This week, for Part 2 of our STUFFED series, we talked about GENEROSITY.
Generosity is a pretty important message that we often hear at Christmas time! In fact, the whole reason why we celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to one another, is because Christmas celebrates God making a way for us to experience his love and forgiveness. In case you never thought about it, “Christmas” LITERALLY mean’s CHRIST’S MASS (Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name—it means SAVING ONE), and a mass is a service where Christians gather to remember Jesus (Roman Catholic churches still call their services masses!)….SO, the meaning of Christmas is to “GATHER TO REMEMBER THE SAVING ONE!” Christmas is all about generosity because God SENT Jesus to make a way for us to experience his love and forgiveness (even if we don’t deserve it!). THAT’S PRETTY GENEROUS!!
The dictionary describes generosity as showing kindness through giving and sharing, being un-selfish, and being open-handed! That's something we hear a lot about at Christmas. And tonight, we looked at the classic story of "A Christmas Carol" and how it's quite similar to a parable that Jesus told. A parable is a made-up story that contains some kind of lesson about life and God--- and Jesus was pretty famous for telling them! One in particular, has quite a few similarities to Scrooge's story. This makes sense since Charles Dickens was a Christian (he even wrote a book about Jesus for his kids).
In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus told the story of "The Rich Fool". It's similar to "A Christmas Carol" in these ways:
FIRST: The main character is someone who is super rich and has plenty for himself
SECOND: The rich man in Jesus' story hoards more for himself instead of showing generosity. Scrooge, of course, is known for his selfishness and greed.
THIRD: Something supernatural happens. In Scrooge’s story, he’s visited by Ghosts. In Jesus’ story—God shows up!
FOURTH: Scrooge is given a glimpse of what will happen to him if he keeps being greedy and selfish…and if you know A Christmas Carol, it gets pretty morbid at the end, where he sees his own grave. Well, Jesus’ story goes there too! He says that the guy is going to die, having never helped anyone or made a difference in anybody else’s life. He’s going to die alone—greedy and selfish!
FIFTH: Scrooge’s story ends with him realizing that he needs to change….and Jesus’ story ends with a warning to all of us--- that we should be SELF-LESS instead of SELFISH, that we should be OPEN HANDED instead of TIGHT-FISTED! Jesus tells us to be “rich towards God”- or in other words, to worship God by being GENEROUS!
How is the story of the rich fool relevant to us today?
1. WE ARE THE RICH GUY
If you are reading this, then you are rich. You might not think so, if your family makes $24,000 a year (that’s like $500 a week- which is less than minimum wage and is pretty much impossible to live on in Canada), you are in the richest 8% of the world’s population and make 14 times the global average! (givingwhatwecan.org). We are super blessed! We are incredibly fortunate to have been born in Canada, to have things like a roof over our head and to have most of our needs met. We really take it for granted…but WE ARE ALL THE RICH GUY IN JESUS’ STORY!
2. BEING RICH ISN’T BAD—IT’S ACTUALLY GREAT--- BECAUSE WE ARE IN A UNIQUE POSITION!
Being rich isn’t a bad thing. In fact, the Bible never says that wealth or money is bad, it’s only when we love it too much that it’s a problem! Think about this—who is better able to sponsor a child in Africa? Someone in Africa, or someone in North America? Who is better able to provide food to people who are hungry---someone who is well fed with a fridge full of food, or someone who has empty shelves?
One of my favourite comic book characters is SPIDER-MAN. Spidey's Uncle Ben gave him some pretty famous words of advice- words that Spidey constantly reminds himself of: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY. This reminds Spider-Man that he doesn't have powers to make himself famous, to make life more comfortable for himself, or to make money for himsef, but that he has a responsibility to use the "gift" that he's been given in a way that helps others and makes his world a better place. That’s what drives Spidey to be a hero!
Well, just like Spiderman—we have GREAT POWER. Sure, none of us (I think) have the ability to sling webs and climb up the side of buildings, but we are all SUPER RICH…and so with that, there’s a GREAT RESPONSIBILITY that rests on our shoulders! We each have a choice to make in what to do with what we’ve been given, and when teens get older and jobs and bank accounts of their own, that responsibility is even greater for them!
We can choose to get more and more stuff for ourselves. To upgrade. To BUILD BIGGER BARNS to store all of our stuff. To live in selfish ways. Or, we can choose to be generous- to use what we have to be a blessing to others, to make a difference in the lives of people who weren’t so fortunate to be born in Canada where, for the most part, all of our needs are provided for.
While your power increases as you get older and have a job of your own, teens are still pretty powerful today. They can choose to volunteer in ways that help others. They can encourage their families to be involved in things that they are passionate about! (If my kid comes up to me because he sees a need and really wants to do something to help, I’m not just going to ignore him!). They can be involved in a school fundraiser! Every year, we take a couple of groups down to the Capital City Mission so provide food and goodies to people who drop-in--- and they can be brave enough to join us! They can even put a few bucks in our CATALYST OFFERING and VOTE on what MISSION PROJECT they would like to support!
Being RICH is not a bad thing! And I should mention again, that it’s totally ok to have a Christmas wish list and to get presents…but when you do unwrap stuff on Christmas, hopefully you’ll be overwhelmed with how blessed you are and how thankful you are that people have shown generosity to you! Hopefully it’ll inspire you to be more generous to others!
3. GENEROSITY IS INSEPERABLE FROM CHRISTIANITY
If you’ve accepted God’s love and forgiveness for yourself, then one way we can worship God is by following him—by doing what he values. And all through the Bible, we’re encouraged to love others and do what we can to help people in need.
Christians, have HISTORICALLY been known for their generosity! In the Bible, particularly in the Book of Acts, people in the early church were known for selling properties and extra stuff, making sacrifices in order to help people in need--- and that’s one reason why the church just grew and grew. People were blown away by how Christians loved other people!
That’s not just ancient history though--a recent survey by the Barna instutite (see below) discovered that practicing Christians (people who take their faith seriously and live it out) were more generous than other people! For example, a Christian is 17% more likely to provide food to a poor person or family, is 17% more likely to volunteer to help others in their community, and far more likely to help the poor in their own country AND in other countries!
Some of the most recognized relief organizations in the world are organizations that were founded by Christians-like World Vision, Compassion International, the Red Cross, and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
If you call yourself a Jesus follower, than you’re challenged to live in a way that follows his teaching and example! And GENEROSITY is a huge part of that.
1 John 3:18-19 says, “If someone has enough money to live well and sees someone in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”
DISCUSSION FOR HOME:
1. Think and talk about the many ways that you and your family is rich. How are you blessed? What are things that you have that others would only dream of? What's the difference between wanting things and needing things? Take some time to pray and thank God for the ways that he has blessed you.
2. As we are approaching Christmas, talk as a family about how you can show generosity to others this month, and ongoingly throughout the year. Perhaps your family is already very generous, but your teen doesn't really know of the many different ways that you give? Talk about how and why you give in the particular ways that you do. Ask God to help you and your family not be like Scrooge or the rich fool in Jesus' story, but to live lives full of generosity.
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