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What Good is Giving?

October 28, 2007                                                                                  Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

James McCord, who was the president of Princeton Seminary, once told a story about a man he heard say “I’m never coming back to that church.  All they ever talk about is give, give, give.”  Well James McCord went on to say he couldn’t think of anything better to describe the Christian faith than give, give, give.  This morning I am starting a series of sermons through the next four Sundays, three Sundays from this one, on giving, as we always do this time of year.  It is our stewardship season and it may seem it is just about money and it is.  I admit that.  But it is also about who we are as God’s children and what our duty is and what draws us closer to God.  This morning I want to approach the subject a little bit differently.  I want to talk about giving in terms of what’s in it for us.  If we want to be honest with ourselves we begin our lives self-centeredly.  I like to say that the first words out of children’s mouths after Mommy and Daddy, and No, the next one is Mine.  Maybe a little hyperbole, but that’s generally true.  The adult version of that is that in almost everything we do when we are deciding what to do or not to do is “What’s in it for me?”  So this morning, What Good is Giving?  What is in it for us?  James McCord is right.  Giving is central to the Christian faith.  In the bible the word believe, believer or believing is used 275 times; the word pray, prayer or praying is 371; the word love, lover and loving is 714; but the word giving or give is used 2162 times. 

What does the bible have to say about giving?  This morning I have chosen two scriptures for you out of the two thousand.  The first is from the prophet Malachi.  Now in this book, God is saying some really tough things to his people.  Just before this passage, God, through the prophet Malachi, basically says, “you guys are under a curse because you are robbing me”, a practice in those days as the harvest was being brought in, at least the expectation was to take ten percent of the harvest and give it to the work of the Lord; and apparently they weren’t doing this.  So God takes them to task and we arrive at this passage.  After he has scolded them, he gives them a promise.  He says:

Malachi 3:10-12

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.  I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty.  “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

In 1 Timothy, the subject is a little bit different, but the promises are there as well, about giving.  There is a command there but listen to the promises, listen to the expectation that giving brings joy and brings life.  In 1 Timothy chapter 6, Paul says:

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!

Would you pray with me?

Oh God in heaven, thank you for being the giver that you are, the One who loves us and gives us so many promises.  We pray Lord that we would hear some words today that would challenge our minds and touch our hearts and that we would move closer to you and what you would have us be and do and say.  Lord, be with us now as we hear the words that are preached, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

What are the benefits of giving?  Well first and foremost I believe that giving makes us like God.  You may not know this but in the bible one of the goals that God has for you and for me is to become more like Him.  It says very clearly that God wanted to raise up sons and daughters to be like His Son, Jesus Christ.  Now I don’t know about you but when I read that I feel so far away from that.  In fact, the older I get in the faith, the more I realize just how far away I really am.  Hopefully, progress is being made and that progress will not end until we get to heaven; but that’s God’s goal for us.  Part of the process is learning how to give, because it makes us like God.  You know there is a lot of discussion these days about evolution and how things came to be.  We don’t need to argue about those things, about the details, but we know that the first verse of the bible says that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  In other words, this creation and you and I are not cosmic accidents.  If there is a stand we must take against the world, it is that, that we are not an accident, that God has made us and made everything else – the sunsets, the water, the food, everything, just everything.  Now as we read that verse I would suggest that we substitute create with give, because it’s the same thing.  “In the beginning God gave the creation” and gave you your life and your abilities and who you are.  You might look in the mirror and say, “Well I got short-changed.”  Well I think we could all say that to some degree; but not really. God gave us who we are.  It is a gift.  God is a giver.  God gave us everything; and in the end, even after we had sinned and not deserved anything, “God gave His one and only Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.”  Jesus picks up the same.  If you look at the bottom line of what Jesus says, often it is about giving.  He says, “If you want to gain this life you will lose it but if you give this life for my sake you will gain it.”  God has rigged the world that way you know.  The world says: acquire, get, mine.  God says: give away, sacrifice; because only then will you really gain and get. 

Giving makes us like God.  It also brings us close to God.  Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart is.”  In other words, your heart follows your money.  Your heart follows your money.  Jesus, as we have noted several times over the years, says more about money than most anything.  You know, I must confess something.  I know that when people hear me talk like this, I know there are cynics out there that are going “Well we all know what you’re about.  You are just trying to get money for the church.”  I’m guilty.  I admit that.  It is part of the job, but this is part of God’s kingdom.  I don’t feel bad about that.  But there is a bigger picture here.  There is.  The bigger picture is that often our wallets are tied to our hearts by a chain link.  Martin Luther said that “the last thing to be redeemed in a person’s life is often their wallet.”  That’s why Jesus uses that illustration of money so many times, because he knew that.  It is one example of our discipleship, now one, but it is a big one.  If you wonder sometimes why you’re not feeling terribly close to God, you ought to check out your calendar and where your time is spent; you ought to check out your checkbook and where your money is spent; you out to check out yourself.  If you are not a giver, but a taker, you’re not going to feel terribly close to God, because God is a giver and He wants us to give.  “For where your treasure is, there your heart is also.” 

Giving is also an investment into eternity.  You know there is this old story about a man who was wealthy in this life.  He got up to heaven and he was glad to be there, as he should have been.  Someone came along and said “I’m going to take you to your house now.”  He expected a huge mansion, but when he got to the place where he was supposed to live, it was just a little shack – looked like it would leak, too.  He said, “I don’t understand.  Where is my mansion?”  The man that was with him said, “Well, we did the best we could with the material you sent up.”  Jesus says in one way or another, “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”  You know, we are not told great detail about heaven.  Oh, we hear about mansions, about cities of gold streets, and all that stuff.  If it’s like that when I get there, that will be just fine; but I really believe that some of that is symbolic, not in that it’s not real but it’s symbolic because it also says “the mind has never conceived, the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard of what God has prepared for you and me.”  It’s going to be great.  Somehow, mysteriously, in some way or another, what we do here effects there.  If nothing else, it’s telling us to think in eternal terms.  Oh we are so inclined to think only of this life, and plan only for this life, because this is all we know.  But if you think of your fifty years, or your forty years, or your hundred years, how ever long you live, in terms of eternity it is not a long time.  We would be foolish, indeed, as we live this life, not to plan for the end of our lives and what we are going to do and how we are going to live.  We are even more foolish not to think in terms of eternity, and giving is an acknowledgement that this world is not all there is. 

God has rigged this world, has rigged it, so you will know that this world is not all there is.  God has rigged this world not to work.  God has made it so.  Let me ask you a question.  What grows best in your yard?  You know the answer to that – every weed known to man.  It takes work for grass to grow.  You don’t have to raise your hand, but how many of you here have regular aches and pains?  How many of you have many aches and pains?  If you are young and you don’t have any, just wait.  All of which is to say, that God has rigged this world not to work.  Your body is not going to last.  Even Lazarus, I believe in healing, I really do.  But even Lazarus died again.  When we give we acknowledge that God has said that this world is not our home.  He has a better place, but we continually spend all our money here, all our time, all of our efforts, everything goes into this.  In the end it will all fly away.  God wants us to invest in eternity.

Last but not least, and there are many other things we could say, is that I believe giving brings joy and happiness.  I read a story recently, it’s a story I read a long time ago, and reread about a man named Malcolm Muggeridge.  Malcolm Muggeridge was, back in the sixties and seventies, like a Europe’s Tom Brokaw, well-known newspaper, television man.  He went to do a special documentary on Mother Teresa for the BBC.  On that fated morning of their meeting, he met her as she was working out in the streets with the sick and the poor in the ghetto like he’d never seen before, amidst stench, filth, garbage, disease and poverty that was just incredible.  But what struck Muggeridge more than anything else, even in that awful place, was that deep warm glow on Mother Teresa’s face, and the deep warm love in her eyes.  “Do you do this every day” he began.  “Oh yes,” she replied “it’s my mission.  It’s how I serve my Lord.”  “How long have you been doing this? How many months?”  “Months,” Mother Teresa asked.  “Not months, but years, maybe eighteen years.”  “Eighteen years!  You’ve been working here in these streets for eighteen years?”  “Yes,” she said simply, yet joyfully, “it is my privilege to be here.  These are my people.  These are the ones my Lord has given me to love”  “You ever get tired?  You ever feel like quitting and letting someone else take over your ministry, after all you are beginning to get older?”  “Oh no,” she replied “this is where the Lord wants me and this is where I’m happy to be.  I feel young when I’m here and the Lord is so good to me.  How privileged I am to serve him.”  Later Malcolm Muggeridge said “I will never forget that little lady as long as I live; the face, the glow, the eyes, the love, the joy, it was all so pure and beautiful.  I shall never forget it. It was like being in the presence of an angel.  It changed my life.  I have not been the same person since.  It is more than I can describe.”  By the way, after he spoke to her she went on to work for twenty-seven more years.  You will never by happy or joyful until you are thankful, unless you are thankful for what you are, who you are and what you have, as little or as much as it is, you will never find joy.  You find in thanksgiving a greater joy in giving.  It is in a sense not enough just to give thanks, but to give as an expression of thanksgiving.  As we learn how to give in a systematic way, and in sometimes a spontaneous way, as we learn to be generous as God is generous to us, we find joy, because God has rigged the world that way.

Earlier I said what sounded like negative things, that God had  made the world this or that; but bottom line, God has rigged it for us to stand against the world’s values and even our own nature, because it is only in giving that we find true joy and true happiness.  We get a lot from giving.  We get to be like God; we get to feel God’s presence, in a way; we have it help us grow in our faith; and we have joy.  So I would ask you, where are you?  Where is your treasure?  What are your habits of giving of yourself and your time and your talents?  Ask the Lord to show you these things, and then be willing to accept what he says.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you for giving us so much.  We ask your forgiveness that we so often squander it.  We often do not appreciate it. Give us a vision of all you have done for us, that we may be thankful and be willing to go out and give of ourselves in whatever way you show us.  We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.