Plenty and Then Some!
Psalm 65   Luke 6: 32-38
An All Saints Communion Meditation

The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
 

This November we are celebrating a new liturgical season at Epworth, the season for More Than an Attitude of Gratitude.  
We are risking a great adventure in Stewardship:
* giving all that we have and are because of our need to give in grateful response to God’s abundant grace;
* consecrating our money and our lives as God inspires us, rather than as a budget requires us;
* learning first hand power of giving as spiritual practice to transform the life of the giver;
* gathering as a whole community of faith in joyful celebration to discover together what ministry is possible!  

You will hear more in the coming weeks ... and later in the service today.  This morning ... All Saints Sunday, Communion Sunday ... we begin a new season of “Plenty and Then Some”.  Let us pray ...
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There is a Hebrew song over 1000 years old.  It is a Passover song, Dayenu, which means, “It would have been enough.”  

Like Psalm 65, like many of the psalms, the fifteen verses of this song remember the many times that God saved the people, the many gifts God gives the people. After each verse, each remembered gift from God, the chorus resounds, “It would have been enough...!”

The chorus is one word... “Dayenu” ... “It would have been enough,” and it goes something like this...

The first five verses of this song remember how God delivers from slavery, beginning:
        “It would have been enough... if God had brought us out of Egypt!”

The second five verses remember God’s miracles along the way, beginning:
“It would have been enough if God had given us manna, our daily bread!

The final five verses remember the many ways God lives in the midst of the people, beginning:
“It would have been enough if God had given us the Sabbath!”

What a wonderful song to know by heart ...
If this one thing was all God did ... this one gift would have been enough.... but there is so much more...
(sing dayenu....)

It’s a seismic shift ... from scarcity to sufficiency to abundance... from fearful living to grateful giving.
In 12 step recovery programs when you feel resentment, despair, fear, doubt, you are often asked to make a gratitude list.  This list is not counting blessings to deny feelings or hardship, but the practice helps center one’s soul in blessing and gratitude, even when, or especially when peace truly passes understanding.

Many of us continue to hold our brother Tim Davis in prayer especially now as he struggles to recover from injuries sustained when a car hit him and his electric wheelchair in a crosswalk near campus.  He has shared openly with this community the challenge and loneliness of living with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease.  And now this new serious challenge to life and health.   In my first visit with him in the hospital after the accident, Tim spoke words of gratitude -- that seconds before the car hit, his little girl, (Chansey) had hopped off his chair to retrieve her backpack and thus was spared injury. In the midst of great pain, frustration and fear, love gave him the capacity to be grateful.

The night before Jesus was executed as a threat to the empire, he ate a meal with his friends ... and asked them to remember him in a common meal ... promising “This will be enough” for abundant life.

Today we remember.  And as we come forward to the table, we see the light of those who have gone before us.  Even in the tears that come with longing remembrance ... we affirm our faith that “to have known them at all was a miracle.”

Eugene Peterson translates verses from our Gospel lesson this way, “Live out (your) God-created identity the way God lives toward us, generously and graciously, ...Give away your life; you’ll find life given back ... Giving ... is the way.  Generosity begets generosity.” Generosity begets generosity – example begets example – encouragement begets encouragement – giving without motive of reward begets expansive mission.

This past week some first time visitors to Epworth, moved by mission and gratitude gave a gift of $1000 with this simple designation:  feed the hungry.  This gift is an answer to prayer for Epworth’s regular dinners for the men at the shelter in the VA building, and other community outreach programs and partnerships in mission.  Generosity begets generosity.

There is another song I want you to hear this morning ... less than one year old.  Suzanne Werner’s “Help Somebody.”  Next week - Jerry and our Choir, and Jammin’ Methodists will help us learn and sing it in this season of more than an attitude of gratitude.   It begins:

Got plenty and then some ... what do I do?  
I go out and help somebody get plenty and then some too!

As you listen to this song, remember, and listen for God’s call. Amen.