Stephanie Yucius Stewardship Talk October 18, 2009
Good Morning.
I am Stephanie
Yucius and I want to share with you how my family and I have grown
spiritually at St. Catherine’s over the past six years. But first:
Does anyone know
what is significant about Weston, Missouri?
It has the world’s
largest ball of string. A humungous ball of string such as this one
has many many different pieces that were added one by one to form
this great ball. Each string has different lengths, different paths
and different placements of depth within the ball. There were
strings that started the ball that cannot even been seen anymore,
there are new strings added to the outer layer. But each of these
strings is the makeup of the greater phenomenal piece. Have you ever
thought of St. Catherines as a giant ball of string?
Now to give you a little background on me: I grew up with my father taking me to church at Grace Episcopal Church in Kilmarnock, VA. This is a rural Episcopal church in a very small town on the Chesapeake Bay. I have vivid memories of love, kindness, fun and beauty in that church. As a young child, I recall a particular sermon where Reverend Sharon said that you are NOT a Christian if you don’t go to church. I heard it, and throughout my life I have had trouble wrapping my mind around it until now. I am not here to say church attendance is a must but I am here to say that the opportunities that I have found for me to grow came to me because I was attending church.
It all started at Holt Road Baptist Church. For those a little confused about that, it was just after the fire and the preschool was housed at Holt Road Baptist. It was a fateful meeting of Lisa Spessard and me when we were both exploring preschool options and showed up at the same day at the exact same time without an appointment. I was struck by the calmness of Lynne and the helpfulness of Karolyn. It wasn’t the beautiful facilities that made my decision to come to St. Catherine’s preschool, it was the people. And that great decision proved right for a strong foundation of love and learning for both of my girls - Riley and Danielle.
So then at Lisa’s encouragement, we tried the building upstairs, the church!
We liked it, it was different from rural VA. Growing up we took communion once a month which I heard grumblings about how it made the service so long. So naturally when I came here and you were invited to take communion every week I was a bit hesitant. But I really wanted to give this church a try. And I soon came to love what weekly communion means to me! To watch Father Jim and Father Susan give the gesture of Epiclesis, invoking God the Father to send the Holy Spirit making the risen Christ present in our bread and wine has brought such deep meaning to me.
We kept coming and there was one sermon that stuck with me a bit uncomfortably. It said that God doesn’t want us to be comfortable and just stay where we are in our journey. He wants us to be open and embrace growth. Well that troubled me since I don’t like growth in the form of change. Some people are OCD - obsessive compulsive disorder, well I am CDO keeping the letters in their proper order! Change is hard, I like habitual order. But I listened. And so I tried Elizabeth Lopez’s bible study and really enjoyed the discussions. Then it began – Opportunity for Growth. I was asked to be the facilitator for the monthly Women’s Bible Study and I accepted and have been learning MUCH about God’s word ever since.
I started Riley in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program and then again – Opportunity for Growth. I took the catechist training for Level 1 Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Boy did I spiritually grow there. It was work but I learned more of my faith in 8 months than I did in 37 years of life.
Another opportunity for growth came in the form of the stewardship committee - Faithful Mission. Well this wasn’t my calling, asking for money put me way out of my comfort zone but I did learn a whole lot about how the church and our ministries operate which I NEED to understand. We are a building with utilities, a staff providing work and ministries offering outreach. How do those exist without money? They don’t, so I learned about how the money is gathered, how it is divided and used and what my contribution means to it all. I believe each of our parts are essential. It is not the amount of giving we each do it is the intent in each of us with the giving that we can do. With our intent will come what we need. If we as members of St. Catherines follow through with the best of our intentions, St. Catherines will have what it needs.
So here I am a couple of years into the church and feeling good that I had grown enough. That was my plan and I was sticking to it. But I was met again with Opportunity for growth.
This time it was Vacation Bible School. I had the opportunity to coordinate and lead with Suzanne Muckerman. I was terrified of failure with this one. I didn’t know what to do, what it looked like. Maybe I was taking on too much, but with God’s strength and grace, a whole lot of volunteers and awesome kids I grew spiritually! I saw the fun and excitement of sharing God’s love and word in a high energy format. And to watch the kid’s joy for the music – quite an experience!
My time at St. Catherines has been wonderful for me, for my family and especially for my children. I am so grateful for this growth in my life and thankful that God calls each of us at some point to embrace our opportunity for growth. Just listen and you will hear it.
In our scripture today Hebrews 5 we hear how God calls the priest to their honor just as God called Jesus, “You are my Son”. We hear that in Mark 10 verses 43-45 “whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” We are here to serve as Jesus did. I am so glad that I have been blessed through my service in the church of St. Catherines.
Our church celebrates 50 years in the coming year, I have been here attending the church for 5 years, that is one tenth of its life. In those 5 years I have grown deeply and am so grateful for the growth that occurred those 45 years prior. Others that have been a part of this church before me built it physically, nourished the ministries, bonded the people, pledged their tithing, laid the foundation for the church that we are today. What a gift I received when God chose this family to be mine.
Have you ever thought of St. Catherines as a ball of string?
This church – this ball of string- continues to be a phenomenal piece to behold. I am happy for the Opportunities for Growth and find myself happily wound in the fabric of this big ball.
So why do I give of my time, talent and treasure – Because I can, Because I want to, Because HE wants me to, Because it nourishes me and with God’s grace it will continue to nourish my family, my friends and each of us present today.
Amen