If I preached these texts again, I would focus on the Israelites giving abundantly, which is then defined as the tithes and the offering for the Levites, and the fact that there was "plenty to spare." In fact, I did not notice the "plenty to spare" until I was reading it in my final run through to the sermon. Some Sundays, I could have reworked the sermon a bit to include more about that, but this particular Sunday morning I had other things to do before worship, so I could not make the revisions. I did include a comment about having an abundance left over, but I am not sure where in the sermon, so it is not reflected in the text below.
I had in mind a sermon that pushed more the generous spirit, instead of giving generously, but I did not seem to find that part of the sermon.
“A Generous Spirit” October 14, 2018, SAPC, Denton;
Richard B. Culp; 2 Chronicles 31: 1-10; I Timothy 6: 17-19
2 Chronicles 31: 1-10 Now when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke down the pillars, hewed down the sacred poles,[a] and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, all to their individual properties.
2 Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, division by division, everyone according to his service, the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and offerings of well-being, to minister in the gates of the camp of the Lord and to give thanks and praise. 3 The contribution of the king from his own possessions was for the burnt offerings: the burnt offerings of morning and evening, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed festivals, as it is written in the law of the Lord. 4 He commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so that they might devote themselves to the law of the Lord. 5 As soon as the word spread, the people of Israel gave in abundance the first fruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of everything. 6 The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been consecrated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps. 7 In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. 8 When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. 9 Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. 10 The chief priest Azariah, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over.”
Introduction: Final G - grace, gratitude, giving, and today generosity.
To be clear, all four Gs speak to a way of life, not just to sermon themes for a stewardship season.
Move 1: Generosity as a way of life.
a. Both of our Scripture lessons today have something in common, although they are separated by hundreds of years.
b. Passage from 2 Chronicles depicts a pivotal time in Israel’s life.
1. Long got are the eras of King David and Solomon when Israel was a world economic power and strong spiritual leadership.
2. Kings have come and gone - some good, some bad; most mixed.
3. King Ahaz was one of the bad kings, and he has just been replaced with King Hezekiah, who will institute reforms meant to restore Israel as a faithful servant to God.
4. King Hezekiah brings back memories of the days of King David and Solomon.
6. He begins with the tearing down of the altars where the Israelites worshipped false gods.
7. He issues instruction for how the Israelites are to act to get them living well - the new beginning is marked by giving with abundance.
8. Or as Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message, “as soon as Hezekiah gave out his orders, the Israelites gave generously….”
9. their new life which is intended to reflect their faithfulness is marked by generosity.
b. Similarly, the letter to timothy shares Paul’s exhortation to the early Christians (note, many biblical scholars believe letters to Timothy were not written by Paul).
1. “they are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, 19 thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”
2. the hallmark of someone who believes in the resurrected Christ is generosity.
move 2: Generosity is an approach to life.
a. Mind-set to give.
1. Give beyond what is expected.
2. Give beyond what is considered reasonable.
3. In truth, when King Hezekiah calls the people back to being generous, they respond by giving a tithe and giving to support the Levite priests, all of which was part of the historic expectation of God’s people.
4. But too often is had been the unmet expectation because they did not have generous hearts.
5. They could not give in the generous ways God called them to because they their outlook on life lacked generosity.
b. Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay "Compensation", wrote: "In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must be rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody.”
1. Christian context - we cannot repay God, so we give generously to others.
2. not just cent for cent in monetary giving, but deed for deed.
3. Generosity is an approach to life, not a financial giving method.
c. two stories of generosity, from both ends fo the economic spectrum.
1. Leland Stanford made his money in the railroad business in CA in the 19th century. While he, his wife Jane and only son Leland, Jr. were in Florence, Italy, Leland, Jr. died of typhoid fever, just before his 16th birthday.
His father, who had remained at Lelands' bedside continuously, fell into a troubled sleep the morning the boy died. When he awakened he turned to his wife and said,
"The children of California shall be our children."
On their way back to CA from Italy, the Stanfords stopped and visited These words were the real beginning of Stanford University. Cornell, Yale, Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They talked with President Eliot of Harvard about three ideas: a university at Palo Alto, a large institution in San Francisco combining a lecture hall and a museum, and a technical school. They asked him which of these seemed most desirable and President Eliot answered, a university. Mrs. Stanford then asked him how much the endowment should be, in addition to land and buildings, and he replied, not less than $5 million. A silence followed and Mrs. Stanford looked grave. Finally, Mr. Stanford said with a smile, "Well, Jane, we could manage that, couldn't we?" and Mrs. Stanford nodded her head. (https://web.archive.org/web/19970113162511/http://www.stanford.edu/home/stanford/history/begin.html; you can read the fictionalized version at snopes.com)
a gift that today still witnesses to the love parents had for their son and their desire to benefit the children of CA.
2. Dobri Dobrev - you may have seen his photo - old man, with long white beard and hair; looks a little bit like Santa claus, although more little more worn, and a lot more beggarly looking; the iconic photo shows him stooped over with a little blond haired boy. you may have read about him after his death this past February.
He would be on the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria. A constant figure, who would tell stories to those who listened, had a wooden box in which people could give donations, and would offer to kiss the hand of the person giving the coins, or euro, or dollars.
Those who saw him as a beggar missed out on who he really was. He was a generous man who lived off his meager $100 monthly pension and gave all the donations he received in his little wooden box to support Bulgarian churches and orphanages; his giving estimated to be over $50,000 through the years.
A man with a mission to live generously.
Conclusion: as we live out our baptismal vows, the vows we make again today, we would be well-served to remember to teach generosity to Jacob and the others growing up in our midst.
If we teach them to be generous, if we are generous, then we will reveal the risen Christ through our generosity.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment