“What Does A Christian Give: Love and Devotion”
Rev. Tom Harris

November 15, 2009

          Today we conclude the six week series on Christian giving entitled, “A Christian Gives: Why? To Whom? And What?” The answer to the why question was “A Christian gives according to faith in order to love.” We give to put our love into action. We give so that others can share in the things the church provides including: this sanctuary for worship on Sunday morning, the music we enjoy at each worship service, a building in which we can have fellowship and faith based learning, a building for the activities of the Senior Network or the Preschool as well as the staff of those organizations, material things like the food given by CARES Food Pantry or the shelter provided by Epiphany House or Stadium Place. We give to put our feelings of love into actions. But, we can only give according to our faith. Its hard to let go of all the material things we value and that we like to horde and if we give out of obligation or guilt we will only feel resentment or feel like we are owed something for our giving. That’s why we have to give according to our faith and if we want to give more generously we begin by asking God for greater faith.

          In answer to the second question “To Whom do we give?” In particular do we give to the poor directly or to the church first. I argued that without the church we would not have a community that challenges us and calls us into service, without the church we would not have the teachings of Jesus to inspire us and transform us, so when we give we are called to give first to the church community that supports our faith practice as well as the faith of others and then the church is called as a community to use those resources wisely between the provision of worship, education, fellowship and direct benevolence. I also suggested that we at Govans should find ways to give more as a community in direct material support to the poor.

          Then for the last three Sundays I’ve been talking about the question “What does a Christian give?” The first answer is money. Money represents a significant part of ourselves in terms of our time, our skills and our education and we give a portion of ourselves when we give of our money. I also encouraged everyone to consider the percentage of income that we give away as a spiritual dipstick to measure the health of our spiritual life. If we are only giving a tiny percentage of our income away then our spiritual life may be in trouble. The next week I talked about giving time and talent, but encouraged everyone to be sure that Sabbath time is built into our lives. We tend to be over scheduled with commitments and activities. We need to prioritize time for self care and family care and hopefully through faith we can find ways that service to the church can be time for self care and family care. Then last week I talked about being stewards of Good News. In the Good News of our faith we have been given something that not all people have: a positive experience of God and we are called to share that experience with others.

          Now today we conclude by coming full circle. The final answer to the question “What does a Christian give?” is that a Christian gives love and devotion.  So we give in order to love and we give love.

          The story we read today is remembered not just by the gospel writer Matthew where we read it but also by Mark and John. It is a powerful story that wrestles with our earlier question “To whom do we give: the poor or to Jesus?” A woman finds Jesus in someone’s home. In John’s version of the story this woman is Mary, not his Mother Mary but one of the two sisters who were disciples of Jesus. In John it is the same Mary who is the sister of Martha. There is a story about Martha and Mary where Jesus is visiting them and Martha is doing all the serving and all the work and Mary is sitting enrapt at the feet of Jesus. When Martha complains Jesus says that Mary’s devotion and listening is more important than Martha’s housework. The hard working Martha like people of the world have grumbled about that ever sense. But, here we have the same theme playing out. The woman, whether it is Mary or some nameless woman, approaches Jesus and begins a ritual anointing with a very expenses oil. We can image that the smell of this stuff  was filling the house. We can imagine if this is some kind of burial ritual that it is not just a cold procedure of pouring oil on his head but a very loving, sensual and intimate task involving running her fingers through his hair and rubbing the oil into his bare skin. It is an intimate act of love and devotion.

          Several people present protest her action, saying it is wasteful and the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But, just like in the story of Mary and Martha Jesus sides with the less practical expression of love. The expression of love that does not show up on a balance sheet or even result in a clean house prepared for guests or a job well done.

          And I think that the key to understand this is not that we should all sit around going hungry, sitting in slovenly homes, with wild children because we are all so enrapt in our spiritual communion with God. But, we are called to weave our spiritual communion with God into all our activities. Whether we are doing the dishes or reading to children or driving someone to an appointment in rush hour traffic or raking leaves or writing a check to the church we are called to be doing it all with love and devotion. Whatever we are doing in service to others we are called as Christian to do lovingly even if that means doing it less efficiently.

          So now I’d like to offer two suggestions for how to do more activities lovingly.   The first is an imaginative prayer exercise that comes right out of our story. No matter what task you are doing imagine that you are Mary anointing Christ. So as you wash the dishes, pouring water and soup on the soiled plates, imagine you are pouring oil on head of Christ. As you type on your keyboard imagine you are massaging the oil into his scalp. As you drive along imagine your hands on the steering wheel are holding the shoulders of Christ as you rub the oil into his skin. In other words take all the devotion we would give to Christ if we were in his presence and give that love and devotion to everything we do.

          The second exercise is for the people who can’t imagine doing the first exercise. It is a simple prayer to say silently or out loud in anything we do. The prayer is “I receive God’s perfect love. I give God’s perfect love.” So as we mow the lawn, we say, “I receive God’s perfect love as I mow this lawn and I give God’s perfect love as I mow this lawn.” As we make dinner we say, “I receive God’s perfect love as I make this dinner. I give God’s perfect love as  I make this dinner.” As we prepare to sing a hymn and the organ is playing through the first verse, “I receive God’s perfect love as I sing this hymn. I give God’s perfect love as I sing this hymn.” This prayer or any devotional prayer we might say is not a magic formula that makes us more loving but over time it can open us to God’s love both receiving it and giving it.

          Those are just two concrete suggestions to do something very abstract: increasing our love and devotion. The greatest commandment according to Jesus; the most important thing we are called to do is love. Love the Lord God with all your heart, and mind and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. In all our giving, in all we do as Christians, we are called to give love and devotion to God and if God is a part of everything then we are called to give love and devotion in everything we do.