21st Sunday After Pentecost October 21, 2012
Luther Memorial Lutheran Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
ions of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
A leading anthropologist was in Africa, studying an African tribe. He proposed a game to the children of that tribe. In this game, he put a large basket of delicious fruit near a tree across a clearing. He gathered the children together, pointed out the basket of sweet fruit, and told the children that the first one of them to reach the basket could have all that it contained. The anthropologist gave the children the instruction to run, then stepped aside, out of their way. He did not anticipate what happened next. Rather than running separately, the children joined hands, and as a group, ran to the basket of fruit, where they picked up what was in the basket, sat down together under the tree, and enjoyed not only the sweet fruit, but the joy of one another’s company.
When he asked them why they did not race to get the fruit for just themselves they responded “Ubuntu. How can one of us be happy if all the others are sad?” Ubuntu is the African philosophy that can be summed up as: I am because we are.
Today is the beginning of our annual Stewardship emphasis. Pastors look forward to this time of year and the accompanying task of preaching about money about as much as we look forward to, oh, root canals. One Pastor, posting on Facebook, called it the annual Beg-a-Thon. And it’s tricky business because in addition to supporting our various ministries, a portion of that funds our livlihoods. So rather than skirt around that, I want to say it upfront and out in the open. In the light of day, where it rightly belongs.
So, friends, let us go with boldness…forward….trusting, not only in God’s great love for us and in God’s ability to accomplish God’s purposes, but also trusting that it is that love and that identity as children of God that binds us together in unity.
Our Stewardship emphasis this year is called Gifts of Gratitude. It seems to me that gratitude is the greatest motivation we can have for giving back to God some portion of what has been given to us. To be sure, there are other reasons to give, but for this community of faith in this time we are going to talk about gratitude and we are going to name some very specific things for which we are grateful. Next Sunday, as we celebrate the Reformation, we will offer our gratitude for the gift of the Church. On All Saints Sunday we will be grateful for the Communion of Saints. On November 11th we will offer our gratitude for our Ministry Partners, and hear specifically from one of them. And on November 18th we will offer our own gifts of gratitude as we complete and return our pledges for this year.
You will also note that a particular passage of Scripture will undergird us during these weeks, and that is our Second lesson today. In this text from the letter to the church at Colossae, we hear how we live together in community and how large a part gratitude holds in our life together.
If gratitude is our reason for giving, if this is the spring from which we draw, let us think more then, about what we might call this “attitude of gratitude” and the other motivations that might influence our stewardship of what God has given to us.
In the Gospel reading today, we do have an example of an attitude that is perhaps, an opposite of gratitude. James and John come to Jesus with a bold request: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Wow. Do for us whatever we ask of you. We are quick to condemn James and John for that request, are we not? After all, they should know from following Jesus that discipleship means giving to Jesus what he asks from us, not the other way around.
But I wonder how we also approach Jesus with a similar bold, if not ill informed, request? How often do our prayers become only a of list for God of all that we want? Or how often is our giving dependent on what we feel is being done for us, rather than for others? If James and John….if we….were to embody the words we heard from Colossians this morning could we dedicate ourselves to thankfulness rather than asking Jesus to give us everything we ask him for? Could we sing gratefully to God? And could we do everything in the name of Jesus giving thanks to God?
Can we do that now, right here? Can we name our blessings, giving thanks for them? Let’s start with some of the blessings of this life that we enjoy as a community of faith, as a congregation….A warm and dry place to worship, music and musicians, young and old, new friends and old friends, stained glass windows, food that we break and enjoy together, Scripture that reveals God’s word to us, children, candles, beautiful paraments, water, wine, bread, this building that the community uses so well, the garden, our pets we will bless today, our intern, our office administrator, our visitation minister, each one of you. Each one of us. Every one of us, past and present and yet to come.
Out of this deep gratitude we are able to offer our gifts. G.K. Chesterton said that “Gratitude is the true test of happiness.” It does not matter so much how much we have or how wonderful our possessions are, but how grateful we are for them.
And a part of gratitude is how we share what we have. Craig Satterlee said that the key to giving to God gratefully is receiving from God gratefully.
We have named the gifts we enjoy as a congregation. This congregation faithfully takes the gifts we have and uses them to share the Gospel message with others, in this neighborhood, in this city, and in the world. You are familiar, I believe with what we do in and from this place. People are fed, literally and figuratively. People without homes find overnight shelter here four weeks out of a year. Numerous community groups gather into this space to undertake their own particular missions: young people are formed to have values and to offer lives of service; people learn how to deal with the addictions of loved ones; teenagers who encounter their first brush with the law come here with their families to determine with a judge how they might turn their lives around; the neighborhood garden club considers the beauty of creation; the disaster response team names this as the gathering place in the event of a catastrophic emergency; numerous concerts offer the gift of music here; the community council meets here to engage in the matter of being a neighborhood together. Quilts, layettes, and school kits find their way across the world. Food is taken weekly to the food bank and monthly to the soup kitchen. Financial contributions flow like rivers of mercy to agencies who help globally, nationally, and locally in times of great need.
We do this all because we have been given the incredible gift of our lives. And that gift does not belong to us. Our lives and all that we have been given belong to God. Whether we approach what we have with the mindset that it is ours and we must maintain as much of it as possible or whether we approach what we have with the understanding that it is God’s and that we must share as much of it as possible is the difference in whether or not we live lives of gratitude.
It is Stewardship season. And here is the truth: in order to continue to carry out this ministry, we need you. We need your hands and hearts and time and talents. And we need your financial support. To borrow the philosophy of Ubuntu from the African village: Our ministries are because of what you are. We do this work because of your contributions.
What you give and how much you give is influenced by any number of factors, and is between you and God. We are all in different places in our lives. Some have more ability to give than others. Some of us are paying student loans, tuition, child care, bills, escalating rents and mortgages and the increasing costs of gas, groceries, and utilities. What you give is up to you. But that you give is critical to the ministry of this place. Without your financial support, we cannot do the work God has called us to in this time and in this place.
Sisters and brothers, dedicate yourselves to thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in you. Instruct and admonish one another wisely. Sing gratefully to God from your hearts in psalms, hymns, and songs of the Spirit. And whatever you do, whether in speech or in action, do it in the name of Jesus our Savior, giving thanks to God through Christ.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
0 Comments