Deuteronomy 15 7-11
2 Corinthians 9 5-15
Giving is a vitamin for our soul. We know the importance of taking vitamins for our bodies. But our soul? You might ask, “Does our soul need a vitamin?” In plain language: Yes it does.
We take vitamins to keep us healthy when our food supply doesn’t provide all the nourishment we need to keep our bodies working well. This past week I went to the health food store because my body was sending me messages that something wasn’t working right. I wasn’t sure what these messages were asking for, but as I listened I knew I needed to somehow get my body back in balance; being out of balance was affecting my overall well-being.
Our souls also let us know when we are out of balance.
Giving is one of the things that puts us back into balance with God.
God knew that giving was good for our souls, because God was the first giver. Everything we have, including our life, is a gift from God. But God also knows how hard it is for us to give. Even back in the time of Moses, God saw how out of balance our souls and this world had become.
If God had written the Canadian Food guide for the soul, giving cheerfully would have been one of the three food groups recommended to keep us healthy. But God didn’t write the Canadian Food guide. Instead, we were given commandments to live by and Christ to follow.
Giving for the health of the soul, isn’t just a Christian virtue.
All religions, and many wellness groups know the value of giving.
Alcoholics Anonymous strongly states that helping others takes us
out of ourselves and helps keep us on the road to wellness. Al-Anon
has a number of helpful sayings entitled "Just for Today". One of
these reads:
"Just for today I will exercise my soul by doing somebody a good turn, and not get found out; if anybody knows of it, it will not count."
In Deuteronomy, the seventh year was a Sabbath year of rest for the land and for the people, a year in which debts were forgiven, so that the burden of debt would not enslave people. The seventh year was to be a year of fallow for the sake of the land and a remission of debts for the sake of the soul. Moreover, in between the seven years, people were to give freely to one another, and during the seventh year, in which there would be no harvest, the people were to give freely and gladly.
God knows that in the act of giving there is a gift of love that brings healing both to the receiver and to the giver. The gift is the door through which the grace of God slips into our souls and the soul of humanity.
It is the quality of giving that brings life to the giver. In my own life, when I give grudgingly, there has been no soul in the giving. It doesn’t matter whether it is my money, my time, or my talents. The essence is my attitude to the giving. If I am thinking only of my own needs or expectations, then I leave the other out. When there is no joy in the giving, I don’t grow. The door to opening my soul to God’s presence remains shut.
The Deuteronomic principle of the year of release, a Sabbatical year, every seven years, for the remission of debts was never realized. It was too hard a principle to follow.
I remember a time when one of my sons was constantly moving and giving away or leaving behind everything he owned every time he moved. Each time, he began again. Each time, I struggled with my felt obligation to help him. I went through a phase of being angry about helping him out. I slipped into lecturing, into guilt trips, and into not helping, all for the wrong reasons. At some point, I realized at a deep level that my giving, if it indeed were true giving, should not be based upon my expectations, my values, or a sense of obligation. If I was going to give, then I needed to give from a different place than obligation.
I needed to give out of thankfulness for the generosity of God’s presence in my life. Then I let go of judgement. When I let go of judgement, there was room for hope, for love, for God. In the language of Deuteronomy I had entered a “seventh” year of forgiving and giving, even when it was not easy to do so.
I know many of you good people give generously to others. Sometimes, we do it out of a sense of obligation, sometimes out of our own need, sometimes out of love.
This is an essential element to our faith. So essential, that God and Christ command us to give, and to love our neighbour.
God offers each of us the gift of life and the gift of being. Each one of us has a gift to give. The joyful giving of our gifts is a vitamin for not only our soul but also the soul of humanity. Whether the gift is our time, our talent, or our money ? when we give, we move out of ourselves and open our souls to the mystery of God’s grace.
Amen