At its heart, the meeting of our General Assembly is an opportunity to practice stewardship. Commissioners and leaders of the assembly consider our collective resources and the ways that God is calling us to use these resources. There are far more needs in the world than we can address, yet with God’s help we can make a difference. We pray that the Spirit would stir within us:
Clarity – to know what seeds to plant and nurture;
Courage – to plant wherever God calls; and
Commitment – to tend and care through all seasons of life, through rainy and dry seasons, in fertile springs and lifeless winters.
Stewardship is hard, exhausting work. It requires late nights, back-breaking and heart-wrenching chores, vision and planning and patience. Heaps of patience. Stewards, thus, need to receive care as much as they must give it.
One of the ways God stewards the General Assembly (and every Christian) is through worship. When the church gathers, prays, sings hymns, rests in silence and listens for the Word, God reminds us that we are beloved children. Worship is as much an opportunity for God to speak to people as it is a time for people to talk to God. In worship, God loves us and reforms us, then sends us back out to care for the world.
The General Assembly provides opportunities for Presbyterians to both be stewarded by God and be stewards of creation. Susan Palo Cherwien’s hymn, “Rise, O Church, Like Christ Arisen” (Glory to God, #536), was featured in the opening worship service. It perfectly captures this basic piece of Christian theology. The first verse sings:
Rise, O church, like Christ arisen, from this meal of love and grace;
may we through such love envision whose we are, and whose, our praise.
Alleluia, alleluia: God, the wonder of our days.
God cares for the church through the gift of the Eucharist. As love and grace feed us in bread and wine, all of our senses – smell, touch, feel, taste – meet our beloved identity. This meal nourishes us and strengthens us so that we may “rise” at its conclusion, just as Christ was resurrected.
The following verses call us to “rise,” follow and work with Jesus Christ and the Spirit, completing a beautiful Trinitarian formula in the first three verses. The final verse then cements our role as stewards:
Service be our sure vocation; courage be our daily breath;
mercy be our destination from this day and unto death.
Alleluia, alleluia. Rise, O church, a living faith.
The church is not called to feast, rise and stay. The church is called to feast, rise and go. Having been loved and cared for by God, we rise from the meal and leave the church. We return to our works of service and mercy. This stewardship is the sign of true faith.
We rise, go and serve wherever the Triune God calls us. Presbyterians, take courage! Set mercy as your final destination. Named and claimed as God’s beloved children, let us practice good stewardship until we meet again. Baltimore or bust!
Mary Margaret Flannagan serves as pastor for the Presbyterian Church of Sweet Hollow in Melville, New York. She is a board member of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians.
