"the Spirit Of Sharing"

“The Spirit of Sharing”

Acts 2:42-47

A headline caught my eye last week.

It read, “31 Billionaires are Worth More than the US Treasury has in Cash.”

At the close of business on May 25th, the Treasury of the United States had just $38.8 billion dollars.

For context, 31 of our billionaires are each worth more than the federal government.

The article states, “Some of them, like fashion mogul Bernard Arnault—are worth a lot more.

Arnault, the chairman of luxury goods maker LVMH, has a net worth estimated at $193 billion.

Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is worth $185 billion and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $144 billion.

The list of billionaires worth more than Uncle Sam’s cash total includes Michael Dell, legendary investor Warren Buffett and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerburg.”

This information made me wonder how much money it would cost to end world hunger, so I researched.

I found that 1 in 10 people worldwide suffer from chronic hunger—meaning they don’t have enough food to support a normal, active lifestyle, and 828 million people experienced hunger in the year 2021—which is more than three times the size of the US population.

Current estimates are that as of this year, we need to invest around $37 billion dollars every year until 2030 in order to end both extreme and chronic hunger.

That means that just Arnolt and Musk, if they weren’t to increase their wealth in the next six years (which is extremely unlikely) could end world hunger and still have $156 billion dollars left between them.

Would you do it if you had the money to end world hunger?

Would I?

Think of what you would have accomplished with your life, with your money if you did.

Now, I’m not one to judge.

I have no idea what I would do if I were to have $185 billion dollars.

I have no idea what my goals in life would be, what my motivations would have to be to accumulate that much money or how that money might alter my priorities.

But, just imagine what you could do for others.

Imagine the pain and suffering that could be relieved.

And if you were a Christian, imagine what kind of witness you could make in the name of Jesus Christ.

Also, imagine the joy you would have in your own life.

The food pantry we have at this church has been an amazing success.

The volunteers who come every first and third Thursday of the month to unload the pallets holding thousands of pounds of food, the people who arrange the food on the table in the fellowship hall and the folks who show up regularly in the afternoon to give out the food are doing what they do in order to help others in need.

And in helping others in need, they are helping themselves.

They are bringing meaning and satisfaction to their own lives.

They are connecting with others and serving others.

And in doing so, they are connecting with God, perhaps, without even knowing it.

In Matthew Chapter 25 Jesus says that “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

To the sheep He will say, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me,” and he goes on.

And these people will say, “When did we do this?

We have no idea what you are talking about.

We’ve never even seen you before.”

And the Son of Man will say, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did it for me.”

This is the great judgment scene in the Bible.

And this is what it looks like when we fulfill the greatest commandment to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.

This is what life is supposed to be about.

It is the key to everything.

It is how we serve God.

And it is what makes us happy.

It’s what makes God happy.

(pause)

As we look at our Scripture Lesson for this morning, we see a picture of a happy bunch of people.

You’d think they had just won the lottery or something.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Instead of collecting their winnings and becoming rich, they were sharing what they had with others.

(pause)

Last week we celebrated Pentecost, the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ.