December 10, 2006
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
If your mailbox is anything like mine, it is filled with requests from charitable organizations to make new donations, piggybacking on the spirit of giving that is a part of our observation of Christmas. In fact, you should have received a Christmas letter and an offering envelope from me this week!
Annually and collectively, Americans are generous people when it comes to giving to charity. $1.8 billion was given to aid in the recovery of the tsunami in Southeast Asia and $3.12 billion to relief for the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And those figures don’t include the official aid that was given by our government.
These figures are large numbers but they are just a drop in the bucket compared to total charitable giving by Americans. In 2004, we gave $248.5 billion to U.S. charities which three-quarters came from direct giving from individuals. And this amount is in addition to the $71 billion we gave to the developing world in 2004. And since it is difficult to track all donations, this amount is probably even higher.
But those who track charitable giving have noticed a change in how some money is directed. Rather than money flowing to help the poor, wealthy contributors in particular are increasingly giving to health care and education causes, such as funding a hospital wing or providing scholarships. Would this kind of giving still be giving to charity with such strings attached?
A week ago on Saturday, a group from our church volunteered answering phones at KQED when listeners supportive of public radio called in with their pledges. Suppose you were to make a donation to KQED, which is a nonprofit organization, but it’s also a station that you listen to and therefore from which you received good programming in return. Is that just as much good work as giving a dollar to help a hungry person? And if that dollar you give to KQED means that you don’t have to give a dollar to the hungry, does that reflect on your compassion and your faithfulness in following Jesus?
Paul and the Philippians
From Paul’s letter to the Philippians, we can see Paul was thanking them for the gifts they have given to him. As one who went about planting new churches and then because of his faith, was arrested and imprisoned, Paul needed charitable giving. In Philippians 4, we read,
“You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left
Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving,
except you alone. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for
my needs more than once. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the profit that
accumulates to your account. I have been paid in full and have more than
enough; I am fully satisfied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the
gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.”
Since the first Christians gave charitable gifts to Paul, this would be a good place to try to understand how we might give today? First of all, Paul identifies the Philippian Christians as generous people.
Paul has just received their gifts from Epaphroditus. Paul pens this letter for his visitor to take back to the church with him. Paul sends a thank you letter.
With all of Paul’s good experiences with the Philippians, we can understand why, in the passage before us, Paul begins by saying, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” Their friendship, their support for his ministry and most of all, their passion for “the gospel from the first day until now,” all are sources of joy for the apostle Paul.
Paul tells them that he prays for one thing more for them: that their “love may overflow with knowledge and full insight” so that they will be fully ready—“pure and blameless” and producing the “harvest of righteousness”—when Christ returns.
When he prays that their love may overflow, he uses the same word Jesus did when Jesus was talking about loving both neighbors and enemies—agape. So Paul is calling for the love that arises out of the will and results in acts of goodness toward others. This love is not merely a feeling but an action. But Paul adds something else. He prays that their love might be informed with “full insight to help you determine what is best.”
The Greek word translated as “full insight” means “discernment” or “common sense.” In other words, Paul prays that the Philippians will have an overflowing love that is shared not indiscriminately but wisely. So how can we apply this to charitable giving? Paul doesn’t give us answers to our questions about where our donations should go, but he says that it is worth the effort to “determine what is best.” We need to do this to be ready for the return of Christ Jesus.
Giving Something
With only 15 more shopping days left to buy gifts on our Christmas list, how might we extend our giving to charity?
First, giving something is better than giving nothing. Jesus teaches us that loving our neighbor is second only to loving God. For some of our neighbors, the only way we can express our love is by contributing money to help alleviate their suffering. For Christians, neighbor loving in not optional, so neither is giving.
Whenever there might be a need for giving—a tsunami or a hurricane or an earthquake or famine or suffering and misery as the result of war and violence, we give. As Christians, we take up an offering to give to neighbors whom we don’t even know but the important point is that we give.
We have neighbors right here is Chinatown—just outside our front doors. Last Sunday when we had the pork buns and tea outside on the sidewalk, a stranger came over to partake of the pork buns. I believe someone told him that they were for church members who were about to go into the sanctuary to attend a meeting. I heard him say, “How do you join?” The next thing I noticed was that he was sitting in the sanctuary at first seeing what was going on and then proceeded to take a nap. In the middle of Jessica Louie’s testimony, he awakens and makes a sound that interrupted Jessica’s sharing. In a moment, he put on his coat, gathered his bag, and walked out. I don’t know about you, but I hope someone offered him a pork bun. And if he did eat a pork bun, this neighbor acted like he was a church member even if it was for a half an hour. For Christians, neighbor loving is not optional, neither is giving.
There is something very symbolic about having our pork buns and tea outside on the sidewalk. It is so much easier and controllable to have our happy occasions upstairs in the Fellowship Hall where our neighbors would find it harder to get to. It’s amazing that when it comes to giving something, we do have something to give.
Paul writes that “the profit that accumulates to your account” means that it is more blessed to give than to receive. When we give to help our neighbors, we who give also profit before God. Clearly giving something is better than giving nothing at all.
Secondly, giving something and being taken advantage of is better than giving nothing at all. Paul does advise us that when we perform loving acts we should make the effort to “determine what is best.” This means that we need to research to make sure our money goes to honest charity. There are websites that provide this kind of help.
But occasionally, even with all of that, we may discover we’ve been conned. This is no shame to the giver; it is shame on the con artist. On discovering that we’ve been taken, we should move our contributions elsewhere, to be sure, but we should not stop giving. The potential for doing good is so strong that the occasional scam should not become an excuse to stop giving.
When organized charities ask for our dollars, there are usually ways to verify the integrity of the group, but the possibility of being deceived is greater in episodes when we encounter an individual who is claiming immediate need, such as the man from Zimbabwe who has no working visa to keep a job. On your behalf, I have been scammed or conned many times. I don’t really know if Gregory is telling me the truth or not. But I have given him money from the Deacons fund, free meals when we have food at church and I have even practiced tough love on him. But when I see Gregory, he is a reminder for me that giving something and being taken advantage of is better than giving nothing at all.
We should hold judgment when we respond to a request for help from an individual. We have not lived with their situation, and generally what we can grasp of it in a moment isn’t the whole story in any case. If the person is dishonest, shame on that person, but blessings on you for your willingness to love your neighbor.
There’s a Jewish story about the sage Mar Ukva, who every year sent a substantial amount of money to a poor person in his neighborhood. One year the person who delivered the money reported back to Mar Ukva that his donations were no longer needed, as the delivery person has seen that the recipient was accustomed to drinking expensive wine.
Instead of bemoaning his wasted donations, Mar Ukva’s response was, “I didn’t know that he was accustomed to such luxuries—double the donation!”
And finally, giving something when you don’t have something to give is better than giving nothing. Giving comes from gratitude and obedience. We give when we’re grateful, and we give—whether we have anything to give or not—out of obedience. It’s our duty to give and the sacrifice is good for our souls as well as helpful to others.
The truth of the matter is that not many of us fall into the category of not having anything to give. It’s rather a question of what can we reduce or cut out of our lives that might enable us to be more fruitful with our giving.
There was a pastor who was talking to one of his rural members about the need to raise money for a community center in town that would help the poor. Trying to work into the conversation the request for this charitable giving, the pastor asked the farmer, “If you had 100 horses, would you give me 50?”
The farmer said, “Certainly.”
The pastor asked, “If you had 100 cows, would you give me 50?”
The farmer said, “Yes.”
Then the pastor asked, “If you had two pigs, would you give me one?”
The farmer said, “Now, cut that out, pastor; you know I have only two pigs!”
We are always willing to give what we don’t have, until we have it. If we are honest with ourselves, we all have something to give. And when you think that you don’t have anything to give, we need to acknowledge our gratitude and thanksgiving for what we really have and out of obedience to our Christian faith, give something is better than giving nothing at all.
Giving with No End
In this Advent season of waiting for the birth of Jesus Christ, let us not waste this time by wondering what we should be doing. As we await all that is to come, there is meaningful work to be done.
During Advent, we cultivate a generous and grateful spirit in always giving something. As Paul suggested that we use our minds as well as our hearts to determine what is best, we always give something because God first gave to us.
It is amazing how generous Americans are when it comes to charitable giving especially at Christmas time. Christians celebrate Jesus’ entering our world as a homeless baby. Heavenly voices proclaimed peace on earth, goodwill to all. We mark the day with generosity and love. We show compassion for the poor and outcast. We remind ourselves of God’s design for us living together in peace.
Our hope is that the virtues that make us thoughtful, generous and kind people at Christmas can be proclaimed and rehearsed all year round. Generosity need not end. Peace and joy need not be set aside. We need not return to a world of violence, division, selfishness. The gift we give each other can be our resolve to hold onto seasons after seasons.
The next time a neighbor comes up to you and asks for something, always give something.
Let us pray.
Great God of adventure and Advent, come again to our lives and to our church. Come to us in these days of want and needs and teach us to always give something to your people. Help us in these days of expectation and preparation to get ready for the amazing arrival again of the Baby of Bethlehem. As you give your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to us so that our sins may be forgiven, show us how to give like you. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.