Generosity

Proverbs 11: 24-28

Proverbs 19: 17 “He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.”

 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Luke 21: 1-4 

Generosity

There is the story of a wealthy man who was approached to contribute to a major financial campaign. The urgent need and compelling case were stated, and the call was made for his support. The man responded: “I understand why you think I can give fifty thousand dollars. I am a man with my own business and, it is true, I have all the signs of affluence. But there are some things you don’t know. Did you know that my mother is in an expensive nursing home?” Well, no, we didn’t know. “Did you know also that my brother died, and left a family of five and had almost no insurance?” No, we didn’t. “Did you know my son is deeply religious, has gone into social work, and makes less than the national poverty level to meet the needs of his family?” No, we hadn’t realized. “Well, then, if I don’t give any of them a penny, why do you think I’ll give it to you?”

Several years back, Myrna and I watched a movie, based on a book, called PAY IT FORWARD. It is a movie well worth watching. It is a novel about a 12-year-old boy whose social studies teacher challenged the class to each come up with an idea that could change their world. Trevor, the hero of PAY IT FORWARD, thinks up quite an idea. He describes it to his mother and teacher this way: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do 3 each and that makes twenty-seven."

He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"

Most of 87-year old Oselola McCarty’s life was spent working 12-hour days doing other people’s laundry. That’s why people were amazed when she generously donated $150,000 to establish a scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi.  What’s even more amazing is that this represented only 60% of her total life savings of about $250,000.  When asked how she did it, she simply said that she lived modestly, saved regularly, and gave generously. Here is a woman who did not live to see how much stuff she could acquire.  Here is a woman whose modest life in a dismal job proved to be a blessing to herself and others, because she gave and gave generously. Imagine the joy she felt in giving this substantial sum of money to a cause that she believed in.  Surely we all know that the joy she felt was far greater than any joy she might have received from acquiring more stuff with which to clutter her life.

Scriptures remind us that we are truly blessed in order to be a blessing to others. God blesses us for his sake. In point of fact, generosity is the most valid display of any one person’s spiritual health. How generous a person is tells how spiritually healthy they are. Sooner or later we will learn that what we earn and keep for ourselves will ultimately die with us. I think the principle extends to churches as well. Generosity is an essential characteristic of a vital congregation.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul was not suggesting some sort of bizarre economics. Paul was very aware of the need to give generously to God's work, and of the temptation to give a little ungenerously by those who felt they couldn't afford to give. You see there had been a famine in Jerusalem and the Christians there were suffering badly. Paul rallied the largely Gentile churches, which he had founded, to take up a collection for the mainly Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. The church at Corinth was rather wealthy. The church at Macedonia, in contrast, was very poor. Paul holds up the church at Macedonia as an example of how God’s grace worked through the love of the people of Macedonia so that despite their poverty, they were able to give abundantly, out of love.

He urged the Corinthians to give out of their abundance, not so that they too would be poor, but so that there was some equality between their relative wealth and the extreme poverty in Jerusalem. He pointed out that everything we have comes from God. God has given to us abundantly; we're simply asked to give back to God with generosity of spirit. In his argument, Paul used the example of Jesus.  “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul tells us that “God loves a cheerful giver”.  God wants us to enjoy giving.  God wants us to give with joy in our hearts, with a smile on our faces, with delight in our eyes.

And I am afraid that until we feel that kind of joy we will not truly be free.  We will not, I believe, be free from the grip of materialism until we give generously and sacrificially of our wealth to God with joy.  Joyful generosity makes clear that the dynamic that empowers our lives is not having more but giving more. The dynamic of our lives is not acquisition but sacrificial surrender to the will of God.

There was a study done a couple years ago in which the researchers analyzed the generosity of our nation. The percentage of our gross national product channeled toward charities, including the church, began to rise significantly during the Great Depression.  This trend continued through the World War II. In fact, the generosity of our nation rose undisturbed until the 1960s. In that decade, something subtle happened. Our decline in generosity has continued every consecutive year along with decline in church attendance. We have become much more affluent than our grandparents, but we have not matched their generosity.

Generosity is not just about money. Sometimes—too often—money is given as a substitute for a commitment of time and capability, when those would do far more than the money.

The late comedian George Carlin wrote something that a few years back that gives us reason to think carefully: "The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life, not life to years.”

“We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships."

Trevor’s idea in the movie PAY IT FORWARD is a powerful idea. But is treating people with love regardless of whether they deserve it such a new idea? At one point in his ministry, Jesus sent the disciples out in pairs to do the same things he had been doing. He sent them out to preach, teach, and heal, and gave them the power to do so in his name. To the twelve disciples who without any merit on their part had been endowed with the powers of the Spirit as he himself had, Jesus instructed, “Freely you have received, freely give.” The disciples were to pass forward the fruit of the blessings they had received.

God pours out His love toward us through Christ. God actively pursues our welfare even though we do not deserve it. Through His grace God can raise us up out of death itself to eternal life. Once we have been transformed by the love Christ, what are we to do?

What a tremendous opportunity we will have to tell them about and show them God's love and how God wants his people to pass forward his love. Best of all, we are not limited to three times—we can do it every day, as often as the opportunity arises to help out someone else even in some small way. Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Golden Rule restated. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Only Jesus inserted the command to do it lovingly.

Generosity generates generosity. God's generosity to us should generate our generosity, which is shown as we give of our time, our energy, our love, our attention, our praise, our nurture, our joy, our money --- in fact, our whole beings. In Christ, every one of us is rich enough to be generous. Every one of us can pay it forward, with love.     Amen