From The Shooting Star, November 16, 2008. Copyright 2008, Ellen Rowse Spero. All rights reserved.
It is the season of Thanksgiving, so here are some thankful thoughts.
Thank you one and all for a great retreat on our new covenant. I loved both our brainstorming of how we already live out our covenant and the thoughtful ideas about how we can deepen our living of our covenant. It will be fun to watch how we put them into action.
Many, many thanks to Lynn and Walter Cole, Tim O’Hara, Sheila Carman, Kathy Deschenes, Lisa Calvo, Cornelia and Kirk Kirkpatrick, Jennifer Almeida, Tracy and Erin Clifford, Chris, Áine and Niamh Sweetnam, Beth Benoit, Ethan and Bryce Russell-Benoit, Edith and Marion Murphy, Tom, Rick, and Danny Wight, Dee Halzack, Carla Corey, Ruth Whalen, and Jonathan Crockett (I hope I did not forget anyone and I apologize if I did) for doing all that needed to be done to host eighteen families (with lots of kids) who are having to stay at the Best Western until housing is found for them. Thank you also to everyone who lent various items and brought desserts to add to the feast. When I speak of communion, when I speak of right relationship and beloved community, when I speak of Jesus creating a welcoming table for all, when I speak of gratitude and hospitality, this is the kind of thing I am talking about. As I said in my sermon, it was a heck of a lot of work but a heck of a lot of fun. I hope we will be able to do this again.
A final thanksgiving story. My dad discovered that my parents’ oil bill had been credited an amount that it should not have been. He called the Bursaw Oil company and was told, that no, it was not a mistake. He went back over the bills and receipts and found that indeed, the company was wrong and he was right. So he went over and worked it out. The owner, Jeff Bursaw, called my dad to thank him. It was not a mistake that they would have found, and he offered to give my parents a gift certificate to a favorite restaurant. Well, the problem is that my folks don’t like to go to restaurants, so they said no thank you. Mr. Bursaw asked if there was a charity that my parents supported that could use a donation. And they said, as a matter of fact, the minister’s discretionary fund at the First Parish in Chelmsford could use a donation. And a $500 donation from Bursaw Oil did indeed arrive.
The Minister’s Discretionary Fund is an account I have to help people in need in the congregation to bridge the unexpected costs that can come up in life. In this tough economic time, it is great to receive such a gift from a business man that I have never met, who in his own thanksgiving, wants to find a way to, as I said in my sermon, "pass the grace forward." I think it is especially appropriate that it comes from a company that provides heating oil when affording such is one of the crises that may face people this winter. I am glad and I am grateful for this sharing of wealth.
In faith,
Rev. Ellen