NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766

Sunday, October 3, 2004

Sermon: “We Have It So Good?”

Scripture: II Corinthians 9:6-15

Reverend Larry Gerber

PP1

(Holy Communion slide that you have in computer)

The National Council of Churches (USA) states that

World Communion Sunday (originally called World Wide Communion Sunday) originated in the Presbyterian Church (USA). In 1936, for the first time, the first Sunday in October was celebrated in Presbyterian churches in the United States and overseas. From the beginning, it was planned so that other denominations could make use of it and, after a few years, the idea spread beyond the Presbyterian Church.

The Department of Evangelism of the Federal Council of Churches (a predecessor body of the National Council of Churches) was first associated with World Wide Communion Sunday in 1940 when the department’s executive secretary, Jesse Bader, led in its extension to a number of churches throughout the world.

It was thought that the once a year observance by all Christian churches, would bring a lasting peace throughout the world. World Communion Sunday is still observed by many Christian churches around the world, but not all.

This month the papers in Texas have covered the latest vitriolic argument between the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptist Convention over funds supporting seminaries. Just this week I read an article by a Baptist politico about how the "wise and courageous" Texas Baptist leadership (who so deeply believe in local church autonomy!?) had found a way to repudiate University Baptist for the acceptance of homosexuality.

The University leadership said: “Well, we probably should send a thank you note to him and all of the "wise and courageous leaders of the BGCT" for removing us from the unseemly squabbles of the Baptists so we can focus more on feeding the hungry and housing the homeless and helping refugees and preaching the gospel. I listen to these Southern Baptist battles now with a great sense of detachment and see them the way the rest of the world sees them: as venomous disputes among people with high control needs who just ought to go their separate ways and get back to the message of God's love which gets lost in their fights over money, power, and prestige. It used to bother me when someone would say so, but from this distance I finally see there's hardly any difference between them in the way they do business. Neither side trusts the democracy of the church or open dialogue on difficult topics. They believe in an elite leadership, though they disagree about who the leaders should be. They are standing on the deck of a burning ship arguing over who should steer the boat.”

Well, the Baptist squabbles are small potatoes compared to the Catholic/Protestant conflict in Ireland, the Catholic/Orthodox atrocities in Serbia, the Catholic/Catholic mutual tribal genocide in Africa, and other bloody inter-Christian conflicts down through the ages. And in every war there are the Christians on opposite sides shooting to kill each other because national, tribal, and ethnic loyalties are stronger than loyalty to Christ. So: World Communion Sunday? Christian unity? You've got to be kidding, right? Why, a number of Christian churches will not even let you share communion with them if you aren't a member of their denomination, and some, if you aren't a member of their particular church.

What do you think Jesus thinks of all this division within the people who call themselves by his name? Once, not long after Jesus challenged the disciples for arguing over who was the greatest, they complained to him of a fellow who was using his name in a magical formula to cast demons out of the sick. They tried to make him stop because he wasn't one of them. They figured they had the special status, the singular right, the unique power to speak in Jesus' name. It was a copyright infringement, a theft of trademark, a challenge to their pride of place as one of the Twelve.

Houses are expanding, incomes are growing, health is improving ... and people are feeling worse. Perhaps we have forgotten that money can’t buy happiness, but generosity can.

We’ve never had it better ... and we’ve never felt worse about it.

Or, to borrow a phrase: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

That’s the surprising state of affairs in our society today, as we discover that cash cannot create contentment and possessions don’t always provide us with a sense of peace. Sure, we may watch The Fabulous Life of Celebrity Super Spenders on VH1, and gawk at the extravagant shopping sprees of Hollywood’s best-paid superstars, but we know that most celebrities are just a few steps away from having a meltdown and ending up in rehab.

What grandma always said is true: Money can’t buy happiness.

Still, most of us expect that improvements in quality of life are going to make us feel better. But they don’t — at least not by themselves. In his new book The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook makes the point that life is getting better all the time: Our houses are bigger, our incomes are growing, our health is improving, and the environment is becoming cleaner. We are even enjoying a drop in crime rates, and decreases in certain problem areas such as divorce, teen pregnancy, drug use and abortion.

So why isn’t all this good news making us jump for joy? Easterbrook has some intriguing ideas about why we feel rotten in the middle of our nation’s great riches, and how we can be simultaneously healthy and unhappy. He makes the case that:

Bad news sells. If it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead. It’s always a disaster of some kind that draws us to television news reports, and bad news is what keeps us glued to the tube through many commercial breaks. During a snowstorm in Washington, D.C., in the early 1990s, the local NBC affiliate changed the name of the weather segment from WeatherCenter to StormCenter. Well, guess what? They never changed it back, not even for sunny days. Bad news sells.

We don’t sleep enough. Americans sleep an hour less every night than they did a generation ago. And if that’s not bad enough, we sleep about two or three hours less per night than people did a century ago. With such sleep deprivation, no wonder some of us feel cranky!

The solution to one problem creates another. Easterbrook describes this phenomenon as “the unsettled character of progress,” and his insight makes sense, when you think about it. We invent an anthrax vaccine, and then we fear that it has terrible side effects. We create a nationwide network of cell phones, and then we live in terror that some distracted driver is going to run us down in his or her SUV. We develop miraculous cures for diseases, and then worry that we will not be able to afford them. The unsettled character of progress often leaves us feeling very anxious about the future.

For these reasons, and others, we’re going through a progress paradox — we’re feeling bad while living well. But there’s also a spiritual component to this problem, one that’s addressed quite clearly by Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians. Writing to Christians in the wealthy Greek city of Corinth, Paul reminds them of their promise to give him a “bountiful gift” for the poor Christians in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 9:5). Although he describes this as a completely voluntary gift, it is clear that he expects the Corinthians to be generous in their support, and he promises many rewards for their giving.

For Paul, true happiness is found in what you give ... not in what you receive. “God loves a cheerful giver,” he tells them, ramping up the very first Christian stewardship campaign (v. 7).

Do you want to be enriched in every way? Then let’s see some “great generosity” (v. 11).

Are you interested in glorifying God? Then show your brothers and sisters “the generosity of your sharing” (v. 13).

Are you looking for God to provide you “with every blessing in abundance”? Then don’t hold tight to a miserly attitude — instead, “share abundantly in every good work” (v. 8).

The apostle is laying out for us another paradox — what we might call “The Stewardship Paradox.” In any true paradox, you are faced with a statement that seems to be inherently contradictory, but turns out to be true. In Paul’s words to the Corinthians, he is saying that personal enrichment comes from great generosity, and that blessings in abundance come from sharing abundantly with others. His point is that you receive the most by giving the most.

The Stewardship Paradox.

How does this work? “The point is this,” says Paul, using an agricultural image: “the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (v. 6).

I can well remember, that on the farm, Dad had a setting on the planter, for each seed we sowed. There was a setting for wheat, another for corn, and yet another for oats, etc. Each setting would let just the right amount of seed drop through the planter, so that the crop would not be too thin, or too thick. The crop would grow according to the amount of seed we planted. The right amount of seed would be bring the optimum harvest.

Whether you are growing corn, or wheat, or mission projects, Paul is absolutely right — you cannot expect significant results without making a significant investment. There will be no great harvest of pumpkins in the fields, or people in the pews, unless forward-thinking men and women are willing to sow bountifully by making significant investments of time and talent and treasure.

In Robert Kennedy: His Life (Touchstone, 2002), biographer Evan Thomas notes that Kennedy, a child of wealth and privilege, rarely carried cash, relying instead upon various members of his entourage to pick up his tabs.

One day Kennedy, a devout Catholic, attended a church service with a friend, who dutifully placed a dollar on the collection plate on his behalf — only to hear the muttered protest: “Don’t you think I’d be more generous than that?”

Which raises the question: If your neighbor was going to put in for you, how much would that neighbor put in?!

But there’s an unanswered question in the middle of this Paradox: How does generous giving actually lead to contentment? The connection between sowing and reaping makes good logical sense, but the link between giving and happiness is a bit harder to establish. It is not immediately clear how good stewardship can make us happier in our rich but rotten-feeling world today.

When was the last time that you actually laughed as you sat down to write your check to the church? Or to the Red Cross? Or to UMCOR? Or to the local homeless shelter? Maybe you’re not giving at the level that will tip you over into hilarity. Or perhaps you’re not focusing enough on the joy that God is feeling, and that needy people are feeling, as a result of your generosity.

Hilarious giving. That’s the solution to the Progress Paradox that we are living with every day, the antidote to the unhappiness we are bound to feel as we spend our days in the middle of our self-obsessed secular society. In fact, author Gregg Easterbrook himself believes that we would all be better off if we were more grateful, more forgiving, and more spiritual, and he challenges us to move beyond our materialistic obsessions to reclaim “a mostly hopeful view of the human prospect.”

Giving of ourselves, and of our resources is the key. We can capture a more hopeful view, but only by learning to give with joy and laughter. As we commit ourselves to Christian stewardship, both inside and outside the church, we will discover that God is truly able to provide us with every blessing in abundance (v. 8). As we share our resources with people in need, we will find that we will be enriched in every way for our great generosity, and we will find ourselves filled with the “surpassing grace of God” (vv. 11-14). As we make sacrifices for others, we will come to see that money cannot buy happiness, but generosity can.

Who knows? We may even break out in laughter.

It is said that when Jesus was asked how much he loved the world, he stretched out his hands and said “This much” and gave himself to the way of the cross. His gift -- his life for ours. Jesus was a joyful giver. They did not kill him, he offered himself, but he first enjoyed the Passover meal, and the breaking of bread………in remembrance of what he was about to do for those who believed in him, and would follow him.

In a world that so often makes us feel rotten, hilarious giving is the key to contentment. If we let the love of God enfold us through His power and His love, we will be on the right path to a full and happy life.

Let prepare for Holy Communion……….

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766