If I hear one more person tell me that if I don't give, we may have to live without Click and Clack, I'm going to explode. And now, they've gone to airing blatant advertising (called sponsor information). And still, it's give, give, give. I haven't given in 7 years and they haven't tanked yet. Obviously someone is supporting them. Why should I?

Well, good. I just had to get that off my chest. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable to you, O Lord our strength and our redeemer.

"When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream"

It is most likely that the psalmist was referring to the return to Israel of those exiled into Babylon. Because of the length of time of the exile, there couldn't be anyone alive that remembered Israel. But, they could dream.

They had all been raised on the stories of Israel and Judah. Of how they were the chosen people promised a land of milk and honey. O to go home, even if you'd never been there.

There is a modern day illustration of this. Fr. Philbert Kalisa was born in Burundi in a refugee camp of Rwandans. He is a Rwandan, yet he had not been in his homeland until he was in his 20's. I have a nephew by marriage that is a Palestinian who never lived in the region called Palestine. He was born and raised in a Lebanese refugee camp until his family emigrated to Canada. O to dream of ones homeland.

Very few of us ever have or ever will experience physical exile. But, we too have dreams of a restored homeland. We dream of a land of liberty and justice for all. We dream of prosperity. We dream of an Earth free from pollution and over development. We dream, with Martin Luther Kind of a time when "man is counted not on the color of his skin, but the content of his character". We all dream.

Bartimaeus dreamed. He dreamed of seeing his world for the first time. It must have been a sad life to dream such an unlikely dream. To hold on to a dream that is beyond probability can become a pathology. Yet Bart dreamed and Jesus Christ himself heard his dream and restored the fortune of his sight. Dreams can come true.

The world is full of dreamers. There are those who dream of power, wealth, notoriety, love. They dream of and for themselves. They can become either a safe refuge from reality or become the goal of a driven personality. Or both.

But then there are the dreamers like Dr. King and many of the prophets of old. They dream of a better world, a better life for all of God's creation. And some do much more than dream. They act on their dreams and make a difference in somebody's life. Some dreamers have changed the world.

Joseph dreamed and he took a pregnant virgin as his wife. Annanias dreamed and went to minister to another blind man, named Saul and changed his name to Paul.

Then were we like those who dream.

I have a dream. It's about a congregation on fire for the Lord. A congregation engaged, every last one of us, in ministry. I dream of a church that can't hold all of those who want to worship. I dream of coffers filled to overflowing, so much that we need to constantly create new opportunities for ministry.

I dream about you and me, sharing in a ministry of welcome, a ministry of justice, a ministry of hope.

I think a lot, another word for dream, about this place and the incredible potential we share. We have some of the most loving and generous people I have ever met. We have some brilliant minds, people of incredible experience and accomplishments. We have people whose devotion to the Lord is nothing less than awe-inspiring. There is no reason why our dreams of ministry cannot be fulfilled.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream.

You have heard me speak a lot recently about the "why's" of what we do. Why do we hold services? Why do we engage in ministry? And the answer is to strengthen the faith of the faithful and to reconcile the lost to God in Christ. Spiritual Formation and Evangelism. Those are the tools to answer our dreams, for if we are successful in forming mature disciples who bring others into relationship with God in Christ, our dreams will be filled.

We won't know what to do with all the people clamoring for ministry and mission opportunities. We'll be looking for ways to spend our budget surpluses.

But, here's the rub. We can't afford the ministry were doing now. We had to have a bridge the gap campaign to balance our budget this year. By the way, we have a right to be proud. We have pledged and/or received over $47,000. Thank you all.

Right now, our budget basically sustains us at our current level of ministry. The staff gets paid and the lights stay on. We meet our obligations to the diocese and we spend about 3% of our income on outreach. There's no money for mission trips. There's no money for a mass evangelism project.

We need more money. That's about as blunt as I can put it. Obviously today begins our annual stewardship drive. Our theme this year is "Grow in Christ".

Stewardship is about much more than simply increasing our pledges. Stewardship is about how we take care of those things God has put in our care - the earth, our children, our personal resources, our gifts and abilities, and even our dreams.

Yes, we are called to be stewards of our dreams. A steward takes what she is given and tends it so that it not only remains safe, but also is used to its full extent for the glory of God and the up-building of his kingdom. A good steward of dreams uses them to inspire, guide and strengthen us to follow a dream and make it come true.

In 1958 a group of people dreamed about an Episcopal Church out here in the boonies of South Fort Myers and here we are. In 1968 a group of people had a dream of a unique and inspiring worship space, and here we are. And the dreams continued and by hard work by the stewards of those dreams, wonderful things happened.
And so here we are, a congregation built on dreams. And the dreaming continues. We need unique ways to provide resources to our ministries, both in place and those still in our dreams.

I know that we have asked for a lot of money lately. We just had the "Bridge the Gap" campaign. We all know that a capital fund drive is about to kick off. And I know that's been frustrating because we haven't seen any work on the repair and renovation. We've been hamstrung by the need to start with one system, the air handling system, before any other work can even be designed.
And now, we are about to ask you to pledge to the operating needs of the church. Unlike our friends on the radio, we are not about keeping the lights on. That's going to happen. And the staff is going to get paid. We might not be able to replace our curate, but those of us here will get a pay-check.

What we're about here is growing in Christ. Growing in numbers of people who attend services. Growing individually in our relationship with Christ. And, Growing in the opportunities for ministry and worship. Stewardship is more about our relationship to Christ than it is our relationship with our banker.

We are caretakers of the resources God has given us. He asks that we set one tenth of those resources aside for His work. Not all of us can do that. As I said last year, Kari and I are working towards that tithe in the next 3 years. It's not because anyone guilted us into it. It's not because we see it as a duty. We give because God has given us our dreams and we dream of a world reconciled to God through Christ.

Please, pray about your giving for the next year. Let your dreams guide you. We will ask next week for you to fill out a pledge card and turn it in.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like they who dream.

We have a dream. It's called the kingdom of God. Dreams come true if the dreamer works to make it so. So, let us dream together and together, we will Grow in Christ.