Abundance
Rev. Paul Sprecher
Second Parish in Hingham, www.secondparish.org
April 11, 2010
Opening Words
John C. Morgan
We are here that we might have life
and have it more abundantly,
so that we might share it with others.
Come, let us join together
as a generous people.
Readings
NKJ Luke 9:10 And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here." 13 But He said to them, "You give them something to eat." And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people." 14 For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty." 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down. 16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
Michael Durall, “Money in the Church,” from The Almost Church, pp. 71-72
The stewardship message should be to share in adequate measure, so that we may go about our day-to-day lives in good conscience, and be able to sleep at night. Aren't we privileged to be part of a community of faith that can create a better world? ….
Being a member of a small church can be tiring in that people already wear many hats. Giving more to do more may not be an appealing option. This factor does not mean that members of small churches are permitted to give less. It means that small churches can increase their outreach giving. The healthiest of small churches have a clear "vocation," something they do well, toward which they focus their time, energy, and money.
Finally, despite all this talk about church finance, money is actually a secondary issue. Churches of all sizes that create a vibrant life, a tangible presence of the sacred, and a habit of reaching out to serve will not worry about money. Stewardship is not about asking people for money. Stewardship concerns what kind of people the church calls us to become, and how a community of faith uses the resources at its command to serve with love and compassion. It is about LUKE 12:48, "To whom much has been given, much is expected...."
The people who sit in the pews in small churches, and indeed all churches, are called to give, not to hoard. Surely this is the bedrock principle on which our churches must be built.[i]
Sermon
This is a story from the Talmud, the sacred collection of stories and commentary by the Rabbis started in the second century of the Common Era:
Honi the Wise One was also known as Honi the Circle Maker. By drawing a circle and stepping inside of it, he would recite special prayers for rain, sometimes even argue with God during a drought, and the rains would come. He was, indeed, a miracle maker. As wise as he was, Honi sometimes saw something that puzzled him. Then he would ask questions so he could unravel the mystery.
One day, Honi the Circle Maker was walking on the road and saw an old man planting a carob tree. Honi asked the man, "How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?"
The man replied, "Seventy years."
Honi then asked the man, "And do you think you will live another seventy years and eat the fruit of this tree?"
The man answered, "Perhaps not. However, when I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my father and grandfather. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren so they will be able to eat the fruit of these trees."[ii]
The story about Honi and the Carob Tree speaks of our responsibility to be good stewards of what we have received from our ancestors and forebears, and to hand it intact to our descendants and all of those who will inherit the earth after us. The story of how Jesus fed the 5,000 is about something much more immediate: how those who came to hear Jesus are to get their daily bread; or, more specifically, their dinner. We read the version of this story from Luke; in the gospel of Matthew, the same story ends with this line: [Matt 14:21] “And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.” In other words, there were probably 6 to 10 thousand people who needed to be fed – quite a feat for a well-oiled army dining system, much more difficult for thirteen men – Jesus and his twelve disciples.
I grew up believing that this story is one of the nature-miracles of Jesus, something like walking on water or calming the sea of Galilee with the words, “Peace, be still.” Somehow, quite magically, the bread and fish after being blessed and broken simply multiplied and multiplied until everyone was fed and twelve baskets of surplus food remained. That’s certainly one way to view the story, but it seems to me that such an interpretation shortchanges the broader message Jesus was teaching about what the Kingdom of Heaven would be like. I think this can also be read as another in a series of parables describing what the world would be like if God’s will were done on earth as it is in heaven. Remember how the story starts: Lots of hungry people, disciples who are powerless to feed them and want to send them off to buy food – probably a difficult prospect for thousands and thousands of people. Think about the chaos you’d have if everyone at a baseball game had to go to the concession stand at the same time, rather than being served in their seats by roving vendors. But then something new happens. As the Gospel of John tells the story, someone volunteers what he has brought for himself, and Peter reports to Jesus that [John 6:9] "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.” I like that little touch: A young boy offers to share; perhaps he was too naïve to have learned to guard what is his lest he lose everything he had. The disciples can’t imagine what difference that drop in the bucket will make, but Jesus takes what is offered, blesses it, breaks it, and hands it to his disciples to distribute.
I think we could understand the story as an exercise in sharing whatever we have and thereby caring for everyone’s needs. I can imagine the twelve offering a bit of bread to the folks in the front of the crowd and their responding, a little guiltily, “No, that’s OK. I brought some dinner along,” and then turning to a neighbor and saying “Here, would you like to share some of mine?” and so on all the way to the back of that vast crowd. It’s important that the crowd is divided into groups of 50; no one is anonymous in a group that size. Except for that young boy, everybody was probably hiding whatever food they had brought in order to look out for number one. Then, in front of their eyes, someone demonstrated that he was willing to give up the security of hanging on to what he had, trusting that somehow the hungry – including himself – would be fed. They could have laughed at the boy, who was obviously not wise to the ways of the world. But who could accept his food when they had some of their own? And who could fail to share with neighbors who had nothing when they had seen generosity modeled in front of them? I think that’s what the Kingdom of God would be like – whoever had enough would share it with others, and in that way all would receive their daily bread. Now that’s a miracle. I think of it as being a little like a potluck such as we’re having this evening, where each person, each family, brings what they are able according to their talents and preferences, and there is more than enough for all.
Abundance: Being willing to share what you have. Abundance: Being willing to receive what you need.
It is customary in our congregations that at the start of our annual covenant renewal the minister delivers what we refer to, in jest, as “The Sermon on the Amount.” This is such a sermon. I have heard quite a few such sermons since Deedee and I and our two boys joined the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood some years ago. I don’t remember much about most of them; one of the more memorable ones involved cutting up a potato to demonstrate how much it would be appropriate to pledge to the congregation. Deedee and I had generally already talked about how much we felt moved to give for the year, and we certainly increased that amount year over year, so the sermon itself was not the key element in helping us decide how much to give for the following year. We also had a Fellowship Feast to kick off our pledge drive, and that was much more important because it was an illustration of how our community mattered to us, just as our potluck dinner this evening will be a demonstration of what is so precious about this congregation. I do hope that your evaluation of my performance as your minister will not be based solely on the degree to which I manage to encourage an increase in your giving this morning. I am not, probably to your relief, a TV evangelist who promises healing, salvation and prosperity if only viewers will give more.
On the other hand, you may not have thought about how much to give to this congregation for the coming year, so it is appropriate to remind ourselves about what is important to us about this precious congregation.
· We’re small, but do not plan to remain that way. We really are one of the friendliest churches around – we never have guests who are not welcomed with enthusiasm, and we always converse and share our generosity with our guests at coffee hour.
· We open our hearts to worthy causes in our area and elsewhere in the world which serve those in need of material aid or shelter from violence or from natural catastrophes. Our Second Sunday offerings have raised significant amounts of money to support many different organizations. When we learned of the catastrophe in Haiti, I’m proud to say that we spontaneously had a special offering on the Sunday after the earthquake – which wasn’t even the Second Sunday of the month – and raised about twice as much as we raise in our typical Second Sunday offering – over $625 – to support the relief work in Haiti by our Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. We help people in need or crisis through the organizations we support and host: the Food Pantry in our basement; the Alcoholics Anonymous groups which we host here each week; Wellspring, which offers a hand up, not a handout, to many of our neighbors; the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, serving those in need of shelter from abuse and those children who need help to learn and excel; and many others.
· We don’t make promises we can’t keep. We don’t promise faith healing, but we do promise that we will care for each other when we’re sick, or homebound, or just need a good casserole when we are devastated by loss. We don’t promise prosperity, but we do offer help to formulate how to live and how to hope, and we believe that we will be rewarded when we live out our beliefs. We don’t offer salvation from hellfire in return for belief in a particular creed, but we do teach that God – however we choose to name or define the ultimate, that which transcends our selves and all of creation – that God is Love, and that all may seek and find refuge from fear and anguish among us during this life.
The joy and obligation of giving has a long religious history. Our Jewish friends and neighbors practice Tzedakah, giving 10% of income to those in need and in support of their synagogues and temples. One of the five pillars of Islam is the obligation to offer Zakat, 2 ½% of one’s wealth each year to support those in need and their religious institutions. You may recall an old adage about how to be prosperous and content: Give away 10% of what you earn, save 10%, and live on the remaining 80%.
It turns out that those who have the most are less generous than those who have little, and members of liberal congregations like our own are less generous than conservative congregations. I believe, as Michael Durell reminds us in our reading earlier, that – as Jesus put it – [ 12:48] "To whom much has been given, much is expected." I’m proud to say that Deedee and I give more than 10% – a tithe – of what I earn here to worthy causes and to this congregation. We support the Tibetan Nuns project, which we learned about from my cousin, their executive director for many years; environmental organizations; Greg Mortenson’s work building schools in the most impoverished areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, especially emphasizing the education of girls, as described in Three Cups of Tea; the Hagar School, which Lauren Joseph introduced to a number of us last Friday evening, a project to bring equality in education and mutual understanding to Jewish and Arab children in Israel; as well as a number of our Unitarian Universalist organizations like the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee – which all of us support with our Guest at Your Table boxes, and the Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist church for far-flung members who are unable to participate in congregations close to them, where I had the privilege to serve as Ministerial Intern. But fully half of our tithe goes to support this congregation, because we believe in Second Parish, in its mission and its potential. It is possible to give generously.
Abundance: The willingness to support institutions in which we believe. Abundance: Experiencing the joy of sharing what we have been given.
The story of the Honi and the Carob Tree speaks of giving to institutions and causes which will serve as part of our legacy even when we depart this life. Like the old man, we have inherited so many things from our ancestors: money, guidance, intellectual capital and so much more. The very trees which shade us, help to feed us, and grace our lives are largely there because of others who came before us. We have inherited this place and this congregation, a legacy of generations which it is now our responsibility and our privilege to support and carry forward into the future.
Abundance: the willingness to plant what we will not reap, to carry forward the legacy which has been given us. Abundance: the willingness to share what we have with generosity.
We ask that this congregation may flourish in abundance and grow stronger each year.
May it be so, and Amen.