Message: “The Big Orange Splot” and Giving
Text: Jeremiah 29:4-7, 9-14
(I begin with sitting on a chair on the stage)
This morning I brought with me a children’s story book, “The Big Orange Splot”, by Daniel Pinkwater.
(The screens will show the cover page and the pictures will follow, for each page of the book.)
It’s a normal children’s book, but it’s also a message about stewardship.
I invite all of you to feel like a child.
Change your posture a bit. Move your arms and how you sit… Make yourself comfortable. It’s a children’s story!
You know your favourite way to sit. Usually, it’s not the one that shows the best manners, sitting straight up. Maybe lean on the pew a little, or lean forward, to get the best view. Yeah. Mine is like ... this. :)
Imagine now is like the beginning of your favourite show or a bedtime story.
Now, engage with the story. As you do, find your favourite part. See which part you are most engaged with.
O.K. Here we go.
The Big Orange Splot
Mr. Plumbean says “My house is me and I am it.
My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams.”
Thank you for listening to the story!
What were the parts that most engaged you and your imagination? Take a moment to think about what they were for you.
In the story, Mr. Plumbean tells us “My house is me and I am it.” His house is where he likes to be. And it looks like all his dreams. I wonder if God might say the same things about this, the house of God, our congregation, our community. As we live out our ministry together in this neighbourhood, what might God’s dreams be, and what are your dreams to share?
This story tells us what stewardship means. Stewardship is not just about money. Stewardship is not an impersonal thing to be calculated, like the stewardship package is mailed to your address, you read it, estimate how much you can give and you add it to your budget. You are asked to serve on certain committees of this community. Offerings and service are what we do, and they are such important work - our stewardship committee members work hard to really promote these goals - our ministry needs to be sustainable and without your help, support, and giving, very little can be done.
Having said that, stewardship is not just giving or increasing the proportion of what you can give. Stewardship is really about finding that it is your home, your house, and God’s house. It might look like everyone else’s house right now, but you have this orange paint (show the orange paint!): Your dream.
If you’ve come to feel that our church is your home, your house, where you can say, “This place is me, and I am it,” ‘This place is us, and we are it.’, you must feel a personal connection to this place, not just as a physical space but as your place and our place, as a vibrant community that inspires you, motivates you, and excites you to fully inhabit your miraculous, generous, giving self. This place should look like your dreams, a place where your dream is heard and joined with the dreams of others. You should feel a deep sense of connection. There should be some big orange splot that is uniquely you, and that you would love to put into this community. But it's not always easy, because the sense of feeling that you are part of some great energy, with new meaning and renewed purpose needs a source.
Just like our lives have their ups and downs, your level of energy and sense of connection also change. Some of us might identify with being a newcomer, and you are observing, or have just begun to learn more about this community, slowly making new connections and friends, finding how you fit with our community. No matter where each of us are, there’s hope that all of us here, in our varied levels of experience and interest, give ourselves to the work of God, together.
Giving really means being an active participant in the community. Giving means finding how you can add to the community, and learning how you would like to participate in what is most important to you. Through your kindness, generosity, and giving, God’s world becomes a better place.
There was a time when I thought the world around me was very small and limiting; it didn’t reflect who I was and who I wanted to be, it seemed too small for the scope of my dreams. But as soon as I realized that many places in my life, work, neighbourhood, community demanded my active ‘participation’ in the world in order to make changes and be a change, the world became wonderfully and amazingly big again. That insight humbled me, motivated me, excited me and moved me to act. What I learned from this realization is that God is with us when and where we participate in the world to be creative.
What is your orange paint? What is the colour you wish to paint? Like Mr. Plumbean in the story, there’s a very important reason why you should feel that this house, this community is you, and you live in it, and it is where you like to be. Our community will respond to your dreams, and our church would like to help you and support you with them. And to make it happen, what you can do is participate. Participating is very personal work, and you should feel that way because really participating means that you put your dreams into your/our work. You give, you uphold, you change, you create. Please let us know what would support your participation best - to dream, to open your colourful paint can, and start a meaningful dialogue.
I would like to conclude this message with what God says in today’s reading from Jeremiah. “For sure I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11)
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