I’m not one who has looked at my pension account and other investments during these last several weeks. I’m into denial, hoping that someday these accounts will return to where they have been – even if I have to work until I’m 93 and someone has to tell me when it’s time to preach and then lead me to the pulpit with my walker. Perhaps I should be more anxious, but my faith and my history tell me that we do go through difficult times, and that the Lord of all creation is with us, leading us through this troublesome valley.

Even though I’m not anxious personally, I’m not sure how this is going to impact our church and how it will affect our local programming as well as the work we do together with brothers and sisters throughout the ELCA. We’re all holding our collective breath to see what kind of financial constraints will be imposed upon us because of a struggling economy.

The challenge is, of course, that even if our resources decrease, the needs within our community and throughout our world and nation continue to escalate. Indeed, in times like these, they increase exponentially as many folks face loss of income, unemployment, foreclosure, and all the many psychological and emotional stresses that happens as a result of these challenges. In fact, just this morning I read in the daily paper about acts of violence that are being committed in our country because of this financial downturn.

Last evening at our council meeting we spent significant time talking about our budget for 2009 and whether or not we would have the resources to accomplish our ministry goals for this next year. Although there are no easy answers the council worked diligently to be fiscally responsible and still try to accomplish what we wanted to do as a congregation.

We will soon embark upon a stewardship campaign where you will have the opportunity and the privilege to make a financial commitment to the work of ministry through LCHT. I realize that some of you have been impacted in a significant way in terms of your income, and you may have to make an adjustment in your commitment to this congregation. But there are also some of us who may have the opportunity to maintain and even increase their giving, and if that’s possible, I hope you will do so.

When times are good and we prosper, we sometimes forget that our wealth comes from God. When this happens, we give out of our abundance, and we don’t live in a faithful and trusting relationship with God as deeply as we could. Maybe these tough economic times will help us to walk in trust with God and with each other to a greater degree. Maybe we will experience the feeding of the 5000 where Jesus fed the crowd with five barley loaves and two fish. All ate and were satisfied, and there were still 12 baskets left over. Maybe these are good times for us because we will have the opportunity to trust the Lord of the church and God’s promises, which are tailor-made for times such as these. Maybe we will look back on 2009 as that year when we leaned back more fully into the grace, mercy, and love of Jesus. We ate of this rich and abiding food. We ate and were satisfied, and we found in him all that we needed – indeed, more than we needed!