Cheerful Giver

A Reflection for Thanksgiving Day                    All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C.  November 27, 2014                                               Thomas E. Wilson Rector

2 Corinthians 9:6-15                             Luke 17:11-19

Cheerful Giver

Today is the official Thanksgiving Day when you are expected to give thanks; so are you ready for giving thanks? What are you thankful for? Do you have to think about what you are thankful for? I remember when I was younger and the family would gather around the table, my brother and I would have a rough time finding anything for which to be thankful. We were so self-centered and entitled that we assumed all we had received was our due - we had earned it. We did not cheerfully give thanks. Paul in the lesson from 2^nd Corinthians writes: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” What makes a cheerful giver?

In my understanding cheerful givers are those who realize that they are part of something greater than themselves and they are aware of how much they receive before they give. I was very aware of this last week when I saw so many generous givers of their time during the Holly Days celebration. I saw people bake and make things to sell in the Bake and Craft Shops. They offered them not as fund raisers but as things that they had learned how to make and that gave them joy to create and to give them. I saw the Jewelry Ladies who spent hours cleaning and fixing up recycled jewelry not only to make money to help the church, but because it gave them pleasure to see and handle beautiful things. I saw this in some of the vendors as well. Yes, they wanted to make some money, but they also were fed from the admiration of their work, and they gave their time to people who did not always buy their material. All of the sellers had been welcomed here as honored guests, and our volunteers stood out in the cold and made sure they were welcomed. The sellers were able to give their time because they had received the gift of worth from the volunteers.

Holly Days 2014

We give because we receive. Cheerful giving begins with the attitude of gratitude for all we have received. Some of you know that I am an introvert and being around a whole group of people drains me of energy. I am lousy at working the crowd but part of the job of being a host is to meet the guests who come to your house. I consider this my church, and it is necessary for me to welcome people here as I was welcomed here. I remember when I was a visitor here on my job interview and how sincerely I was made to feel welcome. It is only natural that I give back what I receive to others. The people who were visiting here were not members of my congregation, but they were people in my parish; a parish is not a church but a geographical unit, and I am responsible for bringing the Gospel of Jesus to all who live within my parish or who visit here, the strangers whose faces I have not yet remembered, as I was ministered to when I was a stranger.

Holly Days 2014 Buyers Frenzy

There were times when I was walking up the halls during Holly Days that I felt like I was going against the salmon-spawning run, with the crowds of people moving towards the bargains in a frenzy of destiny. I would get smiles from some of the people enjoying themselves, and from time to time, I would get pulled over by someone who spotted my collar and wanted to talk about something or someone who was close to their heart. I would listen because I had been listened to and would pray with them as I had been prayed with. I gave time to people who were worth my time because someone had once thought me worth their time.

We give cheerfully and gracefully what we have received cheerfully and gracefully. Today may I suggest that each of us look at what we have cheerfully been given. Start off with each breath you take, from the first breath upon waking each morning. The oxygen has been given to each of us gracefully. We did not have to pay for it, we did not have earn it; it was a gift from God who knew we needed it to strengthen our bodies. Work up from the simple breath which is a gift and move to people who God gives us as gifts. It is not about Thanksgiving but about Thanks-living - living in an attitude of thanks.

Cheerful Giver (Poem)

I walk All Saints halls thanks living

With the noise of pure joyful pace

Of Holly Days; a pre-Thanksgiving.

With friends of unremembered face.

Bumping into crowds of fives and twos

Parish members but not really “pay-ers”,

But now “neighbors” for a visit but whose

Feet never got around to come to prayers.

I am grabbed to listen as my collar gives

Me away to someone whose heart breaks

For whose daughter or wife or son lives

In crossroads of which mis-spent life takes,

Yet needing someone to give attention. I'm

Called to treat them with respect and honor,

Artist or buyer both worth the gift of time,

As they ask of me, “Pray for them Father.”

Words are said, the thoughts to heaven fly

Uniting us in that, not holly, but holy daze

Where I, not comprehending the divine ally

Say words encasing hopes for ahead days.

My head's inner introvert sees me as giving,

Yet I am thanking for some gifts of meaning

Instead of killing time watching lives living

I enter into moments of God my soul healing.

Thanksgiving is for me not one day's food

But the feasting of being in God's space

Where my parish as whoever is viewed

With encountering God in another's face.