November 16, 2025 – Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 58.6-12
Ephesians 4.7, 11-16
Intentional Grounding
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
A friend of ours hosts a solstice party every year to celebrate the first day of winter. It has all the features you’d expect: mulled cider, hand-made wreaths and garlands hung around the home, lots of hearty singing and playing of instruments of all kinds, and a roaring bonfire in the back yard. At one point during the party, guests are invited to write on a slip of paper some of their intentions for the year to come – it’s called “the setting of intentions.” It could be a resolution, a hope or a dream, a wish, or simply a sentiment to raise into the ether. We then toss the intentions into the fire pit, and watch the smoke rise into the night sky. And as you toss your intention, you have the option of sharing it with others, or you can just keep it to yourself. I’ll be honest, when this part of the party was first described to me, I thought it was a little woo-woo, a little out there. But as I listened to what some other guests had to say, I began to appreciate the ritual’s meaning. And as I look back on it, I’m pleasantly surprised to realize that my own intentions have been fulfilled in ways and a measure I would never have expected.
I’m sad to say, and I’m certain you will be sad to hear, today is the last stewardship sermon of the season, and today’s bulletin insert seems to know it and wants me to come straight to the point: Why Pledge? Why Pledge? Now that we’ve spent time with the loaves and fishes and the Good Samaritan, it seems it’s time to cut to the chase: Why Pledge? I imagine there are probably two very broad and general answers to this, and they are obvious. One is that our pledges support our church’s budget. Copies of the proposed 2026 budget have been published and are available for you in the narthex, the entryway back there to the church. Please feel free to take one if you haven’t already. One of the things I appreciate about this year’s edition is that, for the spreadsheet-minded among us, on the one side there are enough numbers to keep you busy the rest of the afternoon. For those who need their numbers explained to them, like myself, there is narrative on the other side that helps to put those numbers in perspective. Making a pledge to the church, that is to say, letting the church know what you intend to contribute for the coming year, helps us be realistic about these numbers. In the same way that we as individuals and families need to know our annual income in order to plan for the year ahead, the church needs this information for the same reason. So we are asking you to write down your intentions and to share them confidentially with the church so we too can plan wisely for the year ahead.
But to be honest, I don’t know too many people who get excited about a budget. If you were to ask for my pledge based on fixing the bottom line, you’re going to get a yawn and a poorly thought-out pledge. This is because I can get much more excited about how our pledges enable our mission and ministry, and this is the second of the two ways of looking at pledging. What does my contribution do for the church? What does it do for others? What does it do for our community and neighbors, known and unknown? To the extent that my pledge makes ministry happen, this is something I can be passionate about, this is what I want my church to be doing in my name and with my dollars – and when I say the words “my church,” I don’t mean mine as the minister, but mine as a member of the congregation like every other member. Deb read this morning about the church as the body of Christ, “joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, [which] promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” If this is what my pledge is doing, I will get behind it every time.
Think of it as those winter solstice intentions I mentioned. What are our resolutions, our hopes, our dreams, our wishes and desires for our church? These are what we are putting into writing when we inscribe our yearly pledge. And it is partly in the act of deciding them, of putting them down in writing, that our intentions become clear, it is where we ground our intentions, and it is where they ground us in the nuts and bolts of these numbers that you and I together transform into mission and ministry, as surely as those bits of paper tossed in the fire pit float, prayer-like, in smoke and ash, heavenward.
Our church depends on us. We depend on us, because we are our church. And let’s think larger: I spent some time this week writing down all the groups and individuals I could think of who rely on our church in a wide variety of ways. Our scouts rely on us – we have been sponsoring and supporting our scout troops for generations, and part of their endurance and staying power is because we support them. Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Pantry relies on us, for meals, for fellowship, and for building and maintaining community. The backpack program depends on us, school children and families who need a little something extra to get through the week. The Circle of Friends Montessori School depends on us so they can provide quality education and enriching experiences for young people in a safe and creative environment. The Garden Club depends on us. The Chester Library depends on us. Rotary depends on us. The Chester Hose Company depends on us. The Town of Chester depends on us. And these are just the organizations, to say nothing of the individuals who rely on us. Every person who shows up in the church office looking for a grocery card relies on us. Folks who are worried and weary about our nation and our world rely on us. And I’ve given up counting the number of people from all over the state who have told me they drive by the church sign, and it puts a smile on their face no matter what it says, because it makes them think for a moment, and their day is just a little bit better. We simply never know who is going to be touched, and how, by who we are and what we do as the United Church of Chester. My entire career in ministry has been an expression of the old TJ Maxx motto, “It’s never the same store twice:” when it comes to the church, it is never the same day twice. You just never know when God is going to bring us a person who needs to know they can rely on us.
I chose the passage from Isaiah because it helps us remember that our monetary contributions are only the beginning – in important beginning, but still not the end goal of faithful and effective ministry. Our contributions equip us, as Paul wrote, to do the broader work of the church. In Isaiah’s words, that work is “to lose the bonds of injustice, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke… to share our bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into our house, to cover the naked,” and to be there, to show up, for every neighbor in any need. Then, the prophet proclaims, “Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and healing shall spring up quickly, and our light will penetrate the world’s darkness.” Our Trustees reminded us as much in the stewardship letter sent in our pledge packets: “Since 1740 our community has depended on us for spiritual direction, a hub of support, a refuge against the storm, a place of joy and a symbol of hope.”
When we dedicate our pledges next Sunday, as each of us comes forward with our faith-grounded intentions, supporting the church is only the beginning. The United Church supports the town and residents of Chester and the surrounding region in ways we know about and ways we don’t – this is how God works! And we do this because it is what our faith is calling us to do, and what our shared humanity is calling us to do. To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.