Living Generously

An Advent note to my congregation ...

"When they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours." ~ C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

We continue this week with our Living Generously sermon series (session 3 of 5). I hope that through this cinematic experience and biblical teaching on this subject matter, it has helped you to see the great generosity of our heavenly Father. 

This becomes a very busy time of year and it can be easy to be caught in the cultural wave of crass materialism (and that isn't just about money and goods!) in an effort to "get Christmas just right." The truth is that God has already got Christmas just right. St. Paul writes this in his letter to the Galatians: 

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." (Galatians 4:4-7)

God's timing is always perfect and He calls you and me to live in His timing. I want to encourage you to live in this season of Advent & Christmas and don't let it live on you. Enjoy this moment that God has given you because, in Christ, you are on His time. We don't get to choose how much time we have but we can choose what to do with it. So, the question is, how am I using my time to love my neighbor?

I want to encourage you also to think and pray on just what are the natural talents and spiritual gifts that God has given you. How might this speak to what God wants you to do with them. This isn't about being at the church each and every time the doors are open. Instead, it is encouragement to get and be connected to God's family here at Redeemer as He calls us to live in community. (There is no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian!) Later in Paul's letter to the Galatians the Lord says:

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ... And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap,if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." (Galatians 6:2, 9-10)

How am I using my knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) and God's supernatural spiritual gifts to love my neighbor?

I want to encourage you to also think of your gift-giving a little differently. The person with the most toys ... still dies! More often than not, your time and presence for someone goes much farther than some material good that will be here today and gone tomorrow. For me, I am greatly encouraged when I see each of you on Sunday mornings. (And not because I'm looking to build a mega-church or because I just need more folks hearing my sermons!) I am encouraged because as one of God's saints who struggles against sin, seeing you gathering together reminds me of God's love for me and you, especially in this season of anticipation and joy. Seeing and hearing how God is working in your life is a precious treasure in and of itself. Seeing God's generosity working through you is priceless. Paul, in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians says:

"God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:8)

Am I being generous with the material goods of which God has blessed me for the good of my neighbor? Am I trusting that God does provide for all my needs and so I can share abundantly with others?

Confession time: I confess, I am not always a good custodian of the time, talent, and treasure gifted to me from God. I do not always Live Generously. In short, too often I stink at loving my neighbor - (ask my wife!). Too often I am turned in on myself and live in great parsimony ... not generosity. 

The Good News: Christmas is Coming! It is God who is the one who is Living Generously. His superabundant love came in the person of Jesus, born of a woman at just the right time. The manger is under the shadow of the cross so that you and I might live in the light of the resurrection! He makes grace abound that I might Live Generously. 

I pray that in this season of anticipation and joy, you'd find His generosity fueling yours!

God's Generosity ... our generosity ...

          "God is superabundantly generous in His grace ..."

"[T]he Gospel ... does not give us counsel and aid against sin in only one way. God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world [Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.' (Luke 24:45–47)]. This is the particular office of the Gospel. Second, through Baptism. Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar. Fourth, through the Power of the Keys. Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren, 'For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them.' (Matthew 18:20) and other such verses [especially: '... that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith ...' (Romans 1:12)]. Smalcald Articles: III, art. iii, par. 45

     What a list of gifts God has given His people! The spoken Word ... Baptism ... Holy Communion ... the Power of the Keys ... Mutual  conversation and consolation between brothers and sisters in Christ ... 

     In the aftermath of Thanksgiving, "Black Friday" and the ensuing culture's living out the current zeitgeist of nihilistic hedonism by purchasing things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people who couldn't give a snot, how do God's people act and react? 

     Do you see that list of gifts and think, "God is superabundantly generous in His grace!" or "meh, whatever"?

     ... or maybe something in-between ...

     The thing is, God does give us what we actually need. We may troll the mall or the internet for what we think we want (and think we need) but, God gives us what we actually need ["Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)] 

     In a sense, God's people 'react' in two ways - in their being and doing. God delivers His justification to His people through His means of grace ... remember that superabundant grace listed above? This is who we are - justified - saints - God's people. (Even if this world, our flesh, and the devil continually tell us that's not what we look like.) In this identity we look to God for our salvation and entrust our daily lives to His loving care. We do this by faithfully using the gifts (the aforementioned list!) by which the Holy Spirit leads us to repent of our sins and to trust Jesus for forgiveness. Resting in that salvation ... abiding in it, we commit our day-to-day living into the caring hands of our heavenly Father. 

     Note that our being, in Christ, comes before our doing. Any 'doing' outside of Christ is futile (cf. Isaiah 64:6). It is in God's generosity that we live generously. In Christ we are liberated from the condemnation and coercion of the Law. And so, according to our new nature in Christ, we are now free to love and obey God's Law. 

     And so our sanctification  is not necessarily the absence of moral blemish (what an impossibility!), but it is being and living by the freedom gained and given to us by Christ to do good works and to assist and help our neighbor - to live generously. 

     Thus, St. Paul can write, "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:8) And, that "You will be enriched in every way ..." as we are encouraged to "be generous in everything." (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:11-13) God is encouraging us to be generous as He is and that it is an opportunity for us to show His generosity so that people can praise Him. 

      As we ride the wave of the anticipation in this season of Advent, may we look into the manger, holding the savior of the world who came in the flesh, through the lens of the shadow of the cross by which He finished His saving work and showed the superabundant generosity of God for His people "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through Him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Corinthians 1:20)