October 7, 2007
The Rev. James Richardson
Interim Rector
Jeremiah 29: 1, 4-7
Luke 17: 11-19


In the words of the hymn: “Remove my fear and bring me peace again.”

I am very delighted to be back here this morning. I have been gone the past two Sundays, first to the All Souls parish retreat, and then to a retreat in the Sierra foothills. I am really very, very happy to be back among you today. Today I want to talk about how giving can change our lives and our world. You may recognize this as a so-called “stewardship sermon” but I would like this to be more than that. I would like to change the flavor of the conversation, so I am going to make you a promise: I am not – I repeat – I am not going to talk about the church budget. Not today, not next Sunday, not at all. Period.

I want to talk to you about giving.

So I want to tell you about a friend of mine. Her name is Karen, and she lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lori and I met Karen and her husband, Jim, on a hiking trip in Southern France exactly three years ago this weekend. Karen and Jim were on their honeymoon when we met them. Karen does something that is, well, amazing. Every work day, or so, gives her friends an extraordinary gift. She sends us a poem, via email. The poems, written by familiar authors, others not, always come with a little bit of artwork.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I look forward to Karen’s gift. I pause in my day, and I read, and I enjoy. Some of the poems make me laugh, some make me cry, some poems I don’t understand in the slightest, some hit home. Some poems are familiar, others open whole new horizons into the universe for me. I have saved every one of these poems – I now have 352 of them stored in my email. Why does she give a poem? Karen explains: “Words – if they are written well – are the soul on paper.”

My life – my soul – is so much more alive because of Karen’s generosity. It is really that simple. Karen lives a life of giving with this simple act. Her giving opens up life for her and everyone around her. All of us can give because God has given each one of us so many gifts. For Karen, it is her ear for words that she delights in giving away. The more I walk this earth, the more I am convinced that the purpose of life is to give it all away. At its heart, life is about sharing in God’s abundance and it giving away. We use our share of God’s abundance for food, shelter, clothing, transportation and pleasure; for rearing and educating children; and to care for those who are least able to care for themselves. How we live, in large measure, has to do with how we give. Living is giving.

We can respond to life in one of two ways: We can hoard what we can, and grab everything we can. That, I would suggest, is the way to live a life of fear. Or we can live another way. We can open ourselves to God’s amazing abundant grace and generosity by sharing that grace with others. We can live by giving. I have said this before, and will repeat: How you spend your money isn’t just a financial issue; it is a spiritual issue. How you spend your time is not just an issue of your calendar. It is a spiritual issue. What you do with your talent isn’t just a career issue; it is a spiritual issue.

Let put this another way: What is it that you pray by how you live your life? Think of prayer as everything you say, everything you do, every dime you spend, every moment of your life. What is it that you pray by what you say, by what you do, and by how you give? In the days ahead, I hope you will think and pray about your giving – all of your giving. In what ways do you give in the workplace and at home or school? How do you give as you live through your day?

Giving is a way of life that will open our hearts and our minds and our souls to the universe around us. Each one of us counts because each one of us has something to give – our time, our talent, and our money. Each of us has different shares of each, but all of us have something to give. God calls each one of us to be agents of life and grace, and gives us everything we need to be the hands and feet and heart of God in the world. You have no idea how many lives are changed by the simple things you do here at All Souls. Lives really are changed by Christ through your giving.

One example of your giving, that changes lives: the Open Door Dinner tonight for the homeless. The giving of a few feeds the many on the streets. People really are freed from what enslaves them, and God’s kingdom really is bursting alive through you. I hope you will give to support this parish church – because this parish nourishes so many people. But you know what? It is not about the money. It is not about balancing the church budget. It is about how, together, we can change lives through this parish. All of us can participate in the amazing work of All Souls because all of us are have something to share. Every dollar counts because every dollar can build another brick in God’s kingdom here at All Souls. Yes, some of us can give more than others, but all of us can give something regularly throughout the year. I hope you will make your giving to this parish a priority and not an afterthought of whatever change is left over.

I also hope we will commit ourselves to finding new and creative ways to give to our planet, and not just take. Our environmental ministry team at All Souls has great promise, and I hope in the year ahead we can make that work a major effort at All Souls. Life is full of change. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us today that no matter how transitory life is, no matter where we live, we should become participants in building the kingdom of God: “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce.” All Souls is one of those houses Jeremiah is talking about.

Now, I know this whole giving business makes some people nervous. I get that. The demands on our resources are many, and the uncertainty of our time can make for uncertainty in our personal budget. I know that – I was out of work for the past year until you good people called me here to be your interim rector. But I want to tell you something from the bottom of my heart: All will be well, all really will be well. God provides everything we need, right here.

Giving can open us up to so much more of life than we can imagine. Giving makes us partners with God in this amazing walk of life – but it takes courage to live by giving, and courage is just another word for faith. And that brings us to the gospel lesson from Luke today. Outwardly, it is quite simple: Jesus heals ten lepers and they go on their way. Then, a Samaritan leper comes back to thank Jesus and he is told that “faith has made him well.”

Lepers are outcasts, they are required to live outside the gates of the city. And Samaritans are outcasts among the Jews, shunned as unclean. So here we have someone who is both a leper and a Samaritan – an outcast among the outcasts. It is the lowest of the low who presents a gift to Jesus – the gift of thanks. He has faith that, somehow, all will be well. An outcast who outwardly has nothing to be thankful for, nothing to be faithful about, who has been trod upon his entire life, he is the one who gives thanks. And Jesus sees this gift of thanks as a gift of faith.

And Jesus tells the Samaritan leper something extraordinary – that it is his offering of thanksgiving that has made him well. Healing is not a reward for giving, but the giving by faith has changed the Samaritan and made him well. It is in the giving that that the Samaritan leper is set free to live.

The Samaritan’s life is no longer based on fear, it is based on giving through faith. I come back to my friend, Karen, who gives her friends a poem each day. I was looking through my collection of her gifts this week, and I came across one sent on May 2, written by author Barbara Kingsolver: “What to believe in, exactly, may never turn out to be half as important as the daring act of belief. A willingness to participate in sunlight, and the color red. An agreement to enter into a conspiracy with life, on behalf of both frog and snake, the predator and the prey, in order to come away changed.”

That is a life worth living. Dare to believe, dare to enter into a conspiracy with life, dare to live by giving.

Amen.