By Rev. Eugenia Anne Gamble
Several years ago, my congregation shared in a joyous Advent Giving Campaign based on the three gifts brought to the Christ Child by the Magi. For the first three Sundays of Advent we focused on Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. For the Gold Sunday we considered the financial resources that we had to lay before Christ. We looked at wealth as well as the power and influence that we had. We pondered together how we place that over which we have control in service to Christ. For Frankincense Sunday we talked about our worship life and the commitments we each wanted to make to both participation and leadership of worship. We talked about our set times of worship as a community as well as the ways that we praise and celebrate God in our homes and daily living. Myrrh was a valuable aromatic that was often used in the anointing of bodies for burial in the ancient world. On That Sunday, we talked about how we can each provide tender care and concern for others. We talked about how we can honor each other’s lives. We tried to identify those in our circle of fellowship, and far beyond it, who needed our care and our advocacy. On the Fourth Sunday of Advent, when our sanctuary was fully dressed for the season, worshippers were invited to come forward and place their commitments at the empty manger so that on Christmas Eve the Christ child would be showered with our gifts and love.
When I first presented the idea, there was some resistance on my session. Some were afraid that if we ‘did stewardship at Christmas’ people would feel pressured ‘because everybody was already broke.’ Some objected because they thought it wouldn’t give us enough time to revise our budget before the congregational meeting in January. Others just hated any talk of ‘gold’ and didn’t want that to ‘infiltrate Christmas.’ Together we talked through each of those concerns and the group agreed to give it a try. We chose to share all financial information in writing and to focus in worship on the amazing gift of Christ and how we each wanted to respond to that gift.
Each week, an elder told a story about what it meant to them to be able to serve Christ and the ways they did it. Each week the children placed strips of cloth with the Advent words, Prepare, Peace, Wait and Let it Be, in the manger to prepare a soft place for the baby. On the Fourth Sunday as people came forward to the Communion Table to greet the risen Christ, each person placed a promise gift in the manger. One older woman even gift wrapped her pledge card! It was a deeply moving experience. And, oh by the way, the number of people pledging, and the amount of money pledged, increased dramatically. At our annual meeting we invited people to share ways that they felt inspired to commit to worship attendance and to home worship. People shared how their commitments to care for others in concrete ways were shaping their New Year’s resolutions. One elder said, “My first commitment was financial. But my real commitment was of my life.”