The Stewardship Committee has been assembled, and I was tasked with writing this meditation on stewardship in light of Psalms 8. When I re-read the Psalms, I was immediately reminded of Genesis and God giving Adam and Eve charge over the Garden of Eden and dominion over all of the creatures therein, and then I thought about how St. John’s is a little bit of Eden here and now. It is a place of beauty as surely the original Garden of Eden was. In the original Garden of Eden, Adam met and walked with God. St. John’s is a place of where my family and I have come time and time again to walk with God. It was here where Rebecca and I were married, where our children were baptized and confirmed, where we renewed our vows, and where, God willing, our children will marry, and we will be buried. It is where we find God and are reminded that we have been found by God Sunday after Sunday as we come to His Altar and receive His Body and Blood.

Just as Adam was given charge over the maintenance and care of the Garden of Eden, so have you and I been given the privilege of caring for and dwelling in St. John’s. It is our Eden.

Growing up, my family had a garden that covered a couple of acres. There were weeds to be pulled, plants to be watered, pests to be removed, and produce to be harvested. Based upon that childhood experience, I am confident in saying that caring for the Garden of Eden was a task that was ongoing. There was, surely, something always to be done. So it is with St. John’s.

In the last several months, in addition to the cleaning and repair of the stained glass windows and the paintings in the Nave, we have repaired the steeple, replaced the lightning rod, put a new roof over the small dining room, replaced the chillers that service portions of the Parish Hall when they died, and replaced the shingles over a portion of the Education Building. The refurbishment of the windows and the paintings were covered by a capital campaign. All the rest of the work has to be paid for by our annual budget that comes from our pledges including repaying a loan from the St. John’s Trusts to pay for the repairs to the steeple.

The chillers that provide air conditioning for the Nave, the Parish Hall, and the Education Building are more than 20 years old. For the past several years, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping those working. Your Rector and Wardens pray regularly that they will continue to function. While praying, we are also exploring ways to replace them including arranging financing for the replacements. The cost of replacing those so we have air conditioning in August will come from our annual budget.

We are constantly tending this piece of Eden because, like you, we love it. But, tending to the garden—both the seen and unseen portions of it—take time and money. So, during this Campaign, I ask you to contemplate this piece of Eden and how you can love it and tend to it.