Gift Giving

If November can be said to be a month of Thanksgiving – December is a Season of Giving.  We begin preparing our lists and checking them twice (maybe we’ve been doing so already?) trying to figure out exactly what we’re going to give @SoandSo - -  (trying to determine what we can afford to give @SoandSo.) We are invested within this Season of Giving.

Think back on your years of gift giving:  What has been the best gift you’ve given? What giving opportunity have you experienced that brought forth the most joy, greatest amount of peace, evoked deepest sense of hope, and cultivated meaningful life?  Was it something that easily broke? Was it something that lost appeal with the draining of the batteries; was it a gift that lost its appeal as it lost its shine or an item that has survived in it’s original packaging and now awaits its place in a rummage sale? Probably not.

Most likely, the giving that stands out in your memory is that which held a lasting permanence by nature or symbolizes that permanence. The gift given may have been loved as the velveteen rabbit was loved.  It may have been an instrument they’re still playing 15 years later. Could it be a book whose pages and cover from years of use are tattered and warn?  Maybe you gave a gift that pushed the edge of creativity and imagination – that opened doors to insight and windows to possibilities.  Very likely the giving you remember is that which has journeyed with the recipient, becoming part of who they are.

The best gifts are those that enhance, add, build-up, open up, and/or allow for a fuller expression of who we are. And for this reason, the Season of Giving centers on God’s gift of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and Life all wrapped up in swaddling clothes lying in the manger. This gift of God in the Christ-child sets us (humankind) free from a past that in no way defines who we are. God’s giving stands us on firm foundation, even in the midst of the unsettled and opens to us a healing understanding of value and worth.

As you contemplate your gift-giving lists this year, I invite you to consider giving that which is lasting: a gift that uplifts human dignity and honor; that offers release and liberty into a world captivated by material acquisition.  And as you are busily checking your lists twice, consider how a gift of yourself might lend itself toward your 2012 new years resolutions. Those with whom you share yourself will be be most appreciative and thankful. 

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. 

Existing generously

"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."

Psalm 24:1 & 1 Corinthians 10:26

To you all, God’s beloved of 1^st Presbyterian of Phoenix, called to be God’s holy People.  Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.                                         (Romans 1: 7 adpt.)

In seasons past, you have found a copy of a budget accompanying the yearly ‘Stewardship Letter.’  Using this document, you’ve been asked to consider the financial needs of 1^st Presbyterian Church of Phoenix as you made your financial plans and commitments for the coming year, and you’ve been encouraged to give generously.  This year, anticipating 2012, you are invited to consider something quite different: your own particular needs.

This invitation is not intended to be an exercise to assess how much you’ll be able to give the church, whether the particular financial situation you face at home can be flexed to free up some additional financial contributions, or whether the increased expenses and decreased income translates to less contribution in the offering plate for 2012.  It is intended to be a reflection, a meditation, a prayerful consideration of your needs: your need to be generous.

There are many reasons why we long to be generous; there are just as many (if not more) ways that exemplify generosity.  We can generously share our time; we generously use the talents, gifts, skills, and abilities with which we have been blessed, and all for the greater glory of God. We can (and do) generously support medical research, charity organizations, philanthropic causes, the person standing on the street corner. We can (and do) give to those organizations and causes that impact our lives, help make us better, seek to make the world a better place to live.  We are generous so that people whose lives have been uprooted by tragedy need not be swallowed up by despair; we are generous so others will know they are not alone. We are a generous people, and the truth is, generosity feels good.

Why does generosity feel so good?  Because that’s the way we’re internally hard-wired.  In creating humanity in God’s own image, God imbued humanity with the best of the Divine’s traits: the capacity to Love, a willingness to be in relation with others, and desire to do all things with a generous spirit.

Another way of speaking about our purpose is to imagine a cup.  The intent of cup is not simply to be full, where it may sit on a table or on a shelf with contents near to spilling over the rim, but to be filled, and then drained, to be filled, and once more drained with trusting anticipation of being filled yet again. That is the intent and purpose of a cup.

Similarly, God blesses generously; God fills to overflowing, not that we should ever be satisfied or content with just being full, but that we should be fulfilled in living into our purpose of allowing God’s abundance to joyfully flow through our God-created lives.  It is a joy rendering to God from the abundance that God has given us.

In this season of giving thanks for the promise of Life that God shares, prayerfully consider the joy with which you will share God’s blessings in the coming year and into the years to come.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Romans 15:13