Generosity of Spirit -- FPC sermon excerpt

I always feel sorry for visitors who come to our church during stewardship season. They attend a few services, and then begin to wonder, “Does this church do nothing but talk about money?”

Well, yes — for a few Sundays each year.

But then a visitor sent me this story by email, so I figured that she was taking it all with good humor.

Three kids are sitting around the lunch table at school. One says, “My dad’s a lawyer. People pay him $100 for a letter with his opinion on it.”

Another says, “My mom’s a doctor. She writes prescriptions on a little sheet of paper and people pay her $200 for it.”

The third says, “My dad’s a preacher. He writes a few notes, talks to everyone in church, and it takes four people to collect all the money!”

We’ll see that in just a few minutes, when our super-strong ushers take up the offering once again. But until then, I’m not going to talk about money — I’m going to talk about generosity of spirit.

This is the fifth in a series of sermons that Jessica Tate and I are preaching on Extravagant Generosity. We have already taken a look at God’s generosity, and answered the question, “Why generosity?” We have listened to what Jesus says about generosity and earthly treasures, and have focused on the importance of disciplined generosity — including the practice of tithing and giving in proportion to our incomes.

Now we shift away from money to the topic of generosity of spirit, and next week Jessica will conclude this series with a sermon on the generosity of Jesus. We will enter Holy Week with a deeper understanding of the amazing gift that Jesus gave us, when he offered up his life on the cross.

Let’s reflect on a passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, which begins with the challenge, “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh” (5:16). Paul sets up a contrast between life in the Spirit and life in the flesh, and he begins by listing a number of flesh-based activities that are destructive to individuals and communities: Fornication, impurity, jealousy, anger, quarrels, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these (vv. 19-21).

What I love about this list is that it sets a trap for each of us, whether we are in or out of the church, living a wild or a mild kind of life. Sure, I might be innocent of fornication and carousing, but anger and envy? Guilty as charged. I’ll bet that each of us can identify with at least one of these works of the flesh.

Fortunately, Paul offers us an alternative, which moves us from flesh to Spirit. “By contrast,” he says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There is no law against such things” (vv. 22-23). Go ahead and do as much as you want, says Paul — it’s not against the law!

We are challenged by this passage to practice true generosity of spirit — to do as much as we want in terms of love, joy, peace, patience, and all the other gifts of the Spirit. With the works of the flesh, you have to be very careful not to go overboard — fornication can lead to a sexually-transmitted disease, and drunkenness can cause you to wrap your car around a tree.

But the fruit of the Spirit? Go crazy! You simply cannot be too generous with kindness, faithfulness, or gentleness!