Steve Lindsley
Selected Verses: Exodus 35: 4-22, 36:2-7; 2 Corinthians 8:1-7; 9: 6-12
Perhaps you’ve been lucky enough in your life to know someone like Oseola McCarty. Ms. McCarty was a Mississippi washerwoman in the early 1900’s. She had to drop out of school in 6th grade to help take care of her family. Oseola began doing laundry and ironing people’s clothes for a living – anywhere between $2 and $10 a bundle. She put everything she earned in a savings account at the First Mississippi National Bank and never touched it.
That is, until the age of 87 when, after almost 75 years of washing clothes, the balance in Ms. McCarty’s account stood at $150,000 – which she promptly gave in its entirety to the University of Southern Mississippi for scholarships for needy students. When asked why she gave every bit of her money to a school she had no ties to whatsoever, Ms. McCarty responded that she wanted others to have an opportunity she never had herself. And when asked why she didn’t spend at least some of the money on herself, she replied that, as far as she was concerned, she had.
Or maybe you’ve heard stories like the one Bishop McCabe used to tell. At the time, Bishop McCabe was leading his congregation in the throes of a capital campaign – the goal of which was to raise a million dollars for a new missions initiative. Not everyone was in favor of this – throughout the campaign, the bishop received a number of letters from disgruntled members who scoffed at the lofty goal. One day, though, he came upon a letter from a 7-year old boy in his church. As he opened the envelope, out rolled a badly battered nickel. The letter, scribbled in handwriting only a child could appreciate, read: “Dear Bishop McCabe, I am so glad you are going to get a million dollars for missions. Here’s a nickel. It’s all I have now, but when you need any more, call me!’
Or how about the story many of you heard right over there earlier this month? A few weeks before, in Morning Watch, I had given each child an envelope containing $5, with one condition: that they could not spend it on themselves. I encouraged them to talk with their parents about how they might use the money to help someone in need. Two weeks later, in Morning Watch, I asked the group to tell me about their experiences – and one of our children shared that she had given her $5 to her school bus driver, who had recently been in a car accident, because she thought it might help her feel better. And I have every reason to believe it did just that.
So what is it about people like Oseola McCarty and the 7-year old nickel boy and one of our own Trinity children? What makes them give, and give so generously?
I ask this because, as you know, today is Response Sunday, when we bring our heartfelt estimates of giving, our pledges, to God; so that together this church might live into the vision God has given us for the new year, a vision that our session has spelled out in four overarching goals:
– Make our children, youth, and young families a high priority,
– Build a staff team for 2025 and beyond,
– Engage in buildings & grounds improvements to support our ministry and mission,
– Renew our emphasis on fellowship and community gatherings
We’ve also throughout the month been reflecting on our guiding statement in this season of generosity, which you’ll see printed in your bulletin under the sermon title:
Generosity makes our world larger,
deepens our gratitude, brings joy to life,
and more intimately connects us to God and each other.
I want to focus today on that second-to-last phrase – that generosity “brings joy to life” – because my suspicion is this has something to do with the generous folks we talked about earlier. Which of course then begs the question: how exactly does generosity bring joy into our lives?
Our first scripture that Rebecca read might offer some insight. And I must confess that for a long time I was not aware of this story, tucked into a wilderness narrative with other things more inclined to grab our attention, like the parting of the Red Sea or the Ten Commandments or water from a rock and manna from heaven.
But this story is worth paying attention to. Moses has invited the people to bring an offering to God to help build a tabernacle so God could be worshiped in the wilderness. He’s invited them to share whatever they have: gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, lamp oil, spices, even goat’s hair (apparently that was a thing). But also: their time, their skills, their talents. Moses has asked God’s people to bring anything and everything to the Lord.
And so when everything is collected, do the people rise to the occasion? You could say that! Everyone – men and women, young and old – answers the call and gives with such open hearts that their generosity overflows. In fact, they give so much that – get this – Moses has to tell them to stop giving!
You heard me right. That was not a glitch in our sound system or online stream, folks. Moses has to tell the people to cease and desist because they are giving too much.
I mean, can you imagine a scenario where I’m standing up here in a couple of weeks and saying: Hey everyone, thanks for your response to our generosity season this year, but, seriously, stop it, okay? It’s obscene, the amount you’re giving to this church – so much that our leaders have directed me to respectfully ask you to consider a percentage decrease in your giving going forward. If you could do that, that would really help us out.
Now I want to be clear: everything I said in that last paragraph is not true! We all understand that, right? Just a hypothetical; just shining a spotlight on what Moses is saying to God’s people in our passage today: telling them to stop their giving because it is too much!
Beloved, what does it look like when a community of faith lives into and embodies that kind of extravagant, absurd, obscene generosity?
It’s a question as old as the apostle Paul in our second scripture today. You know, for all the hats that Paul wore – missionary, theologian, church planter, spiritual leader – this passage reveals Paul as the Stewardship chair. Listen closely to what he tells the Corinthian church about generosity – and not just about what they give, but how they give:
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind,
not reluctantly or out of compulsion,
Because God loves a cheerful giver.
See, for Paul, extravagant generosity can never be reduced to a simple transaction. Instead, our giving is a response to the wonderful things God has done in our lives and in our world, and our expectation that God will keep doing those wonderful things. That is why the offering in worship every Sunday happens after scripture is read and the good news proclaimed – it undergirds the theological assertion that our giving is not some kind of repayment or prepayment. It is a joy-filled and cheerful response.
And that’s not all: in his ask, Paul is not only challenging the people to be generous with their own church. Because this collection is actually for another fellowship, another community of Jesus-followers. Which means what Paul is doing here is calling the Corinthians to be generous with their financial gifts, even when that generosity may not directly benefit them.
I wonder if that is part of helping us unravel the mystery of the folks mentioned earlier – if that understanding of joy-filled giving that benefits others is what led Ms. McCarty to donate her entire life savings to a single school, or a little boy to give a simple nickel out of his piggy bank toward a million dollar campaign, or one of our own to give $5 to their injured bus driver. And I wonder if that’s the kind of extravagant generosity that you and I are called to engage in right here.
Because beloved, here’s the thing: when we give, we become part of that to which we give. And so when we give to God’s church, we are doing so much more than helping our church live into its vision for the new year. We actually become a beneficiary ourselves; of everyone else’s generosity to this church. We allow ourselves to become part of the miraculous and spirit-filled transformation of financial giving into ministry. We really do reap a great deal when we sow a great deal.
And that right there, I have to think, is where the joy comes from. Simply put, generosity makes us happier. It’s not why we do it, but it is what happens. And this should not surprise us. Science has always shown a link between generosity and happiness – we’ve seen this time and time again across generations and cultures. But what scientists did not have a full grasp on until recently were the neuroscientific roots of this experience – why we get that “boost” when we give. Turns out that our brains are literally hard-wired for giving.
Generosity makes us happier. And there’s the joy! Because, like we said a few weeks ago, generosity is not something that God wants from us, but something that God wants for us. We see it all around us if we’re willing to pay attention to it. And we experience it ourselves when we give ourselves permission to experience it.
And so friends, that is my prayer for us today on this Response Sunday – that, as we prepare to turn in our Estimate of Giving cards here in worship or submit our pledge electronically, that we do so knowing that joy is at the heart of our generosity. Following the lead of Oseola McCarty and a 7-year old boy and one of our own children. To become one of Paul’s “cheerful givers,” even and especially when our giving may not directly benefit us. To aspire to be the kind of over-the-top generous community where Moses himself would have to step in and issue a cease-and-desist. To prayerfully think about all God has in store for our church in the coming year and the role each and every one of us can plan – needs to play – in bringing that vision to reality.
My prayer is that this church comes to understand the truth of it all: that generosity – our generosity – really does make our world larger, deepens our gratitude, brings joy to life, and more intimately connects us to God and each other.
And for that, in the name the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, in the name of the one who embodied generosity in every possible way, thanks be to God – and may all of God’s people say, AMEN!
* Because sermons are meant to be preached and are therefore prepared with the emphasis on verbal presentation, the written accounts occasionally stray from proper grammar and punctuation.