Blessed to Be a Blessing

(Fiddling with trying to get a paintbrush in the sleeve bristles first)
Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

On his third missionary journey, Paul travelled to what is now Greece and then north through what then was Macedonia and now is split into Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bulgaria. In his travels, Paul is collecting an offering, from the Gentile Christians that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem are not at all sure about to help those very Jewish Christians, who are poor in good times but now are enduring a famine. He has had what he called a “painful visit” with the church in Corinth and is writing to them instead of visiting.

Paul tries several different fundraising methods. He writes to them about the good ministry of the church in Jerusalem – surely they want to support their fellow Christians doing such effective and needed work. He tries guilt telling them, “I know your eagerness, which is what I have been boasting about to everyone as I travel. “ Paul wants to show the Jerusalem Christians the faithfulness of the Gentile Christians. He wants them to be amazed at their generosity, to finally accept Paul’s work, converting Gentiles, as validated ministry.

Give for the people who need it (there is a famine in Judea and the poor of Jerusalem are suffering), do it for the church (to show the faithfulness of Gentiles), do it for me (Paul was struggling with the very real possibility that the was going to have over promised and will underdeliver).

Finally, he stops fundraising. Do it for you.

This brush goes in this sleeve. It belongs there, but as long as I try to force it in this way, I am going to bend the bristles and frustrate myself. I might get it in there, but if the purpose is to protect the brush, forcing it in there is defeating the purpose.

Finally, Paul backs away to look at the big picture, the deeper reason for the collection. Making an offering to God is a spiritual practice. It is as important in our faith development as prayer and reading Scripture and worship and service. The amount of our gift is not what is important.

There are Stewardship campaigns based on what is termed a narrative budget that use fundraising techniques like figuring up what a week of ministry at the church costs and asks people to sponsor a week of ministry, by the way at Farmington it is about $11,000. But that is a slippery slope, because as soon as you become the sponsor of a week of ministry, you will have someone wanting to name that week in honor or memory of someone, or even just have it be their week at the church, and then they are going to want to decide what happens that week. And before long, the gift becomes a purchase.

The amount of the gift is not what is important. Throughout Scripture, the tithe of 10% is upheld as the standard minimum offering. It was sometimes called the first fruits offering. When the harvest is brought in, the first 10% belongs to God and the rest is the farmer’s. Where we often figure out all our bills and then decide how much we can afford to give to God, the first duty we have is to return to God what is God’s and then live our lives with the rest. Every now and then, I have someone ask me whether the tithe is supposed to be figured on the net or the gross, before or after taxes, or a detail like what about my retirement savings account and my pre-tax medical savings accounts?

Again, the amount of the gift is not what is important. The point is this, says Paul, the farmer who goes out to plant and cautiously distributes the seed so that some seed falls on each area of soil is not going to have a harvest like the farmer who goes out and broadcasts seeds by the handful and just makes sure that the ground is good and covered.

It isn’t about the amount of seed; it is not about the amount of the gift. It is about the decision the farmer made about how to distribute the seed. It is about the decision we make for how to use our blessings from God.

Each one must make up their mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, not out of a sense of duty or as a result of a guilt trip, for God loves a cheerful giver. God wants us to dance our pledges to the altar. Stewardship Sunday is a day to look forward to throughout the year as today we give thanks to God for our blessings and offer them to God’s service.

Andy Hogue teaches at Baylor University, and his area of expertise is philanthropy and the public good. What I find interesting is that his bio on the Baylor website says, that “His greatest professional joy is helping students discover ways to orient their ambitions and maximize their learning to promote human flourishing.” His greatest joy is to help students turn around their thinking about giving. In 2014, he conducted a study on generosity. This was his conclusion, and it really matches Paul’s, “Whatever our station, however much money or resources we have, we all have something to share and something to give.”

Generosity begins with gratitude, being grateful for what we have – our time, our talents, our treasures – and thinking about how they might benefit others. Because generosity is more than a transaction. We are going to come forward and put our Estimates of Giving for 2022 in the model church, or we are going to go to the website to the pledge card and email our Estimate of Giving to [email protected] or we will put our pledge card in an envelope and put it in the post box and mail it to the church. And those pledges will be tallied and that total will be used to weigh ministries and needs and programs of the church and a budget will be adopted by Session along with a plan for ministry in 2022. But it isn’t about that transaction. It is about your faith, about your love for God more than money, your recognition that there is no amount of money that can purchase another day in your life, that your security and your hope are in God.
But it isn’t just about you. We are blessed, and it is right that we be thankful and respond with generosity. We are blessed to be a blessing!

It is about loving our neighbor as ourselves. Paul was raising funds to care for the poor in Jerusalem who were suffering. Paul was raising funds to allow him to continue to preach and travel and spread the Gospel and to support the growth and nurture of the churches he had established.

And it is about loving God. Paul writes, you will glorify God. Your gifts are a blessing to God in two ways: 1. They are the tangible result of you believing that Jesus is your Lord. 2. By making your gift, you are entering into partnership with one another in ministry.

(fit the sleeve over the paint brush, handle first)
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

May our way of thinking be turned ‘round right so that our hearts are filled with joy as we give gratefully and generously, for we are blessed to be a blessing. Thanks be to God! Amen.