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Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Spiritual Discipline of Generosity

By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: Luke 12:13 – 21 Good News Bible

¹³A man in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide with me the property our father left us." ¹⁴Jesus answered him, "Friend, who gave me the right to judge or to divide the property between you two?" ¹⁵And he went on to say to them all, "Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be." ¹⁶Then Jesus told them this parable: "There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. ¹⁷He began to think to himself, "I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? ¹⁸This is what I will do,' he told himself; "I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. ¹⁹Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!' ²⁰But God said to him, "You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?' " ²¹And Jesus concluded, "This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God's sight."

Film star Ben Affleck was interviewed on a national news program recently about his recent, very generous mission work, in the Congo.  He was helping people who are very poor become more self sufficient.  He is not only sharing his own time and money to help people, he is raising massive amounts of money from others as well.

Interviewer Ann Curry asked him why and how he got motivated to do this.  He said that his grandfather always said, “Don’t just be a consumer.” 

Don’t just be a consumer.  Don’t just be a taker.  Make a difference with the blessings you have.  This is Biblical advice, as well, and relates to the story from Luke’s gospel in today’s scripture.

We are in the midst of a five sermon series on the spiritual habits, the spiritual disciplines and promises we make when we say that we want to be followers, not consumers, but FOLLOWERS of Jesus Christ.  About 20 new people will do that today as they join our church.

We promise that we will be doing five things as part of following Jesus Christ.

0. We will pray
0. We will be present for worship and study
0. We will give
0. We will serve
0. We will offer our lives as a witness.

PRAYERS, PRESENCE, GIFTS, SERVICE AND WITNESS.

Each of these are very important.  We are considering the middle two today and next Sunday we will talk about giving and serving.  The theme underneath both of these promises is that Christ calls us to share our selves with others.  He calls us to share our time resources and our money resources.  It is not something that I thought up or that this congregation thought up.  The sharing of self is deeply embedded in the words of Jesus and is a central part of following Christ, to give of ourselves beyond ourselves.

Let’s just acknowledge up front that any time any church or any preacher begins to talk about giving there are many people whose eyes glaze over and whose ears stop up!  “Everybody knows” that CHURCH is just full of hypocrites, CHURCH is always begging for money, and CHURCH is boring!

I know that some people hear that at first and we all know that.  I would like to see if we can change that direction and use this parable from Jesus.  It is one of his twenty two parables about how we relate to our wealth.  I would like for us to begin from the perspective of our need to share and what happens to us and in us when we do what Affleck talks about.  When we get beyond ourselves, beyond just our consuming and our self absorption and experience and what Jesus described as the joy of sharing/giving.

I used the term wealth and many of you might be bothered by that.  You and I in this congregation are, compared with most of the rest of the world, very wealthy.  It is tough to see this in a most difficult recession but, we are very wealthy.  If we have food and shelter and we are loved, we are very wealthy.

A few years ago one of our youth on his first trip to Belize Central America saw for 8 days people who truly do not have much and who are happy and who are generous with the little they have.  He came back and gave away half of what was hanging in his closet because he realized, up close, how wealthy each of us is compared to others.

Still to take the risk of dealing with a topic Jesus very frequently deals with, our relationship to our stuff and our wealth, is dangerous.  One cynic says that the nerve between our pocketbook and our heart is the most sensitive nerve in our body! 

The parable for today is a way to help us refocus and get a little less sensitive.  Jesus is teaching a large crowd.  A man in the crowd sees the opportunity.  He wants to use Jesus to chastise the man’s brother who seems to be taking an unfair share of the family estate.  Jesus does not accept that role, and then he offers a warning: “Beware of all greed for a person’s true life is not made up of what they own no matter how rich they may be.”

Let’ stop there for a moment.  Do we see how subversive Jesus of Nazareth is?

Do we understand from just this one statement how countercultural and radical he is?

Most of us tend to believe, at first, that OF COURSE a person’s true life is made up of what we own; our home, back account, and other possessions.  We believe that until we experience something or meet someone like Jesus who opens our eyes!

 

What is a person’s true life made up of?  There is a lunch conversation question for you.

Still we act like the most important part of life is in what we own until we look at our health or look at people we love and realize what an illusion it is to think we are totally in control. 

To the man in the crowd most concerned about getting more money, Jesus says, “Beware of all greed.”  Then he tells another really subversive story, a revolutionary story, about someone who you and I think is a role model. 

He tells the story of a successful and wealthy farmer who has a bumper crop—we might see him today as being successful in the stock market.  He is so successful that he is going to have to build more buildings to store all of what he has.  In addition, he is very self absorbed.  That is dangerous, Jesus says.  The man says, “Self.  You have it made.  Just sit back now and eat and drink and relax.”  He would be seen today as a role model: smart, affluent, and financially successful.  

Jesus does not see him that way.  Jesus calls him a fool.  Why?  Because the man thinks it is all about him.  The man does not say to himself what Ben Affleck said in the video.  Ben said, I can use what I have to make a difference for others.  He does not say what Affleck says at the end, I am sharing what I have with needier people SO I CAN LIVE WITH MYSELF!

For the “fool” in the parable, it is all about him and so he dies.  And what will happen to all of what he has accumulated?

One of the major themes of all of Jesus’ teaching is that life does not revolve around you and we are put here for more than our own comfort.  We are put here to make a difference.  

 

We are blessed so we can be a blessing to others, God says to Abraham and us in Genesis.

Our 41 people leaving this weekend for mission trips are living this message.

We can be a blessing for others and for ourselves by following the basic message of Jesus, putting God at the center of life, loving God with our hearts, minds, soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.  Lincoln said he would join any church that had those words inscribed on the church wall.

Part of loving God that way and placing God at the center is following the spiritual practices of praying, being present, giving, serving, and offering our witness.

That is the main reason we talk about generous giving as one of the most spiritual things we can talk about.  Christ as Lord of our lives wants to change us and create in us generous hearts.  Christ wants us to feel the joy of living generously!

Have you felt the joy of being generous?  

Adam Hamilton is pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City.  Last Saturday, he told of a time when he and his family were vacationing a few years ago in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  It was the first day of their seven day vacation.  They had given both daughters $20 to spend any way they wanted.  It was the first day and they were in a gift shop.  His seven year old daughter immediately saw a cap that she fell in love with.  She asked her dad about buying it, and he strongly discouraged her. “It is the first day of the trip.  The cap costs $20, it will take all of your money and you might see something else you like better in a couple of days.”  But she felt very strongly.  “Please Daddy!”

Adam discouraged her again.  She replied, “But you said that it is my money and I can choose how to spend it.”

“Yes,” he said, and she blew the $20 and bought the hat and carried it in the sack out of the store.

That evening at dinner she asked her dad about the hat she had bought. “Dad, do you like the hat I bought?”  

“Yes,” he said, “but I really wish that you had not spent all of your money at once.”

She showed him the hat from the sack and asked him again, “But do you really like the hat?”

“Yes, I like it,” Adam said.

She said, “I am glad you like it because I bought it for you!”  And she gave the gift of the hat she had bought, with all of her money, to her dad, and Adam said, he just wept.

Do you know yet the joy of giving for others, doing for others?

Rev. Hamilton has written a book that relates to this story from Jesus in Luke’s Gospel.  It is a small book titled, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity.”  He has six practical helps in the book which are listed in your bulletin.

Discovering Joy!  Are you interested in discovering more joy through living more simply and more generously?

Have you felt joyful as we talk with each other about the difference your giving is making in this faith community through Vacation Church School, mission trips, and the inspirational youth musical last weekend?

We talked in last week’s staff meeting about all the good things that happen to kids in that kind of youth musical. 

• They work hard and feel successful. 
• They become a team and community. 
• They try new things out of their comfort zone. 
• They learn more of a Bible story. 
• They feel great about their church.
• They form bonds of friendship.
• They grow spiritually.
• They have more adults in their lives who know them, care for them and believe in them.

One church member said to me after last Friday’s performance with 58 kids.  “This really makes me feel great to know that the money I give to our church is making this powerful difference in the lives of these kids.”

I hope all of us can say that about what we are doing together as followers, not consumers and takers, but followers of Jesus Christ.