Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
I’ve got a few Foundry community things to share. Ed Koch who has served as Foundry’s Director of Finance for the past 5 years has resigned. We on staff will miss his daily presence among us. We wish Ed all the best in his continuing vocational journey.
Something else: For a second year (note: it is actually the 4th year) in a row the Blade newspaper named Foundry the best house of worship in their best of gay DC awards. So congratulations to you Foundry. The runner up was Bet Mishpachah, an inclusive synagogue who meets at the Jewish Community Center across the street. We should do something together as the best houses of worship in DC.
At the Blade award ceremonies, I had a big surprise. For the first time ever the Blade created a new award, a Lifetime Achievement Award and they presented it to me. It is a great honor and I want to thank the Blade for doing this amazing thing. I couldn’t imagine a more special affirmation to receive.
Let’s take a minute to pray for each other.
For almost two months we’ve been studying Foundry’s core values:
Core value #8: We cherish God's gifts.
God blesses us with time, talent, money, opportunity and the Earth we now call home. We strive to be responsible stewards of God’s great bounty.
When we receive a gift we really, really cherish, we use it well.
All of us here are highly gifted. In different ways, maybe. But highly gifted.
Being responsible stewards means using the gifts we have received well.
One of the gifts is the earth we live on.
I want to mention that we have a Green Mission team here at Foundry.
If you want more information (Steve Dryden will be at the 9:30 service for the Green Mission team. Chris Matthews and Nicole Woo will be at the 11 o’clock service.) Or you can go to the list of ministry teams on our website and there will be contact information there.
Also I want to mention how important operations is here at Foundry. This is the nitty-gritty work that supports our ministry. So I want to mention some operations ministry teams and if you are part of one of these, please rise when I name the team.
Mission Possible Ministry Team
Building Ministry Team
Financial Development Ministry Team
The Stewardship Ministry Team
Planned Giving Ministry Team
Paul Hazen
Larry Slagle
Chuck Hilty
Counting Ministry Team
Job corps
We give thanks for all those who work on the operations ministry teams. Your work is essential.
Core value #8: We cherish God's gifts. We strive to be responsible stewards of God’s great bounty.
I want to suggest that for us who are so greatly gifted, as we are, being responsible stewards means being generous, and I want to talk for a few minutes today about generosity.
I’ve been thinking about why some of us tend to be generous and others of us find it harder. Why does it seem easier for some and harder for others of us to be generous?
I found this verse in Galatians 5:22-23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity ...”
Generosity is a fruit of the Spirit. That is capital S Spirit, Holy Spirit, God the Spirit.
Generosity is one of the fruits of God’s Spirit within us, and –get this-- all of us have God’s Spirit within us. Every human being has God’s Spirit within him or her. You don’t have to be a Christian to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You don’t even need to be religious.
The Genesis 2 creation account says God formed 'adam, which is the Hebrew word for “human being,” God formed 'adam from the dust of the earth and breathed into ‘adam’s nostrils the Nashamah, the breath or spirit of life and ‘adam become a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
If you are alive the Spirit of God is within you. The Spirit of God is the life within you. If you are alive you have the Holy Spirit.
And one of the fruits of the Spirit is generosity. It is natural to be generous. It is human to be generous. It is our true human nature to be generous. We are created to be generous.
Here is how I think generosity works: It is natural for us to be generous and when we are generous it is natural for us to be generous in all the different aspects of our lives, everything we steward. If we are generous we tend to be generous with our money, our time, the way we vote, (not just voting in our own self-interest but the interest of others especially the vulnerable). If we are generous we will tend to be generous with our love, our friendship, our talent, our abilities, our availability.
If we have a hard time being generous, we will tend to have a hard time being generous in all the different aspects of our lives.
My theory – generosity is a spirit and if we have within us the spirit of generosity we will be generous in every way.
If generosity is part of our human nature, if generosity is part of what we are created for, so why, then, are we all not more generous? Why are we not more generous than we are?
Turn to the person sitting next to you and take 60 seconds to discuss why you think you are not more generous than you are … unless you are perfectly generous. Then you don’t have to talk to anybody but if you are not perfectly generous, take 30 seconds to tell the person next to you why you think you are not more generous.
Here’s what I think. I think I am not more generous than I am because of fear. Because of anxiety, insecurity, and fear.
Fear, anxiety, insecurity pollute the Spirit of God within me. Fear: distrust of God, distrust of others, distrust of community, distrust of Congress. So even though I am created for generosity I am careful not share too much because if I can’t trust God or others and need to take care of myself. In this world, if I don’t take care of myself, who will?
Jesus has this great illustration that he uses in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Sermon in the Valley in Luke.
He says: Do not worry, do not be anxious, do not be fearful about what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Consider the ravens (the birds of the air): they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than a bird!
Consider the lilies in the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. (Even Molly Cyrus and Robin Thicke don’t look as good.) But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will God clothe you—you of little faith!
(Remember the word faith means trust.) You of little trust!
Do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying.
So Jesus says: Sell your possessions, and give alms. (Portions of Luke 12:22-33.)
Cash out your pension and give the money away to the poor. Trust God to feed and clothe you.
That would be what we would do if the Spirit of God within us were not polluted by fear, worry, anxiety, lack of trust in God and others.
I confess that I am not more generous than I am because I worry about what I will eat and what I will wear and a whole laundry list of other things.
What if I run out of money before I die?
Am I the only one who worries about this? What if I run out of money before I die?
The truth is that I am part of the human population who has to worry the least about what I will eat and what I will wear.
The 2/3rd world is full of people who have to worry what they will eat tomorrow and what they will wear but I am part of the 1/3rd world that has the very least cause to worry about this. Actually globally I am part of the 1 percent that has to worry about it the least.
My experience traveling in the 2/3rd world –Latin America and Africa-- is that people in poverty in the 2/3rd world are more likely to trust God than I am. They are more likely to have a spirit of generosity than I am. They are more likely to share what they have than I am.
A lack of generosity is a spiritual condition. I am not more generous than I am because my relationship with God is not as strong as it might be so as a result I do not trust God. My relationship with others is not as strong as it might be so I do not trust others. I need to stockpile to take care of myself because I do not trust.
Little faith, little trust is what thwarts and diminishes the Spirit of God within us so we become less generous than we are created to be.
Human nature is if we see someone who us hungry we feed them. If we know millions of children around the world are hungry, if we were fully the way we are created to be, we would just cash in our savings and pensions so they could eat and survive. We would trust that down the line 20 years God and others would help us if we needed it.
It is not natural to know someone is hungry and not feed them. That is not the way we are created to be.
But distrust of God and others distorts the Spirit of God within us.
If our relationship with God and others were stronger we would trust more and be more generous.
Our lack of generosity is a spiritual problem.
I have one more point to make and it is based on the Scripture lesson we heard this morning.
It is the story we sometimes call the story of the widow’s mite or the widow’s penny.
One day Jesus sat down opposite the temple treasury … the temple offering plate and he sat and watched people putting money in the offering plate. It is like he followed the ushers up and down the aisle and looked over their shoulders and watched what each of us put in the offering plate.
So Jesus is watching the offering plate. Lots of rich people put in lots of money but a poor widow who had nothing put in two small copper coins and Jesus used it as an object lesson to his disciples. Jesus says to his disciples: This poor widow has put more in the offering plate than everybody else because everybody else gave out of their abundance but she gave out of her poverty. Everybody else gave their extra. She gave out of what she needed to live on.
This little object lesson has several points, but here is what I think one of the points is.
If we have within us a spirit of generosity, we will find a way to be generous no matter how much or how little we have.
Let me say it again: If we have within us a spirit of generosity, we will find a way to be generous no matter how much or how little we have.
You know, years ago when I was just starting out in ministry and my salary was sort of low and I was trying to raise three children, I used to think to myself: When I am earning more money and the kids are through college, I am going to be really, really generous. I am going to tithe. No, I am going to give 20, 30 percent of my income away. When I have more, I will be more generous. It will be easy to give then.
Turns out it does not work that way. Having more than I did then has not made giving easier.
For some reason it seems the more I have the less I trust God and others and the more I need to have in the bank to feel secure. How can that be?
Here’s why: Because a lack of generosity is not a capacity problem but a spiritual problem. A lack of generosity is not a capacity problem; it is a trust problem … a faith problem.
A lack of generosity is not a capacity problem but a spiritual problem.
If I have a spirit of generosity, I will figure out how to share no matter how little I have.
If I have a spirit of insecurity or distrust, it will be hard for me to give no matter how much I have.
It is not a matter of capacity but of spirituality.
Let me add one more thing. I suspect one of the ways we damage the spirit of generosity which is naturally within us is that we choose to live in a world of fear, negative memories and grievances.
Bill Coffin used to say that one of the truly nasty pleasures in life is to rake our garden of grievances.
To rake up day after day all of the ways that life and others have mistreated me, have hurt me, have harmed me. All the ways I have been cheated. All the ways I have been discriminated against or abused. All my remembered pain. All the things I wanted and did not get. To rake my garden of grievances.
The opposite of rehearsing our grievances is the spiritual practice of thanksgiving.
Really now, who is luckier than I am? My parents would consider what I do for a living not working. I have family. I have friends. I have a place to live. I even have a spare bedroom. I actually have more bedrooms than I need to sleep in.
Do I have hurts and grievances in my life? Sure. But as long as I keep the wounds open and don’t let them heal, the harder and harder it will be for me to trust God and others and the less generous I will be.
I am more and more convinced the most important and the most difficult spiritual practice is to forgive. Unless we forgive, we will live in our resentments and grievances and we will not be able to be thankful. And unless we are thankful, we will not trust and be generous.
Remember the widow with her pennies. A lack of generosity is
not a capacity problem. It is a spiritual problem. O, we of little faith. O we
who trust so little but who could if we would because God is not far away or inaccessible
of distant but dwells within us.
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