"Giving Back"

READING

 

In Barbara Kingsolver's novel "Animal Dreams," a young woman returns to

her hometown in rural Arizona and resumes a friendship with a Native

American man she knew in high school. In this conversation, she is

asking him about the Indians' corn dance.

 

"So you make this deal with the gods. You do these dances and they'll

send rain and good crops and the whole works? And nothing bad will ever

happen. Right?"

 

After a minute he said, "No, it's not like that. It's not making a deal,

bad things can still happen, but you want to try not to cause them to

happen. It has to do with keeping things in balance."

 

"In balance."

 

"Really, it's like the spirits have made a deal with us."

 

"And what is the deal?" I asked.

 

"We're on our own. The spirits have been good enough to let us live here

and use the utilities, and we're saying: We know how nice you're being.

We appreciate the rain, we appreciate the sun, we appreciate the deer we

took. Sorry if we messed up anything. You've gone to a lot of trouble,

and we'll try to be good guests."

 

"Like a note you'd send somebody after you stayed in their house?"

 

"Exactly like that. 'Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch. I took

some beer out of the refrigerator, and I broke a coffee cup. Sorry, I

hope it wasn't you favorite one.'"

 

I laughed because I understood "in balance." I would have called it

"keeping the peace," or maybe "remembering your place," but I liked it.

"It's a good idea," I said. "Especially since we're still here sleeping

on God's couch. We're permanent houseguests."

 

"Yep, we are. Better remember how to put everything back how we found it."

 

 

SERMON:

 

If we were going to write a thank you note to the universe,

        we could do worse than 

                "Thanks for letting me sleep on your couch.

                        I took some beer out of the refrigerator

                                and I broke a coffee cup.

                                        Sorry, I hope it wasn’t your

                                           favorite one."

 

That characterizes life on earth well enough.

As the young Native American in "Animal Dreams" explains, 

        the universe has been good enough to let us live here.

Our side of the bargain is to show some appreciation

        and try to put things back the way they were.

Life is a reciprocal arrangement.

 

The larger patterns of reciprocity often elude us,

        so caught up are we in getting from one place to another.

We are largely out of touch with the give and take of life,

        except when we schedule time – like Thanksgiving –

                to remember it. 

The most vivid moment of gratitude 

        that I had recently

                was arriving five minutes early for an appointment,

                        feeling relaxed, almost euphoric,

                                because I was not worried about being

                                     late for once.

Who has time to put anything back the way it was?

Most of us just keep going forward.

We complain that life is out of balance,

        because it is.

Perhaps a life that fell seriously out of balance

        is the first to recognize that giving back

                is as important as taking what we need.

A former heroin addict and ex-prisoner wrote recently 

        about his decision to quit using drugs 

                and get his life back in order.

It wasn’t easy.

He was homeless and living on Skid Row.

But with the help of the Veterans Administration

        and the Clare Adult Recovery Program, 

                he did it.

Now he has a job,

        his own one bedroom apartment,

                and his self-respect.

 

What he does to keep himself in balance now

        is give back.

He works with youth,

        and he shares his experiences with the public

                and with others in recovery.

He is so grateful 

        that he gladly gives back

                in recognition of the pattern of reciprocity

                        that he sees in life.

His survival depends on it.

We all depend on it.

 

I serve on the Board of the Ocean Park Community Center,

        a network of shelters and services 

                for homeless men and women,

                        victims of domestic violence and mental illness.

This connection has given me an appreciation 

        for what happens to people 

                when they receive the help they need.

They recover, 

        they grow and learn new skills in living,

                they achieve self-sufficiency,

                        and they give back.

Turning Point, OPCC's transitional housing program for homeless people,

        sends people off into the world

                with enough savings to afford an apartment,

                        and the confidence that they can take care of themselves.

They may have learned self-sufficiency,

        but they also keep coming back – 

                as members of an active alumni/ae association, 

                        that raises money and good will for Turning Point.

They come back

        and they give back.

They put their lives in balance

        by participating in the reciprocal pattern of life. 

 

Giving back comes naturally

        to people who are grateful to be alive.

But giving back can also be a path

        to feeling grateful –

                it can make all our lives better.

A story is told about Mohandas Gandhi,

        who "once settled in a village

                and at once began serving the needs of the villagers

                        who lived there.

A friend inquired if Gandhi’s objectives in serving the poor

        were purely humanitarian.

Gandhi replied, 'Not at all.

        I am here to serve no one else but myself,

                to find my own self-realization 

                        through the service of these village folk.'"

Gandhi wisely understood

        that a balanced life needs giving

                for happiness and fulfillment.

 

If you ask a volunteer how it feels to give,

        more often than not you'll hear 

                how good it is to receive.

The patterns of reciprocity make life good.

If you feel bad about life,

        consider giving back to feel better.

You may restore balance to your life that way.

 

The ancient Thanksgiving Address 

        that the six Native American nations 

                of upstate New York and Canada still use

                        acknowledges their gratitude for all the gifts

                             of life.

They give thanks for the animals, 

        the wind, 

                the rain, 

                        the sun, 

                                the moon, 

                                        and the stars.

They give back by agreeing to live

        in harmony with nature and one another –

                by keeping their lives in balance.

And they thank the Great Spirit 

        for the source of their health and their happiness.

It's a simple pattern:

        give thanks,

                give back,

                        enjoy life.

In an individual life,

        it is the connection we see

                between what gives us life

                        and how we should live.

It is how we keep in balance all our coming and going,

        giving and receiving,

                working and resting.

In a community life,

        it takes on a larger dimension.

Still, giving back can make a society happy and healthy too 

Balance in community is justice and right relation.

 

This Sunday before Thanksgiving, 

        thoughtful Americans are well aware

                of the social injustices that have shaped our country's history.

We all know that the Native American traditions

        on which our observance is based

                were suppressed and marginalized 

                        in the making of our democratic society.

Even so, for most of us 

        Thanksgiving remains a meaningful observance,

                with positive spiritual and personal values.

It is also an occasion for us to ask

        whether the pattern of reciprocity we see in life

                calls us to give back as a community,

                        to keep the balance collectively.

 

Sister Marie Augusta Neale, 

        a Catholic nun and liberation theologian,

                has made the radical case

                        that people of privilege

                                should practice 

                                        a "theology of relinquishment."

Recognizing the disparity 

        between the privileged and the poor,    

                she argues that those who have privilege

                        should give it away.

This is how we can restore balance:

        giving up as a way of giving back.

 

Making reparations is a related gesture,

        giving back to those from whom 

                we have taken something.

Victoria Barnett, in an essay titled "Payback,"

        describes reparations as 

                "a form of compensation for past injuries."

Reparations are a way of restoring justice in society,

        of validating the experience of people 

                who have been oppressed.

        

When it comes to Native American and African American injuries, however,

        the "original injustices have been compounded

                by decades of discrimination."

Reparations are an attempt to balance history.

According to Barnett, 

        "In 1994 Florida paid $2.1 million 

                to descendants of the African-American victims 

                        of the 1923 Rosewood massacre."

(By the way, you can see a really great film 

        that was written by church member Greg Poirier 

                about the Rosewood tragedy.

                        It’s on video.)

"Earlier this year, the Tulsa Race Riot Commission 

        recommended that reparations

                be paid to the survivors of the 1921 race riot in that city,

                        in which as many as 300 African-Americans were

                              killed. 

And state and federal courts and mediators 

        are dealing with hundreds of Native American land claims,

                and indigenous tribes in the U.S. and Canada have filed suits

                        demanding reparations for various crimes,

                                such as the abuse of students 

                                        in parochial and government-run schools."

 

"The call for reparations is not new;

        it began as soon as slavery ended," Barnett adds.

Clearly many people still feel the need

        to give back

                to those from whom so much has been stolen.

They want to give back

        even to those who are no longer living

                or able to receive –

                        but to restore what has been out of balance.

People need for balance,

        even in the complex social and political arrangements

                we make in our larger society.

Balance is justice.

 

As the Native American man in Barbara Kingsolver’s "Animal Dreams"

        put it, "keeping things in balance"

                is our end of the deal 

                        "the spirits have made with us."

When we ignore balance in our lives

        and in our communities,

                we face inequity and extinction.

 

What makes it so difficult for us

        is that balance

                is not an explicit value in the world today.

Many of us would jeopardize our careers 

        and shirk our responsibilities

                if all we did was keep things in balance.

Many of you work six, seven days a week.

I know I do.

And I know that we would be letting someone down

        if we didn't.

 

Even so, a life in balance is what we all need,

        despite pressure to work all the time

                and not take good care of ourselves.

Sometimes we need to give back

        to ourselves.

Dr. Martin Luther King, who worked tirelessly and selflessly

        for the cause of civil rights,

                was well aware of all the risks he was taking.

But he was talking about a different kind of risk

        when he addressed a group of civil rights activists

                who were discussing burnout:

"We have just so much strength in us,"

        he said.

"If we give and give and give,

        we have less and less and less –

                and after a while, at a certain point,

                        we’re so weak and worn,

                                we hoist up the flag of surrender.

We surrender to the worst side of ourselves,

        and then we display that to others.

We surrender to self-pity and to spite and to morose self-preoccupation.

This is arduous duty,

        doing this kind of work;

                to live out one's idealism brings with it hazards."

 

The hazard is a life out of balance,

        in which giving is never replenished by giving back to ourselves,

                in which fatigue brings out our own worst selves,

                        jeopardizing our effectiveness

                                as well as our ideals.

There is no alternative. 

Give back, to keep your life in balance.

It is the way of health and happiness;

        it is the path of justice and peace.

Giving back is giving thanks,

        thanks for life,

                thanks for the world in which we live,

                        thanks for the people and the creatures in our lives,

                                thanks for all that nurtures and heals us,

                                        thanks for all that makes us whole.

Sources:
"Giving Thanks: A NativeAmerican Good Morning Message," by Chief Jake Swamp (New York: Lee andLow Books, Inc., 1995)
"Payback?" by Victoria Barnett in ChristianCentury, October 25, 2000
selections from "Spiritual Literacy: Readingthe Sacred in Everyday Life," edited by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996)