[This message was shared with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church at worship celebrations on July 1 and 2, 2006.]
Second Corinthians 8:7-15
The subject of generosity was in the news this past week. Investment guru Warren Buffett announced that he was giving 85% of his personal fortune, about $37-billion, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The press reported that Buffett’s contribution doubled the Gates Foundation’s assets and will evidently provide a big boost in helping that organization pursue its stated goal of wiping out the world’s top-20 killer diseases.
Perhaps inspired by Buffett, action film star Jackie Chan revealed on Friday that in the will he’s currently preparing, half of his fortune will go to charity. Chan’s net worth is presently estimated at $128-million.
I have the feeling that, when hearing these two pieces of news this past week, far from begrudging Buffett or Chan, our sentiments are more like those of the farmer visited by his pastor one day. “If you had two hundred dollars, would you give one hundred dollars to the Lord?” the pastor asked. “Sure would,” the farmer said. “If you had two cows, would you give one cow to the Lord?” “Yeah, I would.” “If you had two pigs, would you give one of them to the Lord?” At this, the farmer's face became beet-red as he told his pastor, “Now, that’s not fair. You know I actually have two pigs.”
We read stories like those of Buffett and Chan or of lottery winners and think, like that farmer, “If I had that kind of money, I would be really generous.”
You’ve probably read what Henry Ford said when asked, “How much money does a person really need?” Ford said, “Just a little bit more.” We might give a similar response to the question, “How much money do you need to have before you become generous?” “Just a little bit more,” we might say, consigning our generosity to the “Someday, I’ll Zone”: “Someday, I’ll be generous with the use of my time, talent, and money,” we say. “But for now, I need to horde as much of it as I can keep.”
In today’s Bible lesson, taken, as the lessons have been for the past several weeks, from the second New Testament letter from the evangelist Paul to the church in the Greek city of Corinth, we’re warned not to cave into “Someday I’ll” thinking. He encouraged the Corinthians Christians--and he encourages us--to be as generous as we can be right with what we have in this moment, through all the moments of our lives.
From several New Testament books, we know that, at the time this particular letter was written, Paul was taking a financial collection for the relief of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the hometown of our faith, the place where Jesus was crucified and rose from death.
It was from Jerusalem that the first Christians--like Jesus, Jews all--carried the Good News that anyone who turns from sin and surrenders to Jesus Christ is given new life with God, life that begins here and will be lived out in the perfection in heaven. Those Jewish Christians carried this message throughout the Mediterranean, first to their fellow Jews and then to non-Jews, Gentiles like you and me.
Faith in Christ soon took hold among Gentiles in places like Corinth. Everywhere they went, the Jewish Christians who came from Jerusalem shared the most valuable thing they had: Jesus Christ!
I once told a group of elderly women at the church I formerly pastored about how I had come to faith in Jesus Christ. It all started with my wife. When we were first married, as you know, I was an atheist; she was a believer. She introduced me to the church community of which she was a part and within that fellowship, I too, fell in love with Jesus. One of those elderly women, Mildred, on hearing that story, smiled and said to me, “You owe your wife an awful lot, don’t you, Pastor?” Quite apart from the fact that she’s put up with me for thirty-two years, I do owe my wife an awful lot. She introduced me to my Savior, the most valuable thing she had!
In our Bible lesson, Paul says that the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem risked life and limb in order to share Christ. Since then, they’d begun to suffer from the effects of a famine that had hit their Judean homeland.
Paul said now the Gentile Christians needed to give of their material riches for the relief of the Christians in Jerusalem, just as the church at Jerusalem had once given of its spiritual riches to them.
Paul writes: “Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others.”
Over the past several weeks, I’ve talked about the three priorities of Christians and churches: loving Christ, loving Christ’s people in the Church, and loving the world. Here, Paul is telling us that one of the ways we love our Christian brothers and sisters is by generously giving to them, providing for their needs.
I’ve seen the people of Friendship demonstrate this sort of generosity time and again! This past Lenten season, for example, you gave a wonderful offering to help Faith Lutheran Church of Springfield, Illinois rebuild a part of their building which was hit by a tornado during the early spring. Faith Church is a congregation that has, repeatedly in years past, shown generosity toward Friendship through prayers and financial offerings. From their richness in God’s grace, they’ve given. More recently, God has given us the chance to be generous.
This opportunity to be generous to other Christians, Paul says in today’s lesson, is a test for us. By that, he doesn’t mean that God is sitting in heaven, pencil in hand, ready to send us to hell without air conditioning if we don’t measure up. The call to generosity is a means by which we can determine for ourselves how deeply the grace and love of Christ have penetrated our lives, especially as seen against the backdrop of Christian generosity we've witnessed or experienced.
You’ve heard me mention the late Methodist theologian and bishop, Albert Outler, before. When he was in his sixties, Outler told some Christians, “For forty years, I’ve gotten it wrong. I’ve been telling people, ‘You’ve got to love! You’ve got to love!’ But the truth is that through Jesus, we get to love!” That’s what Paul is telling us today. As members of Christ’s Church, you and I are privileged to be able to take part in what God is doing and see the ways He blesses others through us.
A few weeks ago, I got a telephone message from Glen VanderKloot, the pastor at Faith Lutheran Church. There was delight--genuine delight--in his voice as he called to thank Friendship for what he called its “amazing gift.” The gift itself wasn't especially amazing, I suppose. But, to paraphrase the Mastercard commercial: “Value of the offering we made together: A few hundred dollars; Value of the offering as an expression of Christ’s love for our fellow Christians: Priceless.”
And we can be generous toward fellow believers with more than our money, of course. We can also give of ourselves. One of the observations that most pastors make is that when they have strong small groups and Bible studies going in their churches, their counseling loads decrease. That’s because the members are generous in providing listening ears and open hearts to one another. Problems are faced and resolved as church members generously befriend and care for each other.
I see a lot of that at Friendship! I experience it a lot! A few weeks ago, I came into the building when a gaggle of people were getting ready for an event in our building. One of the people there was Marti. She knew, as all of you do, that we've had some tough experiences in our family lately and she asked how things were going. As I began to tell her, her cell phone rang. "Just a second," she told me. She answered the phone: "Hello. Hold on." Then she put the phone behind her back and said to me, "Now keep on." That's the kind of generosity to fellow believers to which God calls each of us and it brings healing, I can tell you.
Our premier example in generosity, of course, is Jesus Himself. Paul says that Jesus, God the Son, was rich in everything. Yet He donated His life on a cross so that you and I can live.
God doesn’t expect us to be Warren Buffetts or Jackie Chans. Instead, he wants us to be a part of His mission of grace in the world by daring to be generous in the giving of our time, talents, and treasure to Him, to our sisters and brothers in Christ, and to the world. He calls us to be generous right now, not with what we wish we had or what we’d like to have, but with what we already have. And the greatest thing we have to give is the love of Jesus Christ!
Let's be unstinting in giving Him away!
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