When I visited from Italy during those years, what rang through my head as I was welcomed here was that great parable that speaks of love and belonging. Although I was never rightly lost as was the Prodigal Son, I certainly felt that I was home when I returned here…
Why I give to St. Paul’s
By Robert Heylmun
You will have to wait until Lent to have the parable of the Prodigal son read to you from the nave but I would remind you of that story this morning. In two important ways, I am such a son. I went away from my church family here, and I returned. I can’t say that I was squandering my inheritance, nor did I have an angry brother who had to be appeased, and one can hardly call dining on Italian cuisine in Florence the equivalent of eating husks with pigs. What I did have and do have is a welcoming family here, in this place, and among you. You were and are collectively the father who rejoices that I have returned.
During my nearly eight years away, I would from time to time come back here for short visits, always to be welcomed as if I were giving a great gift by my presence. Welcomed with open arms and open hearts by my St. Paul’s family who wanted to know everything about my life in the far off country. Here would be Brooks Mason, who was glad to include me among the servers at the altar or as a reader. Here was Martin Green, who wanted me to resume being the emcee at the Christmas carol singing before Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Here were Ann and Ken Gary, who routinely invited me to their house for lunches on Sunday after church.
So much has changed over those years and the community that welcomed me back was busy welcoming many others into its loving embrace. New programs had sprung up, new ministries including Dorcas House and a Eucharist in Spanish. The dreams that this cathedral would become the Cathedral for the City were and are being realized. Meanwhile the community continued to extend its love to me. So much is yet needed to keep us going and vibrant in the center of a city that needs our light and our love.
What we have here is a profound sense of community, of communion, of looking out for each other, and we are so good at it that we seek to look out for others. It’s not always the fatted calf that gets trotted out, if you’ll forgive the pun, but the knowledge that things here at this place are ongoing, day in and day out, carried on by volunteers who see the value of what this community means and what it does. You are looking at an entirely volunteer staff here this morning, at least in terms of clergy. None of them is paid anything for what they do here.
Unlike the Prodigal Son, we are not destitute, we are not poor. We have the possibility to help fund the ongoing feast of love here by volunteering our time and talent but also by giving back some of our treasure. My experience as a sort of returning son impels me to give of what I have so generously been given.
When I realize what we do here, how much we seek to preserve our home, our community, it seems to me very little to ask to support that work by returning to God some of the means that God gives us to live on. That’s why I pledge here and that’s why I am about to increase my pledge. The money I give to St Paul’s has never once caused me any financial distress; in fact, the blessings that God continues to give me through this place and through you its people seem by comparison infinitely greater than anything I can pay for.
When I visited from Italy during those years, what rang through my head as I was welcomed here was that great parable that speaks of love and belonging. Although I was never rightly lost as was the Prodigal Son, I certainly felt that I was home when I returned here, that my home deserved my financial attention. I hope that you will join me and so many others as we begin this very important stewardship campaign, and that you will search your hearts and do what you can for your church, your community. +