April 7, 2019                The Spirit of Giving                                 

This past week, I saw an old movie, “Babette’s Feast”. It’s the story of a small town of less than 20 people on the Netherlands coast. The story focuses on the lives of two elderly sisters, the daughters of the town’s pastor who served some 50 years, but had passed away. The two daughters keep the church alive by leading worship in their home.

One day, Babette is sent to them, by an old acquaintance of one of the sisters. It seems the revolution in France has caused her husband and son to be killed, and she had to flee for her life. So the sisters take Babette in, and she works as their maid and cook. Over the years, Babette, grows close to the two sisters, they help Babette to overcome her tragedies, and they become quite fond of her, despite being suspicious of her foreign ways.

Then the day comes, when Babette receives a letter saying that she has won the lottery, $10,000 francs. And in gratefulness for the sisters taking her in she asks to prepare a feast for the sisters and the church members. Babette takes a week to prepare the feast bringing in quail, snails, turtles, and fish. Making pastries, breads, soups, and stews. Buying wines, brandies and cordials.

The feast comes, and Babette serves the guests a spectacular 7 course meal. The church people, who live very austere lives, agreed to eat the meal, but not to let their souls be tarnished by enjoying such luxury. However, through the sharing of the meal, they open up, and overcome many of the hurts and sins they have committed against one another in their lives. At the end of the meal, they all go outside and gather in a circle singing praises to their heavenly father.

The next day, the sisters are ready to bid farewell to Babette, figuring that with her lottery winnings, she would be returning to France. But when they ask her about leaving, she says she is going nowhere. Why they ask, you have all your winnings. And Babette answers, “I have nothing, the feast cost $10,000 francs, I ask only to be allowed to stay in your service.” The sister’s are shocked at this, but happily agree for her to stay with them, as long as she likes.

Our Gospel reading this morning, tells the story of the woman who anointed Jesus at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, in Bethany. Most commentators, like to spend time talking about how Judas, questioned this lavish waste of perfume, and suggests it might have been sold to feed the poor – or more likely, to fill the money bag, from which Judas would steal. These commentaries speak of Judas representing our human selfishness and self-interest, while the woman’s lavish gift represents her love for Jesus, and what our love for Jesus should look like.

In short, our love for Jesus, should not have us counting the cost of ministry, but should call forth from each one of us an extravagance of giving, that makes a real difference in our church, our lives and in our world. That is, of course, why I chose to share the story of Babette’s feast today.

But I want to go beyond these commentaries as well. In seminary, one of the books we read was Stephen Dunn’s “The Spirit of God”. In it, he speaks about how human beings are torn between their physical lives and their spiritual lives. He speaks about how if we spend our lives counting the cost of everything, we would all end up misers, miserable and unhappy. On the other hand, if we live our lives more spiritually, giving of ourselves out of our love for God and for one another, we are more likely to find friendship, fellowship, peace and joy in life.

Dunn goes on to say, that Jesus gave to us the church, as the specific place in which we might practice and grow in our spiritual lives. A church that focuses solely on the costs of operation, struggles, a church that lives life in the spirit of God’s love, thrives. Every church, including Union Congregational has a little bit of both. We all focus on the budget and bills, because they have to be paid, sometimes we even complain about the work, and what it takes to keep a church running,…but we also have members, who live in the Spirit. Visiting shut-ins, making Christmas boxes, giving money to missions, gathering cans to sell and happy money for the Good Samaritan Fund, gathering for worship, gathering for fellowship, gathering bottle caps for the conference, going to Feed My Starving Children, funding a Youth Ministry, being there to comfort those who have lost loved ones, and look in on those who are sick and recovering, and praying for them in their times of trouble, and etc.  

It is this spirit, which gives us life, giving of ourselves to one another in love, even as Christ gave himself in love for us. Living in this love, rather than in our own self-interest, is what as Jesus says, “Makes his yoke light, and his burden easy.” Sometimes, in the church, I think we forget that, and we are tempted to be tired or to give up on our work together, but I think that if we rediscover that love for God, that is the foundation of our life together, than we will find the strength and the spirit to live forever. And that is the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.