PROPERS: PROPER 22, YEAR C
TEXT: LUKE: 17:5-10
PREACHED AT ST. JAMES’, FAIRHOPE, ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019, AT 7:30 A.M., 9:00 A.M., AND 11:00 A.M.
ONE SENTENCE: Our striving is to no avail; it is in freedom that we find joy.
I want to talk with you this morning about two things: An approach to life, and an approach to giving. There can be joy and freedom in both.
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Three years ago this coming February, I retired after serving 16 years as Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Mississippi.
I did not know it then, but I had been living a heresy. It had to do with what I was giving to the job. For those of you who care, my approach violated the 14th of the 39 Articles of Religion found in our Book of Common Prayer.
Now, after quietly sitting in a screened-in back porch, gazing out on the eighth fairway of Rock Creek Golf Course, I see my pride and heresy more clearly.
For those 16 years, I had over-functioned. I had tried to prove my worth, my value, to find esteem, and to earn God’s love by giving all that I had to the job. I traveled. I met with Vestries. I conducted search processes. I led mutual ministry reviews. I met with clergy and laity. I devised and executed new programs. I sought to be indispensable. I was trying to manufacture blessings.
I was gripping the controls of life too tightly. I tried to give more than I was given.
Perhaps like the servant mentioned in Jesus’ words today…
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I was practicing works righteousness – thinking that giving relentlessly of myself would settle my accounts. I thought I alone could make the world right and earn my blessings.
I was wrong. No matter what I might tell myself, I could not make myself independent. I could not put myself in the place of God. And I could go beyond what God had given me.
I could strive and strive, but I could not become self-sufficient. I could not outgive the giver of all things. Jesus makes that clear in the gospel lesson today: “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, `We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
Like you, I suspect, I do not want to be considered a “worthless slave”. We want to be fiercely independent. But, we need to be mindful of that theological truth of our giftedness as we approach our discernment of the question: What percentage of my income is God calling me to give? We cannot become self-blessers – no matter how hard we try; no matter how hard we grip the controls.
The answer is this: We can recognize our blessings, our abundance. We can give generously out of thanksgiving and joy – both in exercising our vocations and in offering our gifts.
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I believe there is a direct correlation with our Christian giving. We stress ourselves over our level of giving. There is a temptation to feel we have made ourselves and that we owe no one anything. As a result, we blanch from examining the issue of giving, from talking openly about it, and in having direct focus on the subject.
We should be aware, though, that it is in reflection, open conversation, and self-examination that we find freedom from old taboos and guilt.
That is precisely what I am encouraging today. Thoughtful, prayerful reflection on the source of our blessings and giving from those blessings. By virtue of doing that, I am saying you can find joy and freedom.
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I have referred to gripping the controls. I am reminded of a lesson a friend, who is a pilot, has told me. If a pilot grips the controls of a plane tightly, the movement of the aircraft will be sudden, stiff and erratic. But if the pilot grips the controls lightly, the plane’s motions will be more smooth and fluid.
An example: In cinematic depictions of Neil Armstrong’s descent to the moon’s surface in Apollo 11, you see him gingerly nudging the controls of the lunar module, delicately guiding his fragile craft in its final moments. The results stopped the world.
Our approach to life and its challenges can make a huge difference. Tight versus loose. Stress versus freedom. Joy versus requirement. Giving freely versus giving under duress.
The answer is to be loose… to recognize the blessings… to recognize we are not on our own… to act out of joy… to act out of freedom. Both the giver and the gift are transformed. And recognize, as Jesus inferred, no matter what you, you cannot outgive the giver.
I hope that frees you. It should disclose to you that life – all aspects of it – is a gift. You are not owned or controlled by your possessions. They are gifts.
You are released from negative voices of past experiences. You are free.
Freedom from compulsions – and recognizing my true abundance – helped me find joy.
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Like many of you, I have touched the various stages of giving – giving out of requirement, giving out of obligation, giving to a budget, giving as a “dues payer”. But then I learned giving as a percentage of income, and then, finally, giving out of joy. Bit-by-bit, step-by-step. I took free steps in giving.
It did not happen overnight. Over time, I shed those voices of shame and judgement. I recognized that the wolf was not at the door. The provisions with which I was blessed came not from being a self-made man, but from God. My life, my being, my family, my vocation, my world were all gracious gifts from God. And out of that sense of givenness came a desire to give back a portion of those blessings.
It was at that point that giving moved from being an obligation to being a joy.
I cannot tell you where that point will be for you. It is a very personal point. You alone can name that time. You will make that decision.
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I know of some wonderful stories of how lives have been transformed by recognizing the grace of God in people’s lives. Some are like Osceola McCarty, a housekeeper at the University of Southern Mississippi. She retired after earning a meager wage for many years, and she left a charitable gift of $250,000. She had what she needed. She gave from her sense of abundance.
Or there is the seminary professor, whose privacy I will respect. Having been so profoundly moved by her relationship with God, she lives a reverse tithe: Living on 10 percent of her income while giving 90 percent away. She has been blessed and transformed; she now blesses and transforms others.
Neither of these people give out of compulsion. Nor are they controlled by their possessions. They are freed and they give out of joy and gratitude.
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I am told that in some areas of the country there is a season called fall (maybe we will encounter it at some point). During that season, the trees take on remarkable colors, and then let go of their leaves. They release their burdens.
And in a few months, they find new life. I hope you can find the same.
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