“You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity which will produce thanksgiving to God through us.” II Corinthians 9:11

Grace to you and peace in the name of the One who has created and is creating, in the precious name of Jesus our liberator and savior, and in the name of the ever-stirring life-giving power of the Holy Spirit.

Seldom do I hear a Thanksgiving text read such as the one Nancy read so beautifully for us a moment ago but that I find myself remembering the old piano player at the Blue Danube Cafe.  Now some of you have heard me tell this story previously, but on this occasion, it bears repeating.

It was about 30 years ago on an unbelievably cold occasion that Bill Rutherford from the Rutherford Funeral Home called and asked if one of us in the campus environment would come to the funeral home and conduct the funeral of the old alcoholic piano player from the Blue Danube Cafe.

Bill said that undoubtedly there would be very few people there because the old piano player had neither family nor many friends, but would one of us do it, and of course we would and I did.  It was one of those frigid mornings where you didn't want to get out of bed, let alone go out the door.  And as I entered the funeral home, there were but five or six folks there, seated in those rows that often times are present with the open casket.  It seemed terribly formal and very inappropriate.  And so we moved a few of the chairs into a semi-circle, and when the appointed hour came, I asked if it were time to begin.  “Is anyone else expected?”

And someone among the five or six said, “Do you mind waiting just a little bit for his special friend?  His young friend who washes dishes at the Blue Danube Cafe wants to be here for the service.”

And so we waited, it seemed an interminable time but undoubtedly nothing but a few minutes.  And then the chill wind encircled us as the door was opened and in the young man walked – blue jeans, white T-shirt, his dishwasher's apron tied around his neck and behind his back.  He walked to the open casket of his old friend, solemnly examined the remains, paused for a moment, and then untied the apron, folded it ever so neatly and placed it in the casket beside the body of the old piano player from the Blue Danube Cafe.

Doing that, he turned and looked at all of us and said words like these:  “When I came to Columbus, I knew no one.  When I took the job over there I knew no one else.  But the old piano player befriended me, treated me with a kind of generosity that I had never before experienced.  And so my life was enriched, and out of that enrichment I wanted to give back to him in thanksgiving something of myself.  I don't have much but I gave him what I have.”

That's what the Apostle Paul is asking of the Corinthians in the text Nancy read.  Here's the situation:  Paul has established some churches.  In the church in Corinth there had been terrible dissension and distress.  Paul had sought to appease those who were upset with him.  There were those who suggested Paul was fraudulent or at least second class at best.  But then time passed, emissaries went, letters were written and the distress seemed to pass.  Thus, when there was great need because of the poverty in Jerusalem, Paul began to write to the churches that he had established in order to ask from them an offering, not for himself but for the very poor in the church at Jerusalem.

He was putting the bite, so to speak, on the Corinthians.  And in doing so he, at first, got into the usual kind of fund-raising scenario.  That is, 'Those Macedonians are giving big time so you better loosen up or you won't quite compare with them.  And since we're reconciled, you don't want to embarrass me, so give bountifully won't you, and here are the pictures of me.  You need, maybe out of your guilt, at least to give.' But then he set aside the usual typical manipulative processes of fund-raising and instead got to the heart of the matter.  Appealed to the angel of their higher nature.

He said, in essence, this:  “Remember what God in Christ has so generously given you, and out of your enrichment, with gratitude, give back a piece of the action.”

Now I think today I understand better than I ever have what the Apostle Paul is describing.  I believe I understand, more than I ever have when I told the story previously, what the young dishwasher at the Blue Danube Cafe was demonstrating.  That is, I better understand both of these because during this year when I have been privileged to serve in your midst, you have been so generous with me that my life has been enriched immeasurably and genuine thanksgiving made the more palpable.  That is, you have participated in “Eat, Learn and Live” in unprecedented ways.  You have embraced Diane and me with gracious hospitality, from Fran's weekly home cooking to Ann's wide smile, yellow tablet and seersucker suit reminders, and to your shared recollections of intimate moments and beloved ones now gone shared.

Pastor Deb took a courageous step, a venturesome risk, made a gutsy foray into the unknown by inviting and welcoming a former pastor and that controversial bishop from Chicago at that.  She did so with open arms, unfettered support and made possible the gift of the endowment funds in our honor for future scholars in residence.

Carol Ann, as always, behind the scenes has dotted the i's and crossed the t's.  And I saw those i's dotted and those t's crossed as I sat here and watched these youngsters participate in this service not as things at which we might gaze but as participants and leaders engaged in worship.  That doesn't just happen.  That's the result of someone dotting the i's and crossing the t's.

One and all, you have demonstrated great generosity and Diane and I are enriched beyond measure and we are genuinely thankful.  Now what we experienced today I have an idea you are experiencing in varying and differing ways as well.  That is, your genuine thanksgiving and the enrichment of your lives are palpable because of the great generosity you have shown not only to us but to so many others.

Say CRC and you are there.  Envision Kobacher and needed hospice care and you are there.  Smell the aroma of dinners for the Interfaith Hospitality Network and its successor organization and you are there.  You were there with Faith Vote Columbus pounding on doors, listening to voices too often never heard.  Hospitals, work camps, schools, museums, elder care facilities, visiting and calling the infirm and shut-in, you are there as volunteers.  Singing, praying, answering the phone, reading, ushering, dressing the sanctuary, serving communion, cooking, doing dishes for others, caring for children and youth, spending countless hours in those boring church committee meetings – you do that faithfully, year after year, in season and out, you give of your time and energy and money.

And because of your great generosity – don't take this for granted – because of your great generosity, others are enriched as you put off your apron of servant ministry as a collective body.  Thanks be to God.

Now the Apostle Paul wrote his very personal final letter to the church at Corinth as I said earlier in large measure because of his profound agony for the extreme poverty in Corinth.  And for awhile he played games, pitting loyalty against loyalty, doing the guilt trip bit, calling himself into question if they didn't come through, but then he got down to the heart of the matter.  And in doing so, he issued a clarion call for their great generosity in response to God's prior generosity in Christ to them.

Years ago at what was the former Indianola church early one morning, 6 o'clock, when we first started Sermon Shaping, there was a street person there when I put the key in the lock and he said, “What are you doing?” I told him, he said, “Can I come in?” “Sure, come on in,” and Charlie Taylor came in and he became a regular part of the group.  A few weeks later in service I asked a rhetorical question in the sermon:  “What are you doing with the gift when it's given to you?” Charlie stood up, he didn't know any better, he just stood up and said, “Well, when you get a gift you give it away!”

That's what the text is about.  That's what Paul's saying.  Receiving, give out of great generosity with which you have been enriched, with gratitude and genuine thanksgiving in your heart.

Therefore, I want to leave you with a Paul-like appeal of my own this morning.  Hear me now please.  CRC cannot keep up with the present overwhelming need.  The need is too great.  In Springfield our seven United Methodist churches there have started a free store, Open Hands free store.  We can't keep children's clothing on the shelf one day, the need is too great.  Not only in Springfield but in Clintonville, of all places.  The Dispatch reported this past week that the number of hungry children in this nation jumped 50 percent in the year 2007.  691,000 hungry children in this rich nation.  One in seven persons in the United States of America in '07 struggled for food, and that has grown exponentially in '08 given the downturn in the economy.

As church, mosque and synagogue volunteers talked with, listened to 36,000 human beings eyeball-to-eyeball, mouth-to-ear prior to the most recent election in three cities including Columbus in the state of Ohio, over and over and over again those volunteers heard what we need are jobs to feed our family, health care for all, and quality education for our children.

Now my dear friends, this nation, this community, has been mired down for far too long in a vicious cycle of fear-mongering and divisive political manipulation.  It is time – no, it is past time – to embrace the angel of our higher nature.  Now there are signs that such a turnaround might be under way.

Therefore, in closing, not only this sermon but my stint among you as your bishop in residence, I want to make this clarion appeal to you on behalf of the most vulnerable in our midst.  Show, dear friends, great generosity, as God has shown generosity to you.  Show great generosity as you have in the past, are in the present and can do even more so in the future.  Do this by doing all the good you can all the time you can and by doing no harm to anyone at any time at all.

Increase what you give in time and money to CRC and all such merciful agencies.  Spit – dare I say it again?  – spit in fear's face and embrace those who are different.  There's joy in diversity.  Kick the behind of the demon of divisiveness.  Unity is a powerful stimulus for creativity and accomplishment.  We desperately need a rebirth of bipartisanship politically and interfaith understanding and cooperation theologically.

Now I'm going to meddle a bit – you know me, I always meddle just a bit, so I'm going to meddle.  I'm going to mess with you.  Dare to ponder the reality that increased taxes are not a four-letter word.  Ponder that for a moment.  Taxes are not a four-letter word, not a dirty word.  If public works jobs can be created to repair our ruined cities and put the able bodied willing back to work in order to feed their children and grant them the violence-denying dignity of a paycheck, taxes are not a four-letter word.  For us, for me who has so much, if urban and rural schools led by the brightest and best well-paid highly trained and held-accountable teachers are to prepare all of our children for a new green global economy that both has come and is still coming.

Fear, fear has duped this nation into wasting $5,000 a minute in Iraq.  $5,000 a minute.  Hope reborn can empower the angel of our higher nature to transform such squander into helping to feed the hungry, care for the infirm, house the homeless, create jobs for the un- and under-employed, educate our young, and jumpstart the land of the free and the home of the brave down the road to economic and, more importantly, moral and ethical recovery.

Folding my apron among you in gratitude, placing it on this gracious table, I leave you with this promise in the words, not of this preacher but of the great apostle:  You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity which will produce thanksgiving to God, both this season and always.

May it be so.