Sermon for Sunday, March 14, 2004  

THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS

5th in a Series on "Jesus, Paul and the Way of the Cross

By
Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

 

Scripture: II Corinthians 9:6-11

⁶ Remember that the person who plants few seeds will have a small crop; the one who plants many seeds will have a large crop. ⁷ You should each give, then, as you have decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly. ⁸ And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause. ⁹ As the scripture says, "He gives generously to the needy; his kindness lasts forever." ¹⁰ And God, who supplies seed for the sower and bread to eat, will also supply you with all the seed you need and will make it grow and produce a rich harvest from your generosity ¹¹ He will always make you rich enough to be generous at all times, so that many will thank God for your gifts which they receive from us.

 

 In your bulletin today is a copy of some lines you may have seen before.

These are called the paradoxical commandments, written by Dr. Kent Keith. Dr. Keith is the Senior Vice President of Development and Communications for the YMCA of Honolulu.

He wrote these guidelines for living when he was nineteen years old and a student at Harvard. He had been involved as a high school student in some demonstrations that were controversial and learned early in his life as a leader about standing up for what is right even when it is not popular. When he was eighteen he was literally run out of one town for "speaking honestly and frankly to other student leaders at a workshop". He says in his book "Do It Anyway" those were situations "that caused me to think about what I stood for, and what was worth doing, and how I could find meaning, even if the results were not what I had hoped for."

Kent Keith says that the values underlying his paradoxical commandments were the fundamental values he had learned from his family and his church as he grew up. He was writing down what he learned in the kind of setting that we are in. He did not even copyright his list and he has learned that they have been utilized by Boy Scout organizations in Canada; Rotarians in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Alabama; by Dr. Karl Menninger in a speech at the UN in 1981, by the Oklahoma Girls State program, and by Mother Theresa.

He says that he realized even before he wrote these commandments down that the reward for living this way, the reward for doing good even when people misunderstand you, the reward for being honest and frank, the reward for doing what is right and good and generous is the inner sense of satisfaction from knowing you have done the good and right thing. The reward is in the intrinsic value of each of these actions. The reward is in what happens inside of us even when people accuse us wrongly or try to tear down what we are building up or criticize and take cheap shots at what we are working toward.

I'd like you to keep this list in mind and keep in mind Dr. Keith's insights about why it is good to do these things while we turn to some other insights from 1900 years earlier from our friend the Apostle Paul. Paul is writing to the conflicted Corinthian congregation and he is asking for their help. He is trying to raise money for the poorest people in another congregation in Jerusalem. The Corinthians in Greece have never met these Christians over in Israel but Paul wants to instill an attitude of generosity in them, he wants them to learn to share as one of the outgrowths of their faith, and he is telling them about the benefits and rewards that come from doing the right thing and from becoming generous people.

In this passage he is talking specifically for their financial help but I believe his words have an even broader application. They are a reminder of how life really works, of how life is, and I hear some echoes in Paul of the paradoxical commandments we just read earlier.

Paul says that whoever plants few seeds will have a small crop and whoever plants many seeds will have a large crop. He is not talking about farming. He is talking about what we do to share or not share what God has blessed us with. If we share our gifts of time and talent and money, we will see many, many benefits. If we do not share but just grab and grub for ourselves, our benefits will be few as well.

Each of you must share and give as you have decided, not out of compulsion or duty for God loves people who give and share gladly and joyfully.

Let's look at the first part of Paul's words and see if they ring true for you. Have you seen what he says in your experience of life? The person who is generous with time and money and talent will reap a truly abundant harvest? The person who is stingy and greedy will see a different kind of result? 

I mentioned last Sunday that we had to say goodbye two weeks ago to Barbara McDonald in her untimely death from a cerebral hemorrhage. Barbara was very active in this congregation and we had a full sanctuary for her service here. Several people spoke to us afterward with words of appreciation for the service. Our staff and lay volunteers work diligently so that funerals can be helpful and comforting and can provide a time of solace and hospitality not only for family members during their pain and grief but also for guests at the funeral, many of whom are in our church building for the first time.

And all of us here make this a high priority - not just our clergy and music staff but our office and our custodial staff and our active volunteers and our UMW group that is available to serve food and coffee. We want this to be a helpful time for folks as we mark this monumental rite of passage and as we rehearse again the promise and comfort of our Christian faith.

And, after Barbara' service, as is usually the case, because of the way we all pull together for these important events, people came to us and talked about how helpful the service was.

And I have a standard answer to that. Even in a funeral service we will find hope and inspiration partly because of the stories we are able to share about the life of that person. And the secret is... if someone has lived their life by Paul's guidelines and they have sowed seeds of kindness and generosity and compassion and have done that gladly and generously, we will be able to tell some inspiring and powerful stories from their life!! It is that simple.

And if they have not heeded Paul's words and have live selfishly and inwardly and have in his words, sown few seeds of kindness and good deeds, the funeral service will be very different.

Barbara was a very caring and active and generous person. She was one of our regular office volunteers, she worked each year in a project for homeless persons and recruited one of her sons to help her, she was in the Race for the Cure, she helped serve meals to senior citizens here. The list of her service to others goes on and on and on. She lived by Paul's words. And so people came away comforted and inspired.

The question for you and me is how will it be at our funeral service? How are we living now? Are we doing what Paul says, sowing seeds of kindness and generosity and good deeds? Are we sharing ourselves in a generous way or just living for ourselves?

I will always tell the story from Steven Covey at the end of the funerals I do about his exercise in one of his books. He asks us each to imagine our own funeral and to imagine who will be there and to think about what we hope people will say about us. Then he encourages us to ask ourselves if we are living now in a way that will let people say those things. Are we living generously or selfishly? Are we sowing seeds of kindness and compassion or are we just turned inward? And what do we need to change in ourselves if we want to be remembered as compassionate and sharing people?

Let me ask this a different way. Who are some of the most generous and kind people you know? How do you want to be like them?

Who are some of the self absorbed and greedy people you know? What can you and I learn from them?

You have been doing the same kind of reading that I have this week after the Martha Stewart trial. She continues to be a walking Rohrshach test. Some people see the government aggressively pursuing her because she is a strong woman. Others see her purported misrepresentations and arrogance and perfectionism and greed as the cause for her downfall. Her conviction can be an occasion for some valuable national discussion about the pitfalls of greed and it is a discussion that needs to include others - mostly men - who are accused of much greater financial damage to many more people that she may be guilty of.

In the debate over whether to live generously or greedily Paul is advocating for generosity just as he does in one of the few times he actually quoted from the teachings of Jesus encouraging us to remember, "there is more joy in giving than in receiving."

This congregation has really taken that teaching to heart. We have said that God is trying to create generous people here, not self-absorbed people but persons who understand that we are in this world to make a difference for others. St. Andrew has a very high number of volunteers involved in ministry to others. And St. Andrew has a very high level of financial giving as well because we see that as one of our spiritual disciplines connected with being followers of Christ.

We are seeing both of those strengths come forth again as we organize our newest outreach ministry to youth through the L.I.F.E.house program that is about to begin. We have already had 96 people volunteer to help get this new ministry under way and we have sold almost 400 shares of the 4600 shares we are selling to make this work. Judy and I have just written our check for several shares this weekend. One of our youth has already pledged to buy 50 shares at $20 each. Our youth are setting the pace and are excited about this.

Whoever sews many seeds will reap a large crop, and whoever sews just a few seeds will reap a small crop. Let me rephrase Paul's words here in a formula we may have heard more frequently. What goes around comes around. We may have heard that in a negative sense, meaning that if we do people wrong and act unethically, that will come back on us. I believe that is close to Paul except Paul is saying whatever we send around will come back to us. We will reap whatever we sow. Have you seen that happen?

Let's go back to Dr. Keith and his paradoxical commandments. He said that the rewards he sees for doing the right thing, the ethical thing, are more inward than outward. Paul is willing to go a bit further. Paul says, if we are willing to take a step of faith and become more generous with our lives and our money, that God will give what we need, that God will see to it that we will have enough to always be generous. I have to say that Paul's words ring true in our family and that as we have been tithing, giving away 10% of our income over the past 32 years, that we do have what we need and that we have experienced that what goes around comes around.

One more insight from Kent Keith. He says at the end of his book, "The paradoxical commandments are about loving people and helping people and doing what is right and good and true. That's where you find personal meaning and deep happiness even when the world around you is difficult."

We can end with the words from Jesus that we read in our Wednesday Lenten worship service here when he has decided to go on to Jerusalem to confront the phony religion he sees there. He tells us that if we want to follow him we must take up a cross and go with him, and if we want to just hold on to life and grab and grub for it, we will lose; but if we invest ourselves and give ourselves to him and to his work, we will find LIFE at it best. That is the promise of our faith.

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