FREEDOM FOR FAITHFULNESS

Text: John 8:31-36

Jesus is talking to a group of his Jewish followers. At this time, most of his followers are Jews, of course, since they are the people of the land of Israel and the ones with whom Jesus has contact. In one way, these people are the most likely to become his followers, because as believers in the Jewish faith, they already understand the concept of one God…not like the Gentiles in the neighbouring countries, most of whom believe in many gods. But in another way, there is a barrier that keeps Jewish believers from understanding the Gospel of Jesus: they are still committed to keeping the Law. Jesus suggests that they are captives to the Law and they need to be set free.

These believers are indignant. “We are members of the tribe of Abraham; we’ve never been slaves to anyone.” This is a point of pride for these Jews: many centuries before, their ancestors fled from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. Every year they celebrate the Feast of Passover, remembering how God helped them to escape from slavery. And now Jesus says they are still slaves?

But Jesus isn’t talking about political slavery; he’s talking about spiritual slavery. These Jewish believers sense that God dwells in this Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, and they are attracted to his power and his wisdom, but they aren’t ready to give up their old values. What are their old values?...the security of following old rituals, the pride of moral superiority, the comfort of complacency. “We don’t need to change: we’re Jews, descendants of Abraham; we know all the stories about the liberation of our people thousands of years back. We don’t need to be made free. We’re already free.” But their protesting so strongly in the face of Jesus suggests that true freedom frightens them. Like the addict who insists it’s possible to kick the habit anytime, their claims to freedom ring hollow.

Likewise, five hundred years ago, when Martin Luther came on the scene in Europe as it emerged from the Middle Ages, he knew he wasn’t free either. The Roman Catholic Church ruled most of the known world and had for a thousand years. Old values dominated everyone and everything: the practice of old rituals, the pride of moral superiority, the comfort of complacency. If personal faith and Christian morality were badly eroded, who could do anything about it? And if anyone tried, the religious and political powers would suppress any resistance or argument. Truth and freedom were so ground down that hardly anyone knew what they were any more. But Luther was stubborn and determined and committed. He believed the words of Jesus rather than the pronouncements of a monolithic church: “…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” He was a man of great intelligence and deep insight. His Biblical study and his personal spiritual struggle led to strong conviction. He probably never intended to oppose the greatest religious and political power that ever existed, but his conviction grew to the point where he couldn’t avoid taking a stand. He was forced into it by his own discovery of Biblical truth and by the irresistible pressure of events. What Luther thought were merely contributions to an academic discussion became the focus of a sweeping political movement. He and his university colleagues, the monks of his religious order, the German princes and the general population of these farflung provinces in northern Europe were swept along in the waves of change. Like the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of Luther and the other leaders of the Reformation spoke to the spiritual hopes and needs of a whole continent. Look at the poster displayed in front here: it’s called “The Knight, Death and the Devil” and it’s the work of Albrecht Durer, a contemporary of Martin Luther. It gives us a strong taste of the medieval spirit: the terror of death and hell, the ever-present threat of evil spirits, the desperate hope that human courage could ward off these dangers….It’s not a picture of freedom; it’s a picture of oppression.

What was this freedom that Jesus brought, and that Luther helped to restore? It was the freedom from sin – in a word, salvation…or in two words, salvation and redemption. Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “…everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” That’s all of us, right? And further, Jesus says, “The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.” He is not talking about himself when he uses the word “son”; he is talking about us, sons and daughters of God’s household. We are not merely servants in God’s household; we are children of the household, with all the privileges of belonging to the family of God. And one of the greatest privileges is freedom from sin, provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Well,” you might be thinking, “I don’t have a problem with sin. I’m a member of the church; I’m a decent person; I’m not guilty of doing anything very bad.” The security of old rituals? The pride of moral superiority? The comfort of complacency? But if you have actually absorbed the truth of the Gospel and you do in fact take sin seriously, believe in redemption through Christ and trust that your sins are forgiven, you are unusual, even in the church. Outside the church, and for many within the church, there is little understanding of sin and little sense of the need for salvation. I don’t mean that we should be overwhelmed with fear and superstition as were the folk of Luther’s time; I just mean that we should have a clear understanding of our position before God. And most people in our immediate world have little concept of sin and the hope of salvation. I would say that our world psychologizes sin and secularizes salvation. What does that mean? Well, psychology is a useful discipline for understanding human thoughts and feelings and behaviour, but it does not explain spirituality. Likewise, secular thinking applies well to our social and political and economic context, but it does not address the world of the spirit. I would suggest that even in the church popular psychology and secular thinking have largely replaced the values taught by Jesus. That is to say, permissiveness and popularity, materialism and monoculture. Not much matters except following the crowd. I suggest that our society, and in some ways, our church, need another reformation.
Well, we can’t wait around for another Luther. At the moment, nobody like Luther seems to be on the horizon. Mind you, in Luther’s time, nobody, least of all Luther himself, expected he’d be the agent of change. So who will save the church from corruption and irrelevance? I’m not sure who might be the human agent, but certainly God is still on the job. What signs of hope do we see?

In the last few years, our own church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, has had to downsize. There are fewer national staff, synod offices have the same number of staff, and budgets are reduced, but programs are still made available to congregations, and national and synodical gatherings are high quality events. We do a lot more cooperative work with other churches, especially the Anglican Church of Canada, which has also reduced its program staff and budgets. There is a much effective work done on social justice, environmental and poverty issues by a coalition of churches in an organization called KAIROS. The internet has increased our ability to communicate with each other widely at low cost. We have good procedures in place, and lots of checks and balances so our church organizations function well. Church employees are treated fairly. We even had a decent pension plan until the crisis a couple of weeks ago! At the congregational level, here in Airdrie we are a smaller congregation than we were five years ago, but for the first time since I came here over six years ago, we are on target with our financial situation. Usually by the end of summer we have fallen behind and we don’t catch up until Christmas. But this year, things are going better. We can say that the present active members take seriously their responsibility to support the church. And what’s more, in the last three years, since November 2005, we have paid down $130,000 on our mortgage. That’s amazing, considering that we thought it was an impossible task. But in three years, we’ve paid down a third of the debt. All that while we’ve been keeping up with the operating budget as well. And this fall we completed a major renovation with interior paint and new carpets, with a lot of volunteer input from members. What does this say about hope for our church? Well, we need to survive in other areas besides finance, but our financial situation is an indicator of the health of the congregation. And the willingness of members to volunteer is another indicator of good health around here. As well, we contribute a lot of money and goods and volunteer time to people in need in our community and in the world. Lutheran Church of the Master is doing a lot of the things we are called by God to do. We’re not perfect but we’re moving in the right direction.

What does all this have to do with being free from sin? I think that our spiritual health is evident in our behaviour in the church community and in the community at large. We may be a small group but we’re making a difference to each other and to our neighbours by our efforts to live holy and committed lives. We know we are sinners but we know who can save us. And that freedom gives us the motivation and the energy to do the right things. Thanks be to God!

Never Thought Of It That Way

Matt 22: 15 - 22

What a Gospel text! Perfect for the Chairman of the congregation on a Sunday when the Pastor is away at camp K with the confirmand kids. Jesus was holding up a coin like this one. It had the image of the Emperor on it, and Jesus was telling the people to give to the Emperor (that is the government) the taxes that belonged to him – but also, maybe, some honour and respect (as we are learning in the study sessions on Tuesday nights). BUT Jesus added “give to God the things that are God’s”. What part of this coin belongs to God? The obvious reply for any Jew or LCMer who has studied their O.T. is - Tithes!! 10 % of this thing. Right?

As Pres. of this congregation, now would be the perfect time to point out that many of you are not giving your tithe because we are away behind in meeting our financial obligations as the bulletin so clearly….doesn’t show.
I could say that we have about 55 givers who give about $10000 per month when you include extra mortgage donations etc. That means an average of $1820 per giving group –be that a single person or family- and if we assume most people figure tithes on gross income (we are Lutherans, after all), that means the average giver is earning about $18200 per year or $11.36 per hour. The good news is that if we all loose our jobs and end up working at fast food outlets, we could make this place stay afloat - if we tithed; so we don’t have to be too worried about the down turn in the economy.

I could say that, but I won’t. Because, I don’t believe that tithing is a requirement for salvation or even for right living. I don’t believe Jesus considered tithing a rule for Christians to follow. Now don’t get me wrong, I think there are some wonderful benefits when we decide to give significantly. When we make it purposeful and first fruits giving, (not what is left over at the end of the month) there are even more blessings. I believe there is truth in the statement that “our heart (and mind) is where our money is”. When we give significantly to meeting the needs of our fellow human beings, then our minds are not caught up in the turmoil of the stock market to near the same extent. Although I believe in generous giving, there are no examples in the N.T. where Christians are told to give a tithe. We are to give sacrificially, yes, and proportionally, and joyfully, and thankfully; but there is no fixed amount.
I believe Jesus’ answer in the gospel lesson, was intended to take us away from rules and towards principles. The Jews wanted to know if they had done enough, and were constantly making up rules so they would have a measuring stick against which to compare themselves. By the time Jesus was born, they had turned the 10 principles of living into 660 rules. Jesus tried very hard to get them to see beyond the rules to the intent of the rules, and then not to allow the rules to get in the way of them following those principles of living.
When the Jews moved into the Promised land, 1 tribe was given the job of looking after the temple and everything associated with that. They had no land and no way to generate income for a living. They were to be dependent on the other 11 tribes that were given land on which to make a living. The 11 each gave 1/10 to the Levites who in turn gave a tenth to the temple so everyone ended up with about the same amount. True the Levites technically had 99% left rather than 90%, but they had to feed the widows and orphans who had no relatives to look after them. In my opinion, the tithes were a taxation system - an obligation to be paid to maintain a type of government organization system that allowed them to flourish in their new land.
In addition to tithes, however, they also made offerings. The offerings were always freewill and had no limits of 10%, like tithes did.
I believe that giving freely to the work of God’s kingdom is a principle expressed throughout the Bible and is applicable to us today. It is on that basis that I wish to tell you a story about a mouse and a chip Monk. This is the sermon that my son Tim wrote for the congregation he pastors in Millet.
First a couple of things you should know about Tim. He likes variety so he preaches using a lot of different types of sermons. This happened to be a week when he chose to illustrate a principle to live by through a story. Secondly, there are quite a few kids around St. Peter’s in Millet, when they are not at sports, or dance or the library. Thirdly, he thinks what happens at worship should be chewed upon during the drive home, over lunch and even over coffee on Tuesday. And that chewing not only includes the hymn content, and prayers, but also the sermon. He tries hard to provide fodder for parents to talk to their children, as well as to other adults about what takes place at worship.

“This can’t be happening!” thought Martin as he tried to calm his beating mouse heart down to a resting count of 500 beats per minute, but what he was seeing was dizzying to his senses. He could not believe the crime that was occurring before his little eyes and helpless little hands. Should he stay where he was, safely hiding behind a stack of photo copy paper? Or should he risk martyrdom by springing a surprise attack with the slight chance of sabotaging such a two-faced operation? Martin really didn’t know what to do. Like usual, he had gotten himself way in over his head but it was too late to just walk away now. He was a church mouse after all, and he had a duty to live and act with the conviction that comes with being tied to a church.

Martin and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Freedom, are mice. Proud mice. Christian mice. Reforming mice - always open to life’s changes. It was life’s changes that had brought them back inside the walls of the church. Their home had been destroyed over the summer and so they returned to the one place where they knew they could go - St. Petro’s church. Upon their return it was only a few days work of gathering yarn, craft supplies and a mixture of other cozy materials from the quilters cupboard till the Freedom’s had built themselves a pretty nice little nest in the back corner of the furnace room to call home. With a secure place to sleep most of their time was then spent doing what church mice do; scrounging for food, exploring new cracks and tunnels, and trying to make sense of all the stuff that church humans do.

For Martin, the best part of any week was Sunday morning worship. Martin believed in God and enjoyed the opportunity to express in worship his thankfulness for being able to live in God’s very house. Now Martin would be the first to admit that the idea of the church being God’s house was confusing. Martin had lived in the church for a couple of months; he knew its dimensions and was pretty sure that there was no way that God’s house was big enough for God. Martin had heard enough sermons by the Pastor to know that there was nothing in the world that was bigger than God but he had also heard that the church was indeed God’s house. And so Martin wracked his brain trying to answer the question - “Why would God have a house that God didn’t fit into?”

Well, to make a long story shorter, it was Martin’s attempt to answer this question that had gotten him into the sticky situation in which he now found himself - huddling behind a stack of paper in the photocopy room. You see, Martin was a curious sort and once he started thinking about God owning a house he began to keep his eyes peeled for other stuff that might belong to God.

One day while martin was sitting in church, tucked up and out of view beside a beam on the candle shelves, the offering caught his attention. He had never paid much attention to the offering because as a mouse he didn’t have any money to give - but even as a mouse he knew that money was important to humans. Though he didn’t know exactly what made the stuff so valuable. From experience Martin knew that money couldn’t be eaten, there were softer things to sleep on and it couldn’t keep you warm in winter - Martin figured humans probably gave it to God because only God would know what to do with such useless stuff. Useless as it may be it was apparent how important money was to the humans by they way they made such a big deal about giving to God...or as Martin discovered - pretending to give it to God.

As the offering was being taken at this particular service something twigged in Martin’s mind and a brilliant idea dawned on him. If the people were giving the money to God, God must come to God’s house and get the money. If Martin was to see if God could fit into God’s house all he would have to do is wait for God to come and pick up the offering. It would answer so many questions for him that Martin set his mind to stick around for as long as it took. Much like precocious human children try and bait Santa Clause with cookies and milk on Christmas eve, but in this case Martin did not set the bait - the congregation did and the bait was cash. But before the people had even cleared out from the sanctuary Martin’s plan was foiled by two nice looking adults who went up to the altar and took God’s money away.

“Help!” shouted Martin, but nobody could hear his little mouse voice over the boisterous visiting in the pews. Worse yet, the people didn’t seem to care that God’s money had been taken away. Some of the congregation members even saw the people do it - one waved, another smiled, the Pastor was so bold as to thank the thieves saying, “Thanks for taking care of the offering.”

“Taking care. I bet they’re ‘taking care’ of the offering, alright.” said Martin, and he set out in hot pursuit of the thieves, the offering, and what belonged to God.

Well that’s how Martin ended up in the photocopy room. It was in this room the thieves counted the stash. Two eyes peered out from behind the stack of paper and down upon the desk where the goods where scattered. As if they were opening their own birthday cards the thieves ripped open the envelopes that had been given to God and carefully recorded the numbers on a piece of paper.

“Seventy five dollars from envelope #62...two hundred from #88...one fifty for the camp, fifty for the ladies group...five hundred for the Haiti...” and the thieves went on and on. Martin was flabbergasted at the nerve of the entire congregation. Pieces of paper and cash were stacked around the entire desk and not a single bit of went to God. In fact, in the time that the thieves shuffled papers in the room Martin only heard God mentioned once and that was in the end when the thieves found a couple of pennies on the floor that made some numbers match up. The whole thing just didn’t make sense to Martin one bit. Oh, how he wished he could read better so he could see what the little pieces of paper where about but he couldn’t read - he was only mouse. But he was a smart mouse and he could follow letters and numbers.

Glancing down at one point he saw a piece of paper that had two letters on it. It said, TD. Martin could also see the number $300. T. D. What was T. D.? Another paper said, R. B. C. Another read, B.M.O. Martin couldn’t read but he knew enough to know when something wasn’t a word. They must be codes, he thought. T. D. - Totally Dishonest. R.B.C - Really Bad Christians, B. M. O. - Bogus Money Offering.

“Well that’s all for today.” Said one thief as she stood up from her seat. “I guess I’ll just run the offering into Wetaskiwin when I go and see my mother this afternoon.”

“Despicable!” thought Martin. “That thief is going to hug her mother with the same hands that stole money from God.”

As the people exited the room they flipped the lights off and closed the door. The last thing that Martin heard from the thieves as they made their way for the stairs was one of them saying something to the other about taking the cash to CIBC. Another code, figured Martin. Probably means, Churches In Big Conspiracy.

Martin sat in the darkness of the photocopier room for the better part of an hour - which to a mouse is equivalent to two weeks of human time. In that hour Martin pondered the darkness of the human creature. He mourned the two-faced nature of the people he worshiped with. He wondered if he could go on living in such a greedy church. He even began to fear what God would do upon realizing people were stealing from God’s house. Growing tired of thinking about such depressing matters Martin climbed down the shelves and headed outside for a walk to see his buddy Stewart. Stewart was a chip monk who seemed so wise when it came to dealing with stuff. Stewart was always finding stuff, saving stuff, using stuff, sharing stuff, planting stuff. Stewart was generous with stuff and yet was never out of stuff. If anyone could help Martin with this problem it would be the thrifty monk, Stewart.

Ten minutes later Martin was lurking in the grass below the chip monk’s tree. “Hey, friend” said Stewart, spotting Martin in the lawn. “Get up here in the tree before old Hawk-eye sets his talons on you.” “Sure thing, Stewart.” said the mouse as he scurried up the tree.
“What brings you to my part of the church yard, Martin?” asked the hospitable chip monk.
“I got a dilemma I figured you could help me with” explained Martin. “I was at church today and I caught some humans stealing God’s money. During the service the people have this time when they all pretend to give stuff to God, but then after the service they just go and take it right back. Some of God’s money they give to people and a bunch of it they put in this place called C-I-B-C. I’m not sure if I even want to know what they do with it there but it sure doesn’t sound like a place that God would be found in.” By this time Martin was pretty much worked up again. His little mouse heart beating at a thousand beats a minute. The excitement of the day had clearly taken its toll on his nerves.

Stewart laughed and looked gently into the eyes of the fretting mouse. “Martin, my friend, if you are going to be spending any time with people you are going to have realize one very important fact.”
“What’s that?” inquired Martin.
“They are crazy. I mean nuts. Human beings are cookoo. You know what I mean.”
Martin’s confused face showed he didn’t.
“Look little mousy,” said Stewart, “Let me explain. People are just like you and me - they rely on God’s stuff to survive. We need air, they need air. We need the sun, they need the sun. We need food, they need food. Got it?”
“Okay” said Martin, playing along.
“But in other ways people are not like you and me” went on Stewart. “You and I live in places we don’t own. We know we are trespassers. Humans - they think they own their homes because God let’s them keep them. You and me, we eat food that we scrounge and steal - we know food doesn’t belong to us. Humans - they think they own the food because God lets them eat it. You and me - we don’t have any use for money cause you can’t eat it, or sleep in it or anything else. Humans - they love the stuff because they can keep it and make it grow and think that it is there own. Humans are wacky that way”.
Martin sat silent for a while, relating Stewarts teachings to what he had noticed about humans.
“Hmm.” Thought Martin, “So if they love to keep stuff for themselves why to they even pretend to give an offering to God?”

Stewart gathered his words, “You see Martin, that’s the even crazier thing. When humans give an offering they are not actually giving the money to God - cause God already owns it in the first place! And if the money didn’t already belong to God, what would God do with money anyways. You know the stuff is pretty near useless! The church offering is really for humans to remember that they are just like squirrels and mice - they don’t own a stinkin’ thing.”

“What?” said Martin.

Trying another angle Stewart went on, “Look, let me put it this way: God owns everything so God needs nothing. God loves people, and mice and chip monks so God let’s us use God’s stuff. Everything we use is God’s. There is only one problem.”

“What’s that?” asked Martin, trying to catch on.

“The problem is that humans get in the way of God’s plan to share stuff with everyone by hoarding what doesn’t belong to them. The end result is that some creatures, even people, don’t receive what God wants to give them.”

“Really?” Thought Martin, “That must drive God to rage! God gives us everything and then people misuse it to the harm of others.”

“It happens,” agreed the chip monk. “That’s why the church people give an offering. Even though they know that God doesn’t need the money they give the offering to remind themselves that stuff doesn’t belong to them. Then they take the offering to places like CIBC where they can share it with others just as God would do. They especially help people who have had God’s stuff taken from them.”

“I see,” said Martin, catching on to the concept. “So the offering is not for God, because God already owns everything, but the offering is a way for people to share God’s stuff with those who need it.”

“Exactly!” affirmed Stewart. “And the most contented people in the world are the ones who most freely share God’s stuff with others.”

“Ah, ha!” proclaimed Martin, as if he’d just solved yet another mystery. “All this talk about sharing explains why God’s house is so small. The house is not for God at all but for the small creatures God wants to share with. Creatures like humans and church mice.”

“Indeed, little mouse.”
“Gee,” said Martin, “thinking about God’s generosity makes me want to go and share more of God’s stuff.”

“Perfect,” rejoiced Stewart. “That’s the heart of my message.”
Impressed with the powerful repercussions of his friends wisdom, Martin encouraged, “You know, you should really write a book. I can see the title now - Life changing lessons in the home of Stewart the Chip Monk”
Stewart laughed. “I’ll work on that, Martin. But I think we’ll need a shorter title. How about - Lessons in Stewart-Chip.”

“Stewart-chip. What’s Stewart-chip?”
“Martin, my friend. You’ll have to read my book.”

And the two spent the rest of that Sunday afternoon swapping stories of the church yard and other good things God had given them to share.

Prepared by G. Wray

TRANSFORMED BY GRATITUDE

Text: Luke 17:11-19

Have you heard about the politics of entitlement? That’s a pretty common attitude these days: it means that people expect to get what they want, and if they don’t, they feel justified in making a fuss to make sure that they get what they want, or at least to make somebody else suffer for not giving them what they want. We used to call it selfishness or temper tantrum or immature behaviour. But not any more. Now we call it political pressure, or lobbying or making our needs known. It’s what many of us do and we don’t see anything wrong with it.

Well, there are these ten lepers who approach Jesus while he is travelling through the countryside. Lepers are some of the most unfortunate people in that society: they are not only afflicted with a disfiguring disease but they are also condemned to isolation from their families and alienation from the community. In short, they are ill and they are outcasts. But when they know Jesus is coming, these lepers dare to hope that he can help them. He has a reputation throughout the region…not only does he have the power to heal disease, but he has compassion on those whom no one else will even tolerate.

What do they ask for? They ask for mercy. Why mercy? Because they have no claim on anyone - they are supposed to distance themselves from everyone except other lepers. So when they ask for anything, they have to ask in terms of special compassion or mercy. The connotation of mercy is “compassion that forbears punishing even when justice demands it”. These lepers are asking for something they have no right to expect, and they know it. Everyone knows it - everyone in their society, that is. Everyone except Jesus.

It appears that Jesus sends them away as the law demands. He says, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” In that time, sickness was considered mostly a spiritual problem involving evil spirits, usually as a punishment for wrongdoing, and the priest was the one to pronounce upon the situation. Also, the Jewish Law designated the priest as the one to diagnose the condition of leprosy. So we can imagine that the lepers turn away sadly, as they do from everyone else, disappointed and rejected yet again. But as they walk away, they realize their leprosy is healed. Imagine their surprise and delight…they can hardly dare to hope that this is actually true!

What would you expect them to do? Turn right around and fall at Jesus’ feet, right? But no…only one of them does this. We can think of reasons why this might be so. Perhaps he is the leader of the group. Perhaps the others are too afraid of the crowd. Perhaps their leprosy has disfigured their faces to the point where they can no longer speak…Who knows? But the Gospel says that the one who returns to thank Jesus is a Samaritan - a foreigner, a member of a neighbouring country whose people are enemies of Jesus’ people. So why is he the only one to thank Jesus? Perhaps because he is the one who least expects any help from this Galilean Jew. He is the one with no sense of entitlement, no right to expect anything. So he’s the most grateful. Maybe it’s that simple.

The first sermon I preached to the inner city congregation in Edmonton - a collection of street people and local residents living in poverty - was on Thanksgiving Sunday, 1993. I laboured long over that sermon. I asked myself, “How can I stand in front of a group of poor, unfortunate, suffering people and tell them they should be thankful? Thankful for what? That they have nothing or almost nothing…that the current government is cutting back on welfare payments and social workers and health care?” I worked on the sermon for three weeks. I’d been working in the inner-city community for a couple of months by that time and I knew some of the people. And I already knew that these are some of the most grateful people I’d ever met. Not to romanticize poverty…hunger and homelessness and financial need are bad things…and not all poor people are sweet and grateful. But enough of them are that it became fairly easy to talk to them about gratitude. Because even after two months, I had already begun to see how a lot of them appreciated even small things: a loonie, a cigarette, a pair of socks, a ride to the Food Bank, a can of pop, a cup of coffee. But I talked about it in terms of how I had learned to appreciate small acts of kindness. To this day, I have never experienced a community like that one, where on a regular basis, people offered appreciation and blessings. It was humbling to learn that a fortunate person like me had something to offer such unfortunate people, and even more humbling to learn that they could offer gifts and blessings to me, and frequently did. I have boxes of gifts I received from them…most of them were bought second-hand, many of them are inexpensive, but all of them were given out of love and appreciation. The cards and letters are even more precious because they contain earnest good wishes and blessings, given by people who are considered to have nothing to give. The truth is that they have a great deal to give, and they give it freely.

Well, on this Thanksgiving Sunday in October 2008, the month of the big financial nosedive - maybe even the market crash, certainly very bad news - it’s not just Wall Street investment bankers who are in financial trouble (and as we are aware, being bailed out by the government), it’s people like us, who know we are not likely to be bailed out by the government. The Lutheran bishops in the US said in a pastoral letter this week: “This crisis is causing fear and loss in our country as thousands of families face unemployment, foreclosure, and uncertainty about savings and pensions.” And Jim Wallis, a leading Christian social activist in the US, says that this major threat is uniting the American people to the point where “even the dirty politics of the final stages of the [election] campaign seem not to be working. Every other issue than the economy is perceived as a distraction.”

But not to focus on scare-tactics. We don’t need encouragement to worry more about what is happening. We should focus instead on constructive discussion, on helpful answers to the most appropriate and important questions. What should people of faith be thinking, saying and doing? Where is God in all this? What does our Christian teaching tell us about money and possessions, wealth and power, credit and responsible financial choices, economic values vs. family values, lifestyle and stewardship, generosity and justice, and both personal and social responsibility? How do we listen to people, be present to them, comfort them, and perhaps help them to re-examine their assumptions, values and practices? How could this time of great anxiety also be a time of prayerful self-evaluation, redirection and even new relationships with others in our congregations and communities?

For ourselves personally, how are we responding to the possibility of leaner financial times? Can we avoid panic? Instead of madly shopping to distract ourselves, can we thoughtfully plan to cut back on luxuries? Can we revise our expectations for the foreseeable future and live more frugally until we see how this situation plays out? Can we consider family members and neighbours who might need encouragement and help? Can we depend on God to bring us through this situation as God has brought us through other difficult situations? Can we avoid blame and resentment and anger?

And here in Canada, it’s Thanksgiving weekend. We have the chance to work on this a little sooner than the Americans, both because the effects of the crisis have affected Canada less severely so far, and because our Thanksgiving comes earlier than theirs. Is it possible that having less will help us appreciate more what we do have? Is it possible that having less will help us sympathize more with our less fortunate neighbours? Is it possible that having less will help us focus more on the things of God and less on the things of earth? Don’t worry. Hear the words of Jesus, “Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.” The Greek word for “made you well” is one that means “saved”. We believe that Jesus Christ saves us - that is, he offers us salvation in every sense of that word: not only spiritual but also physical (as he offered the lepers), social, mental, financial and every other way. Here’s our chance to find out how God’s promises work out in real life. So we can risk being thankful. Start with small things and dare to work up to the bigger things. Take a lesson from the Samaritan leper and the street people. Gratitude transforms those who have the grace to say thank you.