October brings yet another Season of Stewardship in the life of the parish. This will be the 14th Stewardship Season in which I, as Rector, have been primarily responsible for challenging parishioners to embrace a life of faithful stewardship.

Fourteen years seems like a long time to repeat a message -- except when one considers that the message is thousands of years old:

We are not our own.
God creates us for his purpose.

We possess nothing of our own making.
God blesses us with talent and opportunity and then makes us fruitful.

We are not created to live for self alone.
God calls us to partnership with him; he blesses us so that we will be a blessing to others.

The basic stewardship message is not difficult to understand. The difficulty lies in embracing the message and allowing the power of God to flow freely through us.

A truly faithful covenant community is a community of stewards who freely receives God's blessing, and, just as freely, releases that blessing in the world to see it multiply. People gather to support one another, to care for their children, to nurture their youth, to support their seniors, to reach out to those who struggle.

It is a well-resourced oasis of grace of great abundance in a world that can feel, sometimes, like a dry desert of desperation. What makes this possible? A community of stewards give freely and joyfully in faith believing our Lord provides, that we may provide for one another.

This month, for the 14th time, I will talk about the challenge of the Tithe. A faithful steward joyfully returns 10% of his income to God through his parish -- his covenant community -- so that it may be materially empowered to bless the world.

And, for the 14th time, I will hear people object to, rationalize, and avoid the ancient challenge. So it seems to be, and perhaps ever shall be world without end, AMEN.

That's okay. Every year I see the light turn on in yet another person. One or two will "get it" this year and discover the joy of truly living by faith trusting God to provide even their daily bread. One or two will become "tithers," and our parish will be that much more enriched -- not by their money -- but by their faithfulness.

So, for the fourteenth time in so many years I will lift up the challenge of faithful stewardship.

Let's get started.