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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
The Rev. Amanda Kucik Rinas
4 November 2007All Saints' / Commitment Sunday“The Power of Giving”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
Hopefully all who are on the mailing list have received some contact and materials about this yearÕs stewardship program. If not, see me after church; truly, you are missing out if you did not read the heartfelt testimonies of our stewardship chair and senior warden. Those letters, the accompanying pamphlets, and possible phone calls you received should have referred to this yearÕs theme of T3=the power of giving. T3 is shorthand for time, talent, and treasure — the resources you have all been asked to consider sharing with the Church of the Incarnation — as a means of strengthening our mission locally and beyond. Any single of those TÕs is essential in maintaining our current program, but T raised to the power of three — the gift of time, talent, and treasure — from the many members and friends of this church enables new initiatives, renewed commitments, and overall growth.
Today is Commitment Sunday, the date by which we hoped to have received most of your pledges of time, talent and treasure. We believe we have met that goal; 52 households have pledged generously of their 3 TÕs. Thank you. We look forward to planning, based on these pledges, for the year ahead. The giving will continue and will reach beyond this community as we allocate pledged funds and offers of time and talent to ministries of education, outreach and worship.
Today is also All SaintsÕ Sunday, a day to remember those individuals throughout the church whose personal convictions and communal involvement contributed to the faith and traditions of the church. All SaintsÕ, like Commitment Sunday, points to the power of giving.
Giving is powerful. This power can be manipulated; we have all heard stories or had first-hand experience with people who give to exert influence or who give with strings attached. The reality is that this is not true giving. Sure, it fits the definition of the verb Òto give,Ó which is such a common word, with so many usages, that it actually earns itself sixteen dictionary definitions. But the giving that shares a linguistic root with the word ÒgiftÓ is clearly not meant as a verb of coercion or manipulation. Giving is meant to have an impact, yes, but the result is intended to be a positive effect upon the recipient. Delight, inspiration, freedom, change: these are some results of true giving.
Consider the giving you have experienced in your lifetime. What is the most significant gift you have ever received? What is the best gift you have ever given? There might be a present — wrapped with pretty paper — that comes to mind. But the most rewarding gifts usually involve more than can be put in a box and tied with a bow. They tend to involve giving at a deeper, broader, often immaterial, level. It might have been giving a week of vacation to babysit your nieces, or being given counsel by a mentor as you began your career. Was it giving a ring as a symbol of your lifelong vow to your partner? Or receiving a finer appreciation of beauty and perspective as you gazed upon MonetÕs walls of water lilies? I invite you to contemplate the giving or receiving of this gift: how did you respond? How did it impact you?
If a single occasion of giving has such power and influence; imagine the impact of a life of giving. The saints are those whose lives were gifts to their families, their communities, and to body of Christ.
Whether with visible activism or through silent prayer; among EcclesiasticusÕ rolls of musicians, kings or storytellers, or within MatthewÕs beatitudes for the merciful, meek, and poor in spirit; thousands of years ago or just last week; the saints give their breath and substance — often their time, talent and treasure — to the work of God within the world. The gifts of the saints are as varied as the individuals themselves, but their common witness and influence is why a day is set apart to remember them. The lives of the saints bring delight, inspiration, freedom, and change to the people of God. Today we celebrate the example of their living, the power of their giving.
Among those named on our list of the departed is Madeleine LÕEngle. I was pleased to see her included. Madeleine was a famous writer and I hold her work in highest regard. She died at the age of 88, in September, having given us more than sixty books and collections of poems and having received a similarly long list of awards and honors. Upon receiving the Newbery Award for her book, A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine described her duty as a writer: to bring excitement to children. She wanted to ensure that her young readers and others authors for her young audience would not, in her words, conform Òlike every other muffin in the muffin tin.Ó Madeleine was an imaginative reformer and a reformer of imaginations.
Also on the list is a newborn whose short weeks of life brought no fame but much attention from his immediate, bereaved family. His life, too, was a gift — to those who loved him and to the body of Christ: reminding us all of the fragility of our bodies, the incredible blessing it is to have length to our days, and the wonder that one known so briefly can be so loved. Madeleine and Timothee, they are our saints. Their lives were spent giving, inspiring others in their relationship to God and to the world.
Simply recalling the saints, their varied forms of giving, the influence of their living, will lead some to want to emulate them. But others will ask: how am I, in my circumstances, to engage in the power of giving? Return to your consideration of the giving you have experienced in your lifetime. I venture that the most significant giving has not been motivated solely by the example of other givers. Regard, love, care, and — yes — appreciation for what we have received, these tend to motivate us to give.
We therefore look to the fullest example of a life of giving in Christ our Lord, not as an exemplar of sainthood but as a catalyst, in his own giving, for our life of giving. He gave up his divine prerogatives in order to become fully human; he gave three years of his life to nomadic teaching, preaching and healing; he gave attention to lepers, women, children, and tax collectors: the outcasts of society; he gave life to Lazarus; he gave his body over to the authorities, and gave his Spirit to enliven his followers that they might continue to be his hands and heart in this world. The church strives to understand and honor ChristÕs life of ultimate giving as we pray that the final gift of the Spirit will continue to make each of ChristÕs gifts more immediate and relevant in our lives.
Giving has the power to define relationships. God is the source of all things from our first breath to our last; this gift defines God as our Creator. God sent his only son to save us from all sin and invite us to live as GodÕs own children; this gift defines God as our Redeemer. God sustains us as we try to pattern our lives in accordance with GodÕs will; this gift defines God as our Sanctifier. Growing in awareness of all that God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, has given us we wonder how we can possibly respond to the power of such giving.
In response to these innumerable gifts from God, the most important gift we can offer is thanks and praise. In the words of Matthew, ÒRejoice and be glad,Ó or Ecclesiasticus, Òlet us now sing the praises of famous menÓ and women. Our hope is that the stewardship program and the feast of saints, especially celebrated together, would inspire thanksgiving. Our stewardship theme might benefit from the inclusion of thanksgiving as a fourth T.
The gifts of the saints, your pledges of time, talent, and treasure are expressions of thanksgiving for all the blessings of this life. They also prompt more thanks to be given. Giving of your time, talent, and treasure, you recognize the abundance of resources that you might share. Giving thanks to you for these gifts, we recognize the abundance of generosity within the community. As a representative leader of this local church, I again give you thanks for your generous pledges. And may we all give thanks to God for an abundance of grace and blessings, among them your example and that of the saints. Amen.