Money and Meaning

April 27, 2003

"What I gave, I have;
What I spent, I had,
What I kept, I lost."

--Old Epitaph

So the first thing that I want to do is to say, "Thank you."

I know that I do not do that often enough. Thank you for your financial support in the past. Thank you for all that you do for the First Religious Society in Newburyport and for Unitarian Universalism. Thank you for all the wonderful things that you make possible. Thank you for helping to maintain this beautiful old building, a sanctuary from the noise and hustle of our daily lives. Thank you for helping us toward our goal of becoming a fair compensation congregation in support of our church staff. Thank you for supporting our building renovation program. Thank you for supporting our outreach efforts. And thank you, most of all, for your presence. After all, you are the church.

Today I want to suggest that there is a deep and abiding connection between money and meaning. I don't want to apologize about it! Some have even suggested that giving is itself a spiritual practice. My retired colleague Carl Scovel, former minister of King's Chapel in Boston, has written that "If someone in the next century wanted to know who we were, she could read our letters, diaries, obits, or our report cards. . . . But if she wanted to know what we valued, I think she'd have to find our checkbooks."

It is a fact that people give more money to their places of worship than to any other organization. Why do you think that is? Some reasons given by Unitarian Universalists include [with special thanks to Dr. John Wolf]:

• because it is a haven for religious heretics, freethinkers, and rebels
• because Unitarian Universalist religious education is based upon the joy of living rather than the fear of God
• because it is a place to seek holiness rather than focusing on depravity
• because the people yearn for heaven on earth and work for its fulfillment
• because the church is "a stream of light": a place where a living faith has endured for centuries and will transcend the ages
• because it insults neither our intelligence nor our conscience
• because it calls us to worship what is truly worthy of our sacrifice
• because of our belief that religion is for joy, for comfort, for gratitude, and for love
• because it calls no one a sinner, yet knows how deep is the struggle in each person's breast and how great is the hunger for what is good
• because it points to what is noblest and best in human life
• because it stands against superstition and fear

For those who need more convincing, there is Dr. Karl Menninger's claim that "Money giving is a symptom of a person's mental health. Generous people are seldom mentally ill."

It is a fact that being a generous person is one of life's great privileges.

But against all these good reasons, and all of the accomplishments of this congregation over the last year (some of which you can read about in the pledge brochure), there stand a number of other hard facts that we must take into consideration.

• it is a fact that, "Although income rose in the 1990's, charitable giving did not. This finding suggests that people were spending more on themselves." [quoted in Michael Durall's Creating Congregations of Generous People, to which the rest of this list is indebted]
• it is a fact that in almost all congregations one-third of the households give two-thirds of the money
• conversely, it is a fact that in most congregations 80 percent of the donors give only 20 percent of the money (this is the so-called "80-20 Rule").
• it is a fact that those who give the least often add to the suspense by delaying the longest to make a pledge
• it is a fact that the reality for mainline churches, in which category we fall, is decreased giving and high rates of same-level giving
• it is a fact that for a certain segment of the congregation literally nothing anyone can say or do will make any difference in their level of giving
• it is a fact that most mainline congregations consist of solidly middle-class households that give about 1.7 percent of income to the church or other causes, a figure far less than in "high expectation" groups such as the Mormons or the Assemblies of God, which give up to 10 percent (!)

• it is a fact that people of modest means give in equal proportion or sometimes greater proportion than those with more wealth
• it is a fact that the best chance of increased giving is among the top 20 percent of current donors: we can give more!
• it is fact that more generous parishioners believe they are also helping people who are less fortunate and strengthening their relationship with God

What are we to conclude from all of this? Unfortunately, there are no simple answers. Michael Durall, author of the book Creating Congregations of Generous People, suggests that it is a fact that "people give what they give, sometimes with little rhyme or reason." But later he clarifies this observation, writing that "people give for emotional and not necessarily rational reasons." This suggests that rational arguments for charitable giving may be less effective than appeals to the heart.

So let me pose a few questions for us to consider:

• to what extent do you believe that sharing a larger portion of what you have been given is a core religious value, necessary to building a stronger faith?
• should generosity be one of the core values of religious people? Michael Durall writes, "Phrased less delicately, is it possible to lead miserly lives (or conversely, lives of great indulgence) while giving little to the church or to any other charitable organization--yet attending worship services and considering oneself a person of faith?"
• what kinds of people do our churches and synagogues challenge us to become?
• do you believe in the old saying, "From those to whom much has been given, much is demanded?"
• Durall asks: "If giving remains the same, do other aspects of a person's relationship with the congregation and with God remain the same? Does a person's or family's worship attendance change? Do personal or family spiritual practices remain unchanged? Do commitments to ministry both inside and outside the congregation remain the same? Does a person or family grow in faith from year to year? Or, regrettably, does the church have little effect on their lives?"
• do you see the annual pledge drive as a ministry? what if you did?
• to what extent do you think a "consumerist" mentality has influenced church giving?
• what does the notion of "a growing faith" mean in relation to giving?
• do you believe that generosity and stewardship are a matter of lifelong learning similar to other aspects of the religious life?
• how do we help people to live more generous lives?

There is an old saying that "You can't take it with you, and if you could it would probably melt." Fortunately, Unitarian Universalists don't believe in hell, at least not in the kind of hell that is likely to melt coinage. We do, however, believe in the necessity to raise money, and the old adage "you can't take it with you" is just as true today as ever before.

Only you can determine how much your church is worth to you. But it is a fact that churches return far more in value than most of the members pay for.

My Harvard Divinity School classmate Silvio Nardoni once wrote that "Charitable giving should change your life in some way."

Participating in the pledge drive should strengthen our faith and make our world a better place to live. It should help us to build character, for, after all, what kind of people do we wish to become? Michael Durall concludes his study of generosity by saying that, "Charitable giving helps people live righteous lives. Being religious people and sharing in good measure should change our lives--forever."

Ultimately, this is our stewardship goal: To make a difference in people's lives. What do we stand for? What are we called to do? It is in part to answer these questions that my family and I pledge to the church each year, and support the capital campaign. We want to leave something behind us, something greater than ourselves that will outlast us, and that we trust will be changing lives long after we are gone. No, this is not a perfect institution, and we are not perfect people yet. But it is in the striving that, miraculously, meaning is often found. Our lives are precious and perishable; so let us commit ourselves to what is imperishable: the human spirit, ever growing toward the light.

It is good to be together. Amen.

The Rev. Harold E. Babcock