Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Creator of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfilment of the Holy One’s own purpose God gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of God’s creatures. — James 1:17-18
On this day of Thanksgiving and Dedication, we come to the end of our Stewardship season. At our congregational meeting last Sunday, Mike Ellis and the Stewardship team gave us a thoughtful presentation of the process they followed that led them to this year’s theme of “Thankful Giving.”
Over the past few weeks, Debbie preaching about saints of the church, past and present, has inspired us deeply. She talked about the sacred spiral of thankful giving, and the way giving. We heard stories of giving out of gratitude for all the many ways God has worked through the people in this place to transform our lives and the lives of others. Our offerings and pledges of support are made out of that heartfelt thanks for how God has touched the lives of so many. Today, we dedicate our pledges, our commitment to this place, this people, and the ministries that flow from us in the coming year. Thanks be to God!
And, in essence, that’s what the author of the book of James was saying in the scripture we just heard. God’s generosity is a gift that generates more giving. God has touched us, and ignited a sense of gratitude that is expressed through our words and actions. That, in a sense, God works though each of us to increase that giving exponentially, that synergy and sacred spiral that Debbie talked about.
It’s hard to imagine that there could be more to say about thankful giving than that.
Yet, as I thought about today’s sermon, the words the familiar prayer I sang throughout much of my life in church each time the offering plates made their way to the chancel, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” What we call the “Doxology.” Doxology is a word with Greek roots meaning words of praise. It’s an ancient practice a that has come to us from our ancient Jewish forebearers. And I want to spend some time this morning thinking about the act of praising as it relates to giving.
Many times, we use thanks and praise interchangeably in our prayers, or we couple them together. (Think, “God of all, to you we raise, this our hymn of thankful praise!) Together, praise and thanksgiving lead us to worship God. The doxology is a reminder that our offering—our giving—to God is an act of praise before it is an act of thanks.
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” If we’re being honest with each other, there are moments when we find it hard to be thankful. We don’t always feel blessed and our hearts are not always glad. Life just isn’t like that…that there are hard times, tough times, and times when we question just where God is.
What happens when we’re not feeling grateful? What happens when it doesn’t feel like blessings are flowing our way? What happens when we’re angry, or depressed, or hurting, in pain, or afraid?
Melodie Beattie is a respected self-help author and a household name in addiction and recovery circles. She’s written that heartfelt praise is more than simply saying thank you. It’s a form of gratitude that has the power to “unlock the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.” Thinking of our giving as praise in this way “makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Giving as an offering of praise expands and deepens the concept of giving. It opens us up to a larger picture of what God has done, is doing, and will do for us and for the whole world—regardless of how we’re feeling and regardless of how well we think things are going. Whether or not we feel that blessings are flowing our way. It’s giving driven by God’s presence and power in our lives, come what may.
Praise is a form of gratitude that acknowledges God’s character and nature. It expresses awe for who God is. And in many ways, praising means prizing. Seeing giving as an act of praise to God connects us with what we consider enduringly valuable—what we honor, and cherish, and prize that’s bigger than ourselves and greater than how grateful, happy or sad we happen to be at the moment.
As I so often do, I have a story to tell you…Four days after we got home from Russia with our daughters, newly adopted– then 2½ and 3½ . Two days after the girls first follow up physical, we got a call from the their new doctor. The girls’ blood tests had come back…”you must get Connie to Children’s Hospital in Boston as soon as you can.” Dr. Yagudin said. “Quickly. Her white blood cell count is extremely high. We think she has leukemia.”
As you can probably imagine, the next hours and days remain a bit of a blur. But a couple of things stand out clearly. Several tests had been done…all moving towards a confirmation of the leukemia diagnosis. The next step was a bone marrow biopsy…from Connie’s spine…and we were terrified.
We called a colleague…we wanted a pastor with us. Rev. Cynthia Maybeck, arrived just as Connie was being wheeled out to the “procedure room” in one of those hospital cribs that look like an animal cage for the biopsy.
She asked/commanded the medical staff to stop. She looked both of us directly in the eye and said, “God is right here in this moment with you…I don’t know what is going to happen, but I know that God is here…you don’t have to be afraid.” Then we all held hands around Connie as she prayed for our daughter.
Off to the procedure room we went.
We were told to hold Connie’s body down while the doctors and nurses inserted the biopsy needle into her spine. That was the moment I believe I actually become a mother.
Once they were done, Connie was taken back to her room and the waiting began. It would be at least 24 hours before we knew anything. We talked about modifying our lives to care for Connie…we talked about ‘letting go’ and looking for God’s will…we thought, this is why God had given her to us, we will do this. And we hoped…. we prayed…we waited. As we waited, they began medicating Connie…preparing her little body to receive the chemotherapy immediately once the diagnosis came back.
In that moment…. when we were able to acknowledge what God had done and was doing in our lives…. that our parenthood was not about what we had done…. but about what God had done in the emptiness of our lives. It was a moment of pure grace. Praise be to God.
Ben Patterson, author of Deepening your Conversation with God, writes, “In thanksgiving we list God’s benefits, in praise God is the benefit. Thanksgiving is like a child opening a gift from a parent, a new doll or a baseball mitt, and throwing her arms around her mom and dad and saying, “Thank you, thank you! It’s just what I wanted. It’s wonderful!” Praise is what happens when that child can pause and look up from the gift into her folks’ eyes and say, “You are wonderful.” There is, in prayer and worship, a kind of movement, and ebb and flow, from thanks to praise to wonder to awe and silence—and then back again to thanks to praise to wonder to awe to silence.”
So, what moves you to praise as you think about giving? For my part, I give thankful praise that the morning after Connie’s bone marrow test, as the sun began to rise the next morning, the medical team entered the room to tell us that the tests were negative. “We’re not sure why the white blood count is so high, but it’s not leukemia,” they said. “You can take her home.”
Here at Edwards, I cherish God’s love that I and others feel in the warm and inclusive hospitality and welcome that I in this place. I value the way God works through us as we respond to the needs of other for people next door or on the other side of the world. The presence of the Holy as we open our arms and our hearts when someone is ill or grieving or facing a difficult situation, sitting together, saying a prayer, sending a prayer shawl. I cherish the spark of the Divine in our young people are so enthusiastic about being at the tent of meeting, and the kids helping bring in and out light the altarscape candle each week, and how they take this job so seriously, little hands holding that candlelighter all the way up and down the aisle. I honor the Spirit’s movement in the bustle of creativity and activity that happens when we gather for outdoor worship and intergenerational events. I prize the light of Christ that shines in the courage and commitment to social justice, healing and peace-making of our community of faith.
So today is Dedication Sunday. In a few minutes we’ll be invited to put our offering and pledge forms in baskets and buckets. Then we’ll join in a prayer to lift up these gifts of thanks and praise. What do you prize about how God is using each of us, how God is present in your life and in the world around us? So in this moment…let’s take this moment, in awe and silence…to stop and reflect on what moves us to praise. (silence)
My friends, on this Thanksgiving Sunday, may we open our hearts to see our gifts as an act of heartfelt thanks and praise… for all that God is and can be. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Amen.