A sermon preached by the Rev. Scott D.
Nowack on November 13, 2011
at First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore,
Texas.
“Overcoming
Obstacles: God Loves a Hilarious Giver”
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
You’re home. It’s dinner time. You and your family are gathered around the table ready to enjoy a delicious meal when suddenly, out of nowhere, the phone rings. You get up from your seat to answer the phone. Who is it? It’s not Uncle Jerry or your cousin Tom. It’s not a friend from church. It’s the dreaded call from a telemarketer, who after a long pause and mispronouncing your name or worse yet calls you by someone else’s name and yet still wants to talk to you, wants you to give financial support to dig water wells in Africa, to pledge support for your alma mater, or give money to support the Fraternal Order of Police.
If you ever find yourself in this situation and you are anything like me, you are not very happy about this interruption. And if you’re the person on the other end of the line, you’re not going to be real happy with what I’m about to say and do; with my response to your call.
All of us are constantly approached for financial help whether by phone, letters, emails, text messages, or personal invitations. We want your money is their battle cry. And we get tired of hearing all the requests. We experience compassion fatigue after some time. We respond reluctantly to these requests, no matter how important they may be to us. Our response lacks generosity, compassion and joy.
Are you a reluctant giver or a cheerful/hilarious giver? I prefer hilarious over cheerful. The original Greek word translated as “cheerful” is the root for “hilarious”. I’m sticking with hilarious; an attitude of hilarious giving.
The Apostle Paul offers us some principles of hilarious giving in our text today.
The first is that nobody who ever lived was a loser because he was generous. The classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, plays on this theme through the characters of George Bailey and Mr. Potter. George, like his dad before him, was compassionate and generous treating people with respect and dignity. Mr. Potter was painted as a warped, frustrated old man who treated people not like people but like cattle. When we invest in others, we will receive a significant return on our investment. A hilarious giver reaps what they sow.
One day an angry little boy ran around his village shouting, “I hate you! I hate you!” No one knew quite how to respond to him.
Eventually
the little boy ran to the edge of a steep cliff and shouted into the valley, “I
hate you! I hate you!”
Back from the valley came an echo: “I hate you! I hate you!”
Startled at
this, the boy ran home. With tears in his eyes, he told his mother that there
was a mean little boy in the valley who shouted at him, “I hate you! I hate
you!”
His mother took the boy back to the cliff and told him to shout, “I love you! I love you!”
When he did, back came the reply: “I love you! I love you!”
From that day
on, the little boy wasn’t angry anymore.
When we give hate, we receive hate in return. When we give love, we receive love in return. We reap what we sow.
Giving is like sowing a seed, just as our scripture passage describes: “The one who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. The one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.” Giving affects the giver. If we practice generosity, God promises to change us and enrich our lives. The enrichment is not material. It doesn’t promise the wealth of things, but the wealth of the heart and spirit. We are made in rich in love. We are made rich in friends.
At the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the angel Clarence leaves a copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” with George Bailey with the inscription: “Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence”.
We are made rich in help: help we give to others and the help others give to us. And we are made rich toward God. What we do for others, the Bible says, we do for God. Jesus says, “When you did it for the least of these, you did it unto me.”
The second principle of a hilarious giver is that it is the happy giver whom God loves and favors most. God desires for us to replace the grumbling giving with hilarious giving. When we do, this is where the healing in our lives begins.
The October 2011 issue of Presbyterians Today features a story about a ninety-year old retired Presbyterian minister and missionary named Arch Taylor.[1] According to the story, giving has become a way of life; a life lived in a constant state of thankfulness.
Upon retirement, Mr. Taylor inherited a sizeable inheritance from his father. When he realized that his Social Security and pension provided sufficient funds on which to live, he began to look for ways to give away the “extra”.
He shared this testimony of gracious giving through gracious living. “During the time my wife was suffering with cancer, the mission board paid all of our medical expenses and they were generous in every way,” he says. Mr. Taylor also remembered the full scholarship he received to attend Louisville Seminary graduating without any seminary debt. So when it was time to give to a charitable cause, he gave to Presbyterian World Mission and Louisville Seminary.
“It’s not our money; it’s not their money; it’s the Lord’s money,” he says. “I believe in the Presbyterian Church and I want it to succeed and I want to support it in any way that I can.”
Mr. Taylor knows what it means to be a hilarious giver.
The third principle of hilarious giving from the Apostle Paul is that God can give each of us, like he has done with Mr. Arch Taylor, both the substance to give and the spirit in which to give it. Paul writes in verses eight that God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (2 Cor. 9:8) What is Paul saying here? He’s not describing someone who has all kinds of material things in abundance: a thousand acre ranch, an S-Class Mercedes, a home in the Hamptons, etc.. Rather, it describes a state of independence, independence from material things. It’s a life based on not amassing possessions but to eliminating needs. It describes the person who has taught themselves to be content with very little. It is obvious that such an individual will be able to give far more to others because they want so little for themselves. They are free to be a hilarious giver!
Are you a reluctant giver or a hilarious giver?
One of the greatest experiences of my life in ministry has been leading mission trips for youth, especially the first mission trip I ever led. The youth I worked with were the children of affluent, successful, driven parents. These kids were blessed with so many things and opportunities to grow and learn. They always had food to eat, a nice comfortable home to live in, they took exotic vacations and elaborate school trips. The sad thing was that many of them didn’t realize how good they had it and that there are so many youth who don’t have what they have.
So off to rural Maine we would go with our 50 plus high school students and 12 adults ready to enjoy a week of summer in Vacationland. The first night was always interesting to see how the youth reacted to their rustic accommodations. There was an outhouse for us to use. We slept in the boat restoration shop on the floor or on the third floor of the boat shop itself. We cooked our own meals. We did our own shopping. Every day the youth went out to various work sites to help the poor of the area, mostly elderly folks on fixed incomes and working poor families. They skirted trailers, built wheelchair ramps, replaced water heaters and toilets and all kinds of plumbing. They roofed homes, caulked and painted windows and siding. They did work that week they had never done before on their own homes.
Each day had a set routine: breakfast, morning prayer, off to work sites, return to the boat shop, bathe in the river, have dinner, worship and a bible lesson, small group time and bed. By the end of the week, new friendships are formed, old friendships are strengthened and restored. By the end of the week, each one of us experienced a joy we had never known before. At week’s end, many of the youth would testify that this was the greatest week of their life and because of what they experienced they saw life and their own life very differently. The youth and adults who spent that week serving others didn’t sow sparingly and reaped a small crop. They sowed bountifully and received a bountiful harvest. They changed the lives of those they touched and in turn their lives were changed forever. God loves a hilarious giver!
Are you a reluctant giver or a hilarious giver?
May God transform your heart to give bountifully to others, to ourselves and most importantly to God. May others see our good deeds, how we treat others and meet others at their point of need, and give God prayers of thanksgiving he rightly deserves. The glory found in the gift of God in Jesus Christ, a gift whose wonder can never be exhausted, whose story can never be fully told and whose grace and love is always present with us.
“Thanks be to God
for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15)
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