Love With Generosity

Last week we began our end to the Christian year sermon series with a focus on generosity. The purpose of this series is to help us develop an understanding of how God desires for us individually and as a church to live out generous lives with him

We defined generosity using a definition given to us by the Concise Oxford English Dictionary where it states that generosity is us “freely giving more of something than is necessary or expected.”

We added to that definition that one reason we should be generous is because God was first generous to us. Last week our focus was on giving generously. This week we look at what it means for us to offer love generously.  Our scripture comes from Colossians 3:12-17.

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Please pray with me…

I like this definition we are using for these two weeks because of the focus on giving more than is necessary or expected. We are stating that we want to go above and beyond what society would expect from us.

The other important aspect is that we are to freely give above and beyond. This matters because it means in the case of love as we are looking at this week, that we should be willing to love without focusing on “if” a person has earned or deserves the love we offer to them.

We find this aspect of how we are to choose to love throughout the life of Jesus. He didn’t care who you were. He tells us that God’s desire for us to love even includes those that we may consider to be our enemies.

Transition

I think one of if not the best example of this being lived out is the story from our first reading. This is one of the most famous stories of scripture, We have a man who was a chief tax collector named Zacchaeus, wanting to watch as Jesus enters into Jericho.

In case you were not aware a tax collector was considered the most hated occupation among the Jewish people. Zacchaeus was in charge of the tax collectors of the town. We also receive the information that he was wealthy.

Tax collectors were hated for a couple reasons. One was that they were Jewish but were working for the Roman government who were taking the money away from fellow Jews. Understandably, this led to resentment towards them.

The second reason is that they would often take advantage of those that were paying the tax. Tax collectors did not receive a salary. They received their pay based off of how much money they took above the tax. A chief tax collector would take a cut of what the tax collectors raised.

We find from the story but also from the introduction that Zacchaeus and his employees were taking more than they should. Not only was he not liked, but Zacchaeus might have even be putting his life in danger of someone hurting him or killing him if he had stayed in the crowd. Hence, one of the reasons if not the main reason he climbed up a tree.

(Transition)

Jesus did not let the animosity between his fellow Jews and tax collectors stop him from choosing to go and visit Zacchaeus. There is no doubt that many others in the crowd would have liked to have eaten with Jesus.

We can see this through the reaction of the crowd and them muttering that Jesus chose to be “the guest of a sinner.” Jesus offered to Zacchaeus love and fellowship that would have been way beyond what was expected.

We also see the response from Zacchaeus. He acknowledges what he has done. He promises to not only change his ways but to pay back those that he has wronged. Don’t miss this, The love shown to him by Jesus leads to him to decide to repent from his sins.

This story should lead us to acknowledge that we should show the love of God to all people. We should not judge based off of what we hear or see someone do or say. When we are willing to offer love and fellowship beyond expectations, we also will be able to see lives changed.

(Transition)

We spoke earlier this year regarding how we can show the love of God to those around us. Jesus gives us an example of what this can look like through this interaction that he has with Zacchaeus. We can break down this interaction into four actions: ask, observe, react and accept.

One way that we can begin our day is asking for God to place us in situations that can allow us to interact and show the love of God to those around us. Asking God to allow us to meet those that are in need of God and us.

Asking is helpful but we also need to be looking for those that God may want us to interact with and be with. Jesus was either directed to with help from his father or just happened to notice that there was a man hanging out in a tree.

This leads him to believe that this is who his father wanted him to be with. It is as this point that we have a choice. We can respond to the situation, or we can make the decision to pass up on this opportunity. We can allow fear and doubt to stop us, or we can allow faith to guide us.

(Transition)

This is where we should choose to react to the situation and follow the lead of Jesus and invite ourselves over for lunch…OK that might not be the best way for us to respond. What we can do is evaluate the situation and see or learn what this person needs.

We may be led to invite this person to our house to eat or take them out to eat somewhere. We may recognize the need to serve them in some way at that moment or in the future. We need to be open to how God has led us to show his love to this person or group of people.

This can lead to conversations then or later which may lead someone to say to us something that may be shocking to us. They may tell us some way that has led them to believe that they cannot be loved by God.

(Transition)

Jesus could have condemned Zacchaeus for his actions and that would have been the end to the conversation. Instead, he listens and waits for Zacchaeus to acknowledge what he had done wrong against those around him and against God.

Jesus then made sure that he knew that God would forgive him and desired to be in a relationship with him. We have a choice on how we want to treat those God places before us. We can condemn them, or we can decide to be generous in the love that we show them.

(Transition)

Part of this conversation could include us inviting this person to join us here at The Church of the Good Shepherd. We can’t control the answer, but we can be willing to ask and offer to those God places before us a way to get to know God better.

No matter the answer, we have a way to help you with this interaction. We have these business cards with the church name, address and phone number and a message that they are invited to join us.

We have left the back blank so that you can share your name and contact information if you desire to do so. We have enough for each person to take three or four but we ask you take them only if you expect that you will be willing to use them.

On a sidenote, this was an idea offered by someone in the congregation. I point this out to you to make sure you know that we hear your ideas. We may not always implement them right away, but we will consider any idea that we are given.

(Transition)

Last week we looked at what we called six pillars of a church that is following the ways of God. They were faith, speech, knowledge, complete earnestness, love, and giving or generosity.

This week our scripture has us looking at ourselves as individuals and traits that as followers of Jesus lead towards us showing love to those around us through generosity. Paul uses the phrase “clothe yourself.” We are to attempt to cover ourselves with these traits.

They should be expressed in a way which shows generosity to those around us. They are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Remember, the definition that we are using for generosity is for us to freely give more of something than is necessary or expected.”

Paul also wants to make sure that we understand that these traits should all begin with love. This is reflected clearly in verse 14 where it tells us to ‘over all these virtues or traits put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Love is the binding agent that keeps us united within the church and which strengthens us as we attempt to live our lives following the example given to us by Jesus. It is through the example of Jesus that we see what it means to live generously within these traits that we are examining.

(Transition)

Compassion is one of the most important aspects of living a life as a follower of Jesus. We find Jesus interacting with those around him and responding because of him having compassion for others.

We have at least seven times within scripture that we are told directly that Jesus responded the way he did because he had compassion for individuals and groups. We find the circumstances vary from Jesus feeding a large group of people. Jesus choosing to heal because Jesus had compassion for someone and because someone asked for his compassion. We even have Jesus raise someone from the dead because he saw his mother’s situation and had compassion for her.

This should point out to us that there are no circumstances in which we meet people that we should not respond with compassion. Compassion is empathy in action. It is through us recognizing a need that someone has.

It is us being willing to ask them how they want us to help them with that need, and then helping them fulfill that need. When we take these steps we are offering generosity through the love of Christ to those around us. We are called to be people of love and generosity.

(Transition)

We are not only called to be compassionate, but we should also be people that show kindness to those that we meet. Jesus offered kindness to all sorts of people. Many of them like Zacchaeus who we spoke of earlier that many people did not believe deserved kindness.

An example of this would be the Samaritan woman at the well. She had many areas of her life where she would have been considered unworthy of love and kindness, but Jesus offered her both.

He did the same for those that were considered unclean or “sinners” to the Jewish people. He treated women and Gentiles, or those that weren’t Jewish, in such a way that showed that they not only mattered but they deserved kindness.

We need to live out kindness to those that we meet. This may mean not saying what we are thinking when someone is unkind to us. It goes back to our definition of generosity and freely giving more than is expected.

In the case of those that are unkind to us that would mean offering grace. We define grace as giving something that is undeserved and unearned. It is a willingness for us to forgive those that may be unkind to us.

(Transition)

We also are to choose to be humble. This would be a willingness to view ourselves as servants of God. We are to choose to humble ourselves before God which should lead us to a desire to serve God by offering love to those around us.

This is one area where some would argue that Christians have failed. Christians are looked at often within society as those who think they are better than those that are not Christians. We are sinners just like those around us that do not have a relationship with Jesus. We need to view ourselves as sinners who have been saved.

Being humble doesn’t mean that we don’t recognize our worth in the world. It means that we don’t view ourselves as being better than those that walk the earth that do not believe. We view those around us as equal to us because they are all loved by God.

Jesus lived this out just through being willing to be among us. He was without sin but yet lived a life among sinners. He humbled himself by being willing to be with us and become the example of how we should attempt to live our lives.

(Transition)

We are also supposed to be people of gentleness. This is where we are to choose to be nice. The saying “do unto others as you would want them to do unto you” comes to mind. We are to treat those around us as we would desire to be treated.

This can also be true for those outside but also inside the church. Christians will often expect people to act and believe as they believe. One reason that I am a United Methodist is that within our denomination there is room to disagree.

Outside the church we have to remember that not everyone is a follower of Jesus. Therefore, we should not expect that to live their lives in a way that would express that they are. I mean let’s admit it, we also at times struggle with being the follower of Jesus that God desires for us to be.

(Transition)

A part of being gentle means that we also need to be patient. This is where many of us struggle in this “I want it now” time that we live in. We, and by “we” I mean “me” may struggle in this area because we need self-control.

It in some ways this one has to do with ego. We want things to be our way because we know best and everyone else needs to hurry up and figure out that I am right. We also know that is not how the world works.

That can at times include God. We need to be willing to step back and tell God that you want what he wants to happen in his timing and not you’re timing. While at the same time I think it is OK to tell him to hurry up….

(Transition)

The church is important in these traits because let’s admit it I don’t know anyone who is good at all of these. We can be able to support people and show generous love to those around us when we can work together to remind each other of the need to live out these virtues in our lives.

We should attempt to live out these traits in such a way that makes people wonder why we are being there and serving them in ways in which they believe goes beyond what they deserve. We are called to be the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus to the world.

Let us be people of generosity through the way that we show the love of God to those that we meet today and every day.

Let us pray…