Giving Sunday 2021
Jacob de Wit - Moses elects the Council of Seventy Elders, ca. 1737
The Book of Numbers is a ‘miscellaneous book’ with narratives about a range of issues, not least about wandering around. We hear just before today’s excerpt that the ‘riffraff’ — to use Alter’s translation of Numbers 11: 4 — start to complain. So, Moses cried out to God —– why did you give me this bunch of whingers to lead? (This is my translation of verse 12).
God’s answer was to share the load. God instructed Moses to find seventy leaders and then God took some of Moses’ spirit and shared it among the leaders. Maybe we could think of this as God taking some of Moses’ leadership skills and sharing them out, although I think that probably underestimates what was shared. Anyway, our except today ends with verse 29 where Moses celebrates this action:
Would that all YHWH’s people were prophets
and that YHWH would put God’s spirit upon them
Essentially, what Moses is saying here can be paraphrased that power sharing is a good thing – a problem is easier to solve if the problem is shared. And wouldn’t it be great if everyone was a leader, with the spirit of God shining out from them.
There are lots of people who share in leadership roles in this Parish — and with lots of leaders we can get lots done, which makes the Parish the vibrant place it is. Hopefully, more demonstrably so when the lockdowns end, hopefully later this year.
So what I want to share with you today is the problem of the Parish’s finances, and to tell you some things that the parish leaders – the Parish Council and the Wardens — are doing about it, and what we are not able to do.
To the context. The lockdown has naturally meant a reduction in plate giving. If you’re not here physically, you can’t give physically.
We are hopeful that, as soon as we return, income will pick up to 2019 levels again. We are going to make it easier to give – both by parishioners and also for visitors – by a tap and give stand at the entrance to the church so that people can just tap their credit cards to support the parish.
We have been talking to the St Peter’s Eastern Hill Charitable Foundation about how they might help assist the parish with major maintenance relevant to our mission to homeless people, so that the Foundation accepts specified donation for that purpose. You’ll see revised phrasing in our stewardship brochure to reflect that. We’ll be phasing out giving through the National Trust which takes a percentage cut on donations whereas the Foundation doesn’t.
We have also chased external grants. We recently received a grant of $144,000 to help fix our leaking hall roof – but this only covers about half the cost. We’ll be able to find the other half by using the balance of the Gina MacPherson bequest.
So the leaking hall roof example is a story of a partnership – the parish leadership hunted down the grant opportunity and did the work on the application – twice as it turned out, because our application last year didn’t make the cut. But despite the work of the leadership team and the grant, the hall roof can only be fixed because of the generosity of a parishioner – dear Gina – who remembered the parish she loved so much in her will.
So back to the problem shared discussion at the start of this homily. God didn’t say to Moses you’re it, it is all on your shoulders, like it or lump it. What God said was here, I will help you through this problem by sharing the load – one becomes seventy.
And this is what I am urging today. The parish leadership can only do so much. We can’t fix the Parish’s finances on our own, we need you, the parishioners, to step up too. In this week’s parish newsletter there’s a request from Peter Griffin our Treasurer and me inviting you to think again about your giving regime. We are asking you to think carefully about how much you can give to support the parish.
Every little bit helps. Every little bit is important. The widow’s mite is specifically commended by Jesus.
Our draft 2021-22 budget includes an increase in parish ministry costs – setting us up to have a stipended ministry complement of one and a half priests in parish ministry in addition to Fr Philip’s work with the Lazarus Centre and our other non-stipended clergy. This means we’ll all need to increase our giving to cover that increase in staffing – but we will all benefit from the increase in ministry too.
We all get so much from St Peter’s. We all give so much too, in our time, in our fellowship, and in our prayers.
I’m asking you today to think of another way you give, through your financial contributions, and help us keep the parish going. This means working to find money to pay for the cost of maintaining our beautiful buildings, our choir, our hospitality, and our ministry.
So, we need you to think about your financial contributions and commit to give a little bit more by whatever channel you wish — tax deductibly through a choir donation or a specified maintenance donation to the Foundation — or generally.
Finally, let me assure you that, unlike what we heard about in the reading from James today, the gold and silver you give to the Parish will be put to good use in furthering our mission and ministry.
Would that all YHWH’s people were prophets
and that YHWH would put God’s spirit upon them