“When We Know What We Know…" by Rev. Ken Streitenberger
October 21, 2007 II Corinthians 9:1-8
Are you aware just how much literature there is in today’s world about “giving”? How many words there are in today’s newspapers and books about “generosity” and “sharing” and “philanthropy” and “benevolence”?
Former President Bill Clinton has a whole book on nothing else. In fact, the book is titled simply “Giving.”
Bill and Melinda Gates have had innumerable words written about them and the fortune they have given to help heal some of the diseases and woes of this world. You’ve read the stories, you know about the billions of dollars they have given and the foundation they have established.
Because of Bill and Melinda Gates, billionaire Warren Buffett has made the news by laying plans to give away 85% of his fortune to touch life, to make a difference, to heal wounds and woes.
Two or three weeks ago, Newsweek Magazine devoted its cover story and page after page of its words to people who give, who volunteer, who share with others in need.
Even the travel and tourist industry has gotten into the swim of things. One of the newest and biggest trends in tourism right now is “Volunteerism Tours.” Trips where people pay their own way to go somewhere else
–maybe a long distance at a great expense-- to work and make a difference in life.
There was even an article in “Parade Magazine” two Sundays ago that talked about Brad Pitt and quoted his attitude toward giving and helping others.
What is going on with all of this? What’s happening in some segments of our society that is moving people to such lengths of sharing and giving and volunteering?
It’s nothing new to you. You’ve heard the church talk for years about the joy of giving. The satisfaction of sharing. The rewards and blessings of volunteerism. –But why is it suddenly catching on in the rest of society. Why, beyond the church, are people interested, indeed captivated and fascinated by giving?
Have I told you the story about the husband who advertised in the newspaper for his wife’s lost cat? –He offered a $5,000 reward for the cat’s return. The clerk who was taking the ad said to the husband, "That’s a really risky thing to do. Somebody might find that cat and claim the reward."
"No, that won’t happen," said the husband confidently.
"But you never know," interrupted the clerk. "And $5,000 is a lot of money for a cat!"
To which the husband replied calmly and matter-of-factly, "When you know what you know, you can afford to be generous. I personally drowned that cat and buried it myself."
(John Bergland in "Circuit Rider,")
Maybe that’s what it is with all this interest in and movement toward giving and volunteerism and sharing. Maybe people know something, something that transcends budgets and pledge cards and stewardship campaigns. Maybe there is a larger spiritual concept at work, something God has put into the hearts of all people. And maybe it has to do with the text of the day, with God’s loving a cheerful giver, but maybe it also has to do with our whole Judaeo-Christian heritage of being blessed to be a blessing. Or maybe, its just like the man trying to place the lost and found ad in the newspaper, “When you know what you know, you can afford to be generous.”
Well, that is the topic this morning and I want us to look a little at some of the stories of peoples’ giving and sharing and volunteering. I want us to see what they know. I want us to see what we know. I want us to discover how all of that impacts our life together in this 2008 stewardship campaign.
I received a letter not long ago from Meri Whitaker. Some of you may have gotten a similar letter. Meri is the Director of the Cookson Hills Community Center in Cookson, Oklahoma. Several of us were there a couple years ago. Meri’s letter began like this:
“She was nine years old. All she wanted to do was to ‘help people.’ She arrived at the Cookson Hills Center to volunteer her services as part of a project she was working on. This young child put in a full day with us and she was willing to do anything that we asked. As she got ready to leave, she turned to me and asked, ‘Would it be alright if I come back on my Christmas Vacation and help some more? I promise, I will bring presents to the children.’”
Meri says, “This young child left me stunned as I realized that there is no age limit on generosity.”
Can you imagine that. A nine-year-old little girl had given up one day of her summer to work hard for others. And now she wanted to give more. She wanted to give her entire Christmas Vacation.
Meri goes on to say that “Love in any language or with any culture is the message of [Christianity.] Love is the gift that is given to us by God and it is for the entire world. Our task is to demonstrate God’s love through our generosity. And you don’t have to be rich to be generous.”
Speaking of children, I had a conversation two Sundays ago with Kathy Lauer. Kathy teaches language arts at Bedford Junior High School. Kathy shared with me a project she had done in class with her students. She asks them occasionally to write in a journal. The question for this particular journal assignment was, “If they could have anything in the world for their birthday, what would they want.”
The responses, Kathy said, were about what you might expect: some wanted cars, some wanted new clothing. One student was especially creative --he wanted the entire Franklin Park Mall. But then there was Lauren. This young lady’s journal entry expressed wants and desires and hopes –but not for “things.” Lauren’s entry read like this:
“If I could get anything in the world for my birthday, it would be three wishes.
“My first wish would be the cure to cancer. Millions of lives
would be saved. Many broken hearts would be carefully mended and I would feel great.
“My second wish would be a solution to solving world hunger and thirst. Starvation is a big factor in deaths in Africa and other countries like that.
“My third wish would be for world peace. The key to stopping hunger or preventing cancer is peace. And we cannot do that when we are at war. So if everyone came together accepting each others’ differences, a lot more problems could be solved and prevented.
“Truly,” Lauren concluded, “I don’t even need wishes or birthdays to resolve these problems. If we all worked together, anything can be done.”
You think maybe there was a lot of silence in the room at that point?
Where did Lauren get that selfless attitude? Where did she learn about concern for others? What was in her background that caused her to look beyond herself, beyond her personal wants and desires and see a bigger, loftier vision? I don’t know that answer, but somewhere along the line Lauren was taught about generosity, about giving self for another, about being blessed to be a blessing. My guess is she has been exposed to church.
You see, it’s the Enrons and the World Coms and whatever the greedy scandal du jour is that makes the news. But it is the 9-year-old little girls in Cookson, Oklahoma, and the teenage Laurens in Bedford, Michigan, that really affect the world.
A few weeks before I went on vacation, I was given a book by Keith Weikel. In fact, Bob and I were both given copies of it. And the book came with this exclamation from Keith: “This is the best book I have ever read!” --If you know Keith Weikel, you know that’s pretty high praise. I read the book on vacation and I would whole-heartedly agree with Keith. It is a marvelous book. And because I know you will ask what the title is, let me tell you upfront. It is “Dying Was the Best Thing that Ever Happened to Me,” --“Stories of Healing and Wisdom Along Life’s Journey.” It is written by a physician named William E. Hablitzel. In fact, while I would encourage its reading by anyone, I want especially to encourage our medical community to read it. The book will affect you deeply.
The book is filled with stories and encounters Dr. Hablitzel has had with patients and others over the years. It contains insights into his learnings and the learnings of others as their paths crossed and intersected and intertwined. One story in particular lends itself to our hearing this morning. With your indulgence, I want to read a portion of one chapter. As you would suspect the story is about giving, about generosity. It centers around one young woman the author has named Misty Reginald.
Dr. Hablitzel begins her story this way:
I have known Misty for almost eight years, since she was thirty. She is outgoing, charming, and well suited for a career in retail sales…. I had always thought of Misty as being happy, or at least not unhappy. I am only now appreciating that there is a profound difference between the two.
On a recent visit Misty was truly happy, not what I had anticipated from someone coming in with complaints of abdominal pain.
“If I knew belly pain made someone feel so good, I would have recommended it a long time ago, Misty,” I said with a smile.
“Oh, I’m just so happy that my brother-in-law went golfing today,” she explained.
“I’ll be glad to take a day off this week if it will make you feel even better,” I joked.
“It’s just that he hasn’t been golfing in several years, and he used to enjoy it so,” she said.
It took some doing, but I was able to direct the conversation away from the family, etc. to her abdominal pain…. She confessed that she had felt discomfort for at least a month.
Lifting her shirt to take a look at the area, I was jolted with shock. “What has happened to you!” I nearly shouted.
A huge surgical scar, obviously recent, jumped out at me. The telltale railroad-track wound started just right of her midline and stretched around her right side, ending near the middle of her back. It looked as if someone had tried to cut her in half.
“Oh, that,” she explained matter-of-factly. “I gave my kidney to my brother-in-law. Didn’t they send you a report?”
Her brother-in-law had been a diabetic since childhood and had suffered many complications, the most difficult being kidney failure. He was on dialysis for several years, but while the treatments kept his body alive, what it was that made him Tim gradually disappeared. It was a very difficult period filled with infections and operations and struggles not the least of which was the time and energy of which he was robbed. It was suggested that what Tim needed was a kidney transplant. Tim spent two years –two frustrating years on the transplant list.
During Tim’s transplant evaluation, consideration was given to a living donation…. Such a procedure was fraught with risk to the donor, but each of Tim’s siblings, parents, and even aunts and uncles had lined up to be tested. No one matched his needs. Misty had always been fond of Tim and she, too, volunteered to be tested. But since she was not a blood relative, a match would have been a near impossibility and her offer was politely declined. As Tim languished on the transplant list…, she insisted on being tested. She was a close match, not perfect, but she would make an acceptable donor.
There were endless tests and tissue typings and screenings
–some physical, some psychological. She met with transplant recipients, kidney donors, and even the widow of a man who died from complications of his donation.
The day of the surgery came. Misty was very frightened but didn’t want anyone to know. She would go first, and the operation would take many hours. Tim’s operation would start near the conclusion of hers, and would not be as difficult or last as long. The surgery went well for both of them.
Three days after the surgery, Tim came to visit Misty. Choking back tears as he entered her room, he whispered barely audibly, “I made urine today. I haven’t made urine in two years!”
It was then Misty’s turn to cry….
Misty told me that she has cried a lot since that day. But the tears were different. She had never understood the phrase “tears of joy,” but now she found herself living it. All she had to do was to look at her brother-in-law and her eyes would start to well up with happiness and gratitude. In just a few short months his life had been transformed. He had gained weight, he felt energized, and now he dared to make plans for the future.
My examination of Misty was brief. There was nothing in the description of her discomfort or in her answers to my questions that gave me much cause for concern. The discomfort was rather superficial and in close proximity to the surgical wound. Most likely it was produced by nerve tissue that was interrupted by the incision, and it would get better over time. The scar, too, would lighten and become less noticeable over time, but it would always be present to serve as a reminder of her act of kindness…. I reassured Misty that her discomfort was nothing to be concerned about.
Then I contemplated giving in my own life. My experience with giving was limited to time and occasionally money. Misty gave of herself. I once read an article about a spiritual master living in India. He was asked about the meaning of life, and he replied that the purpose of life was to give it away. It wasn’t until I saw that scar that I started to understand.
“Since the operation my life has changed,” Misty told me. “I feel as if I have been cured of depression, but I didn’t realize that I had been depressed. I thought I had always been happy, but now I know that what I thought was happiness was something much less. I have always expected the fine things in life to come tomorrow, but now I know that they are here today…. To be honest, I have received much more than anything I have given.”
I let Misty’s words sink deep inside of me as we sat in silence for a few moments. I felt wisdom far beyond the two of us and knew these moments to be profoundly special. I asked Misty if she had any regrets. She replied, with a smile, “Just one,” she said. “I only have one kidney to give.” (pp. 16-24)
Misty Reginald has articulated what we all know to be true –it is far more blessed to give than to receive. Misty’s story begins to put words to the statement with which we began, “When we know what we know we can afford to be generous.” She, from her own personal involvement, learned what a blessing it is literally to give self away to another.
I realize I am “preaching to the choir this morning.” You people already know all about giving and generosity and sharing with others. Do I need to make the list? Over the years I have been here I have either seen with my own eyes or heard it from others, the history of giving in this congregation. Six years ago you gave nearly ¾ of a million dollars to remodel this sanctuary. Before that you gave $2.5 million to build the Family Life Center and additional classrooms and remodel the office wing. This year you gave enough money to purchase bicycles for the 100 pastors who, as we speak, are attending the Kafakumba Pastors School in Lubumbashi, DRC. Got a letter just two weeks ago telling about the distribution of those bicycles. The last three years running, you have given enough food and contributions to feed 5,000 people for two days…15,000+ people over the three years. And that doesn’t even mention the food you bring in every week on a continuing basis. The fourth house we have built with Habitat for Humanity is about to moved into by our newest partner and her family. Nine years ago you gave enough money to help underwrite the cost of building 39 churches and schools and parsonages in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And if all that wasn’t enough, think about your predecessors in the faith here at Epworth. Forty-six years ago our ancestors in the faith called Epworth had enough vision and commitment and generosity to purchase this land, to leave the structure they loved and to build this wonderful facility where exciting ministry thrives in the name of Jesus Christ.
“When you know what you know, you can afford to be generous!” That’s what you know. That’s what generations of Epworth people have known.
Victor Frankl, who survived the Nazi concentration camps of World War II, wrote,
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms— the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Think for a moment of all the things we cannot control: how many will show up on a Sunday morning, what will happen to the business where we work, the decisions our children make, our health, our income…. We may have some influence over those things, but we do not have complete control.
The one thing, though, that we can control is how we will respond to the situations we face. With anger, with doubt, with self-pity? Or with faith and hope and generosity?
Again and again in the scriptures we encounter people of the faith in difficult situations –surrounded by enemies, struggling with sin, sinking in despair. But again and again we see people of faith who put their trust in God, rely on God’s grace, and commit to the way of selflessness and sharing.
In not too many weeks you, we, will be asked to make a choice. We will be asked to make a choice about how we will respond with our commitment to the 2008 budget of this church –its ministries, its outreach, its property. I have a hunch I know how you will respond. I’ve seen your pattern before. This year’s challenge is a little bigger than some we have had. But still, I’ve seen your pattern. I know how much you care. I know how much you believe in the faith and in this place. I also know that like a little 9-year-old in Cookson, Oklahoma, and a teenager in Bedford, Michigan, and a young woman named Misty who literally gave away a part of herself, you understand the miracle of being blessed to be a blessing.
“When you know what you know you can afford to be generous.” I am anxious to see how knowing what we know will impact our giving and our generosity. God’s blessings on you. Amen.
