"Does It Matter -- Part II" II Corinthians 8: 1-5; Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

I intentionally picked a more generic title for this week because I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go.  I'm still not sure where to go with the sermon.  It is being preached in the context of the last few weeks of a capital campaign.

 Paul writes about the "privilege" the churches in Macedonia felt as they "begged" to be able to give to the offering for the poor church in Jerusalem.  I am wondering how often we consider it a privilege to give.  Obligation or opportunity, perhaps, but privilege? Or begging for the privilege to give?

The Deuteronomy passage provides a classic stewardship text on tithing.  In this context, the tithing is an automatic response to the Israelites being brought into the Promised Land.  As they receive the crops from the ground in the land God has given them, they give the first fruits back to God.

I've been reflecting this week on why it matters that we give.  not in terms of for the project, but for ourselves.  Part of the answer is tied to being people of God who are called to return back to God.  How does the sense of privilege fit into that?

I'm not sure how this story fits, but I clearly remember visiting a older, single woman in the church in KY.  She had been sick and in a nursing home and had missed the stewardship visits that were part of a dual campaign (operating budget + capital campaign).  I actually got more involved with her finances than I would generally like to because she had no family and would ask me to look over her bank statements, etc. for her if she had a question or was having a problem.  Finances were on her mind that day.  First of all, she gave me a pledge card for the capital campaign as she tearfully told me that was all she could give at the time (it was not an extraordinarily big gift).  I assured her that her gift was welcome and she did not need to be upset about not being able to give as much as she wanted.  A week or so later when I visited her, she asked me to look at her bank statement because she had some questions about some charges the bank had that month.  So, I looked over her bank account and discovered that she had more than 1.5 times what I earned in a year in her checking account!  I answered her question and then offered the financial advice that maybe she ought to put some of those funds in an investment vehicle that would make her some interest.  She noted that she didn't want to get caught short on cash, so she needed that money in her checking account.  I talked to her lawyer (small town life) and told him what I had discovered.  He laughed as he told me that he'd been telling her that for years, but she wouldn't do it.  I confess to thinking maybe I should have not been so ready to tell her it was okay to not give as much as she would have liked.  This was the beginning of her gradual decline, so i spent a lot of time talking with her about lots of things.  Somewhere along the way she told me that she was the last sibling to die and that her oldest brother had left her some money.  She had never spent a dime of it over the twenty years since he had died (she just let the broker reinvest it) because she did not feel like it was her money, so she couldn't spend it.  She never told me about her will, but told me that she hoped if she had any money that she'd like a scholarship set up at her alma mater, money given to this group and that group.  I told her that telling me was fine, but she needed to tell her lawyer.  She always responded to that with, "He's one of my boys (she had been a schoolteacher and had taught him), so I know he'll do what's right."  Every time she told me that, I would tell her, "I'm glad he's one of your boys, but if you don't tell him what you want him to do with your estate, he won't be able to make sure what you want to happen, happens."  She finally died (I was with her when she died), and I met her lawyer in the hallway (he didn't not get there before she died).  As we talked I told him that she had told me lots of ways that she wanted to use her estate.  He gave me kind of a funny look that I interpreted as this topic was none of my business, so I dropped the topic.  A week or so later he asked me to come by his office.  When I got there he told me, "you remember at the hospital when you told me what she wanted to do with her money? Well, I hope you remember that now because the church is the sole beneficiary of her estate."  $850,000 left to the church (we did remember those groups).  And the bulk of the money was from that investment account of her brother's that she never touched.  It just grew and grew and then ended up with the church.

I have always believed that the best way to help a person grow in their giving is to help them become what some call a "patterned giver."  That is, if any of us commit to giving on a monthly basis, or use automatic

Long stories that won't make the sermon, or at least not yet, but both have been on my mind.

What do you think about giving, particularly in the context of it being a privilege?