Abundance, Gratitude and Generosity
By Charles F. Johnson, guest preacher
November 19, 2000
Luke 17: 11-19
e lie of the
devil and of our culture is that you do not have enough.
A mentality of scarcity and inadequacy
stunts the growth of a mature and faithful steward.
If we think that what we have is not enough, and that we must
strive for more and more, we will never be able to cultivate the mentality of
abundance required for us to give.
I
know folks who have very little money who nevertheless operate out of an
abundance mentality, giving happily and generously to others.
And I know people with vast financial
resources who are not rich toward God because they have concluded that they
must defensively horde what they have.
Abundance has nothing to do with how much is in your bank balance; it
has everything to do with what's in your heart.
This is why
Scripture is insistent in communicating that we always have enough. The message of the Bible is that there is
plenty to go around for everyone, because of the graciousness of God. Let's do a quick run-down of the biblical
teaching of abundance. Starting in the
OT, God created the garden of the world and gave every living thing for our
sustenance, commanding us to subdue this garden of exotic delight, to have
dominion over the whole panoply of creation.
What a gift! No sooner had we
occupied the planet when we began to let scarcity creep in, causing us to doubt
God's innate goodness and generosity, and leading us to want something that was
not ours to have, namely the very knowledge of God. But God, who operates by the truth of abundance, always has a
Plan B. As the story of revelation
unfolds, God chooses a nobody of a race as his very chosen people, to
illustrate that even the forgotten of the world really are chosen after
all. Then God provides this people a
land, rich and flowing “with milk and honey.”
Later, when they are enslaved, he frees them, because this is just what
a God of abundance does. As they make
their way to their inheritance, he provides them everything they need for 40
years, manna from heaven. Later, vastly
outnumbered by enemy forces, God provides his people the faith and courage to
overcome ridiculous odds. In a real
sense, the Hebrews conquer their land through a young shepherd boy armed with a
slingshot and five smooth stones. At
the time of the exile, when things started to fall apart, God replaced tangible
abundance connected to the ritual of life of the cultus, with spiritual blessings
connected to real faith and life in him.
Because we always have enough.
Always.
This
faith culminated in the person of Jesus who is the Christ. Born to a peasant girl, Jesus is identified
as the Messiah, the “long awaited One,” and Mary is elevated to a position of
eternal and universal prominence. Mary
and Joseph taught Jesus the truths of abundance. As he began his ministry he stood up in the Temple in Jerusalem
and proclaimed that even the poor, the blind, the imprisoned and the
brokenhearted are now an integral part of the Good News, that the day of
Jubilee has come even to them. As he
continued to preach and teach, he developed brilliantly the mentality of
abundance. When the devil tempted Jesus
to conclude that he didn't have enough, that he must turn stones into bread, Jesus
rebuked Satan, reminding him that he has daily bread, but even that tangible
resource is not exclusively sufficiently for a full life. But what about those who mourn? Jesus said they are blessed. Even if you are poor, meek, thirsty, or
persecuted you are still blessed. If
you find yourself with only five loaves and two fish, the meager supplies will
be multiplied. If you have only one
talent, that is more than enough if you will get busy applying it. Even if you start laboring in the vineyard
an hour before quitting time, you will be paid the same as everyone else,
including those who started at dawn.
When you commence your journey of discipleship, you don't have to pick a
lot of stuff, because folks will receive you along the way with hospitality and
grace, and, in the rare event that they do not, just move on to the next
place. It is perfectly fine for you to
give away your coat, your cloak, even the other side of your face because the
whole rule of God is yours. You just
think you are ill and diseased—pick up your bed and walk. Even people as marginalized as children in
this strange and wonderful rule are placed at the center of things. The lame, the halt, the blind? There's a place reserved for them at the
table. Don't store up treasures on
earth where thieves pillage and moths corrupt—that's not what abundance is
about. Don't worry yourself about what
you are going to eat or wear. All of
this will take care of itself in the goodness and grace of God. Just seek first God's rule and everything
else will fall into place. And in the
end, if folks are dead set on destroying you, you can forgive them. It's yours to give. After all, you have everything. There is nothing you lack.
Many people
never understand this. A rich man on
his deathbed called his doctor, his minister, and his lawyer to meet with
him. When they all arrived, the dying
man said, “I know I'm going to die soon, and all my life people have lectured
me that one day I would die, and I couldn't take my money with me! Well, I am going to prove them wrong! I'm giving each of you one million dollars
in cash. Just before I'm buried, I want
each of you to slip the million dollars into my coffin.” Sure enough, the man died the next day. After the services the doctor, minister, and
the lawyer sat down together. The
minister started the conversation saying, “I must confess I was taken by greed
and only put three quarters of his money in the coffin.” Then the doctor confessed, “I understand,
Reverend, I too was overcome with greed and I only put $500,000 in the
coffin.” Whereupon the lawyer
responded, “I'm ashamed of both of you.
How could you have not respected the last wishes of a dying man?” Both the minister and the doctor looked at
him in awe until the lawyer finished with, “I put in a check for the full
amount!”
Gratitude
determines what you get in life. No
matter what the objective level of your income, whether or not you are grateful
will determine whether or not you have abundance.
Two
kinds of birds fly over the California deserts—the hummingbird and the
vulture. All the vulture sees is
rotting meat because that's what it is wanting. The hummingbird ignores the carcasses and decaying flesh of dead
animals and looks instead for the tiny blossoms of the cactus flowers. It buzzes around until it finds the colorful
blooms almost hidden from view by the rocks.
Each bird finds what it is seeking.
Like
the buzzard and the hummingbird, we find that for which we look. When we look for good in people, we find it;
when we look for humor in life, we find it; when we look for examples of God's
goodness and grace, we find them.
We
have it pretty good in this country. We
only comprise 6% of the world's resources, but we possess 40% of the world's
wealth. Unemployment and inflation are
the lowest in a quarter century.
Mortgage rates are near record lows for the past 30 years. Our industrial production is 125% higher
than it was in 1970. We now have a
strong African-American middle class, something the press doesn't report. The percentage of African-Americans living
below the poverty line is lower than ever.
And our health is as strong as our wealth. Cancer rates are down after an all time high in the early 90's,
falling about 1% a year. The heart
disease death rate fell 28% from 1987 to 1997.
Life expectancy is now 77 years, up from 54 in 1920. We have it good in the good ole USA. (“Something Good About America,” Reader's
Digest, June 1999, pp. 174-180)
There
is a story about a religious devotee who spent day and night in study and
meditation. He wouldn't even pause to
eat when he should. “What is your
rush?” asked his spiritual mentor. “I'm
seeking enlightenment,” said the student.
“I have no time to waste.” “And
how do you know” asked the master, “that enlightenment is running on before
you, so that you have to rush after it?
Perhaps it is behind you, and all you need to encounter it is to stand
still, but you are running away from it!”
Sometimes even in our spirituality we burn ourselves out striving for
what we already have.
Maybe
that leper of Jesus' famous story can teach us something here. Nine lepers were cured, but they weren't
healed. Ten were miraculously cured of
leprosy, but one of the ten was a Samaritan.
He was a man living with a double curse; he was unclean because of his
leprosy but he was also unclean because he was a Samaritan. And it was this man, this religious outcast,
who, in a spontaneous act of gratitude, returned to offer thanks and praise to
God. This Samaritan was the only one
who was as loud in his offer of praise and thanksgiving as he was in his cry
for mercy. The Gospel teaches us that
it was this unclean Samaritan outcast who was privileged to hear Jesus say, “Go
in peace… your faith has made you well!”
The Greek word which is translated “made you well” is the verb sozo,
and sozo can be properly translated as “healed” or “made well” or
“saved.” So, we might conclude from
this story of salvation that ten were cured but only one was healed. Ten were cured, but only one was “made well”
at the core and center of his being, a wellness that involved every dimension
of his life, total wellness. Ten were
cured but only one (and this one an unclean Samaritan outcast) was saved. This powerful story of salvation reminds us
of a powerful Gospel truth: it is
possible to be cured without being healed, without being made well, without
being saved.
I
believe this grateful leper, despised in two ways—not only did he have leprosy,
but he was also a Samaritan—was remembered by Jesus in another teaching. Could he have been the famous ‘Good
Samaritan' of Jesus' classic story? I
have no evidence that he was. But it
makes perfect sense. Gratitude shaped
this leper's existence. When he saw the
dying man in the ditch that day, he thought, “I've been there. I've been left alone, destitute. But one day, a special man healed me. I'm going to provide healing for this victim
too.”
Two
men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for
an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only
window. The other man had to spend all
his time flat on his back. The men
talked for hours on end. They spoke of
their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the
military service, even where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed
by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his
roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for
those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all
the activity and color of the world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their
model boats. Young lovers walked arm in
arm. Flowers of every color graced the
park. Grand old trees graced the
landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the
distance. As the man by the window described
all this in detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes
and imagine the scene. One warm
afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn't hear the
band, he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window
portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed in similar fashion. One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths
only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died
peacefully in his sleep. She was
saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. The other man eventually recuperated. As he steadily improved, he asked if he
could be moved next to the window. The
nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable,
she left him alone. Slowly, painfully,
he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world
outside. Finally, he would have the joy
of seeing it for himself. He strained
to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank concrete wall.
The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate
to describe such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded, “Why talk about a drab
wall when you've got the whole wide wonderful world to celebrate.”
It
is this attitude of abundance and gratitude that produces generosity. Two stories of generosity come to mind,
representing two ends of the economic spectrum—but similar levels of commitment
and generosity. A man called me two
weeks ago and said, “Charlie, my wife and I have really been praying about our
pledge. We have listened to your
sermons, and your newsletters. We feel
very positive about our church's ministry at this time, and that now is the
time for us to really step up and out on faith in our giving. We are pledging $75,000 for our ministry
next year.” After Jana came in the room
and revived me with smelling salts, I managed to respond with a weak, “Thank
you.” But the man said, “Don't thank
us. Thank God.” A young, single parent with a beautiful
little child hunted all over the church until she found me. She needed a pledge card, which we had
failed to mail to her. As I handed it
to her I gave my standard speech to our young mothers who are raising families
on very limited incomes, about how God doesn't expect her to give much, and
almost apologizing for calling her to pledge, almost saying that God didn't
mean her, etc. She looked me in
the eye and said, “This is between me and God.
I have to pledge. I find that
when I give my money regularly, every time I get my paycheck, that my financial
affairs somehow fall into place.” Her
little boy is blessed to have a powerful model of generosity in this mother.
So
we come back to you today asking for your money. We ask a lot, don't we?
It really is true that we talk about money a great deal. We stand guilty as accused. But that's our job. The church asks us for money so that we can
remember our deep need to give it! Fred
Craddock, a noted Methodist preacher, tells the story of how unlikely it is
that he become a minister, because his father never went to church at all. Through the years pastors repeatedly visited
Mr. Craddock, Sr. but would always be met with the same response: “All you folks want down there at that church
is my money. You want another name and
another pledge. Right? Isn't that the business you're in?” (Quoted
in a sermon by George Mason, Wilshire Baptist Church, October 12, 1997)
Well,
yes. Again, guilty as charged. Because what does the church exist for if
not to impart the principle of generosity and impact lives with the freedom to
give? Simply put, our wealth is a
burden too great to bear. Only in
sharing our wealth and celebrating the freedom to give can we find true meaning
and happiness, and when Americans finally realize this, we will stop measuring
our worth by how much we get and start measuring it by how much we give away.
Forbes
magazine publishes an annual list of the 400 richest Americans. Last year, you had to have a net worth (what
a peculiar term!) of $475 million to make this year's list, up from $400
million in 1997. Of course, Bill Gates
of computer fame topped the list at $39.8 billion, more than double his last
year's income and more than the Gross National Product of all of Central
America. Now, as you might imagine I
would do, I did some calculating. It's
none of my business, but I wanted to determine how close to a tithe Bill Gates
gets to in his charitable giving. The
results are pretty impressive. Last
year Forbes reported Gates' net worth to be around $40 billion, doubling
from the previous year. If we calculate
it doubling again this year, that puts it around the $80 billion, making him
the world's richest person. In February
of this past year, the A-J reported that he gave $3.3 billion to his
foundation, which is dedicated to the fight against AIDS throughout the
world. In August, the Wall Street
Journal reported another $6 billion gift for minority scholarships. $10 billion plus in charitable giving. Not bad, Bill. Not bad at all.
And
you? What about your identity? How much are you worth? No, not the accounts they keep at the bank
that record what you have. But the
accounts God and the saints keep in heaven that record what you give away.
Greed
costs far too much. Locating our worth
in what we have rather than in what we give away is far too costly. There is something about generosity that
liberates us—and something about selfishness and stinginess that keeps us in
bondage. That is why the law of giving
is always seen in Scripture not as a legalism, but as a great grace: because giving frees us, liberates us to new
life. Greed is simply a burden far too
great for us to bear.
Annanias
and Sapphira are two ill-fated misers who have to learn this lesson the hard
way. As you remember, after Pentecost,
the requirement of Christians in giving was not a paltry 10% but
everything. All lands, houses, and
possessions were held in communal ownership by the apostles. Now, this communism didn't last long, but it
was attempted at the outset. (So, next
time we are feeling put upon by the biblical model of 10%, be thankful this
100% model didn't last very long!)
Annanias sells a piece of property and, with his wife's consent,
withholds some of the proceeds from the church. Peter, who now has uncanny insight into things, confronts
Annanias for claiming to dedicate all his resources to God and
then withholding part of his proceeds, Annanias hears Peter's prophetic confrontation,
then, lo and behold, falls down and dies right there on the spot! Sapphira comes in about three hours later,
hears Peter's confrontation, then falls down and dies herself. As one of our children put it, Annanias
keeps money from God and dies.
That's it in a nutshell. Such a
dramatic event is beyond rational explanation, but I think it is a darkly comic
episode, the early church's version of “Pulp Fiction,” sort of a hyperbolic
morality tale. Moral? Spend more energy holding on to your money
than giving it away… and it will kill you.
Any cardiologist in Lubbock will tell you that.
Our
Lord knows that our real worth consists not in what we garner of life's riches,
but in what we give away. Jesus tells a
story of a rich fool who, instead of sharing his wealth, spends all his time
and energy building bigger barns to contain it until one day his very soul is
required of him, and he dies. Jesus
tells another story of a rich man who wouldn't feed poor Lazarus the scraps
from his table, and one day he dies.
Jesus tells of a rich young ruler searching for eternal life but, upon
hearing it has something to do with his money, turns away sad, and, at least
spiritually, dies. Because greed will
kill you. The burden of withholding our
money is simply too much to bear.
So
the church asks for you to give it away.
Proportionally, regularly, gratefully, prayerfully, generously, gladly,
give it away. Because the church, this
church, wants you to live, really live.
We want you to know that the meaning of your life is not in what you
possess, but in what you give away.
And, once again, on this Pledge Sunday, we ask for your money.
A
poignant story is told of a layman who volunteered to make some calls for the
church during the every member canvas for the budget. He was somewhat shocked at how many people would say, “Every time
somebody comes to see us from the church they are asking for money.” His last call was at the home of a
businessman he knew well. Sure enough,
he had not been there three minutes until the man said: “It looks like every time someone from the
church comes, they want money.” He
said: “Let me tell you a story. Twenty-five years ago my wife and I had twin
children, a boy and a girl. We loved
our children but it nearly wiped out all our savings to keep them fed and
clothed and educated. Every time I
turned around it was ‘Daddy, I need this, or Daddy I need that.' I worked day and night to earn enough to
educate them. It was a terrible
burden.” He went on to say: “As you know, both of my children were
killed in an automobile accident four years ago. Since then they have not cost me one penny. They do not nag me for money any more. My wife and I have saved thousands of
dollars since their deaths. But, I
would give that—and as much as I could borrow, if I could hear one of those
children say, ‘Daddy, I need a new pair of shoes, or I have to have money for
tuition this semester.' For the last
four years they have not cost me a cent.”
(As told by the Rev. Thomas Butts, First United Methodist Church,
Monroeville, AL)
When
this church is no longer viable in this community, when its mission is over,
when people no longer convene here to learn of God's love, when the hurting and
bereaved and lonely and lost no longer come here for a word of hope, then we
will never ask you to give another dollar.
We won't bother you anymore.
Because only a church alive asks for money.
The
last time Fred Craddock saw his father; the man was down to 74 pounds, living
out his last days in a veteran's hospital, tube in his trachea enabling him to
breathe. When Fred arrived at the
hospital room there were flowers and cards and potted plants all over the
otherwise drab place, and every last one of them was from the church—the church
old Mr. Craddock rejected his entire life.
The Men's Bible Class, the youth group, the children's Sunday school
classes, the Women's' Missionary Guild, and every other conceivable
organization in the church had sent some tangible assurance to Mr. Craddock
that their prayers were with him.
Fred's father saw him looking at the cards, and, unable to speak, picked
up a pencil and wrote on the side of a Kleenex box a line from Hamlet: “in this harsh world, draw your breath in
pain and tell my story.” Fred read the
line from Shakespeare, then turned to his father, searched his eyes and asked,
“What story, Dad?” Old Mr. Craddock
took the Kleenex box in hand again and wrote, “Tell them I was wrong. I was wrong.”
So,
yes, God does want your money. And, he
wants you. Beautiful, flawed, broken,
mysterious and wonderful you. Give more
than your money. Give yourself.
Amen.
