Living Generously

The chapel at Christ Church Cathedral 

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford, CT
Christ the King, November 26, 2017
Matthew 25: 31-46

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I have a mug which has a picture of a small child and a motivational quote on it entitled “Priorities.” It reads: “A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, the sort of house I lived in, or the size of my bank account, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.” I could not help but think of this quote when I read the gospel for today. Jesus tells his followers that the defining characteristic of their lives will be how they have cared for those on the margins, those who, like children, can be considered the “least.”

Yet again, as we were a few weeks ago, we are reminded that living a life of faith means living a life that is focused beyond ourselves. It means living a life where we are not focused on our own achievements or how much we might acquire in wealth and resources. It means living a life that is focused on how we might engage in relationship with each other and how we might be able to share our gifts and blessings in a way that enriches the lives of all.

There is a real invitation here for us to think about the ways that we have been too self-centered. Notice how the followers talk to Jesus. They say, “When was it that WE did this for you?” Notice that they still make it about themselves. They make it about what THEY did or did not do. They keep the focus on their own actions more than about helping someone else. They don’t ask Jesus about those who were served, they ask about themselves. They seem to be overly concerned with their own status and standing. How human!

As I think I have mentioned, I consider myself a recovering perfectionist, and so I can so relate to the followers in this passage who want to know exactly where they stand with Jesus. Please, Lord, tell me am I one of the righteous? I find myself quickly going to the place of fearing how I may have fallen short of being righteous. And this text sets us up to be fearful, because it shows us the reward for the righteous and the punishment for those who fail to care for others.

But even if we are behaving in a righteous manner, even if we are being generous with what we have, we need to also pay attention to our motivations. Notice something about the righteous . . . they ask the same question as the unrighteous. They ask when it was that they did these things, because they don’t remember seeing Jesus sick or in prison. Jesus rewards them precisely because they did something good and right for its own sake. They were not paying attention to who they were serving. They just saw someone in need and responded.

That is Church at its best: seeing a need and responding. Whether it be someone who needs food or clothing, someone who needs comfort and care while facing illness or other personal challenge, providing connection to those in prison. Someone who feels lonely and is looking for a community that will accept them as they are. Churches do this. This Church, this Cathedral community, does all these things. We do them because we know that it is the right thing to do. It is not about our own egos, about getting noticed or racking up some kind of personal reward. It is about being generous with what we have - with our material abundance and with the love in our hearts, because that is who we are and who God created us to be.

Someone need only spend a little time in this remarkable community to realize that it is one that exemplifies the life of generosity that the Lord calls us to in our Gospel today. The statistics about how many people have been fed and clothed because of the efforts of our Cathedral community are remarkable. Thousands of lives have been blessed by the generosity of this Cathedral community. Additionally, over the years this community has supported, in a variety of ways, ministry with those in prison and those newly released. And it says right at the top of our bulletins that wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here. This is a house of prayer for all people.

If like me, you have some perfectionist tendencies, you can focus too quickly on what is missing or what you have not done. I do hope in this season of stewardship, as we all are reflecting on how we can live even more generous lives, that we are also taking the time to give thanks for myriad of ways in which we are already living beautiful, faithful, generous lives. Yes, we can, and we should, do more. And we can also celebrate all that is already happening.

I hope that in that celebration we will share the stories of this community out in the world. There are so many stories of hope here. Stories that embody our Gospel for today. Stories that tell of faithful people who love God and care for one another. The world needs tho

se stories. The other communities in which we live, work, go to school and volunteer, need our stories. You never know when someone might be seeking a community or seeking out resources for which they are afraid to ask. Our stories of hope and community, our stories of this remarkable Cathedral community might just be what they need to hear.  I might even be so bold as to modify the saying on my motivational mug to say that “the world might be different because I brought a friend to church or I shared a story of my faith community.”

There are many who are in need, in our midst and beyond these walls. May we give thanks for the myriad of ways this community already seeks to meet the needs of the world. And may we also be inspired to be even more bold in the ways in which we live generous and holy lives.

AMEN.

Life Lessons from the Glove Compartment

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

St. Alban’s, Simsbury, CT

Proper 27A, November 12, 2017

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

If you go through my car, you will discover that I am my father’s daughter. You would find jumper cables, a first aid kit, wipes, a sewing kit, a leatherman multi-tool, and a lint roller. When I was a kid, we would often tease my dad about the contents of his car, particularly his glove compartment. He seemed to have everything in there - cups, paper clips, safety pins, note paper, forks and spoons, tools, etc. Elsewhere in his car you could always find paper towels, kleenex, a first aid kit, jumper cables and a tow rope. We would tease him, and he would smile good naturedly, knowing fully well that it would only be a matter of time before we would need one of those items.

When we fell down and skinned our knees he was ready with gauze and band-aids. When we had take out food with no silverware, he was ready with a spoon or fork. When we borrowed his car for an important interview, we would be grateful for the lint roller. And my dad was ready to help perfect strangers when their car batteries died or they were stuck in a ditch.

I can’t help but think that if my dad had been there with the bridesmaids in our Gospel story this morning the unwise bridesmaids wouldn’t have had such difficulties, because he probably would have had extra oil to share!

Although we teased my dad about always having all that stuff, I realize now what an important lesson he was teaching us. He showed us again and again that there was nothing life could throw at us that we could not handle. He also taught us that life would not always be easy, and so we need to be prepared to handle the challenges that will come our way.

This was a lesson my parents taught me on a broader level as well. My parents taught me that being prepared for challenges meant taking care of ourselves physically and spiritually - eating well and exercising, going to Church and cultivating a community of support. This meant that when I was diagnosed with cancer as a teenager that community sprung into action to surround us with love and care. The most tangible expression of that being that they worked together to make dinner for us twice a week for the entire year I was on chemotherapy. My parents showed me that a large part of being prepared for the challenges of life was about cultivating community to ensure that we did not have to face a challenge alone.

It seems to me that our Gospel lesson this morning is about preparation. The wise bridesmaids, who have filled their lamps, are rewarded and praised for their forethought. The foolish ones, who lived too much in the present moment and did not think about being prepared, miss out on the gift of being invited into the banquet with Jesus. The Gospel reminds us that we do not know when Jesus will come. This is the important truth: life is uncertain, and we need to be prepared. We need to have things in our personal “glove compartment” and to structure our own lives in such a way that we have what we need to face the challenges that will come in the course of our lives. My parents’ lessons on this front helped provide me with sense of stability and confidence. They showed me that life would not always be easy, but I did not need to fear that fact. As long as I had community and tools, I would be able to handle any situation.

There are lots of uncertainties in life, and we seem to be increasingly aware of them lately. The new headlines are full of stories of violence, tragedy and disasters. All of us, and particularly the young people among us, can feel overwhelmed by the anxiety and fear that is present in our culture. The world can be a scary place. We need to be prepared to face the reality of uncertainty in our lives and in our world.

I believe that that is one of the great gifts of Church generally, and this community in particular. You are a community that support each other through thick and thin. You are here to hold the faith for each other. You are here to remind each other that no matter the challenges life brings, we do not have to face them alone.

The invitation for all of us in today’s Gospel is to be prepared, because life is uncertain. I believe this invitation is two-fold. It is an invitation to stock our glove compartments, so that we have band-aids and spoons when we or someone else might need them. It is also an invitation to cultivate support around us. We human beings were created to be in community. We are created to support and care for each other. The invitation is to deepen our connections with each other and with God, so that we feel grounded and supported as we go about our lives. It is worth remembering that Jesus did not go it alone, so neither should we.

May our Gospel be a reminder for us to give thanks for all those in our lives who helped us be prepared for the challenges we have had to face, and may we seek to help each other be prepared for whatever challenges may lie ahead.

AMEN.

On Suffering

“So, what do you study?” or “What did you write your dissertation on?” These are pretty common questions when you have the initials PhD after your name. Since I wrote a doctoral dissertation on suffering, I have had to come up with a succinct and (hopefully) interesting way of summarizing my work. The subject matter pretty much guarantees that I will only have about thirty seconds before my questioner will desperately seek out greener pastures or begin to joke about how the ordeal of doctoral work is in and of itself a dissertation on suffering. While some of you may have heard the “elevator speech”version of my dissertation, I think it bears sharing here as well.

Our collective hearts break at the reality of yet another mass shooting, and again like with Sandy Hook, innocently people were gunned down in a place of sanctuary, a place that should always be safe. I find myself returning to my own research for comfort and for a theological framework with which to move forward when what I really want to do is curl up and weep. So, here it is, in the hopes that it might help you think theologically about the reality of suffering whether in Sutherland Springs or your own lives and communities. I also hope that it will motivate us to action to work for a different future.

“My dissertation develops a contemporary theology of suffering in conversation with five theologians who almost span the history of the Church: Gregory the Great, Julian of Norwich, Jeremy Taylor, C.S. Lewis and Ivone Gebara. I chose them because they all write theologically out of personal experiences of suffering. If you take Ivone as a starting place, then she asks the very important question: is this suffering endemic to the human experience (like disease or natural disasters-things we can reasonably expect to encounter in our lives) OR is this suffering the result of injustice? If it is the latter than we, as Christians, are called to fight against it, to speak out and to prevent it. Suffering that is the result of injustice is not some cross we have to bear; it must be stopped. If it is suffering that is endemic, then we can return to Gregory, Julian and Jeremy for wonderful resources and spiritual practices to help us cope. We can also read Lewis, so that we can have permission to be angry in the midst of our suffering.”

I hope you find comfort when your suffering is endemic, and I hope you remember that Jesus calls us to action whenever we encounter injustice in the world.  

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If you are interested in the full length version, my dissertation became the book pictured above, available from Wipf & Stock and on Amazon.