The Rt. Rev. Chilton R. Knudsen
Bishop of Maine

Advent 2002
Message from Bishop Chilton Knudsen

The people of St. John’s, Bangor, are using a special prayer as they deepen their understanding of the spiritual discipline of Stewardship. It has become my prayer as well. I found myself turning to that prayer frequently as we prepared for our diocesan convention.  You might find that this prayer gives words to holy stirrings within your congregation or to your own soul’s stirrings.

Imagination, Generosity, Love. God is always prompting us: "Take more. Receive more. Let me fill your cup till it runneth over."

Amazingly, this kind of greed delights God. If we are greedy for God’s blessings, God’s presence, God’s mercy, this is Good Greed. Scripture uses terms like hunger and thirst, longing and yearning, to describe our souls’ desire.  Be greedy for God’s gifts, including those named in that prayer: 

Imagination…looking deeply into all that is familiar, perceiving in those depths the new life which is barely visible, but pulsing with hope…and expressing that vision in words and forms and creative works according to our own unique qualities.

Generosity…wrapped in the glorious liberty of the children of God, honoring all that we are and all that we have been given through our free responses of self-donation.

Love…which is not simply a feeling (that term doesn’t begin to describe love’s majesty and power), but the radical capacity to be WITH and FOR others, as grace transforms our human loving into Christ-like loving.

In the Christmas seasons of my childhood, gifts were carefully catalogued so that I could write my Thank You Notes. In a rebellious period, I declared that I was all through with writing those boring Thank You Notes. "If you don’t say thank you, people may not give you any more presents"…so plain old self-interest (I like presents) got me to sit down and WRITE those notes.

Now, this parental coercion doesn’t correspond very well to how it is between us and God. For one thing, I know that no matter how ungrateful we may be, God is always nudging more gifts into our tight-fisted hands. But there is a truth here, however imperfect the analogy. Gratitude for today’s blessings makes us more receptive—more attentive—to tomorrow’s blessings. Thank you, God, for the gifts of imagination, generosity and love which multiply as we receive those gifts thankfully…with Good Greed.

I have a Good Greed I want to confess out loud right here. I’m feeling greedy for slow, unscheduled days of "Sabbath time." I am hungry and thirsty for the God-soaked times when prayer ("Wasting time with God," our Presiding Bishop calls it) swirls freely through uncluttered days. In the generosity you—the people of God here in Maine — display so beautifully, you have provided Sabbath time for your clergy.

And so, in the first "piece" of this gift, I will be on Sabbatical from December 26th to January 31, 2003. Standing Committee and diocesan staff will know how to reach me, and they know what situations should prompt them to do so. I’ll poke my head out briefly to experience two blessings: the Consecration of Gayle Harris as Bishop Suffragan of Massachusetts on January 18th, and the annual gathering of New England Bishops and Chancellors, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, January 23-24.

You know that I always carry you all in my heart and in my prayers. Here’s my Thank You Note: Thank you, God, for the people of this diocese. God is so very good to us, pouring into our hearts the gifts of Imagination, Generosity and Love. And ever so much more.

Yours ever in Christ, 

+CHILTON

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