Loading...Yesterday was the funeral service for our friend, Sheri Stallings. We were able to provide a place for people from a variety of faiths and denominations to come together here to celebrate the life of a person who lived her life living out Jesus’s commandment to love one another as Jesus loves us.
Sheri and her husband, Lowery, never made a lot of money. But they lived an abundant life. Lowery was a youth pastor when they were in their early years of marriage. And youth pastors do not make a lot of money. Sheri would work whatever job she could to help make ends meet while being a supportive wife to her husband, in his ministry, in his coaching and in his competitive running.
A supportive wife who lived modestly and was a messenger, a beacon, of God’s love.
If she complained, it was not to me. But I only knew her for a few short years. She probably had a few things that were hard to adjust to over her lifetime, but for the most part, she accepted what they had and the life they chose to live, sharing God’s love.
The Stallings, in my view, were not people to look at the negative, unless the negative had anything to do with injustice or abuse. And then, they would be on the front lines, in whatever way they could, to stand up for the marginalized.
They were, and Lowery still is, people who look for the positive. Always looking for the good, even when Sheri was sick with cancer and dying.
The biggest, and maybe the only complaint I have heard since she died on Labor Day was that we didn’t get enough time.
You might be wondering why I am telling you all this. Perhaps it’s a bit about my own grief at losing a friend. But I think it is also because we all have a choice for how we look at the world. Some see the glass half full, others half empty. Some are thankful to have a glass that can be refilled.
We can choose to see abundance where others find scarcity. We can look at the ways people treat others and wonder why some people seem to have all the good luck, seem to be “hashtag: blessed,” when others seem to always have so much to overcome.
The Israelites were complainers. They were on a journey, breaking free from the oppression of slavery, following Moses, wondering if they had made a terrible decision to follow him. They were thirsty. They were hungry. Their feet hurt and their backs were tired. Nothing seemed to be coming very easily, and they had had just about enough.
It’s easy to complain when things are hard. When the way is long. When the destination is a mystery. When the food runs out and the streams are dry. When it feels like God has abandoned you.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t get it. Of course, when everything seems to be harder than we want, it is easy to think that God has vanished.
But the Israelites had already seen God’s protection through the parting of the Red Sea and the waters crashing down on their pursuers. There was no other explanation for that than God’s intervention.
So why would God leave them hungry in the desert? Of course, they were wondering why they had to go into the desert to starve to death when they at least had food when they were enslaved.
It is in this story the Israelites are reminded that God would always provide for them. It might not always look like what they expected. In their desperate need, God rained down manna in the morning and supplied quails at night—enough to feed everyone for the day, but not enough to save for the next. Day after day God showered them with holy, life-giving provision.
In their fear and doubt, God provided. It wouldn’t be the last time they would fear or doubt, but over, and over again, God would give them what was needed, when it was needed.
This is a good story to remember. Sometimes it feels like the sky is falling, the rivers are rising, or we simply are afraid; and we might wallow in the dread, and worry about tomorrow, forgetting that God will provide.
Whatever that provision looks like is not up to us. It could be like an odd bread-type substance called manna, or an abundance of quail which might seem too small and too time-consuming to prepare to eat.
To put it another way, on a subject that might be more real to many of us here, it could be about having an endowment that has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest to support this church for the past few years.
I am so thankful to know that St. James’ received a gift of over one million dollars back in the mid-1990’s. With funds from this endowment, this church does not have to worry about where to find the money for expensive repairs and restoration. This community has been able to use funds from this gift to ensure that some budgeted expenses are mostly covered from a small percentage of the Lizzie Fund.
Manna from heaven.
Since I arrived here about 3 ½ years ago, the principle of this fund has remained stable, even though we have withdrawn probably over $300,000 to cover expenses for the partial repair and restoration of the bell tower, the repair of the bell, three or maybe even four HVAC units, and the annual percentage draw to cover other budgeted expenses.
Quail in the grass.
God has provided us with a healthy endowment that currently hovers at just under $800,000. While the markets are never predictable, we have been in a good place, so far, during my tenure.
The vestry is in a process where they are learning about the history of Lizzie’s family, and the Lizzie Fund. They are reviewing the documents of the 1976 Last Will and Testament of the daughter of Lizzie, and documents from when St. James’ received the funds after her death in the mid-1990’s. They are looking into the agreements made with the original bank and our current bank. And perusing the charts and graphs that identify the recent history of the fund.
The Finance Committee, along with vestry members, will have their annual review with our partners at Stockyards next month to discuss, as they do each year, the health of the fund and how our investments are doing. The Stockyards representatives will also give guidance on how to use the fund next year.
Once the vestry has completed their research and discussions, they will create an updated document that incorporates the past, and plans for the future of the Lizzie Fund. This is holy, detailed, time-consuming work, and the members of the vestry take it very seriously. Each of them is fiscally responsible and wants to ensure that St. James’ is well cared for in years to come. Please know you can talk with any of them, or me, about this process.
I believe it is important to remember this fund is a gift, from Lizzie’s daughter, yes, but ultimately it is a gift from God, entrusted to us to use in the most appropriate ways to create a place, a church, that cares for her people and the people we have yet to meet, so that we are able to continue to live into our motto of Loving People. Serving People.
When I think about the past few years and how the fund has been utilized to protect our ministry here, I am grateful for the abundance that we have been given that ensures that what we do here will continue to build the reign of God here, in our hearts, and in the world.
In some ways, the Lizzie Fund is our manna and our quail. It was an unexpected gift that feeds the work we do here by protecting our property and our ministries. It has nourished us in times of financial famine. It has shrunk in market crashes and then grown again. And again.
Because of this gift, we thrive. With this abundance, we are given the ability to worship with hope, do our ministries with faith, and give of ourselves and of our resources with love, knowing that St. James’ Episcopal Church isn’t going anywhere, except into the world to be the hands and feet of God: Loving People. Serving People.
I believe that God is more generous than we might recognize. I believe that we live with an abundance we do not always see. I believe that God provides and that provision is given to each of us in good measure.
I believe all this, because I believe that God loves us all. Abundantly.
Amen.
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