Generous

Dear Friends,

In this season of Thanksgiving, as we move towards Advent, we’re going to take the next four weeks to talk about and explore being Generous, or Being the Compassionate Community of Christ.  We’re going to look at both how we are and how we can grow.  Because Canonsburg UP Church is a generous community!  And at the same time, we’re committed to growing, or put another way, continually being transformed by Jesus, more and more into his likeness.  So we acknowledge there’s room for us to be more generous too.

Before going on, I want to clarify – generosity is not just about money.  The church gets a bad wrap that we’re “always talking about money” and then the pendulum swings so that we never talk about it.  Trying to find that balance is tricky.  But again, generosity isn’t just about money.  It certainly includes money, but it’s about so much more than money.

Being generous is a… way of being, it’s a way of seeing the world – God, ourselves and others – and that’s where we’re going to start on Sunday.

But in order to get there, I want to invite you to think about a time where you were the recipient of someone else’s generosity.  Maybe it was something big, maybe something small. Maybe it was recently, maybe it was something from years ago that left a major mark on your life.  Take a minute and think about it…

I’ll wait…

What stands out most from that gift?  How did you feel as you were offered? How did you feel as you received? How did you feel afterwards?  What did it move you to do in response?

Just ten days ago, as I finished up my Study Leave, I ran up to close our extended family’s cabin in Central, NY.  I arrived in the early evening with just a little daylight and not too long before it would rain.  My main task was to rake up the leaves that had fallen before they became a wet mess and would be stuck there for the Winter.  I grabbed the rake and started in earnest.  Not ten minutes in… the shaft broke in two.  Without any margins, I carried on, awkwardly, for another twenty minutes.  Then the neighbor piped up and offered to lend me his rake.  At first I rebuffed him.  But he ignored me and went to the shed to get me a proper rake.  It was a little thing, but it made a huge difference.  Not only did I finish before nightfall (and rainfall), but I had enough time to rake some of both neighbors leaves as well.

In a much bigger way, in February of 2023, this congregation saw fit to extend to me a sabbatical.  The gift of that rejuvenating time over the ensuing summer has propelled me in powerful ways these past two years.  It’s been a catalyst for growth and transformation in my own spiritual life, and I believe, throughout our church as well.  I’ll never forget the Sunday we announced it, a couple of members pulled me aside to ask how I would be spending the time.  I shared some ideas, none completely confirmed yet, and they said, “we’d like to offer you a week at our timeshare…”  Wow.  That unexpected generosity had more of an impact on our extended family than they could have possibly imagined.  We had fun together, we relaxed, we made memories, and we actually spent what would be our final really nice time with Bridgette’s Mom during that week.  Just one afternoon, etched in our minds and hearts.  It didn’t seem like much at the time, but it was huge.  All because of the generosity of members of this church.

We, Canonsburg UP Church are a generous community.  We are about extending God’s love, to the world around us.  We’ve been doing it for 250yrs, and there’s no end in sight.  In fact, I was just talking with a former member, who was the recipient of our love and said, “I’ll see you Sunday” – and another community member who said, “I might have just found a church home” – thanks to the generous spirit of our church.

Generous is indeed, what we are.  I’m excited to explore it together over these next four weeks and to grow to become more, with all of you!

Welcoming You to Grow in Jesus – more and more generous,

Pastor Don