“Harvesting a Passion for Living ” The Rev. Rali Weaver

First Church and Parish in Dedham

November 23, 2008

When I think about Thanksgiving I often think about harvesting an attitude of gratitude. And so it is when we come to this time of year that is usually the sermon I want to preach.

It seems natural at harvest time to raise up our thanks for our own amazing harvest - this beautiful church, the way that people in our midst rally around to get things done, and the most amazing talents people share from their skills with their hands to the raising of their voices. We are certainly blessed and we would be terrible ungrateful slobs if we did not recognize the abundance around us at all times and in all places but most especially at Thanksgiving.

I do admit that I have a great deal more ease talking about the thanks than I do about giving which is why I preach that gratitude sermon every year.

And yet I believe to cultivate a true passion for living we must cultivate both our Thanks and our Giving.

In some ways isn’t this what the first Settlers and Native Americans did on that first harvest after the devastating winter. Following a winter after more than half of their family and friends had died they came together to raise up their thanks to the native peoples who had helped them to survive. But when they got to the banquet table the thing that rarely happens at thanksgiving dinners these days happened. They ran out of food. And so it was that the Chief of the Wampanoag sent his hunters out to help gather some venison for the feast. Under these circumstances the Wampanoag and the pilgrims were equally thankful and giving.

What the Pilgrims were offering at that first Thanksgiving was not a result of a harvest of their own but was in fact a gift brought to them by the very people they were trying to express gratitude to.

A very complicated dynamic but isn’t that the way any growth or change or possibility is born in the first place? Full of blessings that are earned and some that are given and sometimes even some which magically arrive?

Of course the rest of the founding story of our nation is a pretty gruesome tale for those same Wampanoag People who had their own culture destroyed by the culture of the people that they had aided. These were some of my ancestors.

In many ways the Wampanoag Culture was destroyed by the very ideas of scarcity that Bruggemann discusses in his essay. Instead of continuing to share and work cooperatively in the ways they had at the first Thanksgiving, the new settlers drew boundary lines with rock walls and fences, marking their territory and punishing those who crossed their boundaries which resulted in war and slavery for the Wampanoag.

Without delving into the gory details of all of the atrocities of my ancestors it is easy to see that the strength that was gained from the gifts that were shared at the First Thanksgiving -did not create a sense of abundance in their hearts but instead led them to maintain their own attitude of division and hoarding and scarcity that in many ways we continue living with today.

In contrast the Chief, Massasoit was surprisingly altruistic. By all accounts there had been troubles with these Europeans before. The Europeans had forcefully taken his People as slaves for years and still he offered the gifts they needed to overcome the winter. The gifts of his homeland were being robbed, these new people were setting up house a little too close to his house and still he accepted their invitation. And then the settlers had the unmitigated gal to invite him and his warriors to a dinner where there was not enough food for them to eat and so he sent his best warriors to gather what they need for the meal to be complete.

This reminds me of the story of the Ruby I shared with you today. What made that wise man by the river so willing and able to give away that precious jewel?

It was of course because he saw all of life as a precious jewel. If all of life is a precious jewel what is one more treasure among all of the treasures that surrounded him every day? The young man realized this and was able to see that the greater treasure was to love everything instead of hoarding one thing.

I imagine that in some ways this is that is also what Chief Massasoit felt. He had an abundance of treasures and resources. I imagine that he believed they had plenty of the knowledge and the resources to survive and so why not offer what he had?

Walter Bruggemann poses an interesting question. Whether you believe in God or on in yourself, the real question is how do you make sense of the beauty and the gifts that come into your hand from others and what good will you do with them?

I was confronted with this in some ways myself this week.

I had a person associated with this parish who was in some dire financial need. This happens from time to time. People come to me as the minister with spiritual needs and sometimes emotional needs and sometimes physical needs and occasionally with financial needs. And I always have to measure my resources against the needs of the people who come to me in need and give what I can using my best discression. I have a ministerial discressionary fund for the purpose of offering financial help which some of you have contributed to from time to time. Unfortunately the current economic times have depleted that account. That little fund has paid utility bills, turned on peoples cell phones, bought groceries, offered Charlie Cards and warm clothes and sneakers and pajama’s. Unfortunately though the account, which was never very full, has been severely depleted in these times and so when this individual asked me for money I had really nothing to give. And so I was preparing my – I have no financial gifts to offer but here is what I can offer instead- speech.

I called my Dad who is always generous with his resources but most especially his time and his listening ear when I really need it most. He helped me rationalize what I had to offer. And I was confident that even though I had no money to give I could offer resources of another kind.

But I felt bad about it. I really felt for the situation this person was in. And I wanted to find some way to help. But I had nothing financial to give.

That is until one parishioner happened by my office and said “ I was just thinking I haven’t given you any money for the Ministerial Discressionary fund in a while and I figured it was about time to come by and give you a check.” I did not call this person and ask for money. I hadn’t even asked God. I cannot completely name what made that person come to me and offer the funds when I had someone who really needed it waiting. I cannot name the force that made it impossible for me to contact the person who asked for funds and give my practiced speech until after this person had made this gift.

But it seems to me that this is the perfect example of casting bread down stream or seeds in the wind. Certainly the person who gave me the money didn’t know where it would go any more I can guarantee that the person who received it will do something good with it. But I am pretty sure this is a true example of generosity and abundance. If we cultivate a sense that what we need will come to us as Walter Bruggemann suggests we will not be “driven, controlled, anxious, frantic or greedy, precisely because we are sufficiently at home and at peace to care about others as we have been cared for.” And this my friends is a passion for living. It is about gratitude but it is really all about sharing from a place of abundance.

If that person had not come to my office and offered those funds my abundant response would have rested in the knowledge that what I could offer in support would be enough. And yet because of the generosity of one person what I had to offer was so much more.

I think these are the gifts we have a profusion of in this community. It is the sort of generosity that casts bread downstream without having any idea where it will land. I saw it last night at the performance of Amahl in all of the performers who shared their musical talents without an expectation of personal reward. Casting their gifts for the greater good, giving of their time and energy and talents as though there was plenty to spare. I saw it in the Parish Committee Members who spent the day at a retreat and especially those who also then sang in the choir. I saw it in Linnea and Joel who are so talented and give their musical gifts to us with such generosity and kindness, we have so many people who do what needs to be done and offer their gifts without expectation of glory or reward. There is great abundance in this parish of people who know how to submerge in the task and care for each other and who put the giving first.

When Brugemann refers to the manna from heaven he is talking at the bread that came to the Israelites from the sky. If you remember they left Egypt in a hurry with unleavened bread but there was not enough to last all the 40 years until they reached the Promised Land. And they were worried about this but when they ran out of bread the sky rained Manna from heaven. In those 40 years they learned one very interesting thing about the Manna--- you cannot hoard manna or it gets filled with maggots. Manna represents the gifts that come to us from sources we cannot name. And the wisdom is that we cannot hold on to them.

Holding on to your gifts, never sharing them, holding on to your success, your money, your treasure, your talent, your role, whatever it may be, and never giving it away or sharing so that it enlarges another soul is a cold and empty way to live. These seeds from our birth right gifts, from random acts of kindness, and even from our stages of life, must actually be sown again in order to cultivate this passion for living.

So this Thanksgiving let us focus on both the thanks and the giving and in so doing harvest a passion for living by sharing all of our treasures most generously with everybody else.