once had a small piece of one-way glass on my desk with an inscription that said, “Lord, make my life a window for your light to shine through and a mirror to reflect your love to all I meet.” That is exactly what God hopes will come of my Baptism, and yours as well.

I’ll see you in Church!

P.S. Thanks to Tom Booth for his photo of the Baptism of Christ panel in the East Window above the High Altar of Christ Church Cranbrook.

January 13, 2014
Collaboration and Community

When I started the car and the radio came on, an interview was already underway with the author of a recent book about the significance of civil discourse at every level of our lives. I was unable to get the name of the author or of his book. However, in the course of the interview, he made this statement about the statutes, ordinances, policies, guidelines, and customs which govern us: "These are the structures we have set in place to make it possible for us to collaborate."

I'd like to add that followers of reveal religions like Judaism and Christianity believe some of those structures are God-given. The Ten Commandments come to mind. They are given to us as a revelation of God's desire for the children of God to live together in ways that advance God's vision for creation.

Because human beings are by nature more or less suspicious of authority, if not defian of it, we tend to resist rules that are imposed upon us. And, yet, the author's words remind us that we need such things to make it possible for us to work together toward common objectives and shared visions. If our human structures for collaboration are ineffective, then we have structures to guide us through an orderly process of improving them. We have been given higher order thinking ability to move us past our fears and mistrust into collaborative behaviors.

Theologian and University President George Rupp wrote a book about community and commitment in which he points out that there is no life without community and no community without commitment. God created us for community. We have been placed in families, tribes, nations, societies, nations, and organizations. Jesus' first act in his public ministry was to form a community when he called his disciples. The call to follow Christ is always a call to life in community with others of his followers. Continuation of community requies something of us. We need each other!

In our life together in the Church, the nation, or the global village, we accomplish more together than apart. We live in an increasingly interdependent world. At the same time, we are more aware of the differences that threaten us. In light of that interdependence and diversity, perhaps effective collaboration is more critical now than at any point in human history. Our world and our progress as God's children requires that we devote ourselves to working together in effective ways.

The Baptismal Covenent in The Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church contains two questions that invite us to commitment to civility, collaboration, and community:

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

Our answer to these questions is, "I will, with God's help." Those of us who have given such an answer to these or similar questions are in the best possible position to become specialists in civil discourse and collaborative behavior in pursuit of our Creator's vision of healing and advancement of human life on "this fragile earth, our island home." God help us do it!

February 10, 2011