November 03, 2024
• Rev. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
November 3, 2024
All Saints’ Day
A Generous Life
Characteristic #1: We Are Blessed
Genesis 1:27-31; Deuteronomy 8:17-18; Matthew 6:26
Do you consider yourself well off?
Some years ago a study was conducted to see how much it takes for people to feel well off. Initially the study targeted people who had a total net worth of around $1 million. Few of these people said they felt well off. They said things like, “I’m doing alright, but I wouldn’t say I’m well off.” What the study found, at that time, was that people didn’t say they were well off until they were at the $7-8 million level in total assets.
So let me ask you, are you well off?
Pastor Mindie said that this idea reminded her of a time in college when she worked for a missions organization in Chicago. They would host youth groups from around the country for a week of inner-city service. Their in-take process involved finding out about the contexts of these churches.
Mindie said they realized that nearly every single church categorized themselves as being “middle class.” While this was sometimes true, they often found that some of the churches came from the wealthiest zip codes in the US, and in fact the congregations were among the most resource rich in the country. One student, for example, told Mindie he had a hobby of collecting flashlights, and most of them were worth hundreds of dollars each.
This isn’t a criticism of having wealth, it’s just a recognition that everyone can see themselves as not being well off. If it takes a certain amount of money to feel well off, then most people aren’t there. But what if “well-off” means something different? What if it means being in a position to help others? Seeing that you have enough to make a positive difference in the world? If so, then another study shows that people across all economic levels of life see themselves this way.
Now this study is not nearly as scientific or highly regarded as others. You see, I am the one who conducted this study. Over the past months I have heard back from various United Methodists here in St. Luke’s and around Indiana, and from other parts of the country, reflecting on the topic of generosity. These are people who practice generosity. They represent a wide range of economic levels. Their generosity is also not limited just to money. It is practiced in many ways.
I asked these people to share responses to a few simple questions like: How does your faith influence what you believe about generosity? What inspires you to be generous? What does generosity do for you?
Frankly, reading these answers has been like a faith building exercise for me. One example is what our district superintendent, Dr. Aleze Fulbright shared. Now I told people their responses would be kept anonymous, but Dr. Fulbright gave me permission to share part of hers. She said…
I think back on my journey as a late adolescent, unpartnered mother, raising my son, while going to college. I could have easily become a statistic, but it was through the generosity of others and government assistance that provided for my son and me during those times. As a response to the generosity of many, I feel it is my responsibility to share it forward, particularly with those who find themselves in the same circumstances as I was, and those who are societally undervalued. I have been richly blessed, and feel I must be a blessing to as many as I am able to encounter.
What I found is that when people start talking about generosity you learn about their story, who they are, what makes them the way they are. It’s a powerful thing.
So in this series, I have consolidated the answers people shared around three areas. We will consider these as three ingredients to a generous life and the first one we explore today is the belief that We Are Blessed. In some way most respondents shared an idea that the way their faith impacts their generosity is believing that everything they have is a gift from God.
Listen to a few comments I received:
“Because I believe I have been blessed with so much it is only faithful to give back…”
“None of what I have is mine. Everything is a blessing from God…”
“I believe my money and all my “stuff” is on loan from the God I love who has entrusted me with more blessings than I ever imagined.”
When we have this lender mentality, this idea that God is the owner loaning everything to us, we understand what it means to have a stewardship mentality. Steward simply means manager. We are managing God’s resources.
To see ourselves as stewards gives peace. It removes us from the rollercoaster of our own success. As long as we succeed and do well, then we have reason to be at peace. But when we don’t, or events happen beyond our control, suddenly we are fearful and wondering how we’re going to make it.
But to see ourselves as stewards is to believe that God is in charge. This is what the writer of Genesis establishes in the first chapter of the Bible. God created male and female and then it says, “God blessed them…” Before saying anything about what the human beings do, the Bible declares we are blessed, and names all that God has provided for us. When we know God is in charge, we don’t have to be.
You know, if the political banter of the past months is true, then after Tuesday half of our country will believe that the end is near. That’s what we’ve been led to think by both sides. “If the other one wins,” then the sky will fall. But people of faith should know better and live like we believe better. Kings and kingdoms come and go. And the most important vote we ever cast is the ballot in favor of the kingdom of God. Our investment in God’s work builds a confidence that this world belongs to God and is for God’s purpose and God isn’t finished with it yet.
It is said that the most successful stock brokers are ones who have experienced market collapses, because they came to realize its not the end of the world. Things come back around. When you survive collapses, you have a greater chance at lasting success.
No wonder that when the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, coming through their own time of collapse and hardship, Moses warns them never to forget. Otherwise, we might say, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.”
Note the mention of ancestors. We can’t recall the ways God has blessed us without thinking about those through whom the blessings came. We all have inherited blessings. We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. That is why this day is so important to remember the ones who have passed from this life to the next, but who pass on legacies of faith.
In reading through the many responses in the generosity survey, I was impressed by the number of times people spoke about their parents, grandparents, guardians, spiritual mentors, and others who gave them a legacy of generosity. They couldn’t speak about their own practices without talking about those they learned it from.
Having examples in our lives of people who practice generosity brings something good out of us. Even if we didn’t have family members who showed us this, we can find it in others if we look for it. One person from the survey wrote, “I have spent much time observing neighbor helping neighbor, and friends helping friends, while nothing was really ever expected in return. (I was inspired by seeing the difference their generosity makes.)”
When we remember and hold onto the good in others, it summons good in us. And when you focus on good (slide-Good) you will experience God. The word good (slide—Good=) comes from the same root as the word God. (slide—Good=God) One of the first prayers I learned as a child was a table blessing. If you recognize it, say it with me. “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we are fed, give us Lord our daily bread.”
The first understanding of God I had was that God is good. Sometimes we need the God in others to summon the God in us, because deep down that is what God wants us to know about ourselves, that we are good. For all that is wrong with humanity and our world, deep down we are good. And what we need most is to get restored to the goodness of God in us.
Jesus once compared our value to God to God’s care of birds. He said “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
Jesus wants us to know how much we matter to God. This is where the generous life begins, not with what we do, but what God does. Just like in the Book of Genesis, Jesus wants us to know we are blessed. We matter to God. God cares about us and looks after us. We don’t have to earn that. When we know that deep down, it makes life a generous experience.
A colleague recently shared with me a book titled Words that Hurt, Words that Heal: How the Words You Use Can Shape Your Destiny by Joseph Telushkin. In it he tells the story of Rachel Naomi Remen. She was a rather shy, insecure child growing up. Her parents were accomplished professionals and devoted to her, but growing up, if she came home with a 98 on a test her father said, “What happened to the other two points?”
She said, “I pursued those two points relentlessly throughout my childhood.” But Rachel had someone in her life who didn’t care about the two points, her grandfather. Every Friday afternoon she went to his house and the two would drink tea together and talk. Then as the sun started to set, because he was a religious man, her grandfather would light two candles and recite a blessing signaling the start of Sabbath. He would sit quietly and pray and Rachel would wait because the best part of her week was next. Her grandfather would lift his head then ask Rachel to come stand next to him.
He would rest his hands lightly on top of my head. He would begin by thanking God for me and for making him my grandpa. He would specifically mention my struggles during the week and tell God something that was true. If I had a mistake he would mention my honesty in telling the truth. If I had failed, he would appreciate how hard I had tried. If I had taken even a short nap without my nightlight, he would celebrate my bravery. Then he would give me a blessing and ask the women I knew from his stories—Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca and Leah—to watch over me.
Rachel said those moments were the only time in her week she felt completely safe and at rest. When she was just seven her grandfather died and it was hard for her to live without her granddad. She said, “At first I was afraid that without him to see me and tell God who I was, I might disappear. But slowly over time, I cam to understand that in some mysterious way, I had learned to my self through his eyes. And that once blessed, we are forever blessed.”
Decades later her mother, quite old by this time, began to light Sabbath candles. One one of those occasions, Rachel told her mother about her times with her grandfather and how much they meant. Her mother said sadly, “Rachel, I blessed you every day of your life. I just never had the wisdom to do it out loud.”
Generosity begins with the knowledge that we are blessed, and the most important generosity we can practice is with our words.
Perhaps a good exercise for you on this All Saints’ Day is to remember the people in your life who blessed you, who passed onto you an awareness that you are God’s beloved. And then, consider who the people are in your life you to whom you can offer that same sense of blessing in a way no one else can.