"Blessed to be a Blessing"
GENEROSITY: The True Mark of Christ-like Giving
Rev. Bob Thomas
November 11, 2007 - Commitment Sunday
Sherwood Eddy writes: Faith is not trying to believe something regardless of the evidence: Faith is daring to do something regardless of the consequences
In today's story of feeding the 5,000, the disciples are thinking scarcity rather than abundance. You can almost imagine the disciples circulating among this crowd with people recognizing their closeness to Jesus and asking them questions: “Can we see Jesus up close? Got anything to eat? Can you tell me if I can get healed here?”
Naturally, the disciples would try to distance themselves from the problem by simply pointing out that there would be no real possibility of the crowd getting all their needs met personally by Jesus.
That’s why the disciples frequently saw themselves as a cadre of cohorts whose function it was to keep the crowds from getting too close. They kept little children at bay, until Jesus reminded them that “such” are the kingdom of God. They tried to keep the blind and disabled from getting too close to Jesus as well. They saw themselves as an insulating layer between the people and the Christ — as though Jesus needed their protection. Five Thousand hungry people. Philip does the math — six months’ wages wouldn’t be enough to give all these people even a bite of food. But the small boy with five barley loaves and two small fish is the only person who has the vision, faith, and simple willingness to do something…regardless of the consequences. As the disciples are worrying about Jesus' inquiry -- "Where are we to buy bread for these people?" -- one small solution steps forward. With childlike trust and a burst of generosity, the lad offers all that he has to Jesus and the disciples. Andrew has enough presence of mind (and perhaps a small flicker of hope) to offer these childish gifts to Jesus. But his hard-nosed adult rationality gets in the way, for even as Andrew offers the loaves and fish with one hand, he pulls them back with a defeatist, "What are they among so many?"
But Jesus likes the child's solution. He uses the little boy's generous gift to feed the people. While the text does not say that the child had faith in Jesus' ability to create a miracle, this child's heartfelt gift does indicate that his vision and burst of generosity were not limited by the accepted norms of the day. He saw possibility, not puniness, in those five loaves and two fish. The child taught the disciples a lesson: They should have been looking for ways to succeed, not looking for excuses to fail. Of course, the child himself did not have the power to multiply the loaves and fish. But his generosity opened a way for Jesus and the disciples to achieve their goal. What if Andrew had turned away the boy with the small food offering dismissing his gift as worthless and impossible? Where would Jesus have obtained the raw material for this feeding miracle if both he and the disciples had not opened up to this unlikely, source of rescue?
Before giving thanks for the bread, Jesus instructs the whole milling crowd to "sit down" together. Only as the throng sat down as one great family were they able to pass the loaves from hand to hand until all were fed. What do you think? When they first looked at the five loaves and two fish Jesus was blessing, did anyone in that crowd really think they had come together for any real purpose? Perhaps they did, for they knew of Jesus' healing powers. All the text tells is that those who had enough faith to "sit down" received all they could possibly want from Jesus' hands.
The sermon title for today is Blessed to be a Blessing. Throughout the history of the church God’s people have been encouraged to have a warm heart and a ready hand to assist those in need. Proverbs 22 reminds us, “He who is generous will be blessed…” I’m teaching Disciple I right now and just a couple of weeks ago we read from the book of Leviticus the very specific instructions on giving to the poor. “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needs and for the stranger.” [Leviticus 19:9-10]
The poor and the strangers in Israel knew they could always find something to eat in the fields and orchards of those who loved God and who obeyed His laws, because God’s people were to share their bounty with those who had needs. Generosity was an essential part of being a true follower of Jehovah. We read the beautiful story of Ruth this past week in class. It’s a story of God’s providential care extended to a faithful daughter-in-law all in the context of this very Levitical law about offering the gleaning rights to the poor and strangers. Boaz had heard about Ruth’s loving care for her mother-in-law Naomi and allowed and encouraged Ruth to glean right behind his own maidservants so Ruth and Naomi would have food for the winter.
Epworth has had a long history of being generous in our response to the needs of others. You read that nearly 23% of our current budget and 23% of our projected budget for 2008 is earmarked for giving away. For the past three Sundays we have had inserts in the bulletins with words of thanks and appreciation from our friends at Friendly Center, missionaries Jeanne and Gaston Ntumbo in Africa who work in the Wings of the Morning Flight Ministry, and last week our Conference Treasurer Rev. Stan Sutton wrote to thank us for our long history of being a 100% supporter of our conference apportionments through which we have partnered with churches across the conference to make a difference for Christ throughout West Ohio and around the globe. Pastor Ken’s sermon three weeks ago reminded you of the many and specific ways you have responded generously through the years to through Epworth to reach out in ministry and service.
This is Commitment Sunday. We are invited to follow the example of Jesus whose whole life and ministry was characterized by generosity…he willingly put aside his divinity and generously came to demonstrate God’s great love. Through out his earthly life, Jesus always extended his hand and heart to the lost, hurting, and hungry. And in his supreme act of generosity, our Lord emptied himself and willingly gave his life on the cross as a ransom for our sin. And in his resurrection paved the way for all believers to share in the unspeakable bounty of life everlasting…Our tithes, our gifts, and our offerings are the first way we demonstrate our participation with Christ in building his kingdom of love and grace here on earth. Last week, our stewardship chair, Grant Wilkinson eloquently and passionately shared his testimony to the transforming love and grace of Christ and invited us all to join him in responding by faith to Jesus call to give generously and freely. And remember, God’s promises are true and sure, we have been blessed to be a blessing and it is more blessed to give than to receive.
A little later on in the book of John, after the story of the feeding of the 5000, when the disciples, over earnest as ever, asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus pulled a child out of the crowd and said the greatest in the kingdom of heaven were people like this [child]… Scholar and preacher Frederick Buechner writes that Jesus was making the point “ that the people who get into heaven are people who, like children, don't worry about it too much. They are people who, like children, live with their hands open more than their fists clenched. They are people who, like children, are so relatively unburdened by preconceptions that if someone says there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they are perfectly willing to go take a look for themselves. Children aren't necessarily better than other people. Like the child in "The Emperor's New Clothes," they are just apt to be better at telling the difference between a put-up job and the real thing.--
The boy in the crowd of 5000 some two thousand years ago felt the gnawing in his belly as the sun was starting to go down. Somehow he had managed to get close enough to Jesus to over hear the Lord asking his disciples "Where are we to buy bread for all these people?" And the lad looked down at his lunch that his mother had carefully packed for him early that morning before he started out on his pilgrimage to hear the itinerant preacher that everyone had been talking about…this Jesus. And the boy looked at his lunch when Jesus asked the question and in a burst of generosity and with an enacted faith thrust his five loaves and two fish into Jesus outstretched arms and the Lord took the food, blessed it and it became the blessing for the entire multitude that day.
Faith is not trying to believe something regardless of the evidence: Faith is daring to do something regardless of the consequences. This is our chance to live out our blessedness as we express our Generosity as a True mark of Christ like giving.
Some of the peanut butter collected for "Feed Your Neighbor" on Commitment Sunday, Nov. 11!
