Sunday 8 November 2015

We will Remember Them!

Today is Remembrance Sunday and last week was All Saints Day so in church this morning we will be combining the two and doing a litany of remembrance where we light candles to remember those we have loved and lost or those who we know are suffering in any way in our lives today. We also light candles for our world, to show we care. The gospel story today is often called 'the Widow's Mite'. It is the story of a widow who gives all she has to the treasury as opposed to those who give out of their abundance. We often look at this story as a call to stewardship in the church, a call to give more money and this can be a great way to look at this. We need to support our churches or soon they will be gone. However, what if we look at this story from a different point of view. What if we look at it as a radical protest against the use of religion, politics and power to victimise those who are powerless and vulnerable. We will do this today.

In our Sunday school this week we talked about "The offering". Why we have an offering in church and how we share out Time, Talent and Treasure. One young man asked me, if I earn the money, why do I have to share it. What a great question and we spent some time exploring what it means to share what we have. There are so many ways children can share. We made boxes, and decided that if we made any money, we would put some in the save box, some in the share box and some in the spend box. What a great way for children to begin to learn about money management and stewardship at the same time. Sunday school is so much fun at St. Andrew's. It is a joy to watch these young minds learn the stories of Jesus and also to learn what they may mean in our society today. I have missed working with the young folks since I went into ministry, in my former life I taught Sunday school for years. So now that I am back at it, I am loving it. Thanks to all the children who come and share their time with me and with all those who help in this midweek program.

Life is so hard some days, it helps to remember that there is always something we can share with one another, whether it be time, talent or treasure. Help someone this week by sharing one of these with others.
Have a good week everyone!