“Richer for the Sharing”

A sermon given by Rev. Tricia Brennan
Westminster Unitarian Church

Coventry, RI

November 7, 2010

 

 

My first year out of college I worked

as a community organizer in Providence RI.

I lived on Lenox Av, on the border of the Elmwood and South Providence- and one street over from Adelaide Avenue,

where this congregation once was.

When I knew I would be joining you here as your interim minister,  I drove back to my old neighborhood and drove by the

now dormant yet still lovely church.

It looked familiar, I must have gone by it dozens of times that year. I like that your institutional history and my personal history intertwine.

 

That year I was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps JVC.

If you’ve not heard of JVC

I can best describe it as much like

Vista Volunteers with a spiritual component.

We Jesuit Volunteers had our basic living expenses of food and housing covered by the organizations with whom we worked.

We received fifty dollars a month

for discretionary spending,

and lived a simple lifestyle in community

with other volunteers.

 

I bought my first car that year,

a small used Honda civic that I named Jane,

Jane Honda. It cost $800 dollars.

Being a community organizer I was out

in the community a lot,

and my car stood me in good stead.

About half way through the year, my car was stolen.

It was found about a week later,

 a medium size dent in its side door.

My first foray into the world in auto insurance

was a positive one.

I was given $400 for that dent,

and not required to fix it.

A few months later I was rear-ended

coming back from a night meeting.

I knew just who to call- my insurance company!

Another check, this one for almost $400 dollars

came a few weeks later in the mail.

I gave no thought to repairing that dent,

I loved those dents!

I felt rich and lucky,

my car was just about paid for with two dents!

 

The year came to an end.

It had been a very demanding, growth-full

and ultimately satisfying year-

as only that first year out of college can be.

One day not long before departure, as I sat in prayer,

it suddenly came to me that I would give my car

 to the incoming cadre of volunteers.

I was planning to move to Boston,

I didn’t really need a car in Boston.

The incoming volunteers included

some community organizers, none with cars;

I figured they would put Jane to good use.

It seemed perfect.

The car that had been paid for with dents

belonged where the dents were acquired.

I couldn’t wait to tell them and give them my car.

It felt really right,

like when you know you have found

 just the right gift for someone,

and this time right in a cosmic sense too.

 

A few days passed.

I began to have some second thoughts.

The job I had landed a job in Boston paid poorly,

And I had little savings.

A bike I also used for transport in Providence

had been stolen (it was quite a year).

Instead of giving the new community my car,

I thought, why not ask them to give me money

to buy a bike in exchange for the car.

They’d get a car, which they needed,

 I’d get a bike, which I needed. Win/win.

One member of my community was staying on

for a second year.

I mentioned my idea to him-

he thought it made sense and on behalf of the incoming community, accepted my proposal,

I guess it was no longer my gift.

I left the car and car keys, all the paper work-

 a few months later the community sent me a check and I bought

a new 10 speed Raleigh Roadster.

 

I haven’t thought about that car or bike or decision

in a very long time.

So believe me when I say I carry no deep regret

about my change of heart.

But from my vantage point of middle age,

what I remember most about that time

is the surge of YES! I felt in me

when the impulse arose to give my car away,

or to paraphrase Lewis Hyde -

to pass my car along.

And I do wish I had kept to that intention.

And not because my new Raleigh Roadster

was stolen soon after purchase- really

(I have bad bike karma),

but because I think the giving of that gift

would probably have set in motion

something that our world needs-

call it uncalculated generosity,

call it the wild abandon of giving,

call it “you need this, I don’t, its yours”.

In my imagination my tiny beat-up Honda

would have hung around Providence for a few years,

passed from one community to the next,

a talisman of good will transporting volunteers, neighbors, and kids hither and yon.

 

Ah so. So much we can see in retrospect.

 

Once before in another setting I told that story and a woman listening got all excited: “I have to tell you something-

my husband once gave away a car.

It was many years ago, a rainy day.

He was driving and passed on the road a family with young kids, seeming down on their luck. They were from another country.

He stopped the car, met and talked to them,

and had that same surge of desire to give them his car, and did so-right then and there.

Handed them the keys, walked home in the rain, a happy man. Never regretted it, his wife said, and never forgot it either.

He has always felt good about that passing along of his car. “

Well I’m glad somebody stuck to their intent…..

 

In Lewis Hyde’s book he makes the distinction

between gift and commodity.

A commodity has value and a gift does not.

A gift has worth-

worth referring to those things we prize

and yet say “you can’t put a price on it”.

He describes how commodities create boundaries

and gifts abolishes them.

I would add that gifts create bonds

and strengthen communities,  commodities do not.

 

My Honda Civic had a brief life of almost giftedness

that ended up as a commodity.

To the new community living there after I left,

I was the one who exchanged car for bike;

no huge boundary arose for the exchange,

but no real bond was established either.

The man who gave the car

gave a gift pure and simple.

One wonders what the impact of that gift was

upon the family in need-

what were they able to do

that they couldn’t do before, where could they go,

how their impression of Americans

was shaped or altered by his generosity,

or their impressions of humankind.

What does it do to a person to be standing

in the rain one moment,

and the next to be inside a car that is now yours?

What does it do to a person to know

you have made such a thing possible?

 

And to continue with questions-

What happens when we give to our religious communities?

What is going on in that giving?

Is it gift? Is it a commodity exchange?

Is it some amalgam of both?

 

I’d say that when we give to our religious institutions,

be it to fund the annual operating budget

or build a new Parish House,

we can set in motion a wild generosity

that cannot be controlled,

that has no boundaries or end point,

and is mysterious in its capacity to transform lives.

We give, openhandedly and bigheartedly,

and in so doing we unleash the future’s possibilities.

We give to fund a faith that cannot be quantified

and may surprise for where it leads.

It has a far trajectory, this giving thing,

yet given with love,

the gift generates more of the same,

most all of the time.

 

Already I have begun fielding calls from ministers interested in knowing more about this congregation.

I can tell you that a congregation that fully funds its operating budget is attractive to a minister;

A congregation that builds a new and accessible Parish House is very attractive- inspiring is more the word

highly desirable, very sought after.

I look forward to telling my ministerial colleagues-

“this is an amazing congregation-

look at what they have done.”

 

This is a pivotal year

 for the Westminster Unitarian Church.

If you are fortunate enough to enjoy

a measure of financial security,

 then I would encourage to be

especially generous this year.

I expect the same of myself.

As a household with two incomes,

my husband and I have increased our pledge

to our home congregation by 25%,

and with pleasure make a contribution to this church.

 

Folks, this annual budget drive

comes at a challenging economic time in our country.

It may be a challenging time for you too.

If so, remember the words of MLK that Patricia/Maureen spoke when lighting the chalice- “

That we exist in a network of mutuality,

tied in a single garment of destiny.”

Though each of us may play only a small part,

each contributes to the whole.

The whole isn’t whole, without all its parts, and your part,

your gift matters, perhaps more than you realize.

 

Kahlil Gibran writes:

“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.

 

Your presence here today is a wonderful indicator that this congregation is important to you

and to people you love. 

As you sit here this morning

let you mind wander a minute

 to what you love about your church.

Think upon those here who inspire you

and notice the ways you are better

for being in their company.

Healthy vibrant churches, such as yours seems to be,

soften our selfishness and strengthen us

in those places we wish to increase and deepen.

Do you see how that has happened so

for you in your sojourn here?

It is different for each person,

but I strongly suspect that there is something

here that animates you

and calls you to become a braver, gentler person. 

Settle into that truth for a moment.

 In that place of honest cherishing, gratitude arises,

as surely as the myrtle

breathes its fragrance into space.

 

From that place of gratitude, we step into the stream of life where gifts of all sorts do circulate around us,

each nourishing the giver and receiver,

each contributing to the health of the community within and without these walls.

 

My hope is that you will feel within yourselves

a strong sure YES as you make your pledge of support to this,

your spiritual home.

My hope is that you let that power of that YES

carry you forward and that your joy in giving

will be released into the flow of life and the swirl of movement that is this beloved community.

 

We may regret a gift not given, but we don’t regret the gifts that arise from the wellspring of gratitude.

We can see their benefits for years and years,

within ourselves, others and the world around us.

And we sense there is a harvest

that we will never see but can imagine:

works of justice, acts of kindness,

wisdom earned and shared,

laughter, fellowship and love.

We can never fully trace the trajectory of generosity, nor do we need to do.

All that matters us that we begin, all that matters is we keep it going.

 

The best antidote to any fear that closes in on us

is to open up and give, not lightly or casually,

but with intent and purpose,

from our substance and with joy.

 

Gibran again:

You often say, “I would give,

but only to the deserving.”

The trees in your orchard say not so,

Nor the flocks in your pasture.

They give that they may live,

For to withhold is to perish.

 

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver

And an instrument of giving,

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-

While you, who deem yourself a giver,

are but a witness.

 

We are richer for the sharing. 

That how its goes, the gift keep moving.

Your story keeps going too.

A new chapter begins with your gifts today

and in the coming week.

May your generous hearts

continue to lead you forward.