Maybe you couldn’t see one of the children who came up with their bright pink shirt on just now, with big bold letters:  “MY DAD ROCKS!”  I’m going to try to get those for my kids!

I want to give you a little background for our text today as we continue thinking together about what it means to be the community of faith.

The Apostle Paul wrote a good deal of the New Testament, most in the form of letters to young and new churches.  Paul was the first missionary and church planter extraordinaire.  One of the things we often forget when we read Paul’s letters is that he was literally teaching the church how to be the church. 

There was no blueprint.  No one sending him mail or email on “The 10 Steps to Church Growth,” or writing books on “How to Be the Church.”  Paul was breaking new ground.  And he had a particularly challenging job because from his earliest mission church, there were two parts of the church.  One part was the “mother” church in Jerusalem, almost wholly people of Jewish background who had come to see Jesus as the Messiah.  The other part was the mission churches that Paul planted around the Mediterranean, almost wholly from Gentile, or non-Jewish backgrounds. 

The situation for our reading this morning is that of a young church in the Greek city of Corinth.  Corinth was world-renowned as being a wild and immoral city, and it was there that a church was planted (see Acts 18).  As Paul corresponds with church leaders there, he finds himself embroiled with trying to interpret the gospel to people surrounded by and tangled up in

• paganism,
• idolatry,
• all sorts of sexual scandals,
• confusion over God’s intention for marriage,
• suing other believers,
• haves and have-not's within the community of faith. 

In the midst of all of these things,  Paul takes time to address the subject of generosity.  It is on this topic that Paul has a vision for the church, and he talks about it in at least four of his letters, but especially in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9.  He wants the outlying mission churches to send a financial contribution, a generous one, all the way to Jerusalem to help alleviate some of the poverty and suffering that is present there in the church. 

Will you stand with me for the reading of God’s Word? 

2 Corinthians 9:6-15

The Word of the Lord.  Thanks be to God.

“Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

You have no doubt seen this happy phrase before, around Stewardship Sunday when we all consider our giving for the budget of this community at Bethany.  God loves a cheerful giver. It appears on church pledge cards, offering envelopes (not ours, currently, I looked), or giving requests from other Christian organizations.  It is surpassed perhaps only by the story Jesus told of the woman who gave the two coins as the most frequently used “ask” line in Christian fundraising.  And that line, “God loves a cheerful giver” always evokes for me an image of someone with a fake smile painfully plastered on their face as they reluctantly write a check out of obedience, shame or guilt. 

Well, it’s not Stewardship Sunday, but we will talk about money this morning since Paul so clearly does in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9. That perhaps seems a dangerous topic, in a church now parked squarely in a very affluent area of Seattle.  A preacher might be accused, as they say, of meddling instead of preaching, or soliciting money to help line the church coffers.  But this morning I’m not talking much about where to give, but how and why.   And at each step I would like you to be thinking not only about the giving of money…but also other things we have to share and give: 

• Time. 
• Attention. 
• Talents. 
• Gifts. 

The characteristic that Paul wants to be a hallmark of the church is… “generosity.”  How can we, the church, be encouraged to be a people who give ungrudgingly, without reservation, with no strings attached?

Well, we could start by sitting down with the scripture and discerning from it some basic principles of giving.  It’s not too hard to do.  Just from Corinthians we could quickly come up with a 5-Rule List that looks like this:

1. Learn to give from watching the way that others give (Paul in fact wants the church at Corinth to model their generosity after the church of Macedonia, to the north).
2. Give in proportion to what you have.  (2 Cor 8:3, 11 “according to your means”…which, incidentally, could be far more than the 10% tithe we like to think about.)
3. Share what you have with those more needy.  (2 Cor 8:2)
4. Set aside on a weekly or regular basis.  (1 Cor 16:1-4)
5. Be responsible and find a fair balance for all.  (2 Cor 8:12-14)

So, if we wanted to, that could be our neat and tidy list of Paul’s Rules for Giving. 

But the thing is…neither Paul, nor Jesus for that matter, seemed to live much by the Rules.  It rather seems that the kind of giving Paul is advocating is a very different kind: 

• Sow bountifully!  
• Give well! 
• Share abundantly! 
• Be generous! 
• Be eager to share!
• Give even when it costs something (maybe especially!).  
• Excel at such giving!

This may not seem like not good financial advice.  It sounds extravagant, reckless.  Not prudent, not cautious, maybe even in good Presbyterian terms neither decent nor in good order.  Good!  Rather, it is so counter-cultural, whether within the church or outside.  Counter-cultural, counterintuitive to the point of blowing our minds. 

So could we just dream a little bit this morning?  What if generosity…of money, of time, of spirit…was a distinguishing characteristic of the church?  Of our church?  Of our own lives?  Would someone look at your life, your family, our church community and say, “they are so generous!?”

In general, it’s not happening in America.  I don’t need to read you a bunch of statistics to know that the gap between rich and poor has widened exponentially.  That 35 million people live below our established poverty line, that millions upon millions have no health care available.  That whether you are a have or have-not is tied mostly to race.  That the perceived “needs” of American homes, in terms of square footage, have doubled in the last generation. Nor do I probably need to tell you that the U.S. government is one of the industrialized nations lowest in terms of giving to aid other countries, as a percentage of GNP.  It’s just a fact: Much of the world goes without bare necessities while we live in extreme luxury.  It’s the way it is.

In general, it’s not happening in the American church.  The exception, I was reminded this morning, may be the church’s wonderful response to rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.  But in general…we’re not there. The average American Christian gives 2.8 percent of income.  We’re busy building huge entertainment facilities and enormous parking lots.  I get at least a call a week from companies specializing in financing church building projects.   
At Bethany we work hard each year to increase our budget for stretching beyond our own walls by ½ percent or so.  We’re doing some good work with folks hungry or homeless on Wednesday Night.  There is a boat in Kenya that Bethany provided to partner in the AIDS work there, and we are supporting kids.  There are Bethany people traveling all over this summer who will get a bird’s eye view of the way the majority of people in the world live, and it is my prayer they will bring that back to us.  But in many ways I think we’ve only scratched the surface.

Generosity.  It’s not just money.  It’s time.  It’s attention.  I find myself hearing more and more about the need to set personal boundaries, about the prevalence of what they call “compassion burnout.”  Certainly no one person can do everything; it’s why we are in community, arms linked with others.  But I don’t think compassion burnout is the problem most of us have.  I think most of the American church suffers from giving out of what is left over after we’ve done the things we want to do. 

Yes, we can be overwhelmed by too many needs in the city, in the country, in the world.  I know it is exhausting to have people and organizations constantly asking for time or money.  I find myself understanding all that, and yet wondering if we really have spent ourselves.  Have we given it our best shot?

I wonder how the way I live possibly fits with Jesus saying,

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it…but whoever loses his life for me will find it.  What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” 

Would Jesus say to me, to us…“you’ve been generous?”

John Perkins has been doing economic redevelopment work and working for racial reconciliation for 40 years in this country.  Our youth group was able to be with John last summer in Jackson, Mississippi, where he met with them for Bible studies each morning.  Our high schoolers are reading one of his books, Beyond Charity, before going on this summer’s mission trip.  In it, Perkins describes the attributes of an “authentic church.”   One of these reads,

“The authentic church spends lavishly on the needy.”

He quotes Robert Lupton: 

“The church is the only institution which, without irresponsibility, can expend all its resources on great and lavish outbursts of compassion.  It is ordained to give itself away, yet without loss…to preserve its (own) life…is to lose it."

Are we living generously?  What keeps us from doing that?  As people?  As a community? 

What are we afraid of?

That we won’t be seen as a success? Because if we invest our time in things of the kingdom, we really won’t be able to do all the other things we’re trying to do. 

What are we afraid of? 

That we’ll be out of balance?  My whole life I’ve felt like I’m trying to live a balanced life.  Is that the lavish generosity that God calls us to? 

What am I afraid of?   

Am I afraid of lowering my lifestyle?  Or of not being acknowledged for choosing to live on less than I could?  Are we afraid that if we gave more generously…we would lose
our ability to be givers?  Is that really our problem?  Or maybe we’re afraid that if we’re generous it would be too costly?  I wondered out loud all week if the time or money we give needs to cost us something in order to even qualify as generosity.  Is it enough to give out of abundance, or what is left over?

The interesting thing about Paul’s urging the Corinthians toward generosity is that there is no “thou shalt,” no guilt trip, no shame.  His appeal in 2 Corinthians is threefold, and may give us some surprising motivation for generosity. 

Why give?  In his situation with the Corinthians, Paul’s urge for the offering of generosity he wished the church to deliver was a sign of unity that could help bind the two wings of the church together, Jews and Gentiles.  He found it imperative that the church…be the church.  So our giving draws believers together…and shows others the effect of the gospel.  The effect of the gospel showed up in lives transformed when the church became one.

A pagan emperor in the 4th century tried to stamp out Christianity.  His name was “Julian the Apostate,” yet when he wrote to a friend even he had to admit “that the godless Galileans [Christians] feed not only their poor but ours also.”  What an amazing testimony.  A testimony of generosity.  And the effects of the church working together inevitably draws people towards Christ.

Why give?  Out of response to need.  The poor in Jerusalem were in need.  The poor in Seattle are in need.  The guy who hangs out on the corner at Starbucks going through the trash can is in need.  The kids living on the street are in need.  Many who come to the Wednesday Night Dinners are in need.  Hundreds of million in the world are in need.  

• Of money. 
• Work. 
• Meaning. 
• Friendship. 

We give as a response to the need.  That’s pretty plain.  What we have to guard against is that we don’t avoid it by simply living in places and ways where we don’t see the need…or the needy.

Why give?  The biggest reason: Out of response to Christ.  

“I want you to excel in this generous undertaking,” Paul tells the Corinthians.  “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor…” (2 Cor 8:9).

Ultimately, we won’t give, or at least not generously…until we understand what we’ve been given in Christ.  In another place (Eph 1:7), Paul will say,

“In Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.”  

Do we have to give?  How much?  How often?  They just seem like the wrong questions.  We receive the grace of God, it moves us to respond in gratitude…by giving to others.  And what happens?  God is glorified.  You

“glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others…”  Or “Your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” 

Not grudgingly.  Not under compulsion.  Not with strings attached. Not so we’ll be rewarded. But simply out of response.

Generosity:  What’s it look like?  I tried to look for pictures this week, small things because the need of the world really can be overwhelming to the point of paralysis.

I think it looks like a friend of mine who washes dishes one night every single week at a dinner for homeless folks.  Generous with time.

It looks like some friends I know who are intentionally living far below their means for the sake of having more to give away. 

It looks like someone paying for an apartment for a friend who is homeless. Generous with money. 

On my sabbatical last fall I went to visit three mentors of mine, asking that I could have coffee three mornings in a row with each of them.  They are busy writing books, running schools; I didn’t want to take up their time.  Instead they lavished me with several hours each day, hikes,  dinners together, morning walks.  Generous with time.

It looks like this story from a book called Messy Spirituality by Mike Yaconelli, the now deceased Youth Specialties leader, about a friend of his named Greg who was 28 years old. Greg’s parents were concerned with some bad choices he was making, including the decision to live with his girlfriend, Diane.  After some time, Greg and Diane decided to go ahead and get married, and started to plan the wedding…only to find out that she was pregnant.  They decided to call off the big wedding and use the money they had set aside on their new baby…so they went with just two friends to the courthouse to get married.

A few months later, some of Greg and Diane’s friends were together talking about the “non-wedding” event, bemoaning that it was impersonal and isolated.  They decided to surround them with celebration and care. 

So they went into elaborate planning, drawing 60 people into the secret.  They tricked Greg and Diane into coming to a “dress up” dinner, then kidnapped them to take each to the “bachelor” or “bachelorette” party neither had had.  When those parties were done, Greg and Diane thought the surprise was over.  Imagine their shock when they arrived back at the house and discovered 60 people yelling “surprise!”  They moved to the backyard, surrounded by flowers, for an exchange of vows, parents voicing support and then each friend walking by to whisper them a blessing.  There wasn’t a dry eye anywhere.  It was a Jesus moment, a moment of grace.

It was over the top, extravagant, bountiful.  It required tons of time from lots of people, and financial expenses to pull it all off.  Grace had been lavished.  It glorified God.  It was, in a word, generous.

Paul is giving the church some of its first instructions, its first marching orders.  What kind of community should you be?   A community of generosity.