GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY

Transcription

1 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY Psalm 145; Mark 9:38-50 Stewardship/Evangelism Sunday; 26th Sunday in Ordinary time, b September 27, 2015 Prayer: Open our hearts and minds, O God, to listen, really listen, to your Word today so that we might be startled enough to not only believe the good news that you have given us, but to go out and act upon the good news that your love is open to all. Amen. This is a sermon about stewardship. Now that I have effectively turned off about half of you, have no fear. I will tell you what the rest of the sermon will be about. It will be about evangelism. Now that I have sufficiently turned off virtually all of you, let me proceed in hopes of making a case: Both stewardship and evangelism are integral to the gospel. Put another way, the Gospel would not be the Gospel in all of its fullness and vitality without stewardship and evangelism. And both stem from gratitude. Both come from having a generous heart. I wish that gratitude could be mandated. But it can t. It has to come from the heart. You can t force anyone to be thankful. You can t implant generosity in a heart. That s why it s one of the hardest parts of the calling to be a pastor, and though many in this congregation have been generous, often sacrificially, we haven t begun to tap the resources we have to tell the good news of what God has done, and to share the gifts of our financial offerings that we would not have without God s grace. So what is a preacher to do to help a congregation develop generous hearts? Sometimes all you can do is tell the story, and hope that God will take it from there, and soften hearts that have become hardened; warm hearts that have become cold; embolden hearts that have become fearful, so that a feeling of desperate scarcity might become one of joyful abundance. All the ancient Israelites had were stories. They didn t have Twitter or Facebook or even paper and pencil to share the stories. But they told those stories, oh, how they told those stories. Remember that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And they would tell stories about how God led them into freedom, how God provided manna when there was no food; how God led them into the promised land. 9/27/2015 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY? PAGE 1 OF 6

2 And they made sure the children knew the stories. At Passover, it was always a child who would ask Why do we eat this meal? Why do we eat these bitter herbs? And the story would be told, again and again. Sometimes in songs and psalms. That s what the Psalmist highlighted in Psalm 145 that provides the foundation for our stewardship campaign this year. The story of God s goodness, and the very nature of God would be told through the years: One generation shall laud your works to another And shall declare your mighty acts. And in so doing generation after generation would know the character of God: The Lord is gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. (A good foundation for stewardship Sunday, and evangelism Sunday.) And then they would pray that the hearts of those who succeeded them in the faith would be open and generous, full of gratitude for the God who was not like any other. They had stories. The gospel writer Mark had a story to tell, and unlike other gospel writers whose writing soared with imagery (John) and music (Luke) and scripture (Matthew); they all bear their own elegance; but Mark s writing seems clunky; the mood seems dangerous at times, muddy and confusing at other times. Like in today s text. There s an important message here, but it s hard to make our way through all the casting out of demons and scandalizing, and salting with fire. But here is what I would suggest might be the cliff notes edition: People are doing good works in Jesus name but haven t packed up their bags and joined the motley crew of disciples, and the disciples don t like it one bit! So Jesus simply cautions them not to put up anything, any barriers, any stumbling blocks to doing good. And he concludes this little sermonette with a homely little metaphor: Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another. (You know that salt, in addition to putting out fires, was a spice, and a symbol of welcome.) Mark, in his own clunky way, is making a theological statement that sings and dances and soars to the skies like high poetry, and that statement is that our God is about nothing so much as.hospitality. Not a matter of having good taste and good manners; ultimately, it s a theological priority. Ultimately, it s a matter of remembering the God whose great dream for the creation is to gather all of God s children into a realm of justice and peace and abundant life. It s to remember the One Whom this God sent to 9/27/2015 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY? PAGE 2 OF 6

3 the world, teaching about being chosen, and then, to that very adult audience, gathering up children in his arms to show up close what that chosenness looks like. Which, unlike the ways of the world, does not lead in the Kingdom of God to specialness or exclusiveness or elitism, but becomes an ethic of making space for all. For, as Fred Craddock put it once, The final work of grace is to make us gracious. The final work of grace is to make us gracious. How does one become aware of God s grace and become more gracious? Aware of God s generosity and become more generous? You can t mandate it or force it. But we have our stories, and I hope you will forgive me for sharing a story about how what I have learned about gratitude and generosity recently, but over a lifetime really. And how it has become implanted in my own heart. In Gary Charles homily last week at my father s memorial service, he talked about the third brother in the well-known parable of the prodigal son. There was the younger one who went off to the far country and squandered his inheritance, the older one who sulked and complained when a party was thrown upon the younger son s return. But Gary liked to think there was a third brother, one who went out to the younger one in the far country and gave him some clothes and some food and said Dad would love to have you back home. You might have abandoned him but he has not abandoned you. He loves you; and we miss you. And then this third brother went to the older brother who was sulking and pouting during the party, and brought him some food, delicacies from the party and told him that he understood how hurt he must feel, and then said You know, dad s love for you and me is no less than it is for our brother. I hope you ll come join us. Gary said Whether this parable had a third brother, Howard Montgomery was one. He was the kind of brother who had a keen appreciation for a party and even more for our grace-giving, love amazing, party throwing parent, God. In fact, Howard lived for the party, not one with an exclusive guest list where few were welcoming and most were left out. Throughout his life, Howard refused to attend those types of parties, parties restricted by race or sexual orientation or economic means. He went on to say that Howard lived for the party thrown in this parable where God s outrageous grace and irrepressible love make it finally impossible to wallow in despair or to stand outside in the self-righteous cold. He lived for God s party and he lived as if the church, flaws and all, was a natural extension of the party where all are welcome to come inside. Gary reminded us of the moniker that Atlanta adopted during the tense days of the civil rights movement when other cities had turned violent. The city too busy to hate. It was, and is, more of an ideal than a reality, but he stated that Howard was a person 9/27/2015 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY? PAGE 3 OF 6

4 who simply could not spare the time to hate. He was too busy jumping over pews to greet any visitor who was trying to keep a low profile while visiting the church. He then did an experiment, and he asked the family to turn around as he asked the rather large congregation the question: Can you raise your hand if you were in any way welcomed into this congregation by Howard or Margaret? Clearly 90% raised their hand as Gary suggested their might have been a forgotten sister as well. How Dad came to be that way, we haven t been able to figure out. Because of early adversity, he could have turned out hardened, and cynical, and strive to become a winner in the rat race to get ahead; maybe he knew the truth that William Sloane Coffin once shared: If you win the rat race, you re still a rat. I won t go into all the details, but he was born dirt poor in West Texas and grew up during the depression. One of 7 children, the three youngest, which included dad, had to go live with cousins when the parents couldn t feed them all. But he still saw his mother never turn away hobos who came to the back door wanting a piece of bread. She would simply put a little more water in the gravy and invite him in. Generations of generosity. One of the saddest occasions was when they had to sell his mother s piano, because they would always gather around the piano and sing old hymns while she played. But they had to feed the family. And then he remembered how the store owner treated his mother when she went and asked him for an extension on her credit. No one should ever treat any one like that. And so he never did. Gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. That grace and generosity extended throughout his life. I shared with the staff this week one example that I learned from. When I was in the 8 th grade, we moved into the city and there was a community center just a few blocks from where we lived. It had a gymnasium and a swimming pool, and it was THE place to gather. A few years later dad and others discovered that there was an Caucasian only clause tucked away in the bylaws. So dad, and others, went to the board and asked them to change it. It was denied. They tried again at the next meeting. Denied again. So Dad and others, withdrew their memberships and formed a group of white and black parents who pooled their resources, (no pun intended) and bought a piece of land and built their own pool. He was just too busy to hate, too busy throwing God s party of selfsacrificial love, too busy helping refugees get settled in a new city and a new nation. Too busy chairing the committee that established the first homeless shelter north of I-20 in Atlanta, there at Central. Too busy writing notes of congratulations and best wishes and sympathy. Not too long ago, someone I hadn t met came up to me and found out that I was Howard s son. I ve 9/27/2015 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY? PAGE 4 OF 6

5 got a Howard story, she said. She was active at Central and it was announced that she and her partner had gotten married, somewhat controversial to many of his generation. Howard was the first one who greeted my partner and me on our first Sunday, she said, but I didn t know him well. So imagine my surprise when I got this incredible note from a 90 year old man congratulating me and wishing God s blessing upon the two of us. So do you see why I think that evangelism and stewardship go hand in hand? That they are both sides of the same coin of the Gospel? No one forced him to be thankful, but he said his prayers, and remembered what it was like to be poor, remembered all that God had done for him, and knew that we need each other. He had no use for the term selfmade man when some tried to apply it to him. What I have, he wrote once, is due solely to the grace of a benevolent God. I was talking with Micah Greenstein this past week and he shared what he told his congregation last week. He said before becoming a rabbi, it was the smart and successful people I admired the most. The goal in high school was to achieve, and get into the best college or university so that one could find success. But over the course of my rabbinic career, he continued, after meeting brainiacs and billionaires, material success and smarts are NOT the most impressive traits, at least for me because they are not such a rarity. It is the GENEROUS people who are much harder to find, regardless of income. We agree that generosity was a foundation for both of our faiths, which stems from gratitude. And it can t be legislated, it can t be forced or coerced. It has to be from the heart, and that will come only when we begin to realize how blessed we are to have a God who is slow to anger, plenteous in mercy, and abounding in steadfast love a God who has hospitality as a priority and who opens the door to all so all can enjoy the part. Our pledges will help remove stumbling blocks for people who have been hurt by the church in its exclusivism, who long for community, who look for meaning and friendship, and for hope in an increasingly cynical age. (And for the first time in years, 100% of our elders have already made their pledges). So I haven t talked about specific programs that we not only want to continue here, but to expand. With a new associate pastor for Christian Formation who is forming a Christian formation team, there will be start-up costs to provide a strong foundation for all ages. With a new director of young adult ministries who is also the UKirk campus minister at U of M and Rhodes, we need more than ever to support those ministries. With a new and dynamic and incredibly competent director of our pre-school, there are some basic building needs that need to be taken care of. We have a wonderful new assistant recreation director who will be overseeing a new men s indoor soccer league Do you know that more people in the church and community are involved in our recreation program than ever before? With MTAM growing this year, having to set up 9/27/2015 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY? PAGE 5 OF 6

6 tables in the hall, someone has to pay for those meals. I could go on, but we dare not remain stagnant. It s time to move ahead. (That s why though Patti and I have pledged to the capital funds campaign, we will be increasing our pledge to the annual fund again this year.) Dad not only did all he could to be an evangelist, but we found out last week how much he gave to the church. There s no way he should have given that much. He worked for the church, and then with drug and alcohol patients, raising 4 kids in the meantime. Why did he do that? How was gratitude implanted in his heart? I don t know. But somehow he knew deep down the very character of God. And I do know that the final work of grace is to make us gracious. May we be gracious. May we be generous. So that years from now our descendants will say of us What good stewards they were. What great evangelists they were. And they too will be able to declare God s mighty acts! Amen Idlewild Presbyterian Church, Memphis TN 9/27/2015 GENERATIONS OF GENEROSITY? PAGE 6 OF 6