Standing with the Vulnerable

 Friends, 

Today’s message has two topics. First, we’ll look at where we are in our church life together. As a church that embraces the idea, “I am the church,” this first portion is an opportunity to live into that aspiration.

 

It’s October and in many churches October is known as “Stewardship month.” That title is a little humorous, since the original English term “Steward” was “Styward,”  or, “the keeper of the sty.” (Let’s not go there.) 

 

At St. Mark, this means that we have the opportunity to declare how we will use our personal resources to support our collective work as a church. Think about that for a moment. All the things you love about the collective work that we do at St. Mark is funded by the personal decisions that each of us make regarding our giving. To encourage those decisions, our Stewardship Theme this year is, “Now more than ever.” 

 

Now, more than ever, 

… the world needs a church that takes up the cross to follow Christ. 

… Orange County needs a body of Christ followers who serve God, not Mammon. 

… the gospel calls us to trust that good overcomes evil, and love overcomes hate. 

… someone you know need a table that is welcoming to everyone.

… the church needs to repent of past actions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity

… St. Mark needs to embrace a vision of God’s abundance, where we are joyfully satisfied with enough and generously ready to share our resources. 

 

I genuinely feel that our collective message and voice is needed now, more than ever. And if you feel the same, please do not let anything stop you from your wholehearted support and participation. 

………………………..

 

For our second topic, we have an opportunity we have to be a church that stands in solidarity with the poor, particularly those living among us with housing insecurity. Last year, Orange County received more than $33 million in federal Continuum of Care funds, which supports 1,448 people now in Permanent Supportive Housing and 375 people in Rapid Re-Housing programs. For 2025, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a new Notice of Funding Opportunity which dramatically changed the parameters of qualifying for those funds. For example, Friendship Shelter Inc., one of our Deacon-supported organizations, serves homeless persons in South County with dignity and grace, but stand to lose an enormous part of their funding – not because their service is in any way deficient, but because they do things like allow their clients to identify their own gender or to identify as non-binary. The new HUD requirements reflect the Project 2025 agenda to stamp out “woke” practices, a political agenda that will particularly affect transitional age homeless persons (ages18-24) throughout the country. You can read more information from the National Alliance to End Homelessness here.

 

One thing you can do is to join with United to End Homelessness, Friendship Shelter, and other service organizations and go to this page of the Action Network to send a letter to Senators and Congressional Representatives. It only takes a short amount of time. 

 

As always, thank you for being the church,

Mark of St. Mark