A 6th grade Sunday school teacher was struggling with a lesson. She was preparing to teach a lesson on how Christians manage their material blessings. She knew that when her students were in confirmation class the pastor would share what the Bible says about stewardship of time, talents, treasure, and testimony. We are to use all that we have to serve God and others. And when it comes to our money management, we take care of our family, and we pay taxes. Christians also use their money to help others, and to support Gospel ministry. But the lesson that the Sunday school teacher was preparing was focused specifically on giving.
On Saturday, as the teacher was baking a pan of brownies for her Sunday school students, she suddenly had an idea. She prepared slips of paper each marked with a household expense that would be a person’s budget: house payment, car payment, internet and cell phone expenses, insurance, food, entertainment, and so forth. Basically, she included all of the big-ticket items in a household budget. At church the next day the Sunday school teacher picked up the tray of brownies and began naming the expenses listed on the slips of paper. As each student handed over their expense slip, the teacher exchanged each one for a brownie from the pan. Finally, the last brownie had disappeared. But one boy still held his unredeemed slip of paper. “Offerings!” called the Sunday school teacher. The student came forward, hoping the teacher had one more brownie hidden somewhere. Using a spatula the teacher scraped the crumbs from the bottom of the pan into the boy’s napkin. “The brownies represent your money,” the teacher explained. “If you don’t give God his portion right away, he probably won’t get anything at all except maybe crumbs.”
I am guessing that the students never forgot that illustration about managing their money. Whenever they recalled that “crummy” Sunday school lesson they knew WHO must come first in their life. That is a good place to start whenever we talk about giving or stewardship of our material blessings. Putting God first in our budget prevents him from getting just crumbs from us. But where do we find the proper motivation to do that? When we remember that God wants our offerings to be joyfully given, as a regular part of our budget, and proportionate to the blessings he has given us, we must ask him to give us a new heart and mind. We need perpetual reminders of his undeserved love (his grace) for us. The Apostle Paul shows us how we as individuals and we as a congregation can excel in the grace of giving. He directs us to God’s grace. For our sermon today we direct our attention to 2 Corinthians 8:1-9. When we hear about the great things God has done for us, we are led to:
“LIVE A LIFE OF STARTLING GENEROSITY”
I. Because of God’s generosity to us
II. Because of the opportunities God gives us
To more fully understand these verses, it might be helpful to know the “back story” so to speak. In the Book of Acts we learn about an offering that was being gathered by Christians from all around the Roman Empire. It was an offering to help the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who for a number of reasons were in desperate need of financial assistance. The Corinthians had been eager to help out their brothers and sisters in Christ. They promised to help. But it seems that they didn’t follow through with their intentions. So, in the letter we call “2 Corinthians” the Apostle encouraged them to gather the offerings they had previously decided to give. He pointed them back to God’s grace—his undeserved love in Christ. It was because of the grace that God had given them that the Corinthians would give money to help others. Their management of all their blessings would be guided by the generous grace that God had given them. And he also encouraged them to generously use God’s blessings for others as opportunities appeared.
I.
The Corinthians certainly had experienced God’s grace. It would be that grace alone that could get the offering for the poor Christians in Jerusalem going again. Let’s start with the last part of our Second Reading and then work back to the beginning. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” Note where Paul points them so that they can excel in the grace of giving. He reminds them of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. This simple reminder of how spiritually rich Christ had made them would motivate them to give. And how exactly did Jesus become poor in order to make them rich? They had been told the account of Jesus’ life and death. So when they thought of Christ giving up the glory of heaven to be born in a barn they would be motivated to respond to his love. When they thought about Christ giving up the glory of heaven to walk around homeless on earth for them, they will gladly offer their best to him.
Isn’t that how God’s grace still works in our lives? He comes to sinners like us with his undeserved love. Our Heavenly Father changes the way he looks at us because of what his Son Jesus Christ has done. Because Christ lived and died in our place he forgives us. On top of that his grace causes sinners to trust in him. Then, as if it couldn’t get any better he gives them us new life now and eternal life in heaven. It is that grace in a variety of forms that motivates Christians to live a life of startling generosity.
Someone once said that there are three kinds of givers. There are those who are like flint, those who are like a sponge, and those who are like a honeycomb. Think about what the means for a minute. To get anything out of a flint you must hammer it. And then you get only chips and sparks. To get water out of a sponge you must squeeze it, and the more you use pressure, the more you will get. But the honeycomb just overflows with sweetness. God’s grace makes us honeycomb givers. Before we can talk about giving and stewardship we must be filled with God’s sweet grace. Then we overflow with offerings given out of love for God.
The reasons that Christians have startling generosity has been described this way, “Stewardship of possessions is the effect of God's saving grace upon one’s self and his property. When God gets a man with a car He gets a car to be used in His service. Some seem to think of stewardship as a whip or as legal action to drive people to give to the expenses of the church. No doubt too often the attempt has been made to wring generous offerings from selfish souls. Christian stewardship most certainly is not church legislation nor a scheme to deprive men of their cash. It is the natural consequence of an experience with God the natural reaction of the human heart that has been touched by the divine spirit.” In other words, we are generous because of God’s generosity to us.
Alright, now let’s make application of these truths to our lives. Every time we meet to hear God’s Word and grow in faith we reminded of God’s generosity to us. We are motivated to bring our offerings in thankfulness. An individual or a congregation will excel in the grace of giving when they are in the Means of Grace, that is the Word and Sacraments, on a regular basis. When God comes to us and says, “I love you! Your sins are forgiven,” we respond with startling generosity. We offer all that are, all that have, all that we can do back to God!
I suppose there are many reasons that people may come up with for giving but you won’t find most of them in the Bible. The one reason for giving revealed in the Scriptures is a response to the grace of God! Believers will naturally respond to the great things God has done. That’s how we excel in the grace of giving. We give because of the grace we have been given.
A man and his wife stopped in front of a jewelry store to admire a ring in the window. The woman said to her husband. “I wish I could have a ring like that someday.” The couple lived on a meager income so it seemed unlikely that this would ever happen. But the man loved his wife very much. He wanted to do something special for her and so he made up his mind right there to surprise her the following Christmas. He started saving every dollar he could. Some days he would eat a small lunch or no lunch at all and set the money aside. He spent many lunch hours looking in jewelry stores, comparing prices, trying to be sure he got the best ring possible. Finally, he found the one she wanted. He bought it, had it wrapped, and waited in anticipation for Christmas to come. Another man with an enormous annual income realized Christmas was only a week away. During the past year he had been so preoccupied with business and golf that he had given his wife no time at all. But it was Christmas, and he needed to “do the right thing” as he put it. He sent his secretary down to the jewelry store to buy his wife a Christmas present. She selected something nice and expensive. The man was proud when he gave the present to his wife on Christmas morning. Even though that was the first time he saw the gift he had “done the right thing.”
Which of those two men gave the greater gift to his wife? Setting aside the external value of the gift I think you would agree that the man who put his heart into the gift because of his love gave the greatest gift. That’s kind of what we heard in our Gospel Lesson for today about the “widow’s mite” as we say. The woman’s trust in God’s generous love led her to give all that she had. It’s the motivation behind the gift that matters the most.
I think it would be helpful to point out this thought in the verses right after our reading. The Apostle Paul went on to declare this exact thing about God’s love for us. “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” God’s indescribable gift to us in his Son Jesus and the salvation that we have through him. Our sins are forgiven. We are in a right relationship with God now and life forever with him in his eternal kingdom.
II.
Not only does God’s grace give us the motivation to give it also goes on to give us guidance in giving. Now let’s go back to what the Apostle Paul pointed out to the Corinthians. Remember the purpose behind the special offering. The Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem were in desperate need. Paul's collection for the Jerusalem church occupies significant portions of his letters. He mentions the offering for the Christians in Jerusalem in 1 Corinthians 16:1–4 and in 2 Corinthians 8:1–9:15 and in Romans 15:14–32. This special offering was so important to Paul he is willing to face hostility to gather it and he even got arrested in Jerusalem when he delivered it to those who needed it. We read about that in our Sunday morning Bible study when we covered Acts 24.
Okay not let’s go back to the first verse of our Second Reading for today. We here about how one group of Christians responded to the need that their fellow believers in Jerusalem had. “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will." Paul brought another group of Christians to the attention of the Corinthians. It was because of the grace that God had given them that the Macedonian Christians gathered offerings for the work of the LORD. That’s how excelling in the grace of giving works. A person, or in this case a congregation of Christians recognized God’s grace to them and they were moved by that grace to respond to a need that another group of Christians had. But, they gave their gifts as if they were really giving to God himself!
Now that was exactly what the Apostle Paul wanted to see in the Corinthian Christians. “So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you excel in everything in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us see that you also excel in this grace of giving.”
Paul also says that grace will guide us to give according to our means and according to what we have. In other words, we give proportionately as God has blessed us. It doesn't matter what others are giving. Each of us has been blessed in different ways. Some have great financial means, others less, and others perhaps very little. That is why Paul says Christians give according to their means. Jesus spoke about this in our Gospel Lesson for today. When he observed a widow putting her pennies in the offering box at the Temple. Many came giving huge amounts. She gave very little. Jesus was pleased with her offering because she gave gladly what she had.
That leads us to the third basic principal of giving. We give on a regular basis. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 16:2, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.” Regular, proportionate (percentage), and joyful is the guidance that we have been given in the Bible for our giving. But a desire and willingness to follow those principles can only be worked in us by God’s generosity to us.
To illustrate how followers of Jesus can’t help but share what they have with startling generosity some have pointed to the two large bodies of water in Israel. They are both called seas even though they are relatively small. They are within a short distance of each other, and both fed by the same stream of water. But they are as different from each other as day and night. One is the Sea of Galilee, the other the Dead Sea. The river that feeds them both is the Jordan. The one is alive and fresh, its waters are filled with fish and used for commerce. It receives water from the Jordan and lets it flow out the other end. The second body of water lies in a sunken valley, dead and deserted. There are no fish in its salty waters. No boats tour around it. It swallows the waters of the Jordan and does not send them on. These two seas illustrate the difference between those who take but do not give and those who build a life of service and stewardship out of what is given to them. The same stream of God's blessings feed both peoples. Some return what has been given. Others swallow them and do not respond. Those who know God’s grace give offerings guided by that grace.
Live a life of startling generosity. Perhaps when you read that theme this morning you said, “Who, me?” None of us is generous by nature. No, our generosity comes from God and our response to his generosity is guided by God. He generously gives us his love and many and many blessings. And then he gives us opportunities to use what he gives us to show our love for him and to serve others. When God comes to us with his grace, we give because of that grace guided by that grace. Amen.
