Call to Worship
The Sufi mystic poet Hafiz once wrote a poem that
went,
Even
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe
Me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that.
It lights the
Whole
Sky.
After
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,
“You owe
Me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that.
It lights the
Whole
Sky.
We are born into a creation that is generous,
lavish, and exuberant. The rising of the
sun, the air we breathe, the ground on which we stand, the life which sustains
our own lives – we did nothing to deserve it.
It is a generosity of which we partake.
It is the nature of the world into which we were born. Even though we are made of star stuff,
generosity does not come as easily for us.
Rather, generosity is something that we learn, a decision we make, a
habit we cultivate.
Come, let us be generous with our hearts and our
minds and our voices this hour. Come,
let us worship together.
First Reading
From Making
the Good Life Last by Michael Schuler
Jesus may have died on the cross, but he wasn’t
willing to live on one, and at time allowed himself to be conspicuously
attended to. The Gospels are quite clear
on this score. Jesus took advantage of
opportunities to feast and relax in other people’s homes and to be anointed
with rich, aromatic oils. When he felt
fearful and uncertain, Jesus requested emotional support from his closest
associates. The quintessential minister,
Jesus understood that it’s as important to know how to gracefully receive as to
generously give. Those who feel
compelled to be always active and ‘on-duty’ may be driven more by guilt,
ambition, or anxiety than true compassion.
Second
Reading
From “Spiritual Practice for Our Time” by Rebecca
Parker, as found in Everyday Spiritual
Practice, edited by Scott Alexander.
Like all of us, I know I am at risk of forgetting
or never coming to deeply know that to be a human being is to live in a world
that provides richly for human life, including mine, a world that is to be
stewarded, not abused. I do not want to
lose track of this knowledge. We make
our home in a world that has enough land to feed all of earth’s people and that
has enough resources to shelter all of earth’s children. If I forget this, and if I forget that my
presence matters, then I fail to act as a person who blesses life and who
contributes to mending the world. I
become, instead, complicit with violence, a numbed and alienated soul, who has
surrendered to untruth. This is the
endangered knowledge in our culture that can be preserved by religious practices
that teach us a different sense of who we are.
Sermon
One
of our readings came from the book Everyday
Spiritual Practice, a collection of short essays by Unitarian Universalists
on different spiritual practices including prayer, yoga, martial arts,
gardening, and just about anything you imagine, from Art to Zen
meditation. Rebecca Parker’s
contribution is mysteriously titled, “Spiritual Practice for Our Time.” If you open the book, you find out that her
essay is largely about the practice of tithing, of giving ten percent of your
income away. Now, I love Rebecca
Parker’s writings and I think she is an absolutely brilliant thinker, but it
has always seemed unfortunate to me that the title of this essay conceals what
it is about. It may not have been her
intention, but I think this title reinforces the idea that generosity and money
are forbidden topics to be only talked about in hushed tones, that deserve to
be packaged in plain brown paper bags.
To be honest, I thought about titling my sermon this morning, “A
Spiritual Practice for Our Time” or “Thom’s Greatest Sermon Ever.” However, I thought better of it. The case for generosity should not be made
through trickery or deception. The topic
need not elicit guilt or shame.
This
morning I’m going to talk about generosity.
I’m going to talk about money.
I’m going to talk about giving money to the church. I’m going to talk about our larger
relationship with money and a larger definition of generosity. And, I’m going to attempt to talk about this
subject without resorting to guilt-tripping or shaming or threatening.
I’ve
been the minister of this church for almost a decade. This May will be the 10 year anniversary of
this congregation’s vote to call me as minister. Next October will be the 10 year anniversary
of my ordination by this congregation.
And, as I look back through my files, I realize that I’ve preached only
rarely about generosity and supporting the church financially. I suppose a cynical person might remark,
“That’s why you’re still our minister.”
Through the years I’ve heard more than a few members compare this
congregation favorably to the church of their childhood because I don’t stand
in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday with the goal of badgering and guilt-tripping
people into giving more money to the church.
Seriously, from the way some members here have described it, these types
of messages were frequent and excessive in the faith homes they grew up in and
they’re glad that we don’t do that.
J.
Clif Christopher, a Christian author on the subject of stewardship writes, “I
am often appalled when I hear television pastors talk about money and how they
believe that people must give if they want to be rich, or how they must tithe
or they will go to hell. It is abhorrent
theology.” Some of us are trying to heal
from and to work through that bad theology we were exposed to.
When
I write a sermon, it is my goal not to be abhorrent and not to manipulate you
with shame or guilt or fear. In speaking
with members of the church, I’ve learned that it’s not just those types of churches that connect
guilt and giving. Some members have told
me about appeals that they’ve received from secular charities in which the ask seemed
designed to make recipients feel bad about themselves if they said no. Have you ever given money in order to avoid
feeling bad, in order to avoid feeling guilty?
That is a perversion of generosity.
Someone
I know once told me about serving on the board of a non-profit
organization. This member was in her
twenties and was the youngest member of the board by far. When this non-profit was facing a time of
significant need, she decided to give a gift of one thousand dollars, which for
her represented a sacrificial gift. She literally
had to adjust her budget in order to give this gift. It was extraordinarily generous. And, then, she told me, her gift was publicized
and used to guilt-trip other members of the board into giving more. “Look what she did. Why can’t you give more?” Even an act of tremendous generosity can become
complicated.
In
thinking about what I wanted to say this morning, I came up with five different
reasons for why a person might give financially to the church.
The
first reason that a person might give to this church is as an act of consumerism. The purchase of goods and services. Worship services, music, religious education
classes, the services of the minister, the services of staff members, a
building with electricity, a parking lot that gets plowed. The first reason that people give is because
they receive these services so they figure they ought to pay something for
them. Now, churches don’t really make it
easy for those with a consumer mentality.
We don’t say, “This is the cost of a worship service. This is the cost of sending your child to
religious education. This is the cost of
an hour of counseling from the minister.
This is the cost of childcare for the event you attend. This is the cost of a eulogy at your memorial
service.” We don’t sell
indulgences. That’s just not how we
operate.
Though
I am frequently a critic of approaching life with a consumerist mindset, there
is a side of consumerism that maybe we ought to keep in mind. Being a consumer at its worst can mean
participating in exploitation, whether it’s supporting companies that use
sweatshop labor, that promote discrimination, or that otherwise damage the
world through its business practices.
Being a consumer at its best can mean spending our money with companies
that have fair labor practices, support causes we care about, and practice
sustainability. In fact, many of us are
willing to pay extra if we are aware of a company’s ethical practices. A person’s gift to the church could represent
informed, ethical consumerism.
A
second reason people give to the church is because of an understanding of social contract. We give to fund the religious education
program even if we do not have children ourselves. We believe that the Board Room ought to be
heated, even if we ourselves do not serve on the Board. In our lives outside of the church, we
participate in the social contract through the taxes we pay. We want there to be public schools even if we
don’t have children in them. We want
there to be roads even if we do not drive.
And, actually, we understand that our lives are interconnected. When our taxes pay for, say, biology labs in
schools, we help to ensure a world with competent doctors in the future. In a church we are just as
interconnected. The next soprano to join
our choir may actually have been attracted to the church because of our work
with Iraqi refugees. We’re all
interconnected. We give to fund all the
programs of the church, not just the ones we enjoy. We’re all in this together.
A
third reason people give is because they value
the mission of the church outside of any benefit it provides for them
personally. Every year I make a
contribution to the college I attended.
I did this even when I was paying back my educational loans. I received a considerable amount of financial
aid when I was in college, but my parents still had to foot a hefty bill. The reason I give them money each year is not
because they send me an alumni magazine.
I give because I want them to exist.
I want my college to touch lives in the ways mine was once touched. And, I want to feel connected of that
institution even though I’ve already received all the benefit from it I will
ever receive. In fact, I want it to be
even better for the next students who go there.
There are actually Unitarian Universalist churches that receive
significant gifts from people who haven’t been a part of the church for years
or even decades. They may now live in
Kalamazoo or Timbuktu, or they may live down the road and support what we
do. In case you’re wondering, we as a
church have relatively few people who give even though they no longer participate,
but we do have a few.
A
fourth reason that people give is not about the church, but more about their
own sense of who they are as people.
They perceive themselves as blessed
and practice generosity as a response to this experience of being blessed. “I am a person who has received abundantly
from life.” I give in gratitude in
response to blessing.
A
fifth reason that people give is because giving is a form of spiritual practice. Rebecca Parker quotes a parishioner of hers
as saying, “I am a person who has something to give. I am a person who has received abundantly
from life. I am a person whose presence
matters in the world. I am a person
whose life has meaning because I am connected to and care about many things
larger than myself alone. If I did not [give],
I would lose track of these truths about who I am. By [giving], I remember who I am.”
If
you’re keeping a list, the five ways are: giving as ethical consumerism, giving as social
contract, giving as supporting the mission
of the institution, giving as a response
to blessing, and giving as spiritual
practice.
As
minister, I believe in trying to model the values I say are important. So each year Anne and I give away about 10
percent of our incomes. Our annual
pledge to the church is $6,000 and we give additionally each year to the
capital campaign. Since returning from
sabbatical in Ecuador three years ago, I’ve paid for the education of a girl whose
family I met in Quito and have committed to doing this until her education is
completed. Anne and I also give to
educational institutions as well as non-profit organizations that reflect our
values such as Planned Parenthood. In
total, we give away 10% of our combined incomes. The reasons that I give have mainly to do
with responding to a sense of blessing, giving as a spiritual practice, and
believing in the health of institutions and organizations whose missions are
aligned with my values.
I
share this information about my family not to try to guilt-trip anyone. Rather, I believe that the generosity that I
try to cultivate and practice is a response that is inspired by the generosity
of the members of this congregation. You
are generous. We are a generous
congregation. Our donate the plate
collection a couple weeks ago sent more than $2,000 to the Interfaith
Hospitality Network and each year this program gives away well over $10,000 to
organizations that reflect our values. We
are a generous congregation. A few years
ago, at a time when a couple members of the church had shared that they were in
danger of losing their jobs, a member handed me a check for $5,000 for the
ministers discretionary fund so that I could do more to help anyone who needed
it. He told me that if I used it all, he’d
be happy to give more. We are a generous
congregation. In September 2011 we took
the risk of voting to buy this building.
130 families made Capital Campaign gifts totaling $1.3 million. The average gift was $10,000. The median gift was $3,000. We are a generous congregation.
At
the last Board meeting, the Board approved a Supplemental Capital Campaign to
help pay for this building. The campaign
does not expect that those who pledged in 2011 will increase their
pledges. We’re thankful for your
generosity. (I suppose that if you said
that you wanted to increase your capital campaign pledge from 2011 we wouldn’t
say no but the campaign is primarily for anyone who may not have had the
opportunity to contribute to the building in the original campaign.) The goal of the campaign is $250,000 of which
$70,000 will go to pay for all the renovations that have already been done on
this building, $75,000 will go to pay for items in a Master Plan required by
the City of Lenexa. That $75,000 will
pay for exterior lighting, improvements to parking, planting, and landscaping,
and, best of all, the creation of a community garden. And, finally, $90,000 will go to help
subsidize the cost of maintaining this building over the next few years. If you haven’t given to this building through
the Capital Campaign, we hope you will consider making such a gift, whatever
the amount. I think it is a privilege to
be able to say, “I was a part of making this building happen.”
Next
week we will have the kick-off of the annual Stewardship Campaign. The Stewardship Team has selected the theme
of “There’s no place like home” and will be asking for your pledges in March
and April to fund the programs of the church in the coming year. They’ve got something fun planned for next
week so you definitely want to be here, and it relates to the “There’s No Place
Like Home” theme. (The pledge page for the Stewardship Campaign is now active and more information will be added shortly.)
Your
generosity in the coming year will have a powerful impact. I’m reminded of the old credit card
commercials:
The
cost of continuing the Youth Advisor position: $6,000.
The
difference our youth group can make in the lives of the teens of this
church: priceless.
The
cost of providing health insurance for qualifying church employees:
$20,000.
Knowing
that the church is an ethical employer: priceless.
The
cost of training for Our Whole Lives instructors: $1,000.
The
difference made in the life of a middle school teen by providing them with
fact-based, values-based sexuality education:
priceless.
The difference this
church makes through your generosity: priceless.
Generosity means an aligning of your heart and your
living. It is a spiritual practice. It is an invitation to a fuller life. And, it really is a mistake to conceal that
message of generosity or to be deceitful about it. It really is a mistake to try to take this
invitation to life and cheapen it with guilt and threats of fear.
If there is one thing I know about guilt, it is that guilt is
actually something that comes from within.
Other people don’t have the ability to make you feel guilty unless it is
something that you already feel insecure about.
One of the other essays in that Everyday
Spiritual Practice book carries the direct, forthright title, “Giving.” I like what this essay’s author, Tony Larsen,
says on the subject of generosity and guilt.
He gives very practical advice.
Figure out what generosity means to you.
Is it a percentage of your income?
Is it a dollar amount? Is it a
goal of some amount more than last year. Choose an amount that represents generosity to
you, then set that amount aside. Budget to
give away. Once it has all been
budgeted, you’ve achieved your own definition of generosity and the decision to
say yes or no to someone who asks for money becomes a matter of thoughtful
planning, not emotional manipulation. I
like what this author says. His advice
is very straightforward
.
You are a generous congregation. You inspire generosity in me. Give not out of guilt, but out of love, out
of commitment, and out of blessing. Amen.
