Welcome to the Knox Talks blog. Here you can find recent and past sermons relating scripture to a wide variety of topics. I would like to thank Shelley Rose for transcribing my notes into text for the blog.
A Cheerful Giver
Scriptures: Deuteronomy 8:7-18
In our very cynical society, the expression “God loves a cheerful giver” elicits a negative response: “Right, the church is trying to get money from me, again”; and to be fair, some religious leaders have been just as cynical in using this scripture in exactly that way, to the point now that we almost never hear it. It became a meme before memes existed and for years it has pushed people’s buttons to do exactly the opposite of what Paul was saying. It makes people feel angry, or guilty, or resentful; certainly not cheerful.
That just means we are missing the point. Paul was describing a way of living faithfully: “faithfully” because giving is an expression of our spirituality – having faith in God.
Paul describes an understanding that our whole existence is predicated on the generosity of God. God gives us what we need, and so much more. So, when we give cheerfully, it is a sign that we recognize this: that we trust God to keep supplying our needs; that we don’t feel the need to hoard what we get; but we share it happily so that others may also have enough.
Paul is giving us an image of a gospel of plenty. Not that nonsense called the “Prosperity Gospel” preached in some American churches where God will make the faithful rich as a reward for their faith. That’s a perversion of the gospel.
Rather, it involves recognizing that we are already rich. God has given us good things already and has called us to be just as generous with others.
We have trouble with this. Our society has developed a culture of dissatisfaction. We are encouraged to want the newest, the best; that we should be “keeping up with the Joneses”.
If you follow that CBC radio show “Under the Influence” (which tells very entertaining stories about advertising) you have a clear sense of just how deliberately we are inundated with messages to make us covetous – wanting what someone else has – and how this spills over into some really damaging effects, like body-image issues, across generations. It starts with us as children so that by the time we are adults we don’t question it; we think it’s normal. I would call that spiritual harm to all of us.
Every year at Thanksgiving we make a point to be thankful and we are reminded to consider the daily blessings that we take for granted and truly consider how blessed we are. We’re not used to thinking that way. We take good things for granted, considering them our rights instead of gifts from God and sometimes it takes getting a good look at someone else’s suffering to really appreciate how good we have it.
Seeing the challenges Ukrainian people are facing reminds us that peace and stability are blessings. Not having weaponized drones flying over is a gift from God. The steady stream of refugees from lands ruled by criminal gangs should remind us how blessed we are not to have to dodge gang wars in our neighbourhoods. Even just living in housing that we can afford is a blessing that we have taken for granted. And at this time of family feasts having fresh, nutritious, abundant food is a blessing. Having friends and family around to celebrate with is a blessing not everyone can enjoy
The idea of counting our blessings is not popular. It’s seen as old-fashioned, Victorian, even oppressive: a way for those with plenty to tell the poor to be satisfied in their poverty and again, people have certainly used it that way.
But what Jesus was teaching and what Paul was reflecting on was the idea that God gives plenty not so that selfish people can keep it to themselves, but so that we can all share freely and cheerfully so that everyone has enough.
It is a vision of community; a vision of creation itself that is based on God’s bounty and our willingness to share: a vision of generosity at every level. We will have to practice this way of thinking and behaving because it really does go against the grain of all the messaging we receive.
We practised it at the potluck on September 13th where we were challenged to consider the resources we already have rather than the things we lack, and to imagine what we can do with those existing resources. The creativity and excitement started to flow as people imagined new possibilities based on our existing blessings.
That was an exercise in a fresh kind of spiritual thinking, not new – our scripture lesson is almost 2000 years old – but it is fresh because we have lost so much of that understanding since the end of the second world war and we need to be reminded that God blesses us even in difficult or challenging times.
This isn’t a call to Pollyanna-type optimism – Paul was about as realistic as it gets – rather, it is a call to appreciate the good things we have, to be less acquisitive, less demanding, more willing to work together and celebrate together, to take the attitude that even when hard times come God has provided enough for us. If we work together no one needs to suffer.
We will have another opportunity to practise this as a congregation on October 22nd, at that New Directions gathering. And we have the opportunity to practice this as families, friends and individuals right now, on this Thanksgiving weekend. Let’s make a point of counting our blessings and appreciating what God has done for us. Let’s appreciate all those things, all those people we take for granted every day. And beyond appreciation, let’s practice trusting; trusting God to really supply what we need and trusting each other.
Our society isolates us, teaching us to be self-sufficient and to avoid vulnerability, so we need to practise practical faith again as a part of our thanks, and to discover the confidence that comes as working together with God and each other produces results we can see.
Paul knew this was a challenge back in the first century. That’s why he had to write what he did. The challenge has become harder in the 21st century. We have the massed ranks of broadcast and social media pushing a very different message.
But this is the Thanksgiving weekend and people are more open right now to think about this spiritual truth: God has blessed us and has given us what we need to bless others and God is calling us to share, with joy, knowing that we are partners in the work of God.
That’s why God loves a cheerful giver: because the cheerful giver is spiritually in tune with God; not motivated by guilt or duty but motivated by love and confident in faith.
May we all discover this kind of good cheer this Thanksgiving season.
Amen.
Knox United Church Nepean 