A story is told of a tourist from America who paid a visit to a renowned Polish rabbi. He was astonished to see that the rabbi's house was only a simple room filled with books, and had in it only a table and a bench.

"Rabbi," asked the tourist, "where is your furniture?"

"Where is yours?" asked the rabbi in return.

"Mine?" questioned the puzzled American. "But I am only passing through."

"So," said the rabbi, "am I."

There is always the suspicion when a Rector writes the congregation about stewardship that the real reason for doing so is that I want more of yours. In fact, a human being's relation to his possessions is perhaps the most critical issue any us will ever face. The lure of wealth, to someone who does not have it, can be as damaging as the misuse of wealth that one already possesses. The spiritual danger, of course is attitude.

That's why Jesus speaks so frequently of the perils of possessions:

• 1/10 of all verses in the Gospels deal directly with earthly treasure
• 500 verses in the Bible on prayer
• 500 verses in the Bible on faith
• 2000+ verses in the Bible on money and "stuff

It is clear that the power of money and its capacity to usurp the primacy of God in one's life poses a huge stumbling block to spiritual growth.

The word stewardship implies an understanding that all possessions are in fact the property of God. "All things come from you, O Lord, and of your own have we given You," says the Book of Common Prayer. Wealth carries a danger; that we will think that great resources equate with personal greatness and that we are in need of no other. But wealth also encompasses a great opportunity to use our resources to help create a world that is more loving and more just and more compassionate and more like God dreams it still can be.

I invite you then to peer inside and reflect on what you can do in service of your Lord. In God's Kingdom there are no bounds to generosity and no limit to graciousness.

God's peace

Ken Asel, Rector

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