EXODUS 22:21-27
PSALM 1
1 THESSALONIANS 2:1-8
MATTHEW 22:34-46
Sermon – October 23,
2005
Love and Generosity
“Love” is not
a feeling.
It had better
not be. Our feelings are as fickle as
gusts of wind – now one way, now another, now strong, now weak, now not blowing
at all. “Love” is not a feeling.
“Love” is a decision
people make; real love is a commitment.
This is most
obvious when there is a great gap between words and deeds. Consider the case of a married man who is
the sole economic support of his wife and children and who repeatedly tells
them “how much he loves them.” If,
however, he “never seems to have time” to spend with them, uses his talents to
benefit all sorts of people except his immediate family, and spends all
of the family’s money beyond that for basic needs on things and activities just
for himself, it won’t be long before his wife and children know him for
the monstrous hypocrite that he is, for he has professed “love” to them while
investing his time, talent and treasure elsewhere. His hypocrisy is monstrous even if he commits no actual abuse;
his neglect of his wife and children would be enough to expose his so-called
“love” for them as worthless. The same,
of course, would apply if you changed the genders involved in the story – or
the generations.
If we love
someone, we commit some of the resources at our disposal – our time,
talent and treasure – to express that love, to embody that love, to incarnate
our love, to use a theological word. If
we don’t, then we don’t really love that person – or we don’t know what
love is.
When Jesus
was asked, “Teacher, what commandment in the law is the greatest?” he was asked
by the Pharisees, those of his fellow Jews who were famous for conscientiously
and meticulously obeying God’s law. No
matter how he responded to their question, they would have been prepared to
recognize the importance of any of the 613 divinely sanctioned laws in the
Hebrew Scriptures.
Jesus chose
two: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
soul, and with all you mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.” Jesus didn’t make these up;
he was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, respectively. He simply said that the entire teaching and
law of Hebrew Scriptures depends on these two verses. Two verses about love.
In my example
of the husband and father who “talked the talk” about love but didn’t “walk the
walk”, it is clear that real love has to involve generosity and not just occasional generosity, as a “fad” or an
accident; genuine love involves
commitment which includes a commitment to embody the love we profess
in deeds as well as words, using our time, talent and treasure systematically
to express our love.
If we say we
love God, but spend very little time in individual prayer – including listening
to God’s guidance – in personal reading of and reflection on the Bible, in
worship as part of the community of faith, and in systematic giving of our
time, talent and treasure to our love for God, what are we really saying?
If we say we
love our neighbors – just stopping there, because loving our neighbors as ourselves requires really radical
commitment – but don’t commit ourselves systematically with our time,
talent and treasure to embody our love for our neighbors what are we
really saying?
Real love is
about commitment. Real commitment
between couples means being there for the other person through thick and thin,
“For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in
health.” Real love involves being able
to be counted on to be there and do the right thing, the way a child ought to
be able to count on a parent. Real love
involves generosity, and not the calculated kind that expects a return for
oneself.
God has shown
real love for us.
God created
“This fragile earth, our island home” and entrusted its care to us – giving us
the car keys, as it were, even though we human beings didn’t want to take
“Driver’s Ed” from God because we thought we knew all we needed to know about
running the earth. The current state of
the earth is testimony to how much we didn't know, and don’t know.
Yet when we
human beings really, really messed up, God didn’t demand the “car keys” back
and “ground us” indefinitely. God gave
us a second chance. God embodied
God’s own love quite literally, becoming incarnate as a mortal, vulnerable
human being to offer us knowledge of the truth, healing, profound fellowship,
forgiveness of our sins, and hope for new life here and now – and forever. Finally, that love for us was manifested in
Christ’s giving 100% of himself on the cross.
That’s
generosity.
What we are
asked to do is respond to God’s awesome and ultimate generosity and love with
whatever love and generosity we are able to muster. To say “Thank you” not just once a year on Thanksgiving Day, but
every day. In the words of our beloved,
departed parishioner Jim Mellors, to wake up each morning and say, “Lord, what
can I do to help?”
Loving God
and loving our neighbors are not just words: they are deeds waiting to be done,
time waiting to be well-spent, checks waiting to be written.
And so when a
church community asks those who participate in its worship and fellowship to
make commitments of time, talent and treasure, that church is simply
asking people to walk the walk as well as to talk the talk, to embody
the love Christians express in systematic,
deliberate, planned generosity.
It’s only
because other people have decided to be systematic, deliberate and plan
their generosity that we are able to live our lives as well as we
can. After all, it doesn’t do much good
to wish that there was a First Aid and Rescue Squad 30 seconds after you need
an ambulance. Instead, give thanks that
some other people were systematic, deliberate and planned ahead enough so that
there was someone who answered when you called 911 and some
well-trained people who showed up!
On a larger
scale, the reason that such a vast private sector response to the hurricanes
and other disasters was and is possible is because years ago people decided
that organizations like the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and
Episcopal Relief and Development needed to be developed. It wouldn’t have done much good to wish for
them to exist when Katrina was a few hours from making landfall.
By the same
token, the church – whether we mean the whole Christian Church or this intrepid
band called St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Monmouth Junction – could not be
willed magically into existence just when someone wants to be closer to God and
closer to other people who want to be closer to God. The Christian Church was, rather, created by God to help people
live out these commandments, to embody what they say they believe by
expressing love for God and for other humans – including, and especially,
non-members of the church – in systematic, deliberate and planned ways. Without
committing themselves systematically, we well could be asked by God, “How can I tell that you love God and
your neighbor?” When God “audits” our calendars and our checkbooks, there will
be evidence there either embodying our love for God and our neighbors, or not.
So,
systematic generosity – we call it pledging
financially and signing Time and Talent sheets – is part of “getting real” as
Christians. But this is a team effort,
not designed to be a burden for anyone.
So, if someone is homeless, bankrupt, unemployed or facing extraordinary
medical bills, that person is not expected to make a financial
pledge. (If someone does, we accept it,
but it’s above and beyond the call of duty.)
It is, in fact, the duty of everyone else to support the
ministries of the church so that they can be available and free to those who
need them, especially those who are homeless, bankrupt, unemployed or
facing serious illness. Some people get
“wounded” on “the battlefield of life”, and we Christians don’t leave our
wounded “lying on the battlefield”! We
go and bring them to a place where they can be cared for – if they want
that. A lot of what we do as a
congregation is all about that; next Sunday I’ll tell some stories, some of
“St. Barnabas’ greatest hits”, which are examples of servant ministry which
would not have happened if we didn’t have a gathered community of faith here.
So, pledging
is not a burden imposed on the “busted.” Pledging is also not a “one size fits all” business. Biblical stewardship is based on
proportional giving, giving a percentage of a household’s income. There is no “flat rate” for membership here,
unlike at a gym or many other organizations.
The incomes of households in our congregation vary enormously, which is
part of our wonderful diversity. Any
flat rate chosen would be a real burden to some people and less than some
others would want to give, but most of all a flat membership rate would
be contrary to biblical teaching.
So that’s why
it is that enclosed in your service bulletins today is not only a financial
pledge card – every one qualifies for the “St. Barnabas gold card” – but also a
work sheet for you to figure out, based on your own situation, what level of
commitment you’d like to make. The
biblical basis of stewardship, as Deacon Barbara reminded us last week, is the
tithe – 10% of gross income – which Elda and I personally use to determine our total
charitable giving, including but not limited to our local church.
Many people
aren’t there yet – it took me years also – so you’re free to choose
another percentage. Two-and-a-half
percent is about the national average in the Episcopal Church; richer areas of
the country, like ours, generally are less generous proportionately and poorer
areas generally are more generous, just as poorer people on average are more
generous proportionately than middle income people who are often more generous
proportionately than rich people. You
can buck those trends if you choose.
A word about
St. Barnabas’ situation. Some of us may
have come from churches which were supported financially in a major way through
investment income or rental income.
Less than 1% of St. Barnabas’ income comes from dividends or interest,
and around 5% comes from rents. Over
75% comes from pledge and envelope giving; the rest is mainly holiday offerings
and fund-raising. Pledging is the engine that pulls the train here. Others of you may have come from churches
which were heavily dependent financially on a handful of people. Well, Bill Gates doesn’t go here. St. Barnabas is a team, and every member of
the team is necessary – and appreciated.
Secondly, St.
Barnabas is indeed “Building for a New Generation.” We are literally doing that
upstairs, construction which is made possible by the generous donations of time
and talent of over 20 parishioners. I
said they made it possible; they didn’t make it free. The renovations are largely financed by a
15-year, $68,000 loan at 4% from the Diocese of New Jersey. We are now paying off that loan with
payments of about $500 per month. The
renovation, therefore, will add about $6,000 to our annual expenses for
2006. We also want to stop using past
Building Fund donations to make payments on our existing mortgage – to have, in
short, enough operating income to cover all operating expenses. We have committed ourselves to
cost-of-living allowances to our staff.
These three items alone mean we need to increase our pledge revenue by
10% next year just to maintain what we’re already doing. We can, of course, do more with
more.
So the basic
principles here are:
Real
love requires systematic generosity.
If we say we want to obey the greatest commandments, we need to embody
that love in specific commitments of time, talent and treasure.
God
has been and is enormously generous to us in the Creation and in Jesus
Christ.
Christian
giving is a joyful systematic offering of a percentage of one’s income in
accordance with one’s personal circumstances and if one is not in dire
straights. As members of the community
of faith, in St. Paul’s words, we “bear one another’s burdens.”
Let us express our love for God and for our neighbors near and far, in deeds as well as words, giving thanks and glory and praise to God from whom all blessings flow.
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church