Inheritance

Three different stands have woven themselves together for me to create the context for this sermon. One comes from this morning’s Scripture readings. Both the reading from Genesis and from Romans speak of "inheritance," the importance of Abraham’s inheritance from God and the inheritance Abraham passed on. Inheritance. The second strand comes from today’s collect. In the opening phrase it reminds us that "all good" proceeds from God. This says even more than God gives us good things. All good comes from God. Every thing or experience or feeling that is good is given as a gift from God. And the third strand is that I have recently been asked to perform two funerals for persons who are not members of this parish.

All of this leads me to ponder: What does it mean to be inheritors of God’s goodness? What does it mean for us in our lives to live as people who have been given, as a gift, great goodness from God? How does that affect our living?

We are God’s heirs, the inheritors of God’s bequest. Everything good in our lives is a gift from God. A gift. From God.

To recognize ourselves as heirs of God’s goodness means, in part, that we have a place in the family. We are God’s heirs. Paul talks about this quite a bit, too. We have been adopted as God’s children, brought into the family. We are called to claim our place within the family, sharing our lives with one another, our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. To be an heir of God’s goodness is to be a part of a community, a family, the Body of Christ which is the church.

To recognize ourselves as heirs of God’s abundant goodness should also motivate us to live our lives in thankfulness and generosity. We’ve done nothing to earn or deserve the goodness we’ve been given. How can we help but be thankful for this gift, overcome by God’s generosity and moved to share in that generosity. Thankfulness and generosity should be primary qualities of our everyday living.

Back to the funerals. Every situation is different, of course, and different factors can lead to the search for a minister to lead a funeral. One of the recent ones in which I was involved began with a call from a local funeral director calling on behalf of a local family. The man who died simply didn’t have a pastor. They wanted a Christian burial, but he didn’t have a pastor. His widow wanted to thank God for the good gift of this man’s life and wanted, in prayer, to commend him into God’s care, but he had no pastor, no parish family to pray for him or his family.

It’s sad. Mostly it’s just sad.

And we did pray for him. This parish community prayed for him and his family as part of our Christian ministry.

The time of death is a time to be generous of spirit, generous of thought and it feels uncomfortable to think ill of the dead. None of you knew this man. Nor did I. We don’t know why he didn’t have a pastor.

And maybe he was a good man; maybe he lived a good life, but…. But. In life he did not come before God’s altar to give thanks for the good gift of his life. He did not live, express his thankfulness in worship. Sad. And a reminder to us to live as people thankful to God for the gifts of goodness we are given.

And maybe he was a moral man, a loving man… Certainly friends and family who cared for him gathered for his burial, but… But. He didn’t live those relationships within the community of faith. He did not listen to others tell their Christian story; he did not participate in a fellowship of prayer, he did not pass on the faith to others within the church family. Sad. And a reminder to us of the blessing of a life generously shared within the family of God.

The time of death is a time to be generous. And I will offer Christian burial to anyone who requests it. Who am I to judge? There are no criteria required to qualify for Christian burial. And I believe that God is generous, too, at the time of death, offering particularly then to share the eternal goodness that is also offered to us time and time and time again during life. But death is an awfully late time to offer thanksgiving to God, to acknowledge God as the giver of life itself and all that is good in life.

Live life with a sense of thankfulness and generosity. All things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee. We know the words, but do we live them? All things, all good things come from God. Life itself, our talents and our hopes, our capacity to love and care for one another, the beauty and majesty of creation. All of this is a gift from God. Even our own "hard earned cash" wouldn’t be ours if God had not given us whatever passion or dedication enabled us to earn it. And all of this goodness that is given to us is a part of God’s greater economy, God’s "global" economy. As much as we may celebrate God’s gifts in our own lives, those gifts are a part of something much bigger, God’s sharing of goodness and love throughout the world. And we are a part of this divine process.

Think about various charities you may support, religious or not. Charities to which you contribute to further their good work. We expect reputable charities to use the money we donate in a way that honors and respects our wishes, so that the money may serve the purpose for which we intended it. God is the donor. We are the charity. Think about using all of the great goodness and riches God has "donated" or bequeathed to you in a way that honor and respects God’s wishes. As God intends blessing for us; may we bring God’s blessing to others.

I love the story of Abraham as we heard part of it from Genesis and Romans this morning. I always smile when Paul describes Abraham as a man "as good as dead." God gave Abraham the blessing of children, made him father of a great nation, when he body was, by all human standards, as good as dead. Surely there is no more powerful illustration of how our inheritance comes to us only as a gift from God. And in Genesis, God says to Abram, "I will bless you, so that you will be a blessing." God gives us goodness so that we may be a blessing. Our inheritance from God is intended by God to share God’s blessing throughout the world.

Which brings me, more or less, to my every-other-year speech about wills. Wills may seem to have little to do with the religious life, but in fact they are profoundly faithful things. All Christians should have a will. It is a way of taking seriously—as a gift from God—the abundance we have been given. A will is an opportunity to continue to be part of sharing in God’s work of spreading goodness and blessing.

Remember, every inheritance is a gift. We have all heard of the problems that arise when a child comes to think of an inheritance as an entitlement rather than a gift. An inheritance is always a gift. And just as we give thanks for the gift of our inheritance from God, we have a responsibility to faithfully, seriously consider how the gift of the inheritance we give can be a part of God’s global economy of sharing what is good.

In your will, give as God would give. Remember your family, especially any who are dependent upon you. Just as God cares for us in our dependence upon him, God desires us to care for those who are dependent upon us. Remember also God’s larger family, all who are beloved by God. Remember God’s creation. And remember God’s family, the church.

I recently updated my will. I have moved to a new state; my previous executor had died. It is a Christian responsibility to have a current, faith-full will. My brother is the primary beneficiary. He is not a dependent, but he is my brother, and his life is a life I would like to flourish and I know God would celebrate my being a part of his life in any way. My will also includes several specific bequests, bequests that are significant at least within the scale of my assets. There is a bequest to the endowment of Episcopal Relief and Development, to help bring the goodness of relief and development to anyone who would benefit, no matter who or where they are. There is also a bequest to the Nature Conservancy in Wyoming to help their work in maintaining the goodness of God’s creation in a place that has been a blessing to me. And there is a bequest, as there always has been, to the parish I currently serve to help God’s love be known and shared within and by the Body of Christ.

All good comes from God. Life thankful and generous lives, conscious of the great goodness we have inherited as a gift from God. And be intentional about living and sharing that goodness in a way that would please the one who has given such abundance to us.