This Incredible Extravagant Generosity of God 9-30-12

The Reading: Acts 20: 17-27 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the leaders of the congregation. When they arrived, he said, “You know that from day one of my arrival in Asia I was with you totally—laying my life on the line, serving the Master no matter what, putting up with no end of scheming by Jews who wanted to do me in. I didn’t skimp or trim in any way. Every truth and encouragement that could have made a difference to you, you got. I taught you out in public and I taught you in your homes, urging Jews and Greeks alike to a radical life-change before God and an equally radical trust in our Master Jesus. “But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God. “And so this is good-bye. You’re not going to see me again, nor I you, you whom I have gone among for so long proclaiming the news of God’s inaugurated kingdom. I’ve done my best for you, given you my all, held back nothing of God’s will for you. The Middle Reading—a prayer written by Sir Francis Drake: Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord when with the abundance of things we possess we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the starts. We ask You to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. The Gospel Reading: Luke 6: 35-38 “I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind. “Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Incredible Extravagant Generosity of God 9-30-12 God, teach us to be a people who are generous at heart; who love before we are loved and give before we receive. May all my words bring you glory and all our reflections of heart bring you praise. Amen We all know the Golden Rule—do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s not in the Bible, you know. Well, at least not exactly like that. I recently read about a Platinum Rule—it goes like this: “Treat others in the way they like to be treated”. That switch takes just a bit of pondering. These kinds of conversations can lead us into a discussion of generosity, but it is not enough. Generosity is sharing with others freely, without thought of return. It is a willingness to offer money, assistance, and energy and time when it is needed. Generous giving means giving something that has real value to you—without expectation of anything in return or even reward. We know that Jesus spoke of generous giving a lot and I have always been comforted, especially at times when I had little money to give, that Jesus valued the single coin of the widow more than all the gold and silver donated by those who were wealthy and had lots to give. I’ve always wondered about what motivated that widow to give of her last mite. I think that’s an important question when we talk about generosity, and not just of money, but of talent and time or energy. What does it take for us to give of our last ounce of energy, our last minute, our last dime? I took the title of the sermon from our passage in Acts where Paul calls all the religious leaders from Ephesus to him for a final meeting before he leaves for Jerusalem and what would, more than likely, be the end of his life. This is his “goodbye” message to them and he makes sure they understand that very fact. He reminds them of his teaching and sacrifices along the way. And, then, he says his farewell, telling them that he has but one task on his mind as he begins his final journey: “What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God.” Kinda stops you dead in your tracks to contemplate this incredibly extravagant generosity of God. Now, if I asked you right now to shout out what you think makes up this amazing generosity of God, you would list many, many things and they would all be a part of how we experience God’s generosity. And, if I asked you to name appropriate responses to that generosity, you would be able to list many more approaches to show our gratitude to God. Paul leaves no room for mis-understanding. Responding to this generosity of God demands that we make a radical life-change before God and begin to trust Jesus with an equally radical trust. Now, this is where the so-called rubber hits most of our roads. According to people who study this sort of thing, it seems that people who claim to be religious are much more likely to make the connection between the gifts of God as a motivator for personal generosity and the fact that they enjoy giving to others. And, if we are truly open to it, it is in the making of this connection that we experience what Paul calls a “radical life-change” which includes “radical trust”. So, here we are, at the beginning of Fall looking at all God has done for us as a people. You may know that the Stewardship Team and some Board members went last week to a Stewardship Summit sponsored by MCC. Two of our Elders were our presenters—giving us the same information that they had shared several times with other MCC churches. There were many churches from all over the US and Canada there. It was an amazing thing to watch the Spirit work in all those church teams and feel the energy and passion in the room rise and expand. The same was true for your team as we spoke of the hard task of asking for time, talent and treasure, and looked for ways to make it a spiritual practice or, at the very least, a growing opportunity for all of us. At this point, we began to study together what we thought it would look like if Open Circle more fully lived into and expanded what we call “a culture of generosity”. And, before, or at least just slightly after, you start thinking that the pastor has gone to meddlin’ and talkin’ about money again, let me try to assure you that this is not the case. So, the Team decided that this Fall was the time we wanted to talk about and live into a culture of generosity—a radical life-change before God. But, where to start? What does such a culture look like and how shall we encourage everyone at Open Circle to try on whatever part of that culture feels comfortable and safe. So, today, I want to talk a little bit about what a growing into a more intentionally developed culture of generosity might look like. This is not to say that we, as a people, are not already generous with our time, talent, and treasure; but, we have much to learn about how this generosity, already planted among us, can grow, and flourish, and blossom into a culture and place where God’s incredible extravagant generosity can be felt and shared every moment of every day. So, I began to think about the things that have nothing to do with money first. I don’t know about you, but that is where I am most comfortable and where I feel that I can explore and expand what I already know. I know that ever since I turned, oh, about 50, I have been thinking about my legacy. What do I want to leave in this world? Since it unlikely that I will come into great wealth before the end of my journey, I want to focus on the other wealth that I have to give away here, at Open Circle, and in the wider world. Nelson Henderson once said this, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit”. Think about that for just a moment. A culture of generosity will cause us to think about our intentionality. In other words, what is it that we are intending to do? If we are not actively thinking about our intentionality, we tend to slip into old ways, or ways that don’t generate excitement or gratitude, or ways that simply don’t enable us as people and as a community to grow. Borrowing a little here and there from an article on Generous Leadership by Bruna Martinuzzi, I want to make some suggestions of attributes or characteristics of a culture of generosity that we can contemplate at the beginning of our study. First, we can, as a people, make sure that all who are already here and every single person who walks through our doors feels important—important to us and important to God. We can be more deliberate in our thanksgivings for the valuable work that each of us does in this place. And we can be more purposeful in recognizing the efforts that our visitors made to spend their Sunday morning with us in this place. Secondly, we can work to see the positive in everyone, by honoring the other person, even at a time when we may need to disagree or work for a change of heart. In the third place, we can give people visibility by encouraging everyone to find a place of ministry in this community. And, when you and they do, we can recognize well and often the callings and ministries of each and every child of God in this place. We can understand and practice forgiveness. Martin Luther King said that "The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind." A generous person carries no resentments. A generous church harbors no negative memories of previous hurts or altercations. What if we could learn to face each challenge on its own merits and let the past truly not just be past but fade into the oblivion provided by God’s grace for just such a moment as this. Living into a culture of generosity will cause each of us to answer two very important questions: “Who do you need to forgive? What do you need to let go?” In the fifth place, we can offer encouragement and support freely—even before the request is received. When you consider that some of us sitting here have never really received encouragement in our lives—a word of encouragement takes on incredible value. The sixth attribute of a generous culture is that it gives everyone a chance—a chance to serve or not and a chance to make mistakes. So what if you don’t quite know what to do the first time you try something out. The importance comes from the trying on, not the ability to be perfect. In the seventh place, people who live in a generous culture share what they know with others. They share their expertise and their experience—all for free with no strings attached—just for the sheer joy of watching someone else learn a new skill. And, in the end, it is up to us to determine whether or not we will become a truly generous people. It takes work and it takes practice. But Jesus calls us to such practice— “Generosity begets generosity”. Walt Whitman must have borrowed from Jesus when he said, “Giving is like building a muscle. It requires practice and persistence…” And, finally, a generous culture inspires people to be present to each other—in pain or sorrow or in celebration and joy. There is an African village where the greeting words for 'good morning' or 'hello' are: "I am here if you are here." Imagine the gift we give others when we are fully present with them – when we truly see them. And so, present to each other, we live as receivers of God’s incredible extravagant generosity and freely give way to God’s generosity as it flows through us again, and again. Amen and amen