| "Gratitude Inspires Generosity” Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – October 30, 2011 Centenary United
Proverbs 3:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22 This morning we are going to talk about the value and virtue of
having a generous spirit. As with every aspect of our spiritual
development, we do not practice our generosity in the same way.
Some of us attach strings.
Some of us have expectations.
Some of us look to receive some value from our giving.
There are others that simply give because they enjoy doing it.
Sometimes it even bothers us when we do not have enough opportunities to
make a difference in someone’s life through our generosity.
For example, here in In one of my former
churches there was a delightful young woman who possessed a highly
energized, gregarious spirit.
She was a Master Degree teacher in the public school system.
However, when teaching became a chore and when an increasing
amount of classroom time was taken up with maintaining discipline, she
quit teaching. She drifted
for awhile and then started waiting on tables in a restaurant located in
Nags Head, One day when she was
visiting her folks over Christmas, she came to church.
In telling me about some of the changes in her life, she said,
“Dick, I am actually earning more money than I did teaching and I love
my job as a waitress. I am
having a ball. In the
restaurant where I work, people actually ask for me.
Even when there are empty stations in the restaurant, they
patiently wait until one of my tables opens for them.”
She had made an art form out of waiting on tables and
her fans loved her spirit.
Gratitude inspired their generosity toward her. There is a natural
desire in us that wants to share.
The major religions of the world have five spiritual practices
that guide the lives of their believers:
study, prayer, meditation, serving and giving.
Generosity is a spiritual practice that allowed even the ancients
to experience a connection with God.
Years before Jesus
was born, people living in the Middle Eastern countries would travel for
weeks to their holy shrines and bring offerings of their most prized
possessions. Their spirit was not about
buying God’s love or achieving
special recognition from the priests. Their generosity came from of
their gratitude for God’s guidance and presence in their lives.
Our Proverb for
today was written over three thousand years ago.
Listen again to the wisdom of the writer: “Remember God in
everything that you do. When
you do, the practice will be like good medicine, healing your wounds and
easing your pains. Honor God
by making him an offering from the best of all that your land produces.
If you do, your barns will be filled with grain and you will
produce so much wine that you will not be able to store it all.”
The writer was
expressing his understanding of the connection of gratitude to
generosity. He also described the abundance that frequently comes to
believers as a result of this practice. The aspect of being blessed with
barns that were filled with grain and a vineyard that produces more wine
than can be stored can be a problem. It can mislead people into thinking
that they can gain extra favors from our Creator.
Does God actually bless people because of the spirit by which
they live? When I was a little
boy, our entire family -- aunts, uncles and cousins -- would gather for
the unique holiday in the Somehow the idea of
God singling out our family for a unique blessing always received
a
chilly reception from me.
I knew too many other wonderful, loving families that had
experienced moments where their lives were filled with tragedy and
disappointment. I wondered
where God’s blessings were in
the lives of those families. After one of those
fabulous Thanksgiving meals, I found my grandmother in the kitchen by
herself. I asked her why
grandpa prayed the way he did by suggesting that God had uniquely
blessed our family countless times.
She gave me information about my grandfather that I never knew.
Of the three children in his family, he was the only one that
survived birth. He developed
the understanding that God had a specific purpose for his life.
“By keeping God in
the middle of his life,” she said, “your grandfather carried himself
with a sense of expectancy rather than feelings of abandonment when his
goals did not work out as he had planned.”
“His prayers,” she said, “come from looking back over the years
and learning to
See God In Little Things,
knowing that
With God We Can do
anything, and understanding that during his life,
God Was There.
My last sentence
contained the titles of three of the five books my Grandfather wrote
about his faith. He learned
to interpret his life’s events through the eyes of his faith, even the
challenging and most difficult moments with which some phases were
filled.
Faith gives us
the eyes to understand
insights into our living that the eyes of others without faith cannot
see.
It
was this understanding that caused my grandfather to know that his
family had been deeply blessed.
In helping people
learn how to translate their gratitude into generosity, priests,
ministers and rabbis have not always communicated a consistent message.
Years ago, I clipped a cartoon from a magazine that showed a
couple walking to church. As
they were passing the outside bulletin-board where the sermon titles
were displayed each week, the man said to his wife, “It looks like we
are really going to
get it this morning.” The
sermon title was, “Give or Die!” This was a theme proclaimed by clergy
for centuries. During our Bible
Study last Tuesday, we were discussing how Christianity has expanded to
include a number of different beliefs and practices that Jesus never
discussed during his ministry.
Several in our group mentioned some highly personalized
experiences that were life-changing, experiences that had drawn them
closer to God. Mentioned also were
a number of sharp departures by
The Church that brought the words of that cartoon into a sharp and
painful focus. The power
that many priests displayed during the Middle Ages is what caused Martin
Luther to write 95 practices of
The Church that unequivocally needed to change.
Pastors can be temperamental sometimes, particularly when it comes to their churches and how much money parishioners are putting in the offering plate. For example, a woman called me one afternoon and asked if I would be kind enough to visit her husband who was dying of cancer even though they were not members of my church. She even wanted to know what my fee would be for doing so. I could not imagine such a question being asked. When I was sitting beside her husband she said, “We called the priest of our church and he refused to visit us because we have fallen too far behind in our attendance and our dues.” She went on to say, “The reason we could not attend is that my husband has been so sick for months. We always gave very generously and . . .” I pressed my index finger against her lips preventing her from continuing. Her words were
reflecting her pain and disappointment.
The couple was actually feeling guilty for missing their
payments!!!
All they wanted was for their priest to love them.
I apologized deeply for anyone in my profession who put a price
requirement on loving the people in their flock.
It happens. While attending a
clergy luncheon, I was seated next to a colleague who had the Executive
Vice President of one of the major Utility Companies as a member of his
church. He told me how much
he imagined this man earned a year.
Then he said, “This guy only gives our church $6,000 a year.
He is probably worth millions.”
He went on to ask me,” What is it with these people?
Don’t they know that the church has lots of bills to pay just to
keep the doors open? He could drop in another $10,000 and never miss
it.” I told him that it
was not a wise practice to make it his business to know what his church
members give! He said, “I
want to know. In fact, I
have a right to know.” I
said, “What have you really learned about this man from what he gives?” It was coincidental
that his parishioner’s wife and I served on the Board of Directors of
another company. When she
learned that I was a pastor, she was not as silent about their
benevolent giving as her husband.
She confided that she was often fearful of how generous her
husband had become with their money. Without telling him
any specifics, I told my colleague of my connection with his
parishioner’s wife. I asked him, “Did you know that he is helping to pay
for the college education of four of his grandchildren?
Did you know that annually he sends a large December check to the
rural church where his parents attended their entire lives?
Did you know that he serves on three boards of charitable
foundations?” My colleague
fell silent. He said, “I
guess giving money to his church is not the only
game in his town.”
We cannot put a
dollar amount on our gratitude and call it generosity.
Generosity is a spiritual skill that permeates all of life.
Having this virtue as an asset sends
green shoots that contribute
to our choice of words when we speak, how often we use that remarkable
three letter word, “YES,” how often we volunteer for a project,
investing enormous time and energy for which we receive little or no
thanks. To us it does not
matter because we serve for the joy of it.
Generosity may mean being God
to someone who does not have a personal relationship with our Creator.
Is that possible?
Absolutely!
During the early
days when William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army, the
couple took into their home a young man named Alexander.
He had been abandoned by his family.
They treated him like a son and eventually invited him to become
the Treasurer of the organization. A day came, however, when he became
weak.
He began stealing money and was caught.
He was tried and sent to prison for several years. With great frequency
Catherine wrote letters to Alexander and the two frequently visited him.
When he was released, it was William and Catherine who came to pick him
up. Catherine had packed a
picnic lunch, and, as the three of them sat on a blanket spread on a
meadow, Catherine reached into her purse and pulled out a money bag that
had Salvation Army stenciled on the side. With tears streaming down her
face she said, “General Booth and I want you to come back to the
Salvation Army so you can help us.
We want you to be our Treasurer again!”
Whether or not we realize it, all of us
have been on the receiving end of this kind of love. When we recognize
the source of that love, we can never be the same again.
God is like that with each of us. We are not deserving of that
love, but God keeps handing us more responsibility and giving us dozens
of second chances to get it right.
This is why gratitude for God’s unconditional love inspires us to
give without counting the cost.
People who have learned this have found the
pearl of great price.
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