Community Church Sermons

Year C

September 29, 2013

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gracious Giving

2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

There isn’t ever a time in the life of the church when there is more discomfort than at Stewardship time! We pastors are uncomfortable because we quite honestly don’t like to talk about money – and yet we have to. People in the pews are uncomfortable because we don’t like to hear about money from the pulpit – and yet we have to. Money – and the giving of it – is a central part of Christian discipleship.

Scholars say that of all the teachings of Jesus recorded in the Bible, 25% of them are about giving. One-fourth. That would be like me preaching about giving one Sunday every month. Wouldn’t you love that?

I wouldn’t!

But why do you suppose Jesus said so much about money and giving?

Well, because giving is healthy!

In our greed-dominated world, we often don’t appreciate the importance of giving – and the difference it makes in the life of the one who gives. Imagine a farmer whose barns are full of seed. He would never think of not planting the seed. Why? Because seeds planted produce crops, and good crops produce healthy returns. Think of an artist whose studio contains lots of paint and brushes and canvas. She would never think of not using these tools because painting produces works of art, and works of art bring joy and meaning to both the artist and the one who appreciates the painting.

Christian giving is like that.

It is built on the rock-solid spiritual principle that giving is a healthy way of living that produces good things that keep on giving!

So Jesus said, “Give and you will (what?)…receive.” And what you will receive is more than you gave! The apostle Paul said, “The person who sows sparingly reaps sparingly, but the person who sows generously reaps generously.”

That’s the way God has wired the world. It is a spiritual principle that’s at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.

Christians give.

But we don’t give the way the world gives.

We give the way Jesus gave.

To be a Christian is to live as Christ lived. And when it comes to giving, this is how St. Paul describes how Jesus gave. It’s 2 Cor. 8:9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Christian giving calls us to practice the way of Christ – becoming poor so that others through our poverty may be made rich.

“…though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Notice that this passage is not specifically about money. It is about giving, and this kind of sacrificial giving applies to all of life.

I don’t know if you had a chance to watch the ESPN special this week about the Manning family – Archie and Olivia Manning and their three sons Cooper, Peyton and Eli. It is a WONDERFUL program that is more about what it means to be good people than it is about football.

In the summer between his sophomore and junior years at Ole Miss, Archie Manning’s father committed suicide. Archie was the one who found him. With his father’s death, Archie lost so much. They had shared the joy of football, but now there was no father with whom to share that joy – or any of the other joys of life. There was a huge hole left in his life. Archie missed his dad terribly.

You all probably know that Archie went on to a fantastic career as a quarterback at Ole Miss, was the #2 pick in the NFL draft, and played a lot of years for the New Orleans Saints. The Saints were terrible in those days. Never had a winning season. But as his son Cooper told it, when Archie came home after a game you’d never know they lost because he just threw himself into loving his sons. We learn in this program that Archie Manning’s goal in life became being a good father to his boys. He wanted them to have the father that he never had. Avoiding the temptation to bask in his own fame or to groom them into his own image, Archie poured himself into enabling his sons to become the people they wanted to be. And unlike his dad who did not know how to express affection, Archie hugged and kissed his kids and told them he loved them every chance he got.

And that’s the point: Archie lowered himself in order to lift up his sons. When Cooper’s career as a wide receiver ended because of a health problem, Archie encouraged him to find a new path. When Peyton decided to come to Tennessee instead of Ole Miss, all of Mississippi wanted to string up Archie for letting him do that! But Peyton had to follow his own path. So Archie supported his son, despite the boos from Mississippi. And when Eli went to Ole Miss and in his freshman year got arrested for public intoxication, Archie made sure he owned up to it, apologized for it, and learned from it. There was a lot of public embarrassment for the Manning family, but Archie stood by his boy and made sure Eli knew that his dad still loved him.

For me, one of the real poignant moments in the film is at the Heisman Trophy Award Ceremony in 1997 when Michigan’s Charles Woodson beat out Peyton for the prize. This was a shocking surprise to many. All year long Peyton had been the favorite to win the Heisman. People from Tennessee still say he was robbed – or worse! But the whole Manning family surrounded Charles Woodson and congratulated him. There is a tender scene where Olivia Manning hugs Charles’ mother and offers her heartfelt congratulations.

If you were a Manning, that must have hurt. But because they ARE Mannings, they let go of the hurt, and swallowed their pride, and helped lift up Charles Woodson and his family to their moment of joy.

Do you see the principle at work?

“…though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

Christian giving is about lifting up others.

With our words. With our actions. With our prayers. With our work. With our relationships. With our values.

And – yes - with our money.

Just as Jesus gave us the grace of his life, we are called to do the same.

Listen to this instruction given the early church: “See to it that you also excel in the GRACE of giving!”

That means knowing that your giving is an act of GRACE! It’s not just the exchange of a commodity – not just a donation – not just a tax deduction.

Giving is an act of GRACE that carries with it the power of God!

And one day – the Bible promises - you’ll know the harvest that your giving produced.

At the end of the movie “Schindler’s List” we are taken to a graveyard in Jerusalem where a man named Oskar Schindler is buried. He requested to be buried there among the people he’d come to love. Years earlier – during the time of the Holocaust – Schindler was an ethnic German living in Poland. He was a member of the Nazi party, decorated by Hitler himself for loyal service. He owned a factory in Poland that manufactured mess kits for the Germans and became quite wealthy. But his life forever changed when he saw the brutality against Jews in the Krakow ghetto, and the creation of death camps there and in Auschwitz. Schindler started using all his wealth and influence to save the lives of thousands of Jews. He did it by using all his wealth and resources to hire Jewish workers for his factories whether they were needed or not. It’s estimated that Schindler spent more than a million dollars to save them. At one point after the war was over, he discovered that he still owned an automobile that had been awarded him by none other than Adolph Hitler. Schindler wept openly when he realized it. He wondered how many more lives could have been saved if he’d sold that car.

Well, the movie ends with a procession of Schindler’s Jews to the graveyard in Jerusalem where he is buried. Each one places a pebble upon the marker, a traditional Jewish way of expressing gratitude to one who has given the gift of grace.

“…though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”

The Bible promises that no gift is forgotten, and that every gift is remembered.

Have you ever wondered who will place pebbles of gratitude upon the marker of your life?