Come Holy Spirit, inhabit this space, these words, and our hearts, and all for God’s glory. Amen
“Every generous act of giving…every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father or Mother of lights…” Every gift that we receive, every generous thing that we do for others, they all come from God.
Have you ever gotten’ or given’ the perfect gift? “Oh, wow! Thank you, it’s perfect! How did you know?”
Perfect for me or perfect for them, for this time, this occasion. And it’s not so much the thing we get or receive, but the attention that was paid to choosing it. The genuine care and listening, and the intimacy of the relationship that it demonstrates. A perfect gift, showing us how valued and loved we are. So it is with God. GOD IS GENEROSITY. Biblical scholar Peter Rhea Jones comments, “To be generous is consonant with the nature of God.” I am reminded of the Doxology, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below, praise God above ye heavenly host, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”
We sing out our praise, recognizing what we proclaim when we receive the gifts at the altar, “All things come of thee O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.”
Every generous act of giving, every perfect gift come from God, in fact, they ARE God. God is generosity. Using the metaphor of light and shadow James tells us that God’s generous nature shines fully on everyone. There is no variation or shadow for some, and full beams for others. Everyone gets the full blast of God’s loving rays.
When my family first moved to Eugene from the Oregon coast, we attended The Church of the Resurrection in South Eugene. I remember a sermon given there be Deacon Maron Van, in it she shared the astute observations of her two- or three-year-old grandson Max, who on his way to the altar for communion said,
“We all get the same!” We all get the same.
In the life and ministry of Jesus, we witness God’s particular care and focus on those who have been forgotten, marginalized, and left out. Jesus’ social ministry of caring for those without power or place in the world is the divine/human example of God’s generosity in action. Once we have heard this Good News, been on the receiving end of this generosity, when we have felt the love and value of being known by a God who created us for relationship, then we must act, as James says, we must be doers. We are called to regift, extending God’s generosity to those around us. Most especially to those who are hurting, without hope, and alone in our world. We’ve got to do more than just hear and nod our heads about helping others. And when we become doers who act, we will be blessed in our doing. Blessed in our sharing, blessed in our newfound relationships. Newly connected or reconnected to God and to others.
James also talks about religion that is “pure and undefiled.” One of the origins of this word “religion” comes from the Latin, ligare, to join or link, from which we get the word ligaments. Ligaments are connective tissue that attach and hold bone structure together and provide stability. The -RE part is all about re-connecting, re-joining, linking us back up again, both to God the creator, and to each other. In this sense religion should reconnect us to God and to each other. Religion in its purest form should be all about caring for others, supporting, stabilizing and holding them together. Although I don’t really care for the word “undefiled” or “unstained by the world” what I believe James is trying to say here is that we are to be set apart from the values of the world, values that run counter to God’s generosity. We are NOT to be motivated, caught up, or bound by the world’s values of power, wealth, and domination. We are NEVER to place these over and above people and relationships. And we are to prize above all, the dignity of every human being.
Last week we had a double baptism, a first for me, as a father and son were baptized together. Those to be baptized and their parents and godparents were called to a covenant, an agreement of a relationship between them and God, in the Episcopal baptismal covenant we are called to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ, to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to love our neighbor as ourselves, to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being. True religion cares for the orphan and the widow in their distress, for the most vulnerable among us. In our time, as in the past, this means valuing the community over the individual. For us, its getting vaccinated against COVID, wearing our masks, maintaining distance and putting up with minor inconveniences to us, that mean saving the lives of the most vulnerable. This is true religion, to take God’s example of generosity in Jesus into our hearts, to act on it, and to BE that generosity in the world. Amen.
