Not a Hugger

Moment for Stewardship delivered October 28, 2018, at First Presbyterian Church, Urbana, Illinois

Immediate family excepted, I don’t consider myself a big hugger.  So, imagine my surprise when at the last PrideFest as I was standing by our booth handing our rainbow stickers, a young person approached and asked for a hug.  I obliged as best I could.  A few more people approached for the same, and then before you know it, yet another person wanted a hug.

Finally, I realized that I was standing under a sign hung by Cindy Ottemann that read, “Free Hugs!”

I stayed put for a while and was asked for a few more hugs.  These were good hugs, not awkward man hugs.  Rather with each person I felt the intensity of their hug and tried to match it with an equal and opposite reaction: Newton’s third law of hugging.  Hugs, good hugs, are not given, but are shared.  There is no giver, no recipient, just a joint affirmation of each other’s presence.  I guess I measured that day in hugs.

 “Measure in Love” is our 2018 stewardship theme and is taken from the song “Seasons of Love” in the musical Rent.  The song speaks of the different options for measuring a year: in units of time and in units of distance, or in ups and downs.  The song implores us to consider love as the measure. Forget everything else, just measure in love.  Measure a finite year with something immeasurable.

Love is not quantifiable; it either is there, or it isn’t.  And love is the necessary ingredient in the life of faith.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, “If I give away all my possessions … but do not have love, I gain nothing.”  Put another way, if we have a blow out stewardship campaign, breaking all monetary records, but do not have love, we have nothing.

So, this year we ask you to first consider love: love received, love given, love shared in the life of this church.  Measure in love when completing your Opportunities to Serve.   You might call it Opportunities to Love.  Save the estimate of giving card for the end, as a response to that measure in love, not as an isolated financial task for finances can be a source of worry.  Not so with love.  Paul tells us that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  To measure in love is an exercise of hope, not anxiety.  To measure in love is to celebrate the finding of one lost sheep, regardless of the size of our flock. To measure in love is to rejoice in what we have and what God will continue to use and grow for love’s sake.

To measure in love is to say “yes” to those in need even when we don’t consider ourselves big huggers because as followers of Christ, there’s sign over each of our heads.  It reads, “Free hugs!” Amen.

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