Extravagent Generosity

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 9/25/16

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Note: As I often do, my audio sermon deviates from the printed sermon in several areas. I recommend that you listen to the sermon as well as read, but either way, hear what God has to offer us when we become fruitful people. Also note the great visuals. 

^NRS Luke 10:30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" ³⁷ He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

We have to come to the end of a journey on Discipleship this morning. We began that journey with a focus on what it means to be United Methodist then strolled through Doing all the Good you can, not harming anyone and being in a deep relationship with God to being part of the Body, becoming more like Jesus and Joining Jesus where Jesus is already working. We have reflected on being intentional about our faith development, about being passionate about worship both in our own preparation and our churches praise and worship service. We have discussed risk taking mission about getting out of our comfort zones and putting our hands and feet in action. And we talked about being radically hospitable in our treatment of people every day. This morning we are going to look at the concept of generosity. What does it mean to be generous, in particular, being generous to God? I remember the story of Cain and Abel and God favored Abel’s offering over Cain’s. But that is not the whole story and we often get our understanding messed up when we fail to get the whole story. Truth is we never see in the story that God favored Abel more than Cain. It simply says that Cain brought an offering to the Lord, but Abel brought the best of what he had as an offering to the Lord and the Lord had regard for Abel’s offering but not Cain’s. We glean from this that when we bring the best we have to offer to God that God acknowledges that offering. And God shows favor to those who offer God the best of what they have. What does it mean to offer the best? That is the subject of this sermon today.  

I heard a story of a church that one Sunday asked the congregation if there was anyone who wanted to witness to their faith and the blessing that God provided. An old man, the wealthiest man in town, got up from his pew and slowly made his way down to the front. He said that when he was young, he had accumulated some wealth but one day had a health issue. So he asked God to help him out with a health issue he had. He said he told God that he would give God everything he had if God would resolve his issue. Well God did and he did and he wanted to tell the congregation that life has been good and God had blessed him greatly in his life. Slowly he made his way back down the aisle to his pew. When he had sat down a little lady sitting behind him leaned in and whispered, "Well I double dog dare you to do it again."

This morning we are going to explore what does generosity really mean when it comes to the life of a Christian and the life of a vibrant fruitful church? A young struggling actor had an appointment for an opportunity. He was down to his last dollar. He prayed to God, “God if you give me this job, I will give you this dollar and then 10% of everything I make. I just need this job.” Well he got the job and he gave God the dollar. And then the rest of his life his gave his 10%. In fact, because of his efforts we now have St. Jude’s hospital. And the young man was none other than Danny Thomas.

Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables of Jesus deal with money. One out of ten verses in the New Testament deals with that subject. Scripture offers about five hundred verses on prayer, fewer than five hundred on faith, and over two thousand on money. So obviously God thinks that we think about money a lot. When we come to this type of sermon, most pastors would rather walk on hot coals with bare feet. I wonder if we looked at scripture, what we would see. Why did God favor Abel rather than Cain? Was it because God liked Abel better than Cain? No, the scripture tells us it was because Abel gave the best of his crop while Cain gave a portion. What that tells us is that God doesn’t want a percentage of your income; he wants the best you can give. Just like Danny Thomas, God wants us to give the best of what we have in order to get more of what we need. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.

Extravagant Generosity describes practices of sharing and giving that exceed all expectations and extend to unexpected measures. It describes lavish sharing, sacrifice, and giving in service to God and neighbor. Every scriptural example of giving is extravagant, and churches that practice Extravagant Generosity teach, preach, and practice personal tithe. The focus is on the Christian's need to give because of the giving nature of God whom we worship. Scripture continues to tell us that we shall give as we are able, according to the blessing of God. God asked Abraham to go and Abraham went and God blessed Abraham beyond his deepest understanding. God asked David to face Goliath and he did and God blessed David beyond his deepest understanding. The New Testament reminds us in Corinthians that we will be enriched in every way for our generosity. Jesus told the story of the widow who had nothing but two coins to her name and she gave them to the Lord, giving all she had. Jesus reminds us that we can not serve two masters and yet most of us try to serve two, worrying more about what we will get coming in than we do about giving back to God. Paul in Timothy reminds us that we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it, but if we have food and clothing we need to be content with these. So if we listen to God through the scriptures, the answer to the age old question is clear. Give all that you can and God will bless you in ways beyond your deepest understanding. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.

I heard a story once of a priest and his parishioners. A priest once asked one of his parishioners to serve as financial chairman of his parish. The man, manager of a grain elevator, agreed on two conditions: No report would be due for a year, and no one would ask any questions during the year. At the end of the year he made his report. He had paid off the church debt of $200,000. He had redecorated the church. He had sent $1,000 to missions. He had $5,000 in the bank. "How did you do all this?" asked the priest and the shocked congregation. Quietly he answered, "You people bring your grain to my elevator. As you did business with me, I simply withheld 10 percent and gave it to the church. You never missed it." Dr. Blomberg writes, “If every American Christian simply tithed, the additional amount of money that would be raised above and beyond current giving levels would be enough to eradicate world poverty in our lifetime.” Think about that a minute. If every American who calls themselves a Christian increased their giving to the tithe of 10%, world poverty could be eradicated. Do you realize how significant that is? Imagine for a moment that every person gave as much as they could so that the church could offer the best ministry to the community that was available. The elderly would have health care, the young food and those who have lost their jobs the opportunity to gain the skills to secure new ones. The church could again become the center of the community and the community would prosper beyond its understanding. How do I know? Because in every case that we see in the Old and New Testament of those who God called, God blessed those who answered that call. It’s not about how much you give; it is about being willing to give and then giving of your money and your time as much as you can. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.

God even goes so far as to challenge us to test God concerning this important matter. God wants us to test his ability to provide all of our needs and many of our desires. How do I know? Because in the third chapter of Malachi God asks the faithful people why are they robbing God. And they ask why God would say such a thing. And God replies that they are robbing him in their tithes and offerings. And then God challenges us to bring the full tithe into the storehouse so that there will be food for the hungry, clothing for the cold and medicine for the sick. And God says that he will open up the windows of heaven and pour down an offering that will overflow anything we can ever imagine. Can you imagine what that would look like? Maybe we here at Sydenstricker we can never eradicate world poverty, but think what we can do about the poverty in our area. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need.

John Wesley in his sermon on giving said that we should make all that we can, save all that we can and give all that we can. I know of a church that down on its financial ability to pay, decided to show a willingness to do God’s bidding and now is secure for a while in its financial coffers. At that moment they had $ 1.42 in their checking account and they paid their bills by the treasurer’s monthly donation that she thought no one knew about. That church had not paid its conference obligations ever in the history of the church. So they began to fund raise to try and achieve their goal of paying their obligations. At the end of that first year, attendance had near doubled and they ended the year having paid all of their obligations with $ 9,000 in the bank to start the New Year. So what does all this mean for you and me? What God is asking us to do over and over again is to be willing to answer God’s call on us individually and as a church. If there are people hungry in our community, are we willing to reach out and feed them even when we cannot see a way to do so? If there are people cold and in need of medical supplies, do we find a way to take care of them? The scripture today is of the Good Samaritan. Not only did he take care of the immediate needs of the man who had been beaten and left for dead, but he offered to come back and pay whatever the costs were after the fact. Though he did not know the man, he was willing to go the extra mile in his generosity to assure that the man was restored to health and given a renewal on life. That is the one of the best examples of extravagant generosity that the bible offers to us. Generosity means nothing if we are giving something that means nothing to us. In fact, if we give God all that we can, God will give us all that we need. What will you give to God?