March 30, 2025 – Fourth Sunday in Lent
Joel 2.21-27
II Corinthians 9.6-15
Largesse: The Spirit of Generosity
Fourth Sunday in Lent
On more than one occasion I have been given a sage bit of advice regarding vacations which I then promptly ignore: when you go on vacation, do yourself a favor and do not turn on the news and do not read the paper. Well, you know me better than that: I am an inveterate news junkie, so as far as this particular temptation goes, I just could not resist. In retrospect, I wish I had.
The headline in Thursday’s paper caught my eye because it deals with something we are very sensitive about here in the Valley Shore region: “New England Food Banks Struggle to Keep Up With Demand After Federal Government Cuts $1 Billion in Funding.” The article begins,
“Food banks across New England are scrambling after the… administration this month cut some $1 billion from programs that help them obtain food for distribution, increasing concerns about meeting demand when hunger is already soaring. For many of the region’s pantries, food given out with the support of federal assistance amounts to 10 to 30 percent of their total distributions. The unexpected cuts are likely to disrupt food availability for communities nationwide.”
When I read this, I thought immediately of our own Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Pantry, an organization our congregation has supported since its inception, both by our contributions, and more important by our presence as volunteers and hosts every Sunday evening. I thought about my friend and colleague The Rev. Amy Hollis, whose determined and faithful leadership has steered SSKP through some rough waters of late. Food scarcity is on the rise in our region; in 2024 alone, the Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Pantry shared more than one and a half million pounds of food between the daily meals and the food bank it maintains. While it is an accomplishment to be proud of, it is also one to be concerned about, that the need is so deep and so broad and continues to get worse. Now is not the time to cut programs that feed the hungry.
Also this week the federal government eliminated 68 health care grants totaling nearly $40 million that were to be used specifically for LGBTQ patients. The National Institute of Health, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, had already budgeted the funds for fiscal year 2025, and withdrawing the already-promised grants has created a giant hole in health care and research. Simon Rosser, a research scientist at the University of Minnesota summed up the loss of funding rather tersely, saying, “It is a loss of a whole generation of science.” Folks, I have sat with local parents of LGTBQ children, and navigating the health care system is difficult enough already, to say nothing of the stigma that sadly follows so many of these kids. I’m sorry I was not here for Friday’s suicide prevention workshop here at the United Church, but I know I told you before about a similar two-day workshop I attended that was sponsored by Tri-Town Youth Services. It brought together medical, professional, educational, public safety and spiritual leaders from around the area to address the epidemic of teen suicides, and in so many instances gender identity and mental health were a part of the equation. I grieve the loss of resources and community support this funding cut will represent.
I could go on, but I didn’t want to ruin my entire vacation. Still, the question remains, in the face of such massive reductions, what can we do? What can we in our little Tri-Town community do about food scarcity and health care and resources for our youngest and most vulnerable?
Did you read Mary Luti’s piece in our UCC Lent Devotional yesterday? It was titled, “The Gospel at Lunch,” and it’s a terrific story. Mary was teaching at a Catholic girls’ school in Mexico a number of years ago, and the lunchroom felt to her like a high end restaurant. The student body waited the tables for one another: they served the food, filled the water glasses, cleared the plates, and they did it all with a pleasant, jovial and efficient demeanor. Mary wondered how the school assigned the waiting responsibilities. Was it compulsory for everyone? Maybe a way of earning extra credit? Was it in lieu of detention? Nope, it was none of this – it was a prize for school-based achievement, like making the honor roll, or being elected a class officer, or scoring the winning goal at soccer the previous week. In other words, waiting on tables was not a punishment, but a reward. Service to others as a reward. What a novel concept! Caring for one another at the school was a privilege, not an obligation. Waiting on one another was a way of creating community and building trust, and making the school a better place. I wonder what kind of world this might be if we understood health care and feeding the hungry and housing the homeless as an opportunity, dare I say it, as a reward, as a privilege, rather than as a duty. This kind of generosity, this kind of serving one another just might become contagious, don’t you think?!
“The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil,” Deb Calamari read for us from the book of Joel. “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you.” What a wonderful vision of abundance, what a perfect picture of plenty. And the apostle Paul reminds us how this happens: it springs from generosity, the generosity of God in Joel and the generosity of God‘s people in II Corinthians. The eighth verse of II Corinthians 9 has always been a particular powerful one for me, and I want to show you why. You’ve noticed I always put a Bible verse under my sermon title in the bulletin as a way of focusing us on one of the central points for the morning, and I’d like you to look at it right now. I’m going to read it, emphasizing seven different words in order to lift up this verbal image of overflowing generosity; read the verse silently to yourself as I read aloud, and listen for the emphasis: “God is able to provide us with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, we may share abundantly in every good work.” The sentence itself is a cornucopia of provision and abundance and plenty: every – abundance – always – enough – everything – abundantly – every good work. This is a vision of God’s largesse toward us, and the potential – and may I add expectation and privilege – of ours toward others.
About two weeks after the November election, I sat down for a conversation with a family in our wider community. Like many, they were concerned about what the results might bring, particularly in the area of social services and community support; and, like many, they could see what was coming down the pike, because it was crystal clear what those results were going to mean. The family had made a decision: they were making a generous contribution to an organization they trusted to support those who might be hit hardest by the kinds of cutting and defunding of programs that so roiled my south Florida respitet this week. They gave the United Church of Chester a sum of $25,000 to be used expressly in our region to support those individuals and organizations who could best provide for the most pressing needs of our community – the kind of mission and outreach that our congregation is known for. Friends, in that moment I was stunned. Us? $25,000? And in the next moment I was profoundly grateful, and to be honest, more than a little proud of our church. That we – you and I as a congregation – are recognized as a trusted body that knows how to make an effective difference at the local level where the lives that will be touched and changed are those of our neighbors and friends, the ones we know and the ones we do not, left me humbled, and in a rare moment, speechless. This gift is a testament to you and all the good work you have already accomplished thorough years of ministry and service.
Two weeks ago I was just as proud and gratified as I sat with our Church Council who, after two consecutive meetins filled with careful conversation approved the distribution of this largesse, this spirit of generosity. The Council voted to direct this vital support to orgnaizatons whose mission and minitry aligns with our own: to the Shoreline Soup Kitchen and Pantry, long a mission partner of our Untied Church. It will further the work of Tri-Town Youth Services, which touches more than just the young people of our community, but supports their parents and families as well. It will bring a real shot in the arm to our church’s Backpack Program, one which so many of you already support with your contributions and your participation. It will further the work of Covenant to Care, whose work we heard about just a few weeks ago when Catherine Haugh joined us and thanked us for all we have done already. It will help provide summer camp scholarships for local youth, opening up opportunities for both physical and emotional develpoment for those who may otherwise not have access to them. And it will help us support work that is arguably the nearest and dearest to the United Church’s heart, Lady Doak College in Madurai, India, educating young women and girls in a culture that has historically treated educated women as an unnecessary luxury. We have the opportunity to turn those headlines of scarcity and deprivation on their collective head, and we have every reason to be grateful to God for this extraordinary opportunity made possible by the humanitarian impulse of a generous neighbor who trusted us with this gift.
Cheryl Archer brought us a rich and powerful message last week, and I was especially touched by something she said near the conclusion. It was part of her personal faith statement, and I’m going to paraphrase from memory, you can tell me if I get it right, Cheryl. She said, “Love exists… you cannot physically see or touch love, but you know it is there.” And I get what you mean, and here is the thought it stirred in me: we may not be physically able to see or touch love, but love is able to see and touch every one of us. Love is able to see and touch every one of us and every one of God’s beloved children. Thank you for prompting that thought, Cheryl, and it remains my hope and prayer that by the way The United Church has chosen to share an anonymous neighbor’s abundant generosity, the love of God will physically and emotionally touch and bless the lives of our own neighbors who need this gift the most.