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Celebration of Joy
When was the first time you felt this pride, this joy of realizing you had something to give? When you first put your own quarter in the collection basket? The first time you sat in a hospital waiting room with a friend? The first time you opened your checkbook instead of your wallet during a special appeal? Did it surprise you to know you could be that generous?
I remember the first time I got a full time job. I was fresh out of college and the fools paid me $8 an hour. I couldn't even imagine what I would do with $16,000 a year. I figured it out soon enough. The paychecks came reliably every week, but so did the bills. Soon I stopped seeing my paycheck as a windfall, and instead saw expenses just out of reach. I felt like I was just getting by. Then of course when I went off to seminary the financial picture showed no signs of improving. We weren't contributing very much to any church or charity, because we didn't feel we had very much to give. We were starving students, darn it, trying to pay rent and tuition in the Bay area.
But then something changed. Perhaps this change was precipitated by my visit to Guatemala, or perhaps it grew organically out of an increased self-awareness. Suddenly I understood how lucky I was to be able to go to graduate school at all. I realized what a privilege it was to have a safe, warm, dry apartment to live in with my partner. I could go to the grocery store any time I wanted to buy fresh produce, milk, and even hair gel. The abundance with which I had been blessed overwhelmed me. I acknowledged that from a numerically absolute economic perspective, I was wealthier than most of the people on the planet. But subjectively, I also realized that I really had more than enough. My life was an embarrassment of riches. I had for the first time in my life a deep sense of gratitude for the resources that allowed me to live. And when I recognized how much I had, the desire to share welled up inside me like a mountain spring when snow begins to melt. It felt wonderful.
Over the next few weeks as we all consider our stewardship with this congregation, we also have an opportunity to consider our personal relationship with money. This is a time of year when each of is called to put aside our frustration with mortgages and childcare costs, and find that place in the heart that is truly grateful for all that we have worked to accomplish, for all that we have been given. Even in a hard year, we all have much for which we can give thanks.
From this place of gratitude, we are able to feel the joy of being in the world. From this place we feel our interconnection to all who share it. If you give from this place, you have an opportunity to recapture the feeling of pride you felt that first time you put your own quarter in the collection basket.
Because we are a church, we do need your financial support, we do have a budget to meet. But because we are a church, I believe it is even more important that the act of giving remind you of the abundance life offers us, and that the act of giving brings joy.
What is your reaction to this sermon? Please send comments to Reverend Darcey Laine
Reverend Darcey Laine
February 25, 2001
Palo Alto, CA
Some people look forward to their 16th birthday because they can finally get their driver's license. I also eagerly awaited the day I could become a member of the Main Line Unitarian Church. And so the very first Sunday after my birthday I signed the membership book. I also made my first pledge that year. In those days every member got a box of 52 envelopes, each with the member's number imprinted on the top corner. I took great pride in putting my $2 dollar in the envelope each week; I took great pride in fulfilling my pledge of $100, which I now realize may have been a full tithe.
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