Giving: A Contagious Attitude

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1 Giving: A Contagious Attitude "Give away your life, you'll find life given back, but not merely given back given back with bonus and blessing. Generosity begets generosity." [Luke 6:38, The Message] *Before beginning your sermon, invite the congregation to greet a neighbor with a warm smile and a kind word of welcome. As they finish, ask, How did your neighbor respond? Invite them to imagine what would have happened had they greeted their neighbor with a sullen face and an angry word. Even this small-scale example shows us the truth God is trying to teach. How we treat others is often how they treat us. Therefore, if we want to increase generosity in others, we need to become more generous. *Read Luke 6:35-36 (An Inclusive-Language Lectionary): But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for God is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as [God] is merciful. *Being generous and kind, no matter what others do, is part of our God-created identity. To deny our generosity is to deny who God created us to be. Knowing that our generosity can lead to generosity in others should not be our driving goal. The goal is to love others as God loves us so that through our kindness, others might see that God s love is real. *Attitudes are contagious. Crowd mentality shows us that when anger or revenge infects a group of people, even positive protests and gatherings can turn violent. The attitudes of those around us often motivate us to act and react in ways we never would have imagined. *The same is true, however, for attitudes like kindness and generosity. In the face of disasters and massive human suffering, communities of people who may have been cynical and divided before the tragedy often come together to offer help and solutions. People see others in their community being generous and helpful to those who are hurting and in need, and they feel compelled to offer assistance as well. In fact, sometimes in the immediate wake of suffering, charity organizations have to ask people not to share any more material goods because they simply lack room to store the overabundance. *Read Luke 6:27 in The Message - "To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst."

2 * The attitude of generosity can protect us from the bad attitudes we see in the world. The truth Jesus was trying to teach is that our attitude is a choice. We can see the imperfections in the world and in others and be angered or we can choose to respond with love, kindness and generosity. When we focus on being loving and generous, even toward those we do not like or those who hurt us, we become our best selves and create an environment where generosity can grow. Only in an environment where people choose to respond with love, kindness and generosity can true healing and change occur. *Pray for generosity. Create a prayer station where people can come to ask God to help them grow more generosity in the world. Gather headshot pictures of people of a variety of ages, races and backgrounds. Place these on a table or altar rail. Interspersed with the pictures, place several small mirrors. Provide verbal or written instructions: As you enter this place of prayer, focus on the faces of God's children. When we act in ways that show kindness and generosity to others, we bring out the best in all of us and encourage one another to let God's love and generosity grow through each of us.

3 Giving: A Pursuit of Happiness You'll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our Master said, You're far happier giving than getting, [Acts 20:35, The Message] * As you prepare the sermon, remember that this verse concludes Paul s farewell speech to the people of Ephesus. Paul had lived and worked with the Ephesians for many years. Paul had formed friendships and deep relationships with the people, and as he prepared to leave, he reminded them of the important teachings he wanted them to remember. He noted that their efforts would be successful if they would simply remember this great teaching of Jesus: You're far happier giving than getting. *Before you begin the sermon, invite members of the congregation to answer the question, What does happiness look like? Depending on your setting, you can do this in a variety of ways. Simply ask the question and let people respond. Distribute blank sheets of paper and have people write or draw responses to share. Make a video after you invite church and community members of varying ages and backgrounds to respond to the question. Pose the question to classes of children, youth and have them create written responses and pictures for a slideshow or PowerPoint. If a PowerPoint presentation is not an option, have people place their written responses and pictures on posters to display at the entrance and front of your worship space. *In our cultural history, we recognize the pursuit of happiness as a basic God-given right. We believe in protecting and promoting this right throughout the world. *Like the people of the early church of Ephesus, we seek to live out God's will in the world. In light of that, what does pursuing happiness mean? If Jesus taught that giving would make us far happier than receiving, how should we then pursue happiness in our lives? * By the world s standards, we frequently associate happiness with succeeding financially and acquiring possessions. The more we have the happier we are, right? If we have that new car, those new shoes, the latest phone or computer, we will finally be happy. When we no longer have to worry about how we will pay the bills and when we can simply buy anything we want anytime we want, then we will be happy, won't we? Somewhere, just around the corner, we await a level of success, a level of acquisition where happiness waits.

4 *However, that is not what Jesus taught. When Paul left his friends in Ephesus, friends who lived in a culture similar to ours, with many opportunities to make and spend lots of money, he simply said, You re far happier giving than getting. *If you lack happiness in your life, don't waste your time looking for something tangible that will lead you to happiness. You cannot buy your way to happiness. Instead, if you want things to fall into place in your life and if you want to be happy, pursue happiness the way Jesus suggested: find ways to give more. *Study after study has found that the correlation between one s income level and one s happiness is false. People with more money and stuff are frequently more miserable than people who live below the poverty level. The biggest thing that determines how happy someone is, no matter their income level, is how generous he or she is about giving to others. A magazine news report on giving surprisingly found people who were poorer financially tended to give a larger percentage to others and were happier than those who had more money but were not as giving. People who are more giving are simply happier. They don't focus on protecting what they have. They live in love and in relationship with others. They see how they are making a difference in the world. They recognize themselves as being part of something bigger, better and more important than their possessions. *In our pursuit of happiness, perhaps it is time for us to stop and listen to Paul's parting words to the Ephesians and remember that for us as well. We will be far happier giving than receiving. *Distribute heart cutouts and pencils. Invite people to write three things they can do that week to be more giving. Remind people that they can give of their time, their gifts, their money, their talents or their spirit of kindness and joy toward others. Invite people to bring the paper hearts to the altar, or pass the offering plates and allow them to put their hearts in the plates as a sign of their willingness to offer the attitudes of their hearts to God in a spirit of giving. *As a benediction, send people forth to be more giving and to pursue happiness as God intends.

5 Giving: A Delight For Us I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving. [2 Corinthians 9:7, The Message] *Put the verse in the larger context. Read 2 Corinthians 9:6, The Message: Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. Read 2 Corinthians 9:8: God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you're ready for anything and everything, more than ready to do what needs to be done. Paul addressed the church in Corinth, one of the richer churches. He told the Corinthians how the much poorer Macedonian churches had given large offerings for the church in Jerusalem. Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to stay true and to honor their commitment to do the same. In 9:6, he reminded the Corinthians of an ancient saying, common in both Greek and Jewish cultures. It said that in life, we receive as much as we are willing to give. The crops we grow depend on how much we are willing to spend planting the seeds. In 9:8, Paul reminded the Corinthians that what they give ultimately came from God and when they were willing to give, God would make sure they had more than enough. *According to Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:7, we should not let the emotional pleas of other people determine what to give. Similarly, we should not base our gifts on how much other people think we should give or what others might pressure us into giving. *Invite your congregation to imagine how they would feel if you asked each person to determine how much his or her neighbor to the right should give to the offering or pledge to give to the church. What internal struggles would that cause for each person? What struggles would that cause within the congregation? If you were to take the task seriously, what factors would you consider about the other person's resources, finances, life and needs? What would you want your neighbor who was deciding your offering or pledge to know about your resources, finances, life and needs? Would you tend to ask more or less of your neighbor than you would of yourself?

6 *Give each member a bookmark with 2 Corinthians 9:8 from The Message printed at the top: God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you're ready for anything and everything, more than ready to do what needs to be done. Invite participants to recall the thought process they went through in the imagining exercise above. Encourage participants to write on their bookmarks the things they would want someone determining how much they should give to know about their resources, finances, life and needs. Allow people to take their bookmarks home for prayer and reflection. *Allow for a time of prayer where people may remain in their seats or come to tables with candles, kneeling rails or altar rails to pray about what God has given them and what they would like to give others. *Concluding the time together, recite 2 Corinthians 9:7 from The Message: "I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving. *As a benediction, encourage each person to commit to set aside any sob stories and pressure, and to spend time with God to decide the level of giving that will bring him or her delight to return to God. bookmark blank or print it with blank