Strange Generosity

1 Samuel 24:1–19 NRSV

When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheepfolds beside the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. The men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” Then David went and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. Afterward David was stricken to the heart because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to raise my hand against him; for he is the Lord’s anointed.” So David scolded his men severely and did not permit them to attack Saul. Then Saul got up and left the cave, and went on his way. Afterwards David also rose up and went out of the cave and called after Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of those who say, ‘David seeks to do you harm’? This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will not raise my hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ See, my father, see the corner of your cloak in my hand; for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your cloak, and did not kill you, you may know for certain that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are hunting me to take my life. May the Lord judge between me and you! May the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. As the ancient proverb says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you. Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A single flea? May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you. May he see to it, and plead my cause, and vindicate me against you.” When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.

So obviously, as you can clearly tell from that scripture, we’re talking about money today… yes that was a joke.

I mean we are going to talk about money. And now you’re like how are you going to make this connection. Well, hang onto your hats because I’m sure going to try!

We are in the final week of our stewardship series “Strangely Warmed.” By now I hope that you have received a commitment card. If not you can grab one on your way out. It’s really important that you do this, because it’s going to help you determine how you will reasonably commit parts of the gifts that God has given you to God next year.

If you’re like super new here, listen here’s the deal. You can take a pamphlet and you can fill it out. But it’s not expected of you. I promise we don’t talk about money all the time. Stick around and listen to me because I think there’s some helpful theology to be had here… or at least you can watch me attempt to connect a story about an almost murder to the idea of giving financially to the church.

But if this is your church home, I implore you to take this seriously. As hard as it is to hear, its 4 times harder to preach. So here we go. Let’s do this thing.

This year we are looking at stewardship through the lens of what we methodists call “a heart strangely warmed” which comes to us through the journal of John Wesley — the founder of the methodist movement — when he was describing the change that began in his heart when he encountered the grace of God in a very real and tangible way.

This moment changed John’s life and ministry forever, molding him into a person who was deeply convinced that generosity was the cornerstone of a life of Christian practice.

John was known for living on very little of his income and giving the rest to the various charities that he set up or encountered that helped the poor in England. He records that one year his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses 28 pounds, so he had 2 pounds to give away. The next year his income doubled, but he still managed to live on 28 pounds, so he had 32 pounds to give to the poor. In the third year, his income jumped to 90 pounds. Instead of letting his expenses rise with his income, he kept them to 28 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. (...) Even when his income rose into the thousands of pounds sterling, he lived simply, and he quickly gave away his surplus money. One year his income was a little over 1400 pounds. He lived on 30 pounds and gave away nearly 1400 pounds.

When I was studying for my undergraduate degree I had a missions professor named Dr. Paul Fritz who reported to us that he gave away 90% of his income, mostly to a missionary organization in India.

Here’s the good news: I am not asking you to give the church or to even give away as much as John Wesley or as Dr. Paul Fritz. All I’m asking you to do is to give from the same place that they gave. And that place is the same place that we find David in in our text today. That place is a heart that is strangely warmed.

So here’s the deal. Over the course of this series we have talked about stewardship by tracing the story of a man named Samuel’s life. First, we saw how his mother submitted Samuel’s life to God through bold prayers that God’s will would be done in and through him. And then we saw how God’s grace worked in Samuel’s life as he called the people of Israel to return to God and have a stewardship of witness by putting away false idols that distracted them from God. Then we saw how Samuel devoted himself to the service of God and called the people of Israel to do the same, even though they had forced him to anoint a man named Saul as King of Israel.

And that’s where we pick up the story. Now Saul wasn’t a very good man. He had his moments, but he never really respected his throne as something that was given to him by God. The power got to his head. Meanwhile, the Philistines who had plagued Israel for many years continued to be a problem. They were at constant war.

God came to Samuel and said “Saul is not the guy. Go to the house of a guy named Jesse and anoint the son that I lead you to as the next king of Israel.” So Samuel goes to Jesse’s house and one by one approaches his sons, each of them God says “pass” until finally there are none left.

Samuel says… “anyone else?” And Jesse is like well my youngest is out tending the sheep but he’s just a boy. So Sam goes out and meets the boy, whose name is David. And God is like “yep this is the guy. Anoint him.”

But everybody knows David is too young. So he’s simply in line for the throne. Then there’s a story about how David kills a Philistine giant name Goliath, and from then on David is famous. He rises to the top of the Israelite Army and the people sing songs about him.

And mostly they sing one song in particular about how he’s SO much better than Saul. And Saul is burned by it. He’s jealous that David has God’s favor and now has the favor of the people. So he orders David to be killed. David goes on the run. And that’s the context for our scene in the cave.

David has the opportunity to kill Saul and end the misery of life on the run. Also, the death of Saul signals the beginning of the Reign of David. But that’s not the move that David makes. Instead he spares Saul’s life… he acts generously towards him — because he was “stricken to the heart.” Or maybe his heart was strangely warmed toward Saul it could say.

Let’s just look at Saul’s response here once again:

1 Samuel 24:16–19 NRSV

When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.

This day you have done good to me. David did good to Saul because he recognized the source of all Goodness —God — and that a good God was generous enough to him to keep him safe, to anoint him as the promised king of Israel. If God was good to him, clearly it was God’s will that he show that same generosity to Saul and then allow God to sort out the rest. David acted from a heart filled with gratitude for what God had already done in David’s life.

Generosity with goodness is gratitude in practice. Within our hands is the potential to do good or to do harm, To give life or take it away, to be a part of life’s redemption or another slap of rejection.

Being life-giving is life changing – be it a hand out or a hand up, first and foremost it is a hand offered in gratitude to and for God, not in grandiosity of self.

God is sensitive to what is and is not in our hands at given moments in our lives.

God understands what and how we are able to be generous.

And our God believes we are capable of more than we think.

The generosity that God intends for us is intentional – we have a plan and we are working that plan to give as we feel God calling us.

The generosity that God intends for us is sacrificial – prayerful discernment will lead us in determining decisions and guide us with integrity so that our yes’s are our yes’s and our no’s our no’s.

The generosity that God intends for us is joyful – that it will be life-giving and life changing – an experience of hope and embrace each time we express gratitude for God’s incredible blessings through our hands made generous by and because of our Lord. Which all leads us back to money. Because this is a sermon about money. And this is most certainly not a sermon about money. It’s a sermon about the heart that controls the money.

As people of the heart strangely warmed, we are called to lives of generosity. And I know that you are all generous people. You give all over the place. And you give from the heart. So today we simply ask that you continue to give from the heart. Today I ask you to pray about how much you are willing to invest in the operating budget of the church. There’s lots of ways that you all give to different missions and funds of the church and lots of ways that you may give outside of the church. That’s great. I love that.

But today we are focused on the operating budget for 2025. How much can you reasonably give? Why do we need to know? Well because we need to build a budget and know that we are using real numbers to do so. We want to be good stewards of what God has given to us through you. And that means living within our means as best we can.

How much should you give? Well that’s between you and God. John Wesley and Paul Fritz gave 90%+. That’s not what I’m asking of you. I give 10% and have for many years — and in all of those years we have always had enough, even when it seemed like we might not. God always provided. Maybe that’s reasonable for you. Maybe that’s out of reach still. Times are not what they once were. What can you give while maintaining a joyful and strangely warmed heart?

I simply ask that you pray over your commitment, and that you fill it out this week when you are ready. Preferably when you are feeling the most grateful — on a belly full of turkey perhaps. And then return the card next Sunday. Then on Sunday the 8th we will dedicate them to the Lord as a sign of our hearts that are strangely warmed.

From this study, We learned Hannah believed. She demonstrated confidence in God even when life dealt her incredibly hard hands She persistently prayed; may her example impress upon and strangely warm our hearts. We learned Samuel set a stone as a memorial and called it Ebenezer. The stone reminded God’s people “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” Where prayer, sacrifice, and trust prevail – which are all parts of our faith journey with God –  hearts are strangely warmed and Ebenezers rise. We learned Samuel charged God’s people to enact our faith. To make visible and physical our faith through renewed covenantal obedience – through service. Because faith that is only devotion is incomplete, and will only strangely warm our hearts partway. And today, my friends, we learned that generosity signals lived assurance that we cannot be who we are without having received life from God. That we cannot be who we are without passing on and equipping others for life in gratitude for what God has done and is doing in, for, and through us. It is hard work  – to give intentionally, sacrificially, and joyfully. And as God’s people, it is what we are supposed to do.

David knew who he could have been. And he knew who God intended him to be. He chose generosity – not just for Saul – but for the strangely warmed heart that was his very own. Let us choose generosity for the glory of God and the good of neighbor, and God will surely strangely warm hearts of our very own.