Lessons of Generosity

The church’s operative word God’s great gift to us in the incarnation, the cross, and Jesus’s life and ministry is usually love—agape—a selfless love that extends from self to world. That is certainly the word we see in John 13, the Gospel reading of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and giving them “a new commandment: to love one another as [Jesus loved them].” The tenderness and closeness of love in that simple act of an ordinary cleaning ritual is breathtaking. Ordinary things, every day events, jars of clay, are all vessels for the holiest of moments.

The agape love that Jesus commands are also acts of tremendous generosity. Maybe generosity is simply a form of love, maybe agape and generosity are close cousins, or maybe they are just good associates. However related, Jesus’ love for his disciples is infused with generosity, never scolding or hectoring them for their shortcomings, never belaboring his point. He offers the same generous act to all disciples, from the beloved disciple to the traitor. There is nothing asked in return, only the commandment to offer the same generosity and love to others.

Images of the love framed by generosity have been flooding my mind. There is the medical student-in-training who not only let me squeeze his hand as I endured the pain of a procedure but who also kept eye contact with me in real concern and care: a generosity of compassion. My mother, bathing my tiny and trembling newborn daughter, soothing and reassuring as she gently washed and wrapped the baby: a generosity of care. My friend, mostly silent and absent in advanced stages of dementia, changing in one small minute to look at his wife tenderly and stroke his wife’s cheek: a generosity of devotion.

I was also taken to a moment of generosity that imparted deep learning. This moment was in a stewardship testimonial, of all things. When we lived in South Dakota, the cathedral we attended had a Lakota worship service. One of the priests, who had grown up on the Rosebud Reservation, gave a short stewardship testimonial to the church. He remembered growing up on the reservation, where a standing family rule that when you had guests, if a guest loved—really loved in a deep, heartfelt, connected way—any of your possessions, you were obligated to give that thing to them. His parents would hear that particular voice or look in the eye, perhaps a child who loved that Matchbox truck. His parents would urge the him or his siblings to give it to the guest. As an adult living off the reservation, a woman once admired the diamond stud earring he wore…she had that wistful and heartfelt emotion in her gestures and voice. He hesitated a moment, then took the earring out and handed it to her: a generosity connected to a very singular kind of agape love.

Since hearing that testimony, I have tried to live out that lesson of agape generosity in my own life. I have twice heard and responded in the Way that I learned from the Lakota priest. I hope I have not missed any other such opportunities due to lack of attention or a reluctant heart.

Growing up in a very fancy and wealthy resort town, I was under the impression that I had everything I could ever want, and I had a concerned and rather condescending pity for those I saw as less fortunate than I. In small, humble, life-changing lessons learned of love and generosity, I realize how very impoverished an upbringing it was.

Jen+

Rev. Jen has set her office drop-in day as Wednesday of each week from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. for anyone who would like to stop in and visit. You are always invited to make an appointment for a time convenient for you. Mondays are her Sabbath day.

LENT SCHEDULE AND GUIDES
Click on links for Lent materials below:

First week of Lent
Lent and Easter Schedule
https://www.lentmadness.org/
Lenten Discipline – Week 1 “Walking the Palm Sunday Path”
Lenten Discipline – Week 2 “Walking the Palm Sunday Path”
Lenten Discipline – Week 3 “Walking the Palm Sunday Path”
Lenten Discipline – Week 4 “Walking the Palm Sunday Path”
Lenten Discipline – Week 5 “Walking the Palm Sunday Path”

Lenten Taizé at Gobin, Wednesdays

Gobin and Saint Andrew’s are collaborating on Wednesday services this year. One of these collaborations will be hosted by Gobin, a weekly evening Taizé services that will give voice and time for considering grief. This Lenten Taizé Wednesday series will be offered 2/25, 3/4, 3/11, 3/18, 3/25 at 6:30pm.

EPISCOPAL 101, SUNDAYS 11:45-12:45

Continuing this month, Episcopal 101, a gathering to learn about the Episcopal church–what we do, how we pray and worship, our history, and more. All are welcome.

PROJECTS AND PARISH SPACE

We are blessed with ample and well organized spaces for our worship, fellowship, and outreach. However, things have a way of collecting at churches—as we found when Gwen Morris and Cathryn Ensley cleaned out the front closet. We want to know what’s going on! Please mark supplies or materials gathered for outreach with the name of the project and the name of the point person.

HEALING PRAYER

Most Sundays our intern Meghan will be offering anointing and healing prayer at Sunday services during communion. Meghan will set up a station in the narthex; meet there for general or specific prayers for healing.

EVENING PRAYER

Join us for Evening Prayer in the sanctuary on Tuesdays at 4:00. Evening Prayer is a wonderful service to wind down the day and move into the evening hours.

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER DURING LENT

Lenten Prayer: 7:45 am (pray where you are); 1:00 (contemplative prayer in sanctuary); 1:30 (Stations of the Cross, in sanctuary), 6:30 (Taizé at Gobin), 9:00 compline on-line (use St Andrew’s zoom from church web page). Details in Hamilton Hall.

ALTAR FLOWER CALENDAR

An altar flower calendar is posted in Hamilton Hall. Sign up to sponsor the altar flowers to commemorate a birthday or anniversary, remember a loved one, or in thanksgiving for an important event. We ask a donation to help offset the cost of the altar flowers and other worship expenses. Be sure to tell the office your dedication so that it can be printed in the bulletin. Please make checks payable to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and in the memo field please put this information: Altar Flowers, person’s name, occasion, Sunday date you’d like for the flowers to be on the altar.

VESTRY MEETING MINUTES

If any of you are interested in what your Vestry is doing, there are two copies of each month’s minutes on the music stand in Hamilton Hall. Feel free to read and return!

SHOPPING LIST FOR NON-FOOD PANTRY

Please add razors, shaving cream, laundry detergent, spray cleaner, and toilet bowl cleaner to your shopping list for the NFP for the month of January. Meals and conversation in Hamilton Hall are going well. Patrons are now able to pick out items they most need. Your contributions help our budget go farther in helping meet the needs of those in Putnam County. Please scroll down to view the distribution dates and latest updates. If you can help with this ministry in any way, please contact Harriet Moore or Carl Huffman.

KROGER COUPONS

If you have any unwanted Kroger coupons, please bring them to Hamilton Hall and place in the window ledge near the “Little Library”. We would like to make them available to our Non-Food Pantry recipients so that they might be able to take advantage of them to help extend their food budget. Thanks in advance!

FREE DAILY DEVOTIONAL

We have some large print Day by Day daily devotionals in the sanctuary that you are free to take home for your personal devotions–and if we know that people would like copies, we can order the right amount. Many of you may also appreciate the on-line version of Day to Day. Click here.

Your prayers are asked for:

Haile Bane, grandson of Joanne Haymaker
Beth Benedix, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
Jennifer Clarke, friend of Patti Harmless
Diane * Judy *
Heather Cantonwine and family, friends of the Knuths
Angela Evans
Katie Gleichman, relative of Jim & Cathryn Ensley
Tom Kaiser, friend of Jen+ & Chris
Lynda, friend of Sarah Finlay-Black
Warren Macy
Jacob Majors, son of Renee Majors
Teresa Masten, friend of Karen & Jim Mannon
Sally Motsch, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
Mary Mountz
Gene Shaw, brother-in-law of Patti Harmless
Elizabeth & Natalie Sheffler, daughter & granddaughter of Page & Narda Cotton
Deloris Smith, friend of Emily Knuth
Jenny Smyth, niece of Patti Harmless
Luke Smith, son of Mark Smith
Skip Sutton
Larry Taylor, former member of St. Andrew’s
Donald Voermans, father of Nick Voermans
Dwight Ziegler, uncle of Stephanie Gurnon