"A Sermon for Commitment Sunday "

READING

The author of the reading, Peggy Senger Parsons, is a "motorcycling Quaker preacher, counselor, and freelance provocateur of grace." She also has some interesting ideas about giving that fit well with today’s Commitment Sunday theme. Her reflections come from the September, 2007 edition of "Friend's Journal."

"I have heard a lot of lousy preaching about giving in my life. A lot of shameless hooey. Let me debunk a bit of it. Giving to the church is not the same as giving to God. This silly notion gets put out there all the time. I heard U2 lead singer Saint Bono say once, 'My God does not need your cash!' It is just so obviously true. . . .

"There is no magic here except this: when you give away some of your stuff you are freed from your slavery to stuff. You place your bet on the kindness of the universe. You trust. And that changes you and frees you from the terrible lie that there is not enough to go around, and then you find that you have plenty. And you feel a lot richer. People who are not fearful and mistrustful are more productive. . . .

"Here are some things I have found to be true about giving. It does not matter how much you have or how much you give. . . . Giving develops the spiritual discipline of generosity. It is good to start when you are young, with your first job, and it is good to revisit your giving when you have a change in fortunes. It is fun to split a windfall. It is especially important to give when you don’t feel like it, when it seems risky. It changes you, and you change your world."

SERMON

My dog Aki and I were walking out of one of the Main Street parking lots on our way to the beach late one afternoon recently, when a man in a wheelchair called out to me.
"Would you do me a favor?"
I asked him what he needed.
"I'd like some clam chowder," he said, and he pointed to the restaurant across the street.

He tried to hand me a few dollars. I had the impression that might have been his only money. I'd often seen him sitting there, at the entrance to the parking lot, friendly, non-threatening, and evidently homeless.

Another woman had just told him she didn't have time. I guess I looked like I had all the time in the world. That was far from true, but as it happened, that day was my birthday. I was taking a short break from work and treating Aki and myself to an hour at the beach. Usually I feel resistance when approached for money on the street, but as it was my birthday I felt magnanimous and open to a minor adventure. Which is why I found myself standing in line at the Enterprise Fish Company, with Aki tied to a pole outside, waiting what seemed to be an interminable time for one order of clam chowder to go. I paid for the soup with my money. The man thanked me. I said "enjoy," and then I moved on.

I didn't really want to do it at first. But how do you say "no" when you are given such a specific request? How do you say "no" when you realize that you are, at that moment, standing in for the "kindness of the universe?" Sure, he probably asks people for help all the time. He needs it.

I thought over what I had just done as I walked afterwards on the beach. I realized that it wasn't about the homeless man; it was about me. The soup was really my birthday gift to myself. I wanted some kindness in the universe too.

"There is no magic here except this," wrote Peggy Senger Parsons. "When you give away some of your stuff you are freed from your slavery to stuff. . . . You trust. And that changes you and frees you from the terrible lie that there is not enough to go around, and then you find that you have plenty."

The experience answered questions I had been pondering in preparation for today, Commitment Sunday. Why is it good to give? What is the vision that motivates us to do it? How does generosity change us and make us better people?

I'm not going to idealize this for you. Just as I had my own reasons for helping that man, we all give because we need to. Giving helps us be part of a world where kindness and generosity still matter. And that is the place we would rather be living.

Today we look at our vision for the church. We ask ourselves to give so that our vision of what we can be will come to life. "There is no magic here" either.

The children in our story yearned to know the golden mountain they saw in the distance. Finally they took the long journey to see it, only to discover that the mountain where they made their home was just as beautiful. A vision is not a mystery. It is always based in reality.

Who we are as a congregation - the ideals and values that have shaped this institution - are as familiar to us as the covenant we read at the opening of the service. What we love and cherish is already here, in our midst. We have all given many times to become what we are today.

As you participate in this year's cottage conversations and consider your pledge to the church, you will hear a lot about vision. The theme of this year’s budget drive is "A Vision Shared." And we have a vision budget, meaning that it is a stretch for us, but it will happen if we make it so.

There is nothing mysterious in the budget either. It is about building on what we already have. The process of creating a vision and fulfilling it with our commitment is about being ourselves - only more so. What we hope to be is not all that different, but broader and more expansive in our impact. We want to make room for others to join us; to teach and celebrate our Unitarian Universalist values; to increase what we can do for our community together. To be more aware of how we stand in for "the kindness of the universe"; more trusting, less fearful, more productive.

It is a vision that calls us to live up to our potential, as a community and as individuals. So that together we create the world in which we would rather be living. That world will not happen unless we make it so.

You can learn more about the vision budget in the pledge materials and at the cottage conversations; and you can add your thoughts to what we have done so far. When you’re working on a vision together, everybody has something to give. It’s not our vision unless we share it with each other.

Whether you have been part of this congregation for decades or just walked in the door for the first time this morning, you already have some of that vision within you. Everyone approaches a faith community with expectations. These could be the hope to find friends, the opportunity to serve, the experience of transcendence, or the healing of wounds. Many come here with a passion for justice, a need to join with others in the work for social change. Others bring their children, seeking a spiritual home that provides an alternative to the materialism of daily life. Still others just want a refuge, a place of quiet where they can hear the still, small voice within. These expectations - and many others like them - contribute to the vision we all have of what a place like this should be.

This is how the vision begins. And it's why the church exists. What are we if not a home for our hopes and dreams? It’s not too much of a stretch to say, as Peggy Senger Parsons said, that we want to "stand in for the kindness of the universe." Especially if we suspect that the universe itself is neither kind nor unkind. That means the work of kindness is really up to us. We're not just "standing in." We're it.

This vision, the hopes and dreams of all of us, shared and shaped into the work of our church, is how we bring some kindness into the universe. We expect a lot from our church, but the greatest need of all is to give. I needed to give some soup to a stranger because he asked and I was there and it seemed like a good thing to do. But then I realized that when I gave, the world felt different. The homeless man and I inhabited, just for a few minutes, a place we both wished could be real.

So it is for us here. Let the vision come forward, share it, shape it, and give to it. If enough of us do, we'll change our world not just for a few fleeting moments, but forever. Because that is what a vision can do.

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Quotes from Peggy Senger Parsons, "God Does Not Need Your Cash," in FRIENDS JOURNAL, September 2007.