"Giving and Receiving"

Every Sunday of my childhood, my priest would stand before our congregation just before the offering was taken up and say this sentence, “Remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said it was more blessed to give than to receive.”

It wasn’t until decades later, when I was in seminary, that I realized that there is no record in scripture of Jesus actually saying those words. As we heard from today’s reading from Acts, what we have is Paul, who never met the earthly Jesus, attributing the words to him.

So maybe Jesus said those words and maybe he didn’t. Whatever. Regardless of who said them, the sentiment they express is deeply ingrained in not only most Christians, but most Americans.

Giving is good. Receiving, not so much.

But our family’s experience at the end of the summer challenged the truth of that sentiment for me. As most of you know, Joe unexpectedly had to undergo major surgery at the end of August, with a significant recovery time.

I’ve spent much of the last 15 years being with people through similar situations. When the roles were reversed, I was very uncomfortable.

“No, that’s OK, I’ll be fine,” I said when some of you offered to wait with me in the hospital during the surgery.

“No, we won’t need food,” I assured others of you. “Really, I’ll be able to take care of Joseph Henry.”

In every case, you looked at me, nodded, and went ahead mobilizing support for our family.

And thank God you did.

Here is what I learned from this experience. Yes, it is blessed to give. But there are times when it is also a true blessing to receive.

Every person who came to the hospital, every meal delivered to our door, every card and e-mail and call and prayer, every offer to entertain Joseph Henry was a tangible blessing, a reminder that we were loved and supported, that we were part of a community that cared about us.

I have no doubt that all of those tangible blessings hastened Joe’s recovery and helped all of us through what was a most difficult period in our lives.

I learned something else, too. Having been on the receiving end of all those blessings makes me even more eager to give.

Having experienced the blessing of receiving makes me want to share that blessing with others.

That, in a nutshell, is the theology of giving.

There are many reasons for people to be altruistic, to give, to do good deeds or be concerned for the welfare of others.

Sometimes we do good because it makes us feel good. Sometimes we do it out of guilt, or in the secret hopes that we are earning our way to salvation.

Sometimes we may do it with the hope that when we are in need someone will help us. Sometimes, if we are honest, we do it because it makes us feel superior, or in control.

But for people of faith, scripture gives another motivation for doing good and for giving – we do it in grateful response to the blessings we have received.

It’s a theology that began with the Biblical patriarch Abraham, with whom God first made the covenant that still binds God and Jewish people together.

I’m going to make of you a great people, God tells Abraham. Your descendants will be more numerous than the stars. They will inhabit a land flowing with milk and honey. They will be greatly blessed.

But, God added, with great blessing comes great responsibility. The blessings aren’t to be hoarded away, they’re to be shared with all the nations of the world.

It’s a theme God comes back to again and again. Always remember how horribly you were treated when you were slaves in Egypt, and how I liberated you, God reminds the Israelites as they are about to enter the promised land. When you’re in charge, show your gratefulness by treating the resident aliens in your land with dignity and respect.

It’s a theology with which Jesus, a great Jewish teacher, was quite familiar. Love one another as God loves you, he told his followers. Forgive one another as God has forgiven you.

Don’t do good because it is your duty, or to try to earn your way into heaven. Do it in grateful response to the love and blessings that God has already given you.

With so much grim financial news assaulting us every day in recent weeks, it is so easy to forget that we are among those who have been richly blessed.

Our inclination is to circle our financial wagons, to look out for ourselves, to see where we can cut back.

As I’ve talked to clergy friends in the last few weeks the converation almost always turns to the financial situation and how it will affect stewardship. And uniformly, there is concern and anxiety and fear.

And there is no denying that these are uncertain and anxiety producing times. There is reason to be concerned.

But concern and fear are very different things. Concern can lead us to make wise, informed decisions. Fear can lead to panic and unwise choices, to circling the wagons and hoarding our resources, cutting ourselves off from community and from God.

So in this time of financial uncertainty and of stewardship, I invite you to set aside your fears. Look at the abundance of your lives, and the many blessings which God has given each and every one of us.

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Readings

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors–Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor–lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and made his offspring many. “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.” But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.” And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!” Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.” He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.” The people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and him we will obey.” So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made statutes and ordinances for them at Shechem.

Acts 20:32-36

Paul said, “And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified. I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’ Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

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