Outrageous Generosity
Rev. Richard H. Thompson, November 15, 2009
II Corinthians 8:1–15
When you're on the receiving end of outrageous generosity you never forget it.
A team from WPC was visiting friends in Cherident about three hours out of Port au Prince. One of the leaders of that community, a man with an unending smile, enormous energy, and even bigger heart named Cheriston invited Ben Small and me to spend the night at his house. Cheriston lived higher up the mountain in a place called Cavanac. We arrived at early dusk after a steep hike. Cheriston's house is vintage Haitian - cement floor, wood-sided, corrugated metal roof, painted in the bright colors Haitians love. It was a nice little house with a cistern next to it, bone dry because of the drought. Cheriston broke out the dominoes and by lamp light we played with his wife and kids until it was time to turn in. Cheriston's wife showed Ben and me our bedroom. Obviously some people had had to vacate to make room for us. There were two beds made of rag stuffed mattresses covered by clean sheets. I'd never slept on a mattress like that before. I think I dreamed I was getting a body massage all night. We woke to roosters, the smell of coffee and another beautiful sunny day. Cheriston showed us where we could wash up - there was a little enclosure out back with a little stool, a clean towel, a wash basin, a five gallon bucket of clean, refreshingly cool water, and a bar of soap. Then we sat down to breakfast. The table was set with Vache Qui Rit cheese, fresh bread, plantain, roasted goat meat, vegetables, a pineapple upside down cake, and some of the best coffee I've ever tasted anywhere. Over breakfast we compared notes on many subjects: American breakfasts, roosters, the price of a cup of coffee, and how to filter water. It led to a question, "By the way, what time did you get up this morning to get all this ready?" Cheriston shrugged in a kind of matter of fact way, "2 a.m." Ben and I looked at each other. "Why so early?" we asked. Cheriston explained that there were the animals to feed. Besides, they needed to get the water and the spring was at the bottom of the mountain. I almost didn't want to ask, "How long did that take?" "Three hours", Cheriston answered with a little smile. I flashed on that five gallon bucket outside where I had blithely splashed and cleaned. I even washed my hair. One gallon of water weighs eight pounds. "How many buckets did you take down the mountain?" I asked. "Three," he answered. One for his wife to carry, two for Cheriston to carry.
It seems there's just no other word for this kind of hospitality than "outrageous"- as in "beyond convention", beyond common sense, beyond careful calculation.
Maybe you've experienced what you would call "outrageous generosity" too. It has an effect on you, doesn't it?
The churches over in Macedonia, at Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea blew away the apostle Paul too. They were poor Christians and they were poor because they were Christians. They refused to bend the knee to the cult of the emperor and so they paid a price in missing out on jobs and business deals. Even so, these embattled Christians INSISTED on helping to raise money for the poor believers down in Jerusalem. Paul told the Corinthian Christians about the Macedonians. I don't know, maybe he was trying to challenge those Corinthian believers, maybe he was setting up a sort of gracious competition. Or maybe he was just wanting his friends at Corinth to think about how generosity happens, where it comes from. As the apostle put it, "They gave themselves first to the Lord..."
It's where all generosity begins. And amazing things happen as a result. I'll never forget the first year we did the Bethlehem Experience. The idea was simply to transform the entire perimeter of this church campus into one big re-creation of the village of Bethlehem and then let people drive through it so that their cars became time machines, back to what it was really like when Jesus was born.
We talked and talked. We made maps with little toy cars to show how it might look. People were polite. They smiled and said, "Gee, that's a nice idea... but" and then there would be, "It's a tough time of year what with all the parties and the shopping and family coming in. Besides, it's cold out there. The weather can be pretty iffy..." And then, "And by the way, who's going to pay for this?" It was true. We had no money. The budget was in bad shape. As I remember we were in major deficit mode. All we had were plans and an idea.
A mentor of mine once said to me, "You know how much a good idea is worth? Less than a nickel. It's the ideas that get done that are priceless."
It was at a meeting in October in my office where once again several of us gathered to talk some more about this "idea". That evening two members of our church, Ken and Donna Choate came too. Ken worked for a major home builder in Orange County. Ken and Donna are from Texas so I have to try and do justice to their accent. At one low moment in the meeting Donna said to her husband, "Ken, why don't you share with them what you shared with me today?" In a low voice Ken said, "Well, I'll donate the lumber. I've got some carpenters I can bring up to help build the sets. And I've got some sand bags and extra scaffolding you can have too..." He said it in such a low voice I could barely make him out. I said, "What'd you say? Would you say that again, only a little louder?"
Fourteen years later hundreds and hundreds of people have given their time, shared their many skills, applied their faithful imaginations, and given untold hours in leadership to help give this gift, year after blessed year. One act of generosity, "generates"... generosity. Maybe that's why they call it that!
In thirteen Bethlehem Experiences literally thousands of men, women and children have driven through the gate, back into time, to come and behold the One born in an animal feed trough, vulnerable, human, whom we worship, who has blown us away with the outrageous, gracious, generous, love of God.
It really begins with God doesn't it?
As the apostle put it so succinctly, "For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich."
Ever think about Jesus being "rich"? How so? What is "richness" really anyway? The two passages we read this morning only hint at Jesus with God before His birth here. It's hard to put into words, but I'll call it "Trinitarian Intimacy", like joy and fullness, of belonging, like swirling together in perfect rhythm on the dance floor to the songs of the angels.
What human comparisons can we come up with? What's the richest time you've ever experienced? I'll bet you don't answer with amounts of money. I'll bet you answer with births, and discoveries, summiting a peak, good long hard side-splitting laughter, friends, of the sense that you belong, that you have helped to make a difference.
Cheriston is a rich man.
So were those Macedonian Christians.
Jesus was rich beyond any imagining. And yet, for your sake, and mine, and this world, he became poor. Which means accepting limits, which means becoming dis-abled, that there would not be dancing, at least for a while. Instead it means going to hard places where people are sure they have been forgotten, where there is hopelessness, where there is arrogance, where there is numbness, and complacency, anxiety and fear.
That's what this place we call WPC is for. On Friday nights people from all over come sit where you are sitting to help each other break the grip of alcohol. Others meet to break the spell of gambling. There's a shelter across the Courtyard and upstairs on Wednesday nights. There's a clinic that's outgrown this place that meets temporarily in a wonderfully gracious church over in Thousand Oaks. They'll see close to 10,000 by the end of this year. There are 37 senior high people meeting every Sunday, thinking and talking about following Jesus and maybe becoming members of this church. There are 225 preschoolers and their families who come here every single week to experience the love of God. There are over 300 young people who do the same every Thursday as they learn how to make music. There'll be about 500 souls working on the Bethlehem Experience this year. Another 100 or so help us worship every week. And then there's the work beyond these walls in places like Haiti, and Makobe, Kenya, in Mexico, Turkey.
Paul basically says to his Corinthian friends, "Because God is so outrageously loving let's do ministry! Let's let the world see who God is in what we do!"
That's the idea. But you know what a good idea is worth...
So Paul gets practical. The Corinthians are on board, but they were asking how to make this idea real. They were asking, "How do we decide how much to give?"
The apostle offers some guidance:
- Give based on your income. In other words, Paul didn't want to see anyone going into debt while giving to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. That would be defeating the purpose!
- Another simple piece of advice is that those with greater means should give accordingly. There's nothing wrong with having wealth. It's just that wealth is supposed to be used for God's work. It's why there is wealth!
- Another simple word here is "take care of your own needs". Of course this raises the question, "What is a need?" In Paul's day it was basic: food, clothing, shelter. Never once is there any mention anywhere in the Bible about "latte's". This is where our brothers and sisters in other places in the world can help teach us what "need" really consists of.
- The principle of equality applies here. Paul was not saying everybody should have the same income, but that everyone should have their need equally met. Again, the idea is that wealth is to be used, not that wealth in and of itself is a bad thing.
- Lastly, giving is a matter of heart. It is not done well in response to arm twisting, gimmicks, clever words, or emotional manipulation. It is an act of worship.
So it dawns on me that Cheriston would not say he thought he was being outrageously generous. He would probably say, "Well, we were just glad to have you come and stay..."
Nor would Ken and Donna say they considered what they did was "outrageously generous". Knowing those two, they would probably tell you, "Well, it just seemed like a good idea that needed a little push..."
Nor would perhaps anyone here who works in the Shelter, or on the Bethlehem Experience, who teaches Sunday School, or who gives money, and time and energy, say, "Here I am being outrageously generous". No, I think they would say, "Well, it's just the right and good thing to do. It's important. I saw the need and sort of jumped in." Maybe they'd say, "It's my pleasure." Maybe somewhere behind, around, or underneath all these answers there's one basic explanation.
It's not that we are outrageously generous. It's that we are just so profoundly grateful.
Questions for Reflection and recommended reading.
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