A Season of Generosity
Philippians 1:3-11
December 10, 2006
It seems that everywhere we go at this time of year, we find people or organizations who are asking for donations for one cause or another. I think that I have told you this before. A number of years ago, Toni and I decided that we would never pass one of the red Salvation Army buckets without putting a dollar in it. Maybe, by the end of the Christmas season, we have put in $20 – maybe a little more, maybe a little less because we really don’t keep track of it. That is no big deal. We spend more each week eating out in restaurants than we drop in those buckets during the entire month of December.
I am amazed at the amount of money that Americans have. I have some figures from Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when many retailers make or break the holiday season. On the day after Thanksgiving this year, 400 million shoppers across the United States spent $9.6 billion. Estimates are that the average American family will spend between $700 and $800 on Christmas presents this year. That adds up to a lot of money.
There was this fellow who took his son and went on a weekend fishing trip. The teenager told his dad that they really needed to find a church to attend on that Sunday morning, so they looked in the yellow pages and found one nearest their lake cabin. When the service was over, all dad could do was complain. The service was too long; the sermon was boring; the music was awful; the people were not very friendly.
In the car, after listening to his dad carry on for awhile, the teenaged son said, “Dad, I thought it was pretty good for the dollar you put in the collection plate.”
I know that you are used to preachers and churches telling you that you need to give more. Usually when you hear a sermon about money, it is because the church budget needs a shot in the arm, or there is a special project (like a flood wall) that has to be funded. But I’m not going to do that today. In fact, I am going to remind you all of how very generous you actually are.
Our stewardship campaign concluded a few weeks ago. Did you know that we had commitments for over $174,000 for next year? That is a significant increase over last year and is very generous. Thank you.
I just looked up some figures for the denomination. As of the end of October of this year, United Methodists have given $109,683,319 to the General Church for apportionments, Special Sunday offerings, Advance Special gifts to missions, and a few other special projects. That doesn’t count the money that was contributed for Annual Conferences and local districts. It doesn’t count all of the money that was contributed to local churches. The total figure would be staggering. United Methodists really are generous.
I don’t have the figures for 2005 or 2006, but in 2004, American citizens gave $248.5 billion to U.S. charities. In addition to that figure, we gave $71 billion to projects in the developing world. Add up our charitable giving, our Christmas gift giving, and the amount of money we spend for all of the other stuff we spend money on throughout the year…and you find that we are a very rich people, and are indeed a very generous people.
I want to look at the first chapter of Philippians this morning. Paul says nothing about money in it, yet I think that his words can help us discern how to be better and more intelligent givers because this is the season whed we are continually being asked to contribute to worthy causes.
Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. It amazes me that anyone can be so happy in such a situation, but he is filled with joy because of the ways in which the Philippians had been a help to him. They had been very generous…with their friendship, with their help, and with their financial gifts. At the very end of the letter, he wrote this:
You Philippians well know, and you can be sure I’ll never forget it, that when I first left Macedonia province, venturing out with the Message, not one church helped out in the give-and-take of this work except you. You were the only one. Even while I was in Thessalonica, you helped out – and not only once, but twice. Not that I’m looking for handouts, but I do want you to experience the blessing that issues from generosity. And now I have it all – and keep getting more! The gifts you sent with Epaphroditus were more than enough, like a sweet-smelling sacrifice roasting on the altar, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end. (4:15-18 – “The Message).
With his history with that church, Paul was able to say “Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God” (1:3). He tells them that when he prays for them, his prayers are that their love will flourish and that they will not only love much, but love well. He says that he hopes they will live with a love that is sincere and intelligent; a love of which Jesus would be proud. In the original language, love is translated as “agape,” the same sort of love Jesus had for his friends and enemies alike. When Paul speaks about that love being sincere and intelligent, the original language can be translated to understand him saying that he wants love to be full of common sense.
Now obviously, there is nothing there that says anything about our money, but his instructions imply that it is worth the effort to be diligent and intelligent about our lives so that we will be ready for the return of Jesus. Using that standard of diligence and intelligence, I thought that we could consider all of the calls we get during this holiday season to donate to charities and individuals.
Here are three standards that seem to make sense to me when someone asks you to contribute to something. First of all, giving something is better than giving nothing. You will remember that Jesus was asked one day about the greatest commandment. The greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second greatest commandment, coming right on the heels of the first is to love our neighbors. Loving our neighbors is second only to loving the Lord.
We also know that Jesus had a very large definition of neighbor. Yes, it is true that our neighbor is just over the fence, or back across the alley, or across the street. For neighbors with whom we live in close proximity, we can find all sorts of ways to be neighborly; to love with tangible gifts of service, advice, and friendship.
But we also know that our neighbors are not limited to those on our street on in our sub-division. John Wesley believed that the world was his parish and we Christians have always believed that the world is our neighborhood. Loving our neighbors is not optional for Christians. For some of our neighbors living far from us in other lands, the only way to love them is by giving. By contributing money to help alleviate suffering, we are intentionally loving our sisters and brothers, even though we don’t know their names. Giving something is obviously better than giving nothing, both for the giver, who follows the example of Christ, and for the recipient.
Secondly, giving and being taken advantage of is better than giving nothing. You are very generous with me when you contribute money for me to use for the Community Harvest Food Bank. I also have some discretionary funds that I can use to help with emergency needs for folks. I am aware that you expect me to use that money wisely, and I do my best. But sometimes, I get taken advantage of. Sometimes, I get conned.
And so do you. We all give money, on occasion, to charities and other organizations that misuse it. As much as we try to be smart, we sometimes make mistakes. We have soft hearts and are sometimes taken for a ride because we want to be generous. When that happens, we have to realize that there is no shame for us. The shame is not on the giver, but on the con-artist. We give: that is our job. God has to deal with the person who takes advantage of our generosity.
Usually it is much easier to check out organized charities to find out if they are worthy recipients of our money or not. It becomes much more difficult when we are confronted with individuals who are asking for assistance. But, we cannot let fear of getting scammed become an excuse for not giving, because the potential for doing good is so strong. If a person is dishonest, then shame on him or her. But blessings on us for our willingness to help a neighbor.
Third, giving something when you don’t have something to give is better than giving nothing. At its heart, giving comes from gratitude, devotion, and obedience. The bottom line is that we don’t give because other people need. We give because that is how we are obedient to God. Giving reflects the generosity of God in providing us with blessings too numerous to mention.
There are few of us in this congregation who fall into that category of not having anything to give. Perhaps the issue for us is to discern how we can reduce spending or cut out some extravagance in our lives in order that we might have even more to give away.
This is the Advent season. During December we are asked by all sorts of organizations for donations to help those with fewer advantages than we enjoy. I am very grateful for your giving hearts and spirits, for you really are a generous people. I hope that we can continue to cultivate a generous spirit, so that we can reach out in Christian love to our neighbors anywhere who have needs.
In Advent, we prepare ourselves to receive the most wonderful gift imaginable: the gift of God’s only Son, Jesus Christ. God hasn’t held anything back from us, but has blessed us beyond belief. I pray that we will be equally generous in this season of generosity.
