another pass

OK - I didn't like how choppy the last one was. So I am trying again.


Good morning. I was asked to speak a couple of minutes today about the stewardship drive and why I am a member here at Travis Park.

I am a member here because I am broken. The world does not like brokenness. We are supposed to portray an image of perfection to our peers. Any sign of weakness will be exploited so that someone else gets the promotion. But in order to follow the commandment Jesus gives us today - love one another as I have loved you - we cannot allow ourselves the dishonesty that pretending to be whole involves. We have to allow ourselves and one another to be broken in order for the intimacy to exist, and I have never found a church that from the top down embraced and challenged our own weaknesses.

Before Jesus fed the multitudes, he took the meager offerings of the disciples. And then he broke the loaves and blessed them. And just as I am broken, so too am I blessed. I am blessed with this day, and a beautiful daughter, and a day away from said beautiful daughter as she is looking for pumpkins with my parents today. In a moment, we will pass the collection plates, and I like the rest of you will put in my meager offering. But I know also that as it comes from me and my broken and blessed life, it too will be used to feed the multitudes, me among them.


Yeah, I like this better.