Connecting the dots: Connecting to God with generosity
November 3
All saints day
Carroll UMC
Saint Nicholas ( We
know him as Santa Clause) was the Bishop of Myra (which is in Turkey) in the
4th century AD. He knew a family with several daughters who could not marry
because they had no money to pay for a dowry.
In the middle of the night, Bishop Nicholas put a bag full
of gold coins through the window on the man’s nightstand. With that money, the
man was able to pay the dowry and the girls were able to get married.
That is not exactly what we think of when we think of Santa
Clause, is it? But think about it. He came secretly in the middle of the night
and left gifts for the family. We appreciate both St. Nicolas and Santa Clause
because they are the patron saints of generosity.
When we consider
Generosity as a spiritual practice, there are two directions from which you
might approach it. On the one hand, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also.” Some of you
will approach generosity in the third quadrant, digging deep within yourselves
to do battle against greed, or selfishness, or insecurity. Others may think of Jesus saying, “If you
have done it to the least of these my brethren, you have done it to me.” Others of you might approach generosity fro
the perspective of how much good can we do for others. In that case, generosity might fall in the
4th quadrant, connecting out to others. This is a reminder to everyone that the
wheel is made of clay, not concrete, so even though it provides a great plan,
we have to be willing to mold it to fit each person’s individual style of
discipleship.
Do not make the
mistake of thinking of generosity as just money. Frankly, neither I, nor the
church, nor God is all that interested in your money. We ARE interested in what
money represents. In our culture money
represents time, knowledge, hard work, helping, sacrifice, and so much more.
The most important thing to us is that you to experience God’s generosity and
connect with God by living by God’s generous example.
This church has some great examples of different kinds of
generosity. I am told that there was a
group of saints, one of whom was Bill Farner, that were largely responsible for
making this building a reality. They probably made financial donations, but
more importantly, they generously of their time, their vision, their energy, and their prayers to see that
this very nice facility was constructed for generations to come.
You may know we have a Wilma Mohler room right off the
kitchen. (Kids, it is the science room during Vacation Bible School.) Mrs.
Mohler was the choir director for many years. She generously dedicated
thousands of hours and all of the talent God gave her to bring glory to God
through the music program here.
I asked Verona if I could do this, and she reluctantly gave
her permission. our own Verona Fuller, who couldn’t be with us today, but will
be watching the recording, is one of the saints of generosity in this
congregation for all those years as church secretary. I doubt that the pay was
very impressive, but it wasn’t all about money. It was about her superhuman
generosity giving of herself to help make this church what it is today.
There are many of you generous saints sitting out there. You
are generous with time, knowledge, love, energy, ideas, support, prayers, and a
thousand other gifts. Or maybe you have a saintly grandmother who gave up
things she needed to make sure you had shoes to go to school. The list could go
on forever.
Whether it is the saints of old, the saints of yesterday, or
the saints of today, there is one thing that they have in common: generosity.
The first thing I
want you to remember is that God invented generosity out of God’s own
character. It is a fundamental characteristic of God’s nature. Only a generous
God would create the flaming red trees we see around us. Only a generous God
would offer people the opportunity to be created in God’s image, essentially
giving away part of himself to us. Only a generous God would go the extra mile
by becoming a human being. and living among us, and generously giving his son
for the salvation of the world.
God created us in
his image to be generous. – but more
importantly, He shows us how to be generous. God gave us everything we have and
placed the seed of gratitude in us, so it is natural to turn to God with hearts
overflowing with generous praise.
• In turn,
we are to turn to our neighbor and generously share the good news of God’s
grace.
• We are to
turn to people who live in poverty, people who live in fear, people who live
with mental illness or addiction, people who struggle with grief, or guilt --
and generously share the hope that God has given us.
• We are to
turn to people imprisoned behind iron bars or even stronger bars of guilt and
shame to share a generous word of God’s love.
• We are to
turn to people on the other side of the world, whom we may never meet, by
giving generously to the church and missions so an UMCOR truck will pull in to
their town on the worst day of their lives.
• We are to
turn to one another and, like the good Samaritan in Luke, give generously to
comfort and heal. He gave his time, his love, his compassion, his donkey, his
money, and his promise to make sure the poor fellow received the best care
available. He gave generously of himself. And we are to give generously of
ourselves.
So, the first thing
we have to understand is that God is generous first and most. We will never
“out-generous” God. But the proper response to God’s generosity to us is to
live generously toward God and other people.
As1 Timothy says “do
good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share.”
Preacher John
MacArthur says, “God made all of His creation to give. He made the sun, the
moon, the stars, the clouds, the earth, the plants to give. He also designed
His supreme creation, people, to give. But fallen humanity is the most reluctant
giver in all of God’s creation.”
The second thing to
understand about how generosity connects us to God is that our generosity both
flows from and establishes our priorities.
Jesus said “For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also. Matt 6:21 And I would add the corollary, where your heart is,
there will your treasure follow. The more money, time, energy, passion, and
gifts we invest in God, the more connected to God will be.
I’d like you to try something. Ask yourself this question…
what is the most important thing in my life?
Now, prove what is most important to you using only your
checkbook or bank statement?
Could you prove it using your calendar?
Could you prove it by examining the things that receive the
most energy from you?
If not, maybe you
weren’t honest about your priority, but maybe you just need to line up your
finances, time, and energy with your priority
From the big picture,
God is the most important thing in all of our lives. That is why God created
the tithe. To teach us that God gave first and God gave God’s best to us.
Therefore our response is to give our first and best to God. That is the lesson
of the tithe it is a lesson in gratitude and generosity. The specific
percentage is right for some people but everyone is different.
No one knows better than God that everyone’s life is
different. And whether we are talking about giving money, time or energy God
only asks for our first and best. That’s partially the lesson of the story
about the widow. The widow came up to the temple and by the time she bought her
heart medicine and some food and paid the rent in her little subsidized
apartment, and gave $5 to her grandchild for his birthday, she didn’t have 10%
to give… but she gave what she could.
She did the very best she could, and Jesus says she contributed more
than all the rest. He says she gave all she had, the others were giving some of
what was leftover. That is all God really wants whether it is our time, our
energy, or our money. Use the first and best you have to help do God’s work as
you feel called, and you will discover if you don’t know already- it is often
the case that when we practice generosity, the giver feels at least as (and
sometimes more blessed )than the
receiver
The more money, time, energy, passion, and gifts we invest
in God, the more our hearts will be where God is, and the more connected we will be.
Finally we talked
about how we were created to be generous, being generous with all that we have,
and finally, I want to say just a word about our attitude in giving. I found a
quote from Bill Gates. It came near the end of an interview with Bill Moyers on
the PBS series Now. Gates recounted a litany of reasons why some people think
addressing global health problems is a good idea. “Some use economic arguments.
If we cure something like malaria in an African country, say, then that
country's Gross National Product will be higher (and presumably they will buy
more things). Some use security arguments; ‘If we don't cure these diseases,
the instability in these countries will be bad.’ Others use the neighborhood
arguments; ‘Somebody could get on a plane from one of these places and you
might get sick.’ None of these arguments,” Gates said matter-of-factly, “is the
right one. The right argument is this mother's child is sick. And that child's
life is no less valuable than mine. I can help, so I must give
generously."
When we give our time, energy or money we don’t give for any
other reason than it is the right thing to do we can. It has nothing to do with
politics, tax deductions, or fear. We give in love because God loves us so
generously.
Allow me to sum all
of this up with a simple illustration.
Let’s say you stop to see Les for lunch and get an order of
french fries from McDonald's.
Can you take credit for those fries? Not really. Let’s think
about this. God created the earth and put fertility in the soil. God helped the
farmer know how to plant the potatoes. Who made them grow? The farmer? NO. God.
When the harvest was bountiful it was God who should get the
credit. God created the truck driver that took them to the warehouse and the
one who brought them to McDonald's. It was even one of God’s children who
scooped the fries out of the basket and salted them for you. And Don’t forget
Les. He is God’s child too, just trying to do a good job serving you.
Every step of the way God has prepared for, nurtured and
provided those French fries so we can enjoy a thin salty delight. Now they are
all yours to do with as you wish… except…
except God asks for
just one French fry back as a way to say thank you. Just one out of the whole
bag. One French fry doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Of all the time God has given you all God asks is for you to
be generous enough to give a little back, maybe serve in the church or visit a
nursing home. One French fry doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Of all the energy and passion God has given you, all God
asks for is for you to generously put a little bit to be directed toward loving
others or growing spiritually. One French fry doesn’t seem like too much to
ask.
Of all the money you have, all God asks is for you to be
generous with just a little bit to make sure that children are taught, the
elderly are visited, hospital and jail ministries are supported and those who
serve in faraway places have what they need for their serving. One French fry
doesn’t seem like too much to ask.
Connect to God by reaching down into your pocket or purse,
your heart, your time, your energy, your love, and being generous with all that
God has given you.
No comments:
Post a Comment