Now, don’t get excited—I’m not talking about giving this month so much as I’m convicted about TENDING.  If you’ve ever had the privilege of hanging around First Pres during the “Knock ‘em down-Set ‘em up” shows, you know that no athletic team or military school in history can hold a candle to our maintenance staff when it comes to moving literally thousands of chairs, tables and WALLS in a matter of minutes!  The number of meetings, lunches, school classes, Sunday schools, ad infinitum is staggering, and I’ll put our crew up against any precision drill team in the South.  And the same goes for the ladies in the kitchen and the nursery and even more workers who maintain the grounds.  I don’t believe there is any church member who’d have it any other way, if we truly believe that this is God’s house, established as a place of worship and fellowship.

    SO—and I’ll be the first to admit, I couldn’t find any verses which actually addressed the Great Housekeeping Debate, but I cannot believe it is a sign of good stewardship or of respect for our gracious Heavenly Father  to treat His House as either a trash pile or an institution run for our convenience!  Tithing does NOT give us carte blanche to waste those donations for extra hired clean-up, when we should never have left a mess in the first place!   OK, yes, my mother grew up during the Depression, and to this day the poor woman couldn’t throw away a good piece of tin foil or a paper sack to save her life.  And The Curse runs to subsequent generations—I can’t leave a room without feeling guilty if I don’t turn the light off.  I don’t save the tin foil, but its shiny surface absolutely glares up at me from the trash can!  And I know in my heart of hearts, Mama SAW me throw it away and is shaking her gray head in despair. 

    And yet, we walk out of Sunday School classes, notes and papers scattered here and there and enough abandoned styrofoam coffee cups to build a life-size model of the Great Pyramid.  We make reservations in the nursery for an event or Bible study, workers are hired and arrive early, and the promised little people don’t show up.  We attend our committee meetings, gobble down the delectable lunches, and then absentmindedly race out the door without dropping our $5 in the basket.  At least now we go through the line and have to pay up front, but what a shame it had to come to this!  Not one of us would try to sneak out of Bon Ami or Broad Street without even tipping the waitperson, much less stiffing the owner for the tab.  The church budgets around $55,000 annually for the food budget, hoping to break even, and let’s face it—you’re not going to get diddly squat at McDonald’s for what we pay on Wednesday nights or for special events!  It constitutes only common courtesy to notify the church if we will not be there for a committee lunch, or to cancel reservations, or to pick up our own garbage and deposit it in one of the numerous receptacles.   

    Beautiful and functional renovations have been completed in the Youth House, yet still furniture is damaged or demolished.  Coffee and soft-drink spills soil the carpets in nearly all the public areas and classrooms.  Any day of the week you can find some SERIOUS scrubbing, which should never have been necessary in the first place, going on by church staff.  I couldn’t nail Earl Davis down on the actual dollar amount, but you can bet the church buys more industrial-strength cleansing agents than Carter’s has pills.  Oh, friends!  How can we worship and praise our Blessed Redeemer on the one hand and then show utter disregard for His House on the other?  

    Lord God, forgive us for our wretched thoughtlessness and make us accountable for the beautiful facilities You have given us; let us never forget that First Presbyterian is YOUR house and that we are Your privileged guests!