Recently when I mentioned our annual stewardship campaign to someone not a churchgoer, he asked – why do churches need to raise money? Won’t God take care of you? I replied by telling him that indeed, God does take care of us – and that we are God’s eyes and hands on this earth. There is the generous work of God that we all carry out every day – such as praying for those in need, meditating on our lot in life, which don’t normally need funding. But in this real world, one needs funds in order to carry out God’s work. We here at St. George’s engage ourselves and the larger community in many ways. With God’s help we have created a community we all love and want to be part of, and hold in God’s light. This is what brought me, a lonely widow completely unchurched, to St. George’s 15 years ago, and what keeps me here: our community that does God’s wonderful works.
In the 16th century, Saint Teresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ is to go about doing good.” –Anne Beals, St. George’s Senior Warden
Anne, that is an amazing quote and one I have never heard before. Thank you so much!
Dear Anne, In my once position as choir director, I began teaching the choir an anthem that said: He has no hands save the hands of His children. A young member commented that this was bad theology because God is capable of doing anything. My reply was : “And this is one way He does it.” I don’t know what effect this had on him, but I do know he became a Presbyterian minister. Thank you for your reflections. Miriam Parsons.
Anne, thanks for your uplifting words,