“A Generous Faith”

John 12: 1-8; Galatians 5: 22-23

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, March 23, 2025

I remember my high school German teacher, Mrs. Landecker, explaining that some words in other languages have no exact equivalent in English. She gave the example of Gemutlichkeit, which those of you who have studied German will know means something like warmth, friendliness, good cheer, coziness, and a sense of belonging and well-being. It’s not easy to find one word to translate it. A similar word that has recently gained traction is the Norwegian “hygge” which also describes a feeling of warmth, comfort, and contentment, associated with enjoying simple pleasures, and spending time with loved ones.

The Bible is not any different. It was originally written in Hebrew and Greek; some of the words in those languages have no exact translation in English. In our series on the Fruits of the Spirit, this next fruit is one of those: agathosyne, which can be translated either as goodness or generosity. Our pew Bibles translate it as “generosity,” which I like, because “goodness,” always seemed a bit bland to me – after all, aren’t we all supposed to be good people?

Isn’t “good” just a synonym for many of the other fruits of the Spirit? Patience, kindness, faithfulness – aren’t those the marks of a good person? The meaning of “goodness” is so broad that it almost has no meaning at all. But agathosyne means more than generosity or goodness, although both ideas are encompassed in it. It is not passive but active. It’s not just being good. Rather, this kind of goodness makes you do good things.  It’s not just saying “He’s a good person or she’s a good person,” but it describes someone who actually does what is right and good, the kind of goodness that actively works against evil and injustice.

 Eugenia Gamble, in her book Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit,  writes: “Agathosyne is goodness that makes things happen. It is…energized and expresses itself. It is zealous for the good. It is also zealous for the truth. It is faith on its feet, moving the world toward the fullness of the values of God… [It] is the ever-generous offering of our lives to be used by God for the furthering of God’s realm on earth as it is in heaven.”

This kind of goodness is what John Lewis, U.S. congressman and civil rights activist, meant when he said that we ought to get into “good trouble.” Eugenia Gamble had the privilege of meeting him in person. She remarks, “I never saw Mr. Lewis without hearing him urge us to get in the way of that which is wrong, to get into trouble, good trouble.” In particular, Lewis worked with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was known for leading the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965. In an incident that became known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and police attacked Lewis and the other marchers, leaving Lewis beaten within an inch of his life. But he did not let that abuse discourage him from leading a life of goodness – good trouble, that is, in which he defended the rights of those who were discriminated against, mistreated, and marginalized. This is what agathosyne means – goodness that acts against evil and injustice, goodness that does not count the cost.

Jan de Hertog’s novel, The Peaceable Kingdom, tells the story of the early Quakers. Part of it is set in the American colonies,

in the 1700’s, where Boniface Baker, a prosperous plantation owner, grows indigo, which produces a valuable blue dye. Boniface is a slave owner, and his slaves enables him to run his profitable enterprise. Yet, as he reflects on the teachings of Christ, he becomes more and more convinced that it is wrong to own other human beings. Finally, one Sunday at meeting, he announces that he has decided to free his slaves and give them the plantation. The other Quakers support him in following his conscience, but do not join him in his radical action. He sells his furniture and other personal goods in order to raise enough money to set out as a homesteader on the prairies. Unfortunately his life on the prairie does not have the happy ending we hope for, but his actions were credited with nudging the consciences of his fellow Quakers to free their slaves as well. Boniface Baker is a fictitious character, but his actions are based on those of actual people. The Quaker abolitionist movement of the mid 1700’s was real. Many Quakers freed their slaves at that time, even at the cost of giving up a prosperous business, such as Baker’s indigo plantation. Quakers became the backbone of the fight against slavery in the U.S.

They did what was right, despite the financial and even personal cost. Doing good without counting the cost may be why some Bible translators opted for the word “generosity” instead of “goodness” for this fruit of the Spirit.

We see this generous aspect of goodness in our Gospel story today. Mary, the sister of Lazarus, pours out an entire flask of costly perfumed oil onto Jesus’ feet. Why? This is a prophetic act, one which proclaims Jesus as the Messiah – a word that literally means “anointed one.” Such a lavish gift would have been reserved for anointing a king at his crowning or a high priest at his consecration. Here, Mary honors Jesus just a few days before he encounters the cross. The Holy Spirit moved her to proclaim Jesus’ identity in this way, and she does not count the cost. The perfume of pure nard was expensive – she freely gave what was probably her most valuable possession. This is the very definition of generosity. She was also generous with her spirit – she knew that this gesture could be misunderstood – indeed Judas Iscariot criticized her for not selling it and giving the money to the poor.

Loosing her hair and wiping Jesus’ feet with it could also be misunderstood as the act of a less than virtuous woman, yet she did not care what people thought or said. She did what she felt God had impressed upon her to do. In the retelling of this story in Matthew, Jesus says, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me… By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.” Nard was one of the spices often used in burials of the time. Jesus knew he was facing the cross, and it may have comforted him to know he was not alone – at least Mary knew what was ahead. The smell of nard is said to be relaxing and aromatic – it is used today in aromatherapy. It may have given some moments of calm to Jesus during his most difficult days. Generosity in doing good doesn’t hesitate to give what is most valuable, without counting the cost. It risks criticism or misunderstanding, but it accomplishes God’s purposes.

Author Diana Butler Bass recently wrote a piece called “When Love Isn’t Quite Enough.” It’s not a comment on the Fruits of the Spirit, but it could be. Love, of course, is listed as the first fruit.

Some think the rest of the fruits listed by Paul define what love is. Bass writes, “Love must be our answer — loving God, our neighbors, and creation. But love is far more than good feelings or emotions. Love must be organized, active, and committed to the full dignity and worth of everyone. It isn’t enough to preach against hate. Hate is infiltrating our everyday lives — like the poisoned air filtering down from wildfires — hardly visible until the air is so thick with toxins that no one will be able to breathe. You can’t get rid of the smoke. You have to put out the fire.” The fruit of generous goodness works to put out the fire. It gives of its time and resources to bring about justice, lift up the downtrodden, to try to set right what is wrong in the world, and to point others to Christ.

I will give one more example, mentioned by Eugenia Gamble in her book on the gifts of the spirit. Her father was a district attorney in Alabama at the time of the civil rights movement, so he was one of the first to hear of the murder of a young civil rights worker named Viola Liuzzo who had been ferrying marchers back to Selma after they had gathered on the capitol steps in Montgomery.

Sixty years ago this Tuesday, she was shot dead by three Klu Klux Klan members, one of them an FBI informant. Influenced by her Unitarian faith, she had answered Martin Luther King’s call to come to Alabama from her home in Michigan to help. Although she was white, she told her husband that the struggle for civil rights “was everybody’s fight.” Many people who joined in that struggle were demonstrating John Lewis’s call to “good trouble” – in this case, troubling the status quo that left so many people without their basic rights as citizens, simply because of the color of their skin.

If you look around, you may see situations that call for this kind of generous goodness – the goodness that doesn’t count the cost, the goodness that is praying with your feet. About two years ago, Senator Raphael Warnock, who is also a Baptist pastor, spoke at Union Theological Seminary. He concluded by saying, “Keep praying! Pray with your lips and with your life, with your hands and your feet — and keep the faith.”

So let us keep on nurturing the fruit of generous goodness in our lives. When you feel the Spirit’s nudge to do something, act on it. As Eugenia Gamble urges us, “Let’s spend our energy generously, placing all that we are and have in service to God, to others, and to our moment in history. The way to fix what is wrong is to do what is right. Be the change you want to see.” Amen.

Gamble, Eugenia Anne. Tending the Wild Garden: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit. Presbyterian Publishing. Kindle Edition, 2024. 

©Deborah Troester, 2025