October 6, 2025
“Generosity is not what God wants from us. It is what God wants for us.”
Yesterday, we joined the global church in celebrating worldwide communion. I love the communion tables on this day resplendent, as they often are, with symbols of the wildly diverse cultures and customs of God’s beautiful creation richly teeming with life and variety. Though we receive a small piece of bread and a sip of juice, there is a sense of abundance at this table and why not? Here we celebrate the generosity of God who gave God’s whole self to make us whole and give us life abundant.
Generosity. We hear the word a lot in this season when many churches are in their fall stewardship campaigns, seeking to raise gifts and pledges to enable the worship and work of the church but also to form disciples of Jesus who reflect his generosity as we seek to follow his way of life in our own lives. Jesus embodied generosity.
Giving is an act. Generosity is a way of being in which we find meaning, freedom, and joy. As Andy Stanley puts is, “You may regret a lot of what you spend your money on but you will never regret the money you choose to give away.” He follows up by encouraging giving from a grateful heart and from a broken heart. A grateful heart for all that you have been given and a broken heart for all the circumstances in the world that break God’s heart. Jane Goodall, the naturalist who died last week after a long life of working with chimpanzees and healing humans relationship with the rest of the natural world, noted this truth: “You can’t go through a single day without having an impact on the world. What you do or do not do makes a difference.” And then she asks, “What kind of difference do you want to make?”
It is no wonder that Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthian church when they are in their own stewardship campaign would encourage them in this way: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” There is great joy in living your life in such a way that your impact makes the world a better place. God loves a cheerful giver because God sees in that person the very image of a generous God.
So when you get that stewardship letter……to Heaven with it!
As ever in prayer,
Sue