The Heart of Generosity Eileen Scully, Oct 26, 2025
In the readings today we hear of the marvellous abundance of God’s gifts that nurture and sustain life. These are both material gifts, such as the rains that help the crops to grow to harvest and fill the threshing room floors; they are also spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit who makes old men dream dreams and daughters prophesy. It is the gifts of God that ultimately make it possible for St. Paul in turn to pour himself out in service to God’s people.
Paul’s use of language as always is important. He speaks of himself being poured out “as a libation.” Now, language changes over hundreds of years and through countless cultural contexts and changes. The work libation in his context was very very much a temple word, a religious word, a spiritual word, a word that carries the weight of the sacred, an offering, a sacrifice, a dedicated giving over or giving up, one that is made to God out of a sense of deep and truthful awareness of God’s gifts and out of the gratitude that wells up and pours out to God in response.
That’s what Paul is talking about when he says he is being “poured out as a libation” – he is offering, to use the language of the Book of Common Prayer, his own self-offering of self, soul.
The word has lost its meaning in our world, where it is more likely to be seen on drinks menus in pubs and bars – “what can I bring you as a libation, ma’am?” a server might ask.
Libation offerings across many cultures do involve alcohol, mind you: In Cuba, it is traditional to spill a drop or two from one’s glass as an offering ‘to the saints.’ In eastern Europe it is still common to pour a measure of vodka or other fermented drink onto the grave of a loved one. Like the fermentation of alcohol, St. Paul’s own story reflects how he has been harvested and fermented and distilled through the activities of God calling him forward in life; this has taken time, and now what he offers has a fullness, a readiness, to it. He can offer himself with true generosity, because he sees clearly that anything he has to offer is, after all, only from God in the first place, and the giving of self as he does is a pure response of gratitude, intended for the common good of the community of followers of Jesus.
There are many different sorts of giving, and many faces to what appears to be generosity. Two contrasting headline stories jumped out at me this week to illustrate. Just like the word “libation” has been flattened in our current context, the language of donation, donor, giving, is becoming problematic.
On the one hand are the donors who rushed to make Donald Trump’s dream of an ostentatious White Housed Ballroom a reality. One doesn’t have to parse this too too deeply to see that this is likely not the humble and self-sacrificial generosity that is aimed towards building up the common good for decent human purposes like alleviating poverty or providing health care. Oh, these folks may indeed be full of self justifying rationale, they may even pay their taxes fairly, they may even tithe 10% to their church. They may be upstanding; they clearly need to be seen by those whom they value and with whom they are currying favour as being accepted within the closed club to which they aspire. It’s all speculation, of course, but I imagine the whole scenario of these donors in a room sounding a lot like the Pharisee in today’s Gospel reading.
The other story that caught my attention was of a US federal worker and young mother who hasn’t been paid in weeks, who had to make her first trip ever to a food bank. She arrived, ashamed and nervous at having to do this, just as the last supplies were running out. A food bank worker befriended her and accompanied her to another food distribution depot, all the while normalizing the reality for her, and offering her dignity and care and an opportunity for connection along with the food. God be merciful to me, a sinner, one who has experienced the realities of this hard life and with God’s help can see the gifts that God gives us right in front of us. God be merciful to me, a sinner, whom God has called to serve others, to give from a place of the humility and shared humanity that grow true generosity and gratitude.
God calls us to open our eyes to all the ways in which we live within the economy of grace; to look around us to all that God has given us in beauty in this world, and especially in the gifts that we are each to each other. In the economy of grace, true generosity and holy giving come from the place of humility. Humility is at the heart of it all about knowing oneself: knowing the ground on which I am placed, knowing how God has gifted me, knowing my dependence upon God and upon others. Humility is knowing that we are all glorious together within the body of Christ. Generosity flows from the gratitude that we can help each other to nourish in each other when we do things to signal our appreciation for others, and to say that we value our common life in the body of Christ.
In a world in money is used to garner power over others to control or to silence people, where money is used to buy influence that might satisfy the hunger for more power and control and security, the economy of grace stands in sharp contrast. God calls us to share with each other in order to build up our common life in faith, in discipleship, for doing the good work of God in bringing healing, reconciliation, and hope to a fearful and suffering world. Our common life depends upon each of us taking up Paul’s model, and asking how do I make of my life a libation, poured out in gratitude to God and for the good of this community?
I subscribe to an email distribution list from the Anglican monastic order of Brothers in the Society of St John the Evangelist. At 5am each day I get a one-or-two sentence meditation from them. One of these this week was about community and gratitude, and reads: “We depend on one another for support. As we Brothers know well, community is a fragile organism that can only survive where thankfulness and reconciliation are allowed to thrive. Thank you to Br. James Koester for that gift! These guys know the joys and the difficulties of life in vowed community – not just getting together once or a couple of times each week, but living together day in day out.
I received some other gifts this week. I have one large committee in my work that intentionally gathers up people of various diversities across our church to work on common projects – to create liturgical texts for the whole church. We come from different places; we have different skills and some tightly held views about how things should go, what our direction needs to be. In a Zoom meeting this week, a young member of that committee offered the following prayer at the beginning of our work.
“Deliver us, in our various occupations, from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good.”
I think our deliberations had a different tone of generosity to each other after this prayer.
Each night we have the gift, in our Anglican tradition, of the liturgy of Night Prayer, or Compline that can be prayed alone or in community. Most people I know pray compline alone; at the end of the day, though, even when prayed alone, the prayers in Compline remind us of the gifts that God gives us in community. I return over and over again to this prayer, which is a prayer I raise for this community here at St. John’s:
O God, your unfailing providence sustains the earth which nurtures us and the life we live: watch over those, both night and day, who work while others sleep, and grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May we give thanks to God for the toil, the work, the generous giving of time, talent, and treasure that we offer as a libation to God and as gift to each other.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.