As we enter November, we begin a season of reflection on thankfulness. Often, people will take the challenge to consider one different thing that they are thankful for each day of the month. Others will place a fuller focus on the holiday of Thanksgiving and bringing people together. In the church calendar, this is the time of year that we are also considering how we respond in thankfulness to God’s mercies and God’s calling upon our lives.
The Fall before the Pandemic struck, I went to a conference called Kaleidoscope. Some people call it a stewardship conference, but it sought to be a lot more holistic than just thinking about Fall stewardship campaigns. The key speaker was Eric Law, an episcopal priest. He talked to us about the plates we pass in church- whether literal or metaphorical. One of the plates we are very familiar with- the collection of our monetary offerings. Rev. Law also spoke of 5 other plates: Relationship, Truth, Wellness, Gracious Leadership, and Time & Place.
The Relationship Plate invites us to give serious thought to how our relationships serve (or do not serve) the Kingdom of God. This invites important questions: What in our culture influences the way we form relationships and maintain them? How are our relationships influencing us? How are we influencing others? Are we inquisitive in our relationships to truly know the other person? Or are our relationships one sided, with one person using the other friend? How are we willing to tend our relationships? How do our relationships give glory to God? And, much more!
The Truth Plate invites us to consider how we hold the concept of truth. In Hebrew, truth is emet. It is spelled with three letters, dispersed evenly throughout the Hebrew alphabet- Aleph (the first letter), Mem (the middle letter) and Tav (the last letter). Without the entire spectrum of the alphabet, truth cannot be discerned. With the truth plate, we are invited to sacrifice a bit of our pride to consider alternative opinions on the toughest issues to gain a fuller understanding of the community’s truth, which is always more complex than our own truth. Then, knowing what you know about the community’s fuller truth, consider how this might affect you and others, and consider how loving God and your neighbor is informed by this community truth.
The Wellness Plate invites us to consider wellness of our own selves and also the wellness of the community. Are we taking care of ourselves, and that which God has given us? Are we honoring the sabbath to have proper rest? Are we physically, socially, spiritually and financially well? How about our spiritual community? Are we well? How can we tend to each other?
The Gracious Leadership Plate invites us to consider how our church, family, schooling and mentoring has equipped us to be leaders in various roles in our lives? How can we take our gifts and talents and put them to use to lead others (small groups or big crowds) to be healthy and accomplish the lofty goals of its true calling? How can you put the time, talent, money, and your other resources to equip a gracious environment to do good for the world, especially for those who have fewer advantages?
The Time and Place Plate invites us to consider how we might use the spaces we own or manage for good things? How might we use our time in ways that conscientiously work for the betterment of the world and give honor to God?
And, of course, there is also the money plate. How can we use that which has been invested in us to support the work of love and grace to which we are called?
On the flip side of each of these plates is a blessing. Every time we tend to our wellness, our gracious leadership, our time, our places, our money, and our relationships, we receive blessings. So, in every way we treat these things as holy currencies to be given, we also benefit from the blessing of those holy currencies upon us as well.
So, in this season of thankfulness, I invite you to consider the holy currencies and ask Christ how you are being asked to be generous with these currencies, and how the blessings you create for others will in turn become a blessing for you.
Grace and Peace,
Rob
F., Law Eric H. Holy Currencies: Six Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries. Chalice Press, 2013.
