The Economy of God
Isaiah 35:1-2, 5-7, Luke 1:39-45
A
Sermon Preached by
University
Congregational United
Let us pray: Slow us down,
open us up,
to hear your word,
O God. Amen.
It is such a gift to be here.
I am overflowing with thanks for the gift you have given me in having these last three months of sabbatical. My heart feels so big – and overflows with thanksgiving.
When you have been given something really special, you want to give back so much. And so do I. I have so many treasures I have discovered I want to share with you, explore and wonder about with you.
My heart feels so big.
And it feels so right, such a gift, that this is my first Sunday back for this Sunday is all about giving thanks. And with full hearts saying thanks through the sharing of our gifts.
This Sunday, when we bring gifts for our Christmas families and for groups serving people throughout our city, is one of the most special, holy days in our life together. For it is a Sunday that sings about who we are and who we are called to be.
Over the years, I have come to see that this Sunday really isn’t about doing something “nice” or being “good” - although it is certainly something nice and good we do.
And I want to challenge us to believe that this Sunday is about something even more than doing what Jesus said to do – to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
If this Sunday was really just about helping people, this is a pretty inefficient way to do that!
We could give a lot more to more people if we’d asked each other to write a check. But instead, we invited each other to wrap a gift.
We could distribute our gifts to people a lot quicker if we’d just had us sort our gifts into bags at the door. But instead, we will make one huge pile of gifts that needs to be hauled downstairs and sorted out.
No, this is a pretty inefficient way to help people – if that is all that this Sunday was about.
But it is not.
Finally, at its core, this Sunday is about something much more than that. This Sunday “works” because today we celebrate the way the world really works. We participate in and make real something old today – something that is at the core of creation, our humanity, and our faith.
At their core, the three monotheistic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam are based on an economic theory.
A theory sung of by the prophet Isaiah of a God who is creator of all life, and who is alive and at work in the ongoing work of creation. A God who has, can and will transform any circumstance of death into a place of nourishment and life. A God who does the seemingly impossible:
Who makes the desert bloom, and the crocus blossom,
Who frees up bodies and spirits trapped in on themselves,
Who brings forth gushing water in the desert,
cooling the burning sand and feeding the thirsty ground.
It is the economy of God, the Gift Economy of God, an economy older than any other system or theory. An economy where all we have and all we are is gift from God.
Creation is the best example of the Gift Economy. Air, water, soil, grace and blessings are given in abundance, not because we “earn” them or “deserve” them but because that is just what God does – God gives, gives life and all of it.
Last week I had the sheer gift of having a whole week to sit by the sea – to listen all day to the roar of the rising tide and the lapping away of the receding tide. To watch the filling and emptying of light in and out of the day. To feel the wind washing back and forth across the day carrying on it the morning cry of the gull and the evening call of the eagle.
If you listen, really listen, you can hear, right here in this sanctuary, the heartbeat of creation. In fact, a sanctuary is one of the best places to listen. With these wonderful new windows, if you open your eyes, you can watch the turning of the light. Often times, we forget that – this economy of God that our very lives depend on. This gift of God that is as close to us as the rising and falling of our own breaths, and the beating of our hearts. Something is giving, supporting, sustaining life, all of life, even our own.
We all participate in this economy of God, this gift economy, each day whenever we give of our skills, passion, time, and interest with another. We participate in the gift economy whenever we free up our gifts and share food from our gardens, when we offer to help out a neighbor, baby-sit, bring someone a meal, write someone a note, spend time with someone in need, celebrate with another’s joy.
We participate in the gift economy whenever, however we simply give like God gives – freely, abundantly, without expectation of return. We do this all the time as church. The church is deeply dependent upon the gift economy and has much to teach the world about living more deeply into this economy of gift.
This is really hard to believe in, to trust in, for we live in a society that shouts at us every day that everything is not a gift but everything is a product. Everything is something that needs to be bought and sold. We are told we live in an “ownership society” where those who can buy the stuff get the goods, and those that can’t don’t. In such a society it is really hard to risk sharing our gifts – for gifts are rare and scare. Instead we are told again and again to hoard, protect, own and keep our gifts to protect ourselves.
I’m not saying we don’t need
money in today’s world. As the market
economy has defined our lives, we need money to get a home, buy food, go to school. Our
church needs money to heat this building for all the ministries we provide here
each day. We need money to support staff
who help us carry out our ministries providing support
and care and working for justice and peace here and around the world. No, we do need money in today’s world to get
by.
Our gifts are like water. When gifts flow they are sweet and nourishing, but the problem comes when gifts are dammed up. Then they become stagnant and dead.
You can judge a society by how those who are at the bottom are doing – to see if that water of life and gift is flowing to them. And those at the bottom in our nation and world are not doing well be they the soldier in Iraq, the seal in the Aleutian Islands, the person with AIDS in Africa, the poor is Seattle. No, something is not working.
A situation we won’t buy ourselves out of. But a deep problem, a distortion of creation, and of our very humanity – a way of life that is making us believe and behave as if gifts are ours. And we are hoarding and stagnating and killing ourselves in the process.
We are called forth to be once again the people of God – proclaimers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – to sing out a different song. To sing out with Isaiah of the Gift Economy – in which we live in and are called to trust more deeply in. To practice doing that in our day to day lives.
Today, we do something together. We all practice together living in this gift economy. We were invited to go and find a gift. To wrap it and bring it. And we will bring those gifts forth today. And we will see what abundance of gift there is among us when we but give of, share our gifts, when we are restored to a more human, more holy way of life.
Today, let us recommit ourselves:
To steward rather than pillage,
To distribute, rather than hoard,
To serve, rather than rule,
To give life rather than take it.
To love as if there is not tomorrow.
Let us pray:
Holy God, giver of all life,
slow us down to hear the call of the sea, to feel the breath of the wind, to
see the one who sits next to us. Help us
to trust more deeply in you – to share our gifts more freely without
expectation of return. We pray in
thanksgiving and hope in the name of the baby born in a manger, your gift to
us. Amen.