Dear Rose Park,
For the next two Sunday’s we’re going to be talking about generosity. I imagine some of you just shifted in your seats or even raised your eyebrows at the thought of talking about money in the church. First, when we talk about generosity we are not merely talking about our finances. Second, it seems to me that if we avoid the subject of giving our time, energy and resources then we allow for a variety of other sources to dictate our view and posture. In other words, we must talk about generosity if we truly desire to love Christ with heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves.
In 2015, Western Theological Seminary and Words of Hope published a two-week devotional entitled Living Generously written by RCA Pastor and author Jeff Munroe. At the time Jeff was the Vice President of Operations and Advancement at Western Theological Seminary. Now, Jeff spends a majority of his time writing for the Reformed Journal and cheering on the Detroit Tigers.
I have a copy of Living Generously in my study at the church; it’s filled with highlighter and notes in the margins from cover to cover. It is a beautiful and convicting message, one that needs to be communicated over and over. For a multitude of reasons we have adopted a consumer mentality. We work more hours to earn more money to buy more things and in order to buy more things we need more money so we need to work more hours, and the endless cycle continues. Beyond our finances, we have become reticent to give of our time and energy because our knee jerk question is: what do I get in return? Even in our faith with God and our relationship to the Church we struggle to give generously because we have turned it into a transactional relationships. We have adopted the consumer mentality so much that we have forgotten how much God has given us and how we are called to give to others.
On day 13 of Living Generously, Munroe shares this story: A friend was building an orphanage in Haiti. On every visit he was followed by groups of begging children. Even though they moved him to pity, he was told it wouldn’t help the kids to give them money. He was also told not to give them food, since he would need to eat to have the strength to complete his building project. One particular kid caught his eye and one day my friend decided to bend the rules. He called the boy away from the others and covertly slipped him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. ‘I can’t save all these kids,’ my friend thought, ‘but I can give one of them a sandwich, and I’m going to do that.’ My friend then watched in stunned silence as the boy walked back to the group of his begging friends and broke his sandwich into about 20 small pieces, so that everyone could have a bite. It doesn’t take wealth to be generous, it takes a tender heart.
From Genesis to Revelation we are called to a life of generosity; sharing our time, talents, and resources as an act of worship in order to build up the Kingdom of God. I hope you’ll join us for these next two Sunday’s with a profound sense of humility so that the posture of our hearts and minds might be remolded by the word written and the Word made flesh.
Grace & Peace,
