November 2, 2014
Fearless Generosity- Commitment Sunday
- 1 Thessalonians 2:9-20
- Dr. Teri Thomas
In case you haven’t noticed, today is Commitment Sunday. It is part of a year-long effort to butter you up with mailings, and personal sharing, and pithy posters so that when your pledge card arrived you would be inspired to give to give generously, to give fearlessly.
Those of you who have been around churches for a long time
know that there are some good, standard stewardship texts in scripture.
After all Jesus talked more about money than anything else except the Kingdom of God.
So we could pull out the tithing passages from Deuteronomy
which we always think are aimed at someone else.
Or the heart wrenching story of the rich young ruler who wants to follow Jesus
but is unwilling to make the sacrifice he demands.
Or that lovely tale of the poor widow who gives away everything she has
and makes us wonder about the old woman’s sanity.
But today I want us to look at another passage from Paul the one he wrote to the Thessalonians.
It isn’t about money
It is about life
It is about what we have been given in life
and what we decide to do with it
It is about our faith
and how we decide to live it out.
It is about God giving, our receiving
Our giving, God receiving
It really is a two way street.
The truth of the matter is that what motivates generous giving
is not all the stewardship mailings you got in the mail,
or the wonderful testimonies of your fellow members.
It is not what I can say in 12 minutes and it is not even the words we read in the Bible.
What motivates fearless generosity is the experience of being loved by God.
Maybe it is being welcomed joyfully into this loving community of faith
maybe it is being forgiven for something that you have carried too long
maybe it is finding healing and peace in prayer
or discovering new purpose and meaning through service to others
There are many ways to experience God’s grace but the end result is the same
it is knowing you are loved- fearlessly and generously.
We cannot give generously until we know what has been given to us
and until we are able to receive it. It goes two ways, giving and receiving.
God gives life. We receive and give back our heart and soul and mind and strength.
God gives gifts and we give back by sharing with others our time, talents and treasure.
God gives love, grace-filled, undeserved, unearned, no strings attached love.
It is ours to receive.
In a few moments we are going to be asked to give
to give our offerings and our pledges for the coming year
to give God our thanks and our commitment
to give back some of what we have been given.
But after that we will have the opportunity to again receive
We will be invited to share in the Lord’s Supper to receive and be fed and be changed
We will receive bread a symbol of sustenance-
a sign that God will indeed give us what we need to live.
We will receive a cup- a symbol of the wine of celebration
and joy that flows freely from the table of the Lord
We will receive community
sharing in the friendship and compassion of those around us today
and all who in all times and places gather at this table.
God’s word, God’s promise is at work in each of you today.
Do you believe it?
Have you received it?
Do you give thanks to God CONSTANTLY for it?
Do you allow yourself the joy that comes from God working in and through your life?
Do you know that you are God’s glory and joy?
If you don’t believe me, listen again to Paul. He calls us to-
constantly give thanks to God for this,
that when you received the word of God, hearing it from others, you accepted it not as a human word
but as what it really is, God’s word,
and God’s word is also at work in you believers.
For what is our hope or joy or reason for boasting before our Lord Jesus? Is it not you?
Yes, you are God’s glory and joy!
You are loved
You are loved generously
you are loved fearlessly
you are loved generously and fearlessly by this Body of Christ.
You are loved generously and fearlessly by God.
That has been given to you. Receive what has been given to you.
So we can all participate in fearless generosity.
Thanks be to God.