"We All Rise Together"

If you are new here I want you to know that you have come into our sanctuary on the Sunday that supports our annual giving campaign, our canvass. The reality is I rarely preach about money - in fact the Canvass Committee tells me we don't talk about money enough. And actually, if you listen closely today, you'll find that I'm not really preaching about money so much as I am about mission, faith, commitment, and the role of stewardship in making our vision reality.

And if you are relatively new here, you need to know this: In our tradition, congregations are autonomous - no one tells us what to believe or how to worship or how to organize our church. We have no hierarchy above the congregation itself. This means we also don't get help from elsewhere - we receive no contributions from anyone but those of us here. This church  selects its own minister, hire its own staff, shovels its own driveway, makes its own decisions and pays its own bills.

So the strength of this community and our ability to grow and sustain our vitality and become all we hope to be is in our own hands. I hope to say something to help you realize what a good investment the First Unitarian Universalist Society really is.

Let me begin with the first of two readings that I will share with you. This from Lebanese poet and philosopher, Kahlil Gibran:

Reading I: from The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran, p. 19          "On Giving"

There are those who have little and give it all. These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty. There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.  And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;  They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth...   Therefore give now, that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness. And you receivers--and you are all receivers--assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives. Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings."

Do you understand what Gibran is saying? He makes two important points about giving that I'd like to look at a little more closely this morning.   1) this is our time to give  2) We are primarily receivers whether we recognize it or not….

You may not agree with his first point - that this is your time to give.  You may think - no, others are much more established financially or better off than I am.  This is their time, not mine.  Right now, truthfully, I can't afford to be generous. Generosity is a luxury that I can't afford quite  yet.  But I aspire to be truly generous someday when I have the means.  There will be a day - it's just not now. If these are your thoughts then Kahlil Gibran is talking to you.  And he is telling you - no,  this is your season of giving. What does Gibran know that you don't?

I think I know. Let me explain in rather a roundabout way - beginning with a story

This story, of unknown origin, tells of a beggar by the roadside who dared to ask for alms from Alexander the Great, as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched, and had no claim upon the ruler, no right even to lift a solicitous hand. But he was hungry, as was his family that huddled not far behind him away from the dust of the roadside. The Emperor tossed the man several gold coins. A courtier, observing, was astonished at his generosity, and commented, "Great sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar's need, or even silver. Why give him gold?" Alexander responded: "Copper coins would meet the beggar's need; but gold coins meet mine."

That story might be a folk tale, but let me tell you why it has some possibility of being true.  Alexander the Great was a childhood student of the Greek thinker, Aristotle for six years starting at age thirteen.  Aristotle you may remember from your schooldays, taught that happiness is a product of attaining virtue.

According to Aristotle, generosity, like any other virtue is not inbred but is learned over time. Aristotle said:

"We acquire virtues first by acting, just as we do in the case of acquiring crafts.... for example, by building we become builders, by playing the lyre, lyre players. And so too, we become just by doing just actions, and temperate by doing temperate actions and brave by doing brave actions."

We need to practice our virtues for them to develop within us. Aristotle argued that the motivation behind virtuous acts changes over time. A young person, for example, acts virtuously initially only because he or she is subjected to external pressures or rewards, such as the praise of others. But as a person acquires a virtue, the person develops a sense of ease and delight in acting virtuously. The virtuous person is moved by an internal motivation, engaging in virtue for its own sake as it becomes second nature. It becomes its own reward as generosity of spirit develops.

So the most generous people you have known in your life were not born with this feature, the way one is born with blonde hair or a gene for being tall.  Generosity develops from practice over a lifetime. This is what Gibran knew when he said this is your season of giving. If you truly aspire to become a generous person, begin now.  For your own sake, don't delay.

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Gibran's second point is that we should become givers because we ourselves have been so blessed. Life itself, he says, has given to us so abundantly that it will never be possible for us to give as much as we have received.  Abundance takes various forms. The tree branches that are shifting from gray to a reddish color as buds  emerge from some hidden warmth inside their limbs - the  robins that are back once again, remind us that the cycle of life has come round once again. Have you seen your first robin yet? And where snows have receded enough soon you will see grasses shifting to green and crocuses poking through the spring thaw.  The snows that have fallen, the waters of the Nemasket that run to overflowing this time of year, the herring that will soon be here along with the seagulls that will follow them inland. Gibran argues that we should become givers because we have been so blessed by life.

There is also the specific blessing of this church. Many of you have mentioned to me that this sanctuary has a very special feel about it. I feel it too. You sense good energy within these walls, you sense the beautiful weddings and ceremonies of unions that have taken place here and the baby dedications.  Equally, I suspect, you sense  the tears that have been shed here in safety, shattered lives that have been cradled in love until some level  mending has taken place and some vision of how to move on.  

Poet Adrienne Rich says " There must be those among us with whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors. I think you thought there was no such place for you, and perhaps there was not then, and perhaps there is none now, but we will have to make it, we who want an end to suffering, who want to change the laws of history, if we are not to give ourselves away." Adrienne Rich,--from Sources

UU minister Victoria Safford builds on Rich's words saying, " It is a rare and holy thing to have close around you those among whom you can sit down and weep, and those among whom you can stand up and sing words you believe in, those among whom you can entrust your children, those who will guide them in ways of compassion and courage that we call religious education, those among whom you can be at home, even if you do not yet know their names.  "I thought there was no such place for you, says the poet - but here it is, your place, here where you, as a people, are gathered." This is a place of abundance for which there is no price tag.

There are those who will say if you want to know a person's true values, look at their check book.  See where they spend their money We have made a conscious decision here at the First Unitarian Universalist Society not to talk about money every Sunday. Part of the reason for that is that many people feel that money talk is an obstacle to the faith process. That goes for me too. I want comfortable growth. Money talk makes me uncomfortable. We're not used to it.  But that's just because it is our tradition not to talk about it.  We can change that - and possibly we should.  Our second reading is from the Reverend Peter Gomes, preacher to Harvard University:

Reading II: from  The Good Book, Peter J. Gomes   p. 286

"I remember very well the excitement of the offering in the little Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where I worshiped as a child. The custom of long standing in Bethel Church, and still in use in many rural African-American churches today, was for the congregation to take their gifts to the table at the front of the church, and thus there was even more movement and excitement than in those churches where the plate was passed among the people. Here the people got up while singing rousing hymns and made their way up front with their gifts in hand, and, wonder of wonders, the stewards counted it as the process continued. At the end of that procession, if the day's financial goal had not been achieved, the congregation would be asked to pass up front again, and so on until the desired goal was reached. The minister would say, "We need only fifteen more dollars. Who will stand up for Jesus and give him fifteen dollars?" The congregation would sing some more, the stewards would count some more, and only when it was settled would the doxology be sung and the prayer of thanksgiving offered. It was high theater for a child, with the whole congregation on view and in motion, the murmuring of the stewards as they counted, the relentless rhythm of the singing, and the anxious moments while awaiting the result.

It was also the perfect example of what one of America's most famous black preachers, Father Divine, called "the art of tangibilitation." From his Harlem "Heaven" in the 1930s, Father Divine would urge the throngs who attended his services to make their faith real by the reality of their gifts: "You got to learn how to tangibilitate!" he would thunder…. The black church has never had a problem with the material, and it may be because the black church has had so little of the material goods of this world with which to have a problem. White Christians who visit black churches are often surprised and not a little shocked at the number of offerings given.…"

You may be worried that now I'm going to ask the canvassers to man their stations, and then invite you to come up front, one at a time, pledge in hand, and keep us here until our financial goal is reached. There would certainly be high drama in that.  - But I think not. We want you to have ample time to reflect, talk to your partner, and weigh what you want to do - and what you can do, what you can feel good about. But know that when each of us learns to tangibilitate, we will all rise together

Consider this spiritual community, this rare and wonderful place with its vitality, its music and its service to the world through your hands. The goal of the life of the spirit is not detachment from or attachment to material wealth, but the loving use of it.  There are few better places - I want to say there is no better place for you to put your money than right here in this church at the center of your community.