bibliography: Shenandoah
Almost exactly 10 years ago, a group of people began meeting at the Wesley Foundation on the University of Central Arkansas Campus. They came together as fellow Christians. They came together for the purpose of a mission. They came to form a new church in Conway to reach out to new residents and to people without a church home.
They came with a smile and a heart for God. They had no home of their own, no building to call their own. I came with hope for the future but with no assurances. They came with you and I in mind.
As I look around this evening, I don’t believe any of us were a part of that group. We didn’t begin this church called Grace. And yet we have benefited from their work and labor.
As I look around, we - each and every one of us - are the harvest of their labor.
Tonight we read from a letter Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth where Paul introduces this idea of planting and harvest.
He is, of course, speaking in terms of offering. There are poor people in Jerusalem in need of help and another church in Macedonia has already participated generously in helping those in need. Paul holds the Macedonian church up as an example to the Corinthians and,
doing what Jesus did,
he kind of tells them a little story, uses a metaphor, speaks to the Corinthians using terms they can readily understand to describe in them what we - this group this evening - also have here.
We have a grand and glorious gift.
A bountiful gift is what Paul calls it. Perhaps it is that phrase that made Paul think of the metaphor he used.
Paul uses a farming metaphor and asks us to remember this:
Those who sow sparingly will reap sparingly, but those who sow generously will reap generously.
When it comes to cultivating the holy habit of serving the God with our finances, I believe Paul would ask us, how are we sowing?
How we sow will determine and demonstrate how well we have cultivated this holy habit.
J. Paul Sampley put it this way:
“If we thing about how hard we worked to arrive where we are, we are less likely to become a generous giver. There is something innately programmed into us to have us think either that by our hard work we deserve what we have or that we have even been shortchanged and do not have enough.
If, on the other hand, we think about how many doors have been opened to us , and how we have gotten where we are by God’s grace, the working of the Spirit, and the generosity of others, then we are more likely to think generously.
Paul helps us here. God graces. God sows. We do not deserve it, but we receive it. The grace that comes from God finds its fruitation as it flows through us to others.”
In the movie Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart plays the part of Charlie Anderson. Charlie Anderson and his family are caught in between the Confederate and Union forces and Charlie does his best to stay out of the war and to mind his own business.
He’s also the father of several sons and a large family. He made a promise to his dying wife to raise his children in the church, but through his faith relationship with God, you can see the same reflection of disengagement Charlie Anderson has - disengagement from the Civil War, and disengagement from God.
As they gather for dinner, Charlie faithfully prays every day to bless the meal before they eat.
“Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for this food we are about eat. Amen.”
Its like Paul Sampley spoke of. Charlie Anderson’s focus is on his own efforts, not on the actions of God.
We just sang a hymn moments ago written with a very different focus in 1923 by Thomas Chisholm. His focus is not on his efforts, but on the great faithfulness of God. Throughout the seasons - summer, winter, springtime, and harvest time. God’s mercy stays constant and faithful - offering us forgiveness, offering us God’s presence, offering us strength to get through the day and hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Thomas Chisholm tries to measure the grace we receive from God.
The best we can do is talk of blessings numbering in the tens of thousands. And each day, new mercies, new measures of grace we receive.
Thomas Chisholm is right to sing; Great is God’s faithfulness unto each of us!
There is quite a contrast here between the attitude of Charlie Anderson and Thomas Chisholm.
The question becomes, what attitude, what focus will we take when it comes to what we receive from God and what we will give back? How will we sow?
Lets draw our attention here to three things Paul has written to the Corinthians concerning their donations.
First of all, God loves a cheerful giver. In part, it is about where our attention is - on how hard we’ve worked and what we have done, or on the bountiful and amazing blessings we have received from God.
The opposite side of that coin is to say nothing can be taken from you against your will, or it isn’t a gift anymore.
It’s not only that God won’t force our hand, its that a gift by definition must be freely and cheerful given in order to BE a gift.
A cheerful giver is one who gives willingly. Any reluctance, any feelings of guilt or that we are required to give is a lack of understanding of God’s grace. God doesn’t want us to be generous because we feel like we must. God wants us to be generous because God’s generosity has led us to FEEL generous in return.
Secondly Paul points out that God is able to provide for us all the blessings we need, an abundance of wealth.
You might say to me, “But that doesn’t make sense. If that was true, we wouldn’t struggle as we do. I would be rich. We would be independently wealthy.”
But I would say to you the abundance we receive doesn’t come back to us in the form and way in which we give.
If we were to go to the movie store and rent this movie Shenandoah, we would give our money to the sales clerk. We wouldn’t expect the sales clerk to give us more cash in exchange for the money we have given her. We expect to receive the video tape for which we paid.
And not only do we walk out of there with the video tape in our hand, we have the enjoyment of the entertainment the movie provides us. We have something we can’t begin to quantitate or put a price on.
To suggest that through our tithing, through giving of our resources to God, that God works like a chain letter, multiplying our giving exponentially until we receive back monetarily more than we gave.
Let me explain by the third point I want to make: Paul writes to the Corinthians:
“He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every ways so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of god’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of tanks to God.”
The abundance we receive, the reward for our giving is in the form of seeds. That’s right, seeds.
Rev. Tom Lovron tells of one Sunday morning when his parishioners came to church and the interesting thing they did with peanuts.
“As they came into worship this particular Sunday, I offered them a bowl of peanuts and invite them to take a handful. Then, I told them this story about Amedeo Obici:
Amedeo Obici was born in 1876 in a small village near Venice, Italy. His widowed mother read him letters from his uncle in America, and Amedeo told everyone he was going to America one day. By the time he was 11 years old, his family had helped
him save enough money for an immigrant’s ticket to America, and he set sail by himself.
One story says Amedeo had no money for food, so his mother gave him a bag of peanuts which was all he had to eat for the 10 day trip across the ocean. In this land of opportunity, Amedeo, at 11 years of age, went
to work as a bellhop and a helper at a fruit stand. He worked hard and saved his money as he had promised his mother.
Amedeo soon learned that Americans liked the peanuts he shared with them; but few, if any, were growing them here. So, he found a place to plant the handful of peanuts he had left. While his peanuts were growing,
he saved enough money to buy a horse and wagon. When his peanut crop came in, he drove around calling himself “The Peanut Specialist” selling roasted peanuts. By 1906 he had developed his own method of
blanching and roasting peanuts and founded Planters Peanuts headquartered in Suffolk, VA. He became wealthy enough to send money to his family in Italy; and, years later, he gave to the city of Suffolk the
Louise Obici Hospital named after his wife.
Now, Amedeo had only a handful of peanuts; but he had the choice of what he could do with them. He could have eaten them or sold them, but he wisely chose to plant what he had so that, in time, he would have
enough to eat, give away, and sell so that he could send money to his family.
Then Tom had this to say about those peanuts:
When you came into our worship center you reached into a bowl and got a handful of peanuts. Some of you
took a large handful; others took just a few.
That’s all right, because each of us is different. Keep those peanuts and let them represent the resources God
has given you. Like Amedeo, you have choices to make with what you have: You may eat your peanuts.
They’ll taste good for the moment, but then you won’t have any left! Or, you may just hide them in your
pocket and keep them. You, also, have the choice to divide them: You could eat some and sell some. We all need to eat and pay for our basic necessities. Or, you might share some with others.
I want you to take a few minutes to decide what you’re going to do with the peanuts you have. Think of those peanuts as your money because, after all, money and peanuts can both be tools to honor God. Both of them come from God and both of them must be planted somewhere in order to grow.
Tom would ask us, what will we do with the resources we have? Will we consume them, or will we plant them? If we plant them, will we plant sparingly, or will we plant generously?
10 years ago, a small group of people gathered together to form Grace Church. Through the seeds they planted, we have come to find a home here. They began the building of the sanctuary we sit in. Their gifts made it possible for our faith to grow:
to find Christian friends and grow in our love for one another; to have Bible study materials so that in small groups we can explore God’s word for our life together;
They began the work on the children’s ministry so that the faith of our children might come to know of God’s love for themselves. They began the work of providing space for youth and staff to minister to them so that our teenagers can have a firm foundation in God in a world where it is easy to be lost and alone.
We are the harvest of their labors. Our faith, our worship, is the fruitation of their efforts. It is our turn to carry on. It is our time to join with them and plant the seeds that have been given us.
And it is possible (and probable) that we won’t know all those who will come after us. We will do the planting. Others will be involved in the harvest of what we sow. But what blessing of a harvest. What a great thanksgiving in the new faiths that will be started, in the faith of children and youth that will be nurtured, of the people who will come to find a home and family here because of our efforts - our efforts in response to the grace we have received in Christ Jesus.
Paul sings the doxology: ‘Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
For the gift of God’s grace to be complete and come into its fullest completion in us, it must go full circle back to God. Until it does, the grace we receive through Christ hasn’t really become all it is meant to be. That happens only when we give generously and cheerfully because we have received.
Tonight we looked at the stair steps we are on. Our invitation is this: to grow one step in the coming year. Next week, when we come to worship, there will be a commitment card to indicate what we will do with this holy habit and how we will cultivate it in our life.
In many ways, this is the hardest habit for us to cultivate and the hardest area in which to open ourselves up to the workings of God, particularly in light of current economic situations. We are more inclined to be fearful and mistrusting rather than bold and daring with our giving.
In invite us to be prayerfully considering what the Lord would have us do.
Hear these words from Paul:
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to provided you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.
You will be enriched in every way for your generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
In Jesus name, Amen.
