Celebration Sunday! (the "Sermon on the Amount" 2002)
a sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Tim W. Jensen
at the Second Congregational Meeting House on Nantucket Island,
Sunday November 17, 2002
***
I had a nightmare the other night -- and no, it wasn’t about the Pledge Drive (or at least I don’t THINK it was). But Friday I dreamed that I was back in school -- Middle School -- and I was called on to go up to the blackboard to solve a complicated math problem, something involving long division of fractions, and I couldn’t do it. The whole class was watching, my teacher was tapping her pencil on her desk, there was even sunlight glaring off the blackboard which kept me from seeing clearly what I was trying to do...about the only positive thing about the situation was that at least in my dream I was still wearing all my clothes...and I could feel the panic, and the humiliation, and the shame,welling up in my chest, and then thankfully I was awake and safe in my bed again, a little sweaty and my heart still pounding, but other than that none the worse for wear.
I don’t have dreams like this very often. I’ve always kind of thrived in school; and for an English major who hasn’t had a math class since he was a sophomore in High School, I generally feel like I have pretty good math skills as well, which is to say that I can balance my checkbook, and understand sports statistics, and figure out the appropriate tip in a restaurant. But I do occasionally suffer from “math anxiety,” especially when I am confronted with an unfamiliar problem which requires me to use math that I haven’t really thought much about in over thirty years. At times like that my brain tends to freeze up and my eyes glaze over and I begin to wish that I was someplace else, someplace with an electronic calculator and a 15-year-old child who knows how to use it.
I share all this just to reassure you that no one is going to ask you to do any math here today. We’re not going to talk about the budget, or the church’s financial needs; I know perfectly well that most of you have already decided what you are going to pledge this year, and have probably already filled out your pledge cards as well. I also know that I am literally “preaching to the choir” here this morning; that the folks who would probably benefit most from this sermon probably aren’t here to hear it, and that’s OK too. It’s just one of the facts of life that about 80% of the money contributed to ANY religious organization tends to come from only about 20% of the contributors. And my purpose here is not to make any of those other 80% feel bad about what they are not doing, but rather to make certain that those of you who do contribute generously feel good about what you are. Because the bottom line is that this entire church is a gift that we give to one another. And as with most other things in life, people tend to get out of it exactly what they put in.
So thank you for your good example, and your generous spirits, and your commitment to the health and future of this community. And remember always that its prosperity is your prosperity, because at the end of the day, this is your church, your “congregational society,” and the congregational society is literally all of you.
You know, the root of the word “generosity” is the Latin word for “birth.” Generosity, generate, generation, genesis. But what’s really interesting to me is that, in English at least, the word “liberal” is essentially a synonym for generous: to give liberally is to give generously. A liberal is someone who feels at liberty to be generous, to give birth to new ideas, new initiatives. And the opposite of generous liberalism is greedy conservatism -- stingy, selfish, miserly, mean-spirited, fearful conservatism. And yes, sometimes it is possible to be a little too liberal, to be “generous to a fault; ” and sometimes it is wise to be a little conservative, to play things safe, to “conserve” our resources by being careful, or frugal. But for the most part, liberalism is a philosophy of hopeful optimism, while conservatism is based on fear of the unknown.
Thrift is a virtue, but so is trust; and the great challenge of liberalism is to overcome our fears in order to become free to trust an unknown future. Giving birth to something new is always an act of faith, a renewed hope for a new generation; it is the ultimate act of generosity. Creativity itself is a generous act -- we give a part of ourselves out to the universe, our vision and imagination, never really knowing for certain how it will be received or what the result will be. Generosity is an act of love, of charitas or “charity; ” of “philanthropy,” or love of our fellow human beings. We give the best part of ourselves to what we love in the optimistic hope of creating something that will benefit both us and others, and this is what it means to be “benevolent” -- which means, quite literally, to “wish for (or perhaps to ‘desire’ or ‘choose’) the good.”
So the first step to overcoming our fear of being generous is to learn to appreciate just how good we have it already. When I lived in Portland, I used to subscribe to a newsletter from an organization called “The Ministry of Money,” which was all about helping North Americans better understand just how affluent we really are when compared to most of the rest of the world. Don McClanen, the former executive director of that organization, used to have a chart in which he classified the world’s population into five categories. At the bottom of the pyramid were the “Poorest of the Poor:” people who had no family, no income, no homes, no health care, nor often even a place to die. Above them were the “Ordinary Poor,” who had limited access to jobs, housing, food, and health care; and then above them, the “Ordinary Wealthy,” who enjoy reasonable access to all these things, and generally affordable education and transportation as well. Next were “the Wealthiest of the Wealthy,” who enjoy more than sufficient income, housing, investments and possessions; and finally at the very top were the “Ultra-Wealthy,” billionaires, basically, for whom these considerations are essentially meaningless.
The point is obvious; if we only compare ourselves to the billionaires, we will never feel as though we have enough, but if we cast our eyes in the other direction, we will realize that most of us have truly been blessed with an abundance that allows us to be generous without feeling fearful that we are somehow jeopardizing our basic livelihood. The only appropriate response is one of gratitude, not fear. And when we are truly capable of understanding this, our fears tend to melt away.
When Bill Zelazny was here visiting us a few weeks ago, he said some kind of interesting things about Stewardship that I think are worth repeating. It’s always nice to have the District Executive come to visit, because District Executives are generally up-to-speed on all the latest trends and most current information in religion, but I likewise always tend to take what they say with a grain of salt, because I know that few of them even rarely have to actually DO what they say we ought to do themselves.
But one of the concepts Bill brought up was the notion of a “half-tithe.” The word “tithe,” as you may or may not know, simply means “a tenth,” and in many conservative churches it is the Biblical standard to which their members are exhorted to aspire. Nine for yourself, and the tenth for the Lord -- that’s a tithe, and apparently it’s a pattern of conservative generosity that is a lot more common than we think. So when Bill suggested a “half-tithe” as a standard to which Unitarian Universalists might aspire, he was basically challenging us to be half as committed to our religion as the Mormons are to theirs.
Five per cent: approximately a dollar a week for every thousand dollars of annual income. And of course, the first question to come up (as it generally does whenever I’ve mentioned this concept in a UU congregation) was “is that gross or net?” And the point is, it doesn’t matter. It’s up to you, because we’re not really talking about some sort of legalistic obligation here, we’re talking about a personal commitment to a higher level of intentional generosity, in the context of a much broader spectrum of religious commitments, which might include such things as weekly attendance at public worship; and a daily period of personal devotion -- a half-hour of prayer or meditation, or maybe writing in a journal, or practicing yoga or Tai Chi; participation in an on-going Adult Religious Education class, along with disciplined reading and study on your own, and a commitment to regular voluntary service both within the church and in the larger community. This is what the conservative “high-commitment” churches ask of their members. But just think, how much richer an experience of the Unitarian Universalist faith you might enjoy if you actually did all these things yourself? The real beneficiary of this level of commitment is the person who is actually doing the work; and the benefits extend not just to one’s relationship to the church, but throughout your entire life.
The other idea which Bill mentioned was to start thinking of $20 per week as your “basic” contribution contribution to the church. I know that there are some of you who are already contributing more than that, but for a lot of folks who are looking for a relatively painless way to step up their level of participation in the church, a twenty-dollar bill each week (plus the commitment to show up each week to put it in the collection plate) is a simple method of increasing your connection to this community in a tangible, physical, material way.
And it’s really not about the money. It’s about the commitment: about investing yourself in a serious way in the mission and ministry of this congregation and all that it stands for, and all that it can potentially contribute to your life. The actual amount of your contribution is far less important than the habit of contributing regularly, of attending regularly, of participating and volunteering and just being an active member of this community, until it becomes an essential part of your regular life. And that is when you will truly begin to reap the rewards of your generosity to yourself, and all the good things which our liberal religious faith has to offer will begin to flow back to you in abundance.
at the Second Congregational Meeting House on Nantucket Island,
Sunday November 17, 2002
***
I had a nightmare the other night -- and no, it wasn’t about the Pledge Drive (or at least I don’t THINK it was). But Friday I dreamed that I was back in school -- Middle School -- and I was called on to go up to the blackboard to solve a complicated math problem, something involving long division of fractions, and I couldn’t do it. The whole class was watching, my teacher was tapping her pencil on her desk, there was even sunlight glaring off the blackboard which kept me from seeing clearly what I was trying to do...about the only positive thing about the situation was that at least in my dream I was still wearing all my clothes...and I could feel the panic, and the humiliation, and the shame,welling up in my chest, and then thankfully I was awake and safe in my bed again, a little sweaty and my heart still pounding, but other than that none the worse for wear.
I don’t have dreams like this very often. I’ve always kind of thrived in school; and for an English major who hasn’t had a math class since he was a sophomore in High School, I generally feel like I have pretty good math skills as well, which is to say that I can balance my checkbook, and understand sports statistics, and figure out the appropriate tip in a restaurant. But I do occasionally suffer from “math anxiety,” especially when I am confronted with an unfamiliar problem which requires me to use math that I haven’t really thought much about in over thirty years. At times like that my brain tends to freeze up and my eyes glaze over and I begin to wish that I was someplace else, someplace with an electronic calculator and a 15-year-old child who knows how to use it.
I share all this just to reassure you that no one is going to ask you to do any math here today. We’re not going to talk about the budget, or the church’s financial needs; I know perfectly well that most of you have already decided what you are going to pledge this year, and have probably already filled out your pledge cards as well. I also know that I am literally “preaching to the choir” here this morning; that the folks who would probably benefit most from this sermon probably aren’t here to hear it, and that’s OK too. It’s just one of the facts of life that about 80% of the money contributed to ANY religious organization tends to come from only about 20% of the contributors. And my purpose here is not to make any of those other 80% feel bad about what they are not doing, but rather to make certain that those of you who do contribute generously feel good about what you are. Because the bottom line is that this entire church is a gift that we give to one another. And as with most other things in life, people tend to get out of it exactly what they put in.
So thank you for your good example, and your generous spirits, and your commitment to the health and future of this community. And remember always that its prosperity is your prosperity, because at the end of the day, this is your church, your “congregational society,” and the congregational society is literally all of you.
You know, the root of the word “generosity” is the Latin word for “birth.” Generosity, generate, generation, genesis. But what’s really interesting to me is that, in English at least, the word “liberal” is essentially a synonym for generous: to give liberally is to give generously. A liberal is someone who feels at liberty to be generous, to give birth to new ideas, new initiatives. And the opposite of generous liberalism is greedy conservatism -- stingy, selfish, miserly, mean-spirited, fearful conservatism. And yes, sometimes it is possible to be a little too liberal, to be “generous to a fault; ” and sometimes it is wise to be a little conservative, to play things safe, to “conserve” our resources by being careful, or frugal. But for the most part, liberalism is a philosophy of hopeful optimism, while conservatism is based on fear of the unknown.
Thrift is a virtue, but so is trust; and the great challenge of liberalism is to overcome our fears in order to become free to trust an unknown future. Giving birth to something new is always an act of faith, a renewed hope for a new generation; it is the ultimate act of generosity. Creativity itself is a generous act -- we give a part of ourselves out to the universe, our vision and imagination, never really knowing for certain how it will be received or what the result will be. Generosity is an act of love, of charitas or “charity; ” of “philanthropy,” or love of our fellow human beings. We give the best part of ourselves to what we love in the optimistic hope of creating something that will benefit both us and others, and this is what it means to be “benevolent” -- which means, quite literally, to “wish for (or perhaps to ‘desire’ or ‘choose’) the good.”
So the first step to overcoming our fear of being generous is to learn to appreciate just how good we have it already. When I lived in Portland, I used to subscribe to a newsletter from an organization called “The Ministry of Money,” which was all about helping North Americans better understand just how affluent we really are when compared to most of the rest of the world. Don McClanen, the former executive director of that organization, used to have a chart in which he classified the world’s population into five categories. At the bottom of the pyramid were the “Poorest of the Poor:” people who had no family, no income, no homes, no health care, nor often even a place to die. Above them were the “Ordinary Poor,” who had limited access to jobs, housing, food, and health care; and then above them, the “Ordinary Wealthy,” who enjoy reasonable access to all these things, and generally affordable education and transportation as well. Next were “the Wealthiest of the Wealthy,” who enjoy more than sufficient income, housing, investments and possessions; and finally at the very top were the “Ultra-Wealthy,” billionaires, basically, for whom these considerations are essentially meaningless.
The point is obvious; if we only compare ourselves to the billionaires, we will never feel as though we have enough, but if we cast our eyes in the other direction, we will realize that most of us have truly been blessed with an abundance that allows us to be generous without feeling fearful that we are somehow jeopardizing our basic livelihood. The only appropriate response is one of gratitude, not fear. And when we are truly capable of understanding this, our fears tend to melt away.
When Bill Zelazny was here visiting us a few weeks ago, he said some kind of interesting things about Stewardship that I think are worth repeating. It’s always nice to have the District Executive come to visit, because District Executives are generally up-to-speed on all the latest trends and most current information in religion, but I likewise always tend to take what they say with a grain of salt, because I know that few of them even rarely have to actually DO what they say we ought to do themselves.
But one of the concepts Bill brought up was the notion of a “half-tithe.” The word “tithe,” as you may or may not know, simply means “a tenth,” and in many conservative churches it is the Biblical standard to which their members are exhorted to aspire. Nine for yourself, and the tenth for the Lord -- that’s a tithe, and apparently it’s a pattern of conservative generosity that is a lot more common than we think. So when Bill suggested a “half-tithe” as a standard to which Unitarian Universalists might aspire, he was basically challenging us to be half as committed to our religion as the Mormons are to theirs.
Five per cent: approximately a dollar a week for every thousand dollars of annual income. And of course, the first question to come up (as it generally does whenever I’ve mentioned this concept in a UU congregation) was “is that gross or net?” And the point is, it doesn’t matter. It’s up to you, because we’re not really talking about some sort of legalistic obligation here, we’re talking about a personal commitment to a higher level of intentional generosity, in the context of a much broader spectrum of religious commitments, which might include such things as weekly attendance at public worship; and a daily period of personal devotion -- a half-hour of prayer or meditation, or maybe writing in a journal, or practicing yoga or Tai Chi; participation in an on-going Adult Religious Education class, along with disciplined reading and study on your own, and a commitment to regular voluntary service both within the church and in the larger community. This is what the conservative “high-commitment” churches ask of their members. But just think, how much richer an experience of the Unitarian Universalist faith you might enjoy if you actually did all these things yourself? The real beneficiary of this level of commitment is the person who is actually doing the work; and the benefits extend not just to one’s relationship to the church, but throughout your entire life.
The other idea which Bill mentioned was to start thinking of $20 per week as your “basic” contribution contribution to the church. I know that there are some of you who are already contributing more than that, but for a lot of folks who are looking for a relatively painless way to step up their level of participation in the church, a twenty-dollar bill each week (plus the commitment to show up each week to put it in the collection plate) is a simple method of increasing your connection to this community in a tangible, physical, material way.
And it’s really not about the money. It’s about the commitment: about investing yourself in a serious way in the mission and ministry of this congregation and all that it stands for, and all that it can potentially contribute to your life. The actual amount of your contribution is far less important than the habit of contributing regularly, of attending regularly, of participating and volunteering and just being an active member of this community, until it becomes an essential part of your regular life. And that is when you will truly begin to reap the rewards of your generosity to yourself, and all the good things which our liberal religious faith has to offer will begin to flow back to you in abundance.
posted by The Eclectic Cleric at 2:48 PM
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