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The Corazon Mission, Young People and Stewardship by The Rev. Hartshorn Murphy
On the weekend of November 9th, over 30 adults and young people went on a mission trip to Mexico with the Corazon organization. Preparatory to the trip, St. Augustine's raised $4700 to sponsor the build by purchasing the building materials for the work of building simple homes for the poor outside of Tijuana. Those who attend Corazon missions often report that the experience changes their lives and young people especially report that they come away with a deeper appreciation for how fortunate they are.
Following the initial build in 1997, one young man shared with the congregation that he had always had mixed feelings about "illegal aliens" based on information in the media. Traveling to Mexico, he was surprised to find virtually no adolescents in a squatters camp filled with young children, women and older adults. He learned that teens and young men had all crossed the border seeking work, to earn money to send back home to support their families. Our enjoyment of low cost fruits and vegetables on our dining tables in America is directly connected to life in an impoverished village three hours away.
How do we take the rich learnings such experiences have for young (as well as older) people and build on them a deeper consciousness about Christian discipleship and moral choices?
Reflecting on mission trips his organization sponsors to Haiti for young people, Christian writer Tony Campolo once wrote: "We ought to challenge kids to do something significant with their money for the kingdom of God... In my opinion, it's even questionable to raise money for a mission trip, if it's simply a new teenage adventure thing - "Hey, man, what did you do this summer?" "I went to Haiti and saw poor people"
It can be the first step in sensitizing them. When they come back from those trips, they can at least be in a position to rethink what they do with their money. Seldom do we challenge kids to do anything Christian with their money, but we fret how to break money's hold on young people. I'm not convinced it has that much a hold on them. I have a feeling that they're the way they are because churches have not presented to them a viable alternative, an attractive lifestyle that makes sense in the kind of world we live in. If we don't challenge these kids to think seriously about money, we can't talk to them about other forms of discipleship.
We think we're going to make kids into disciples by starting Bible study groups and prayer groups. Not so. Let me quote Jesus: "You tell me where your money is, and I will tell you where your heart is." He doesn't say, "First you got to get your heart right." When I was growing up I heard, "If people's hearts were right with God, we'd have enough money to pay the bills in this church and support our missionaries." The preacher had it backwards. If we had their money, we would have their hearts.
That's exactly what the Bible says: Your money doesn't follow your heart; your heart follows your money. Money controls consciousness much more than we are ready to admit.
"True thanksgiving begins with being genuinely thankful to God, the giver of every gift. The true fruit of genuine gratitude and thanksgiving is how we use and what we do with what God has given us and blessed us with. It's inescapable - genuine thankfulness and good stewardship are inseparably related. You cannot lift up your heart in thanksgiving and not use what God has given you in God's service and to God's glory. What a hollow ring it must sound in the ears of God, the Giver, when we express our thanksgiving to God, and then proceed to hoard, store up or self-indulge God's gifts and blessings.
God blesses and showers us with an abundance of good gifts from above not just to make us thankful but to make us useful. By any other name, what we express to God about what God has given us is called Thanksgiving. What we do with all of it is called Stewardship." In this season between thanksgiving and advent, when we prepare our hearts and homes to receive the great gift of the Christ Child once again, may we be mindful more and more of the connection between the choices we make about how we live and how others are able to live; and may we in response to the great gift of Love, grow year by year to be better stewards of the riches God entrusts to us, to the Glory of God's Name.
Copyright © 2002 St. Augustine by-the-Sea
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