Epicurious Lutheran

From March 2016 Bethel Bell Tower newsletter

Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.

~ Acts 2:46-47

There are no Scriptures that I have been able to find that say anything like: “Store up for yourselves treasures on earth so you can keep it for yourself and not share” or “Don’t be generous, especially to those who you feel don’t deserve it, because they will just take advantage of you.” There is nothing in the Bible that advocates being stingy … with anything.

Living a generous life can be a tough way to live. Joseph in the Old Testament (yes, the one with the coat of many colors) was put in a position of leadership in Egypt second only to the Pharaoh and was in charge of managing the whole country through 7 years of plenty and 7 years of famine. He had the people store up food during those years of plenty. You may hear the words “store up” and think that’s stingy, but Joseph was called to be a good manager of Egypt’s resources (i.e. to be a good steward). Joseph led the people in this way because of a simple dream that was bugging the Pharaoh. Joseph was able to interpret the dream and saw it as direction from God. Stinginess is about storing up for oneself and keeping stuff to oneself. Generosity is a perspective that includes others and works with others for the common good of the community.

And here is the rub … we are called to be good managers (stewards) of our homes, of our church home, and our whole lives, and we are called to life generously. Can we manage and exercise generosity at the same time? Are there limits to how generous we ought to be? I’ll leave these two questions for you to ponder, but I’ll add this question from another perspective: Are there limits to how stingy we ought to be?

I’m sure most of us think about money when we think of generosity, but that is not the only way to be generous. James writes: “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you” (James 1:5). Generosity is first and foremost a matter of the heart. Acts of generosity flow from a generous heart. I’m not sure anyone is born with a generous heart, but a generous heart can certainly be nurtured. I’ve heard that it takes 21 days of repeating the same behavior to make it a habit. Bethel is dedicating all 40 days of Lent to developing habits of generosity. Many of us have used 40acts (www.40acts.org.uk), a program that gives us daily challenges to help us build upon the habits of generosity we already have. Lent helps us tie our existing generosity to our faith in God who is abundantly generous with all of us, and it helps us increase our generosity.

Generosity in our words, actions, and attitudes is also known by another name … love. Generosity helps us to turn our eyes outward so that we see the lives, the hopes, the dreams, and the disappointments of others. As we see them, we love them.

In Christ,

Pastor Jeff