2 Kings 5:1-3,7-15c; Luke 17:11-19
This has been a week of sadness for many
of us in the St. Andrew’s family. We
gathered here yesterday to celebrate the life of our friend Deacon Peg Ruth,
who’d been part of this parish for more than 62 years as a member, staff
deacon, source of wisdom, and bearer of love.
As we proclaimed our faith, and her faith, in the power of resurrection,
we also shed several tears.
In addition, this week brought us news of
Hurricane Matthew and its devastating effect on southwestern Haiti, home of our
ministry partners in Maniche and Les Cayes.
We don’t know the full scope of the damage, but it’s no stretch to say
our friends there have lost more than we can imagine, their fragile homes,
their crops, and their possessions literally scattered to the winds.
When I prayed about Haiti this week, the
image that came to mind was the offertory at the 150th anniversary celebration of
the Episcopal parish in Les Cayes. As
you may remember, when we returned from Haiti in the spring, I talked about
this amazing offertory procession, with people dancing their way down the aisle
to bring their first fruits to God’s altar:
bananas, mangoes, and corn; beans, rice, and peppers; even goats and
chickens – all of it brought as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord who had
provided it in the first place. At this
point, our friends in Haiti have precious little to bring to God’s altar, and
their struggles will only intensify with the disease and deprivation we know
will come in the storm’s wake.
But Haiti is one of those thin places
between heaven and earth, a place where our lives and the kingdom of God
intersect in surprising ways. Our
friends in Haiti need our prayers and our ongoing support, but I have
absolutely no doubt that before long, they will once again be bringing their
first fruits to God’s altar. It’s just
what they do, because they know God will call new life into being there. And they’re right. That’s just what God does.
Offering first fruits to God is a pretty
good description of Peg Ruth’s life, too.
Peg gave her loving presence here so generously – one of those
parishioners who does nearly everything there is to do at church and does it
with a servant’s heart. Whether you’d
known Peg for 60 years or, like me, only a decade or so, you couldn’t help but
be moved by the generosity of her spirit.
A few months ago, Peg was interviewed in
the Messenger about why she put God
first in her life – why she offered her first fruits. She said, “I simply wanted others to have the
faith I knew to be very real.” So she
packed up neighborhood kids in her car and brought them to church along with
her family. She served on a million
committees, including the Vestry. She
led the Altar Guild. She said “yes” to
God’s call and pioneered the way for other women to serve in ordained
ministry. She supported St. Andrew’s and
its ministries financially. She visited you
in the hospital; and whether you were a friend and neighbor or a patient with
AIDS, she would take off her sterile glove, and hold your hand in hers, and
pray that you would know Christ’s healing love.
Each of those gifts Peg shared with us was
a first fruit. It’s a concept with a
long history, one deep in our DNA. Our
spiritual ancestors, the people of Israel, would come to the Temple in
Jerusalem every year to offer the sacrifice of their first fruits, the produce they’d
inherited when they came into the Promised Land: wheat, barley, figs, pomegranates, dates,
wine, and olive oil. It sounds like that
offertory procession in Haiti. Those
gifts supported the Temple’s operation; but more important, they were an
antidote to amnesia. They helped people
remember that the land and its produce was God’s gift, not something of their
own doing. And those offerings helped the
people remember their side of the
Covenant, too: As God provided land and
blessing, the people offered fidelity and thanksgiving.
Here at St. Andrew’s, we’re beginning our
season of stewardship this morning. For
the next five weeks, you’ll be hearing from clergy and parishioners about what
it means to put God first, to honor God through the offering of your first
fruits.
But in another sense, this season has been
underway for months already. Think about
the stories you’ve read in the Messenger
and the bulletin about members of this church family putting God first – Morgan
Olander, Dr. Stan Shaffer, Audrey Langworthy, Bob West, George and Carolyn Kroh
… and Deacon Peg Ruth. Each has his or
her own story of what it looks like to live a generous life in terms of time,
talent, and treasure. All of them are
pledgers to St. Andrew’s, but that certainly isn’t the only mark of their
faithfulness. For Morgan, generosity has
looked like mentoring Boy Scouts. For
Stan, it’s looked like building partnerships in Haiti. For Audrey, it’s looked like years of public
service in the legislature. For Bob,
it’s looked like civic leadership in universities, libraries, and health
care. For George and Carolyn, it’s
looked like ministry in education, community gardening, and Haiti. And for Deacon Peg Ruth, it’s looked like a life
of servant ministry and servant leadership.
As Peg said, “Being a Christian is sometimes a tough road to travel, but
choosing the easier path is not what the Christian life is about. Jesus said, ‘Take up the cross and follow
me.’ I can’t say, ‘No, wait, it’s too
heavy.’”
Can we follow those models of
faithfulness? Can we follow the lead of
the people of Haiti who bring their first fruits to God’s altar despite the
risk that their homes might be destroyed in a few minutes’ wind and rain? Can we follow the lead of Deacon Peg and the
others we’ve been profiling? Can we live
a generous life despite the temptation to see scarcity everywhere we turn?
I believe the answer is simple and
yet simply astounding, and here it is: I
will, with God’s help. It’s our answer
to the five questions God asks us in the Baptismal Covenant: Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching
and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil and,
whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord? Will you proclaim by word and example the
Good News of God in Christ? Will you
seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? And will you strive for justice and peace
among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? As Stan Shaffer said in his interview, those promises
of the Baptismal Covenant capture the Christian life in microcosm: Sacrifice.
Forgiveness. Celebration. Service.
Respect. That’s our job
description as followers of Jesus, and we can’t let his call scare us
away. After all, if we’re followers,
that means we’re on a journey. We can’t
expect to walk it as faithfully today as we will tomorrow. But still, each day, we can take a good next step, following his lead.
How?
I think the key is the practice of thankfulness – the active, outward,
concrete, sacramental practice of thankfulness.
Not just being thankful, but doing
thankful. Now, this may not exactly come
naturally to us. Think of the examples
in our readings today. Naaman, the
Syrian leader with leprosy, was angry that he didn’t get enough personal attention
while God miraculously healed him. In
the Gospel, the nine Jewish lepers didn’t bother to say thank-you to Jesus for
their healing; only the outsider, the Samaritan, lived out his thankfulness by
coming to the place of blessing at Jesus’ feet.
We’re not so good at “doing thankful.”
We need God’s help, and we need practice.
That practice of thankfulness happens
across the scope of our lives, as we’ve seen in those profiles in the
Messenger. It’s about time and talent and treasure because God blesses us with all three. God asks for our first fruits not as
transactions of blessing but as tokens of blessedness. The Israelites gave God their first fruits
not to purchase good fortune but to help them remember where their Promised Land
had come from and what faithfulness God expected in return. We need the same memory aid to remind us that
we cannot live for ourselves alone but for him who died for us, and rose again,
and now uses our hands to hold the world in love.
In the next few days, you’ll be receiving
information on how to “do thankful” here at St. Andrew’s through pledges of
time, talent, and treasure. All three
are equally important – prayer, and service, and financial gifts – because God
doesn’t just want the first fruits from your wallet. God wants first place in your life, as Peg
Ruth modeled. As she said in her
interview, “I’m trying to live the message, “To whom much is given, much is
expected.”
She could say that because Peg knew who
she was and whose she was. She knew God’s claim on her life. She knew the costs that faithful living
brings. But she also knew the joy that
comes in the morning, the joy that comes when the storms clear, the joy that
comes from putting God first.
So do you. So do I.
But we need help, sometimes, to remember.
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