Pentecost 6, July 16, 2006

Texts: Lamentations 3:22-33; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9; Mark 5:21-43

Excel in the Grace of Giving

A headline of a news release from the Center for Philanthropy at
Indiana University in December 2005 read "Giving for Hurricane Relief
Exceeds Sept. 11 Contributions. Charitable giving to aid victims of Gulf
Coast Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Wilma is estimated at $ 3 billion,
surpassing the $ 2.8 billion given in response to the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. Executive Director Gene Tempel says, "When disaster strikes,
Americans instinctively want to help, and when the tragedy is close to home,
the response is especially strong."

In our second reading we heard the Apostle Paul praise the Macedonian
Christians for their overwhelming generosity in response to the need
faced by believers in Palestine. Paul used their example to challenge the
believers in Corinth to "Excel in this grace of giving" (2
Corinthians 8:7).

What does it mean that giving is a grace? And how is giving an
important part of our lives? These are some of the questions we would have God
help us to answer through his Word this morning.

Why does the Bible speak so much about giving? That is because giving
is an important part of our relationship with God and with each other.
God Himself is the greatest giver of all. Luther summarizes it well in
his explanation to the Creed in his Small Catechism:
I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me
my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my
senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and
shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals,
and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to
support this body and life. He defends me against all danger and guards
and protects me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly,
divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For
all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is
most certainly true.

Giving is part of what God is all about. He gives generously to us
everything we need. The Apostle John wrote that God is Love (1 John 4:8,
16) and giving is one of the most practical expressions of Love. But
giving is also important for us. God created us in His image. That is why
giving is an important part of what it means to be truly human. We are
creatures who were meant to reflect the character of the Divine Giver.
We were created to be givers.

Unfortunately, rather than being generous givers who reflect the image
of our Divine Giver we tend to be misers, keeping what we have to
ourselves. We tend to be ungrateful, thinking that somehow we have deserved
God's gifts, or that we should be getting more. In spite of our wrong
attitude and infantile thinking, God keeps giving to us. That is the
amazing character of God's love which king Solomon wonders about in our
Old Testament lesson. He says: "Because of the Lord's great love we
are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every
morning." (Lamentations 3:22)

But in order to teach us to love and to be generous, God doesn't
always give us what we want and when we want it. Sometimes we must wait. At
times we are given a burden to bear, or must suffer grief and disgrace.
But Solomon concludes that this is only for a short time (32), "For
[God] does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of
men" (33).

Afflictions are meant to be an opportunity for us to recognize the
Giver of all good things and to praise and thank Him and to seek His will
for us. When we suffer afflictions, it is also an opportunity for us to
excel in the grace of giving: For example, when my friend suffers
grief, it is an opportunity for me to come along and comfort him. In that
way, the afflictions of others are an opportunity for us to become givers
and to excel in this grace of giving.

Luther's explanation to the First Article of the Creed we just heard
deals with material things, things needed for physical life and
well-being. But there is more to giving than money and goods. It is not really
that difficult to give from the surplus of what we have received from
God. Sometimes we secretly despise the person we give to. We know that
only too well when it comes to giving change to the beggar on the
street. This kind of giving is comfortable. However, it becomes more
difficult when giving involves making a personal sacrifice.

When you give sacrificially, when giving involves a significant
sacrifice in order to give, then you are giving at a higher level. It is only
when you make a personal sacrifice for someone that you show how much
that person really matters to you. When for example, you give up the
opportunity to earn more money by working overtime so you can spend more
time with your family. Or when you sacrifice the opportunity to be
critical of your spouse for the sake of your marriage relationship. It is
with these kinds of sacrifices that you show that your giving comes from
a genuine love for the person you are giving to.

God Himself is not to be excelled in that grace of giving. He
sacrificed Himself for us. He took on human flesh and came to live among us. He
gave his own Son to be despised, ridiculed and beaten. His let his body
hang shamefully exposed on the cross, while suffering and dying. By
this self-sacrificial giving of Himself, God shows that His giving to us
is motivated by true love and not to satisfy His own ego. When God gives
to you, His giving is not reluctant or half-hearted. When He gives, He
invests Himself 100% in you.

Now, if you can just imagine Jesus among us today, walking up
Sherbourne St. and coming to that kid who sits beside the subway station asking
for change, do you think He will just pop a quarter into the extended
hand, and walk away with a smug sense of self-satisfaction? I think
Jesus would stop and look the kid into his eye and say "Hi, how is it
going?" He would get down and sit beside the kid on the sidewalk and
begin a conversation to find out how he is doing and what's happening in
his life. Perhaps the next time he would invite him for hot chocolate
at Timothy's. Perhaps Jesus would issue the call, "Come, follow
me," and the street kid would follow him into his home and become a part
of His family for the rest of His life.

This kind of giving involves a lot more than just spare change. This is
exactly the kind of thing God does for us when, for example He invites
us to His Table. Here he welcomes me and you, people who are often not
very much in tune with Him. He gladly welcomes us and extends to us the
full measure of His grace even as we would treat our own children. In
spite of all our shortcomings and failures, that is who we are: His
beloved children.

So when it comes to giving, giving is first about loving someone
unconditionally. We don't love him because he is lovable, or because of his
potential to become something that is respectable in our eyes, but
because God loves him. And because we love God, that is why we love our
neighbour. It is in giving ourselves sacrificially to our neighbour that
our love for God is given an opportunity for concrete expression. It is
an opportunity for God's character to shine through us.

This brings us back to why giving is so important for us. Giving helps
us to be God-like, to be fully human as God designed us. Giving done in
the right way is what gives meaning to your life and gives you joy.
That is what giving should do for you. It should come from a willing
heart; it should make your heart leap for joy! If your giving is not like
this then you are missing out on some of God's richest blessings for
you.

Let us look at what it means to excel in the grace of giving. First we
must recognize that to excel in this grace means to strive for
excellence, for perfection. There will only be limited joy if your effort in
excelling is shoddy. So let us strive to excel in the grace of giving so
that our joy may be complete!

The Apostle Paul cites the example of the Macedonian Christians who in
spite of their extreme poverty, begged him for the privilege to be
involved in giving. (2 Corinthians 8) What brought this about was that they
first gave themselves to the Lord. Giving themselves to the Lord, they
were able to discern His good and perfect will for them. Then they were
able to give in such a way that would have been impossible under any
other circumstance: Their giving welled up in rich generosity, even
beyond what could humanly be considered their ability. The best thing about
their giving was that it brought them God's richest blessings of joy.

Therefore, if your giving is not generous or inspiring and joyful, then
first give yourself to the Lord. Spend time in prayer and meditate on
His Word. Pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you and to show you God's
way for true joy and happiness. Next, check your motive in giving. Do
you give in order to receive? Would you still give if you did not receive
an income tax receipt? Or do you give in order to show others or
yourself what a good person you are? The only motivation that counts is that
God be glorified.

Excelling in giving can also include trying to increase the amount and
the quality of your giving. To do that you need to manage your
resources of time, talents and treasures well which God has entrusted to you.
Good quality giving also means that you ensure that your goal in giving
is that another person will be enabled to also become a giver. Unless
by your giving you are empowering the recipient to also become a giver,
you are not allowing that person to become the person God wants him to
be.

For example, Canadian Lutheran World Relief which provides relief aid
to famine stricken areas, recognizes the self-perpetuating problem of
providing relief aid. If you keep providing aid, you are making it
impossible for the people to provide for themselves and the recipients become
dependent. That is why besides providing emergency relief aid, CLWR is
also very much involved in providing the communities it serves with the
tools to help them become self-sufficient. Likewise, when you give to
someone you should also provide them with the opportunity to become a
giver. That is important so that as, St. Paul writes, "There might be
equality. At the present your plenty will supply what they need, so that
in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be
equality." (2 Cor. 8:13-14)

Mission teams that have gone out from our church to the third world
often come back wondering whether they have not received more than they
have given. Even though they have brought material goods, they were
blessed far more in return through the gracious hospitality they received
and the many ways they experienced appreciation for simply being there as
fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. When Jesus said, "It is more
blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), he did not mean that we
should proudly refuse to receive anything from anyone. Rather, in this
context, it also means allowing others to be blessed when they have the
opportunity to give to you.

So let us then joyfully praise the Lord, our great Giver for sharing
the privilege of giving with us so that we can excel in this grace of
giving. Amen.