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Sermon - November 8th, 2009
Defined By Generosity
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Proverbs 22:9; 1 Timothy 6:17-19
Prayer of Preparation: We give thanks, O God of sacred stories, for the witness of your word today. Through Scripture you challenge our assumptions, increase our awareness, nurture our imaginations, and touch our feelings. Bless the hearing of the word today. Speak to us and grant that by the power of your Spirit we may be hearers and doers of your word. Amen.
There is a man named Ken Wilbur who has developed something he calls the Intregal Model, with the help of those who have studied the human potential for 50-60 years in cultures all over the world. For example, when something happens in the world, like what happened at Fort Hood last week, we look for ways to make sense of this tragedy. We find an explanation according to our perception of the world and our stage of consciousness. It’s not just sociology or psychology, it’s anthropology, theology, biology, geography, science. It’s about knowledge and awareness and moral development. So, let me give you a very simplified explanation of Ken Wilbur’s Intregal Map of the human potential.
The first developmental stage of consciousness is the preconventional stage. We are egocentric at this stage. It’s all about me, me, me. We tend to be impulsive and opportunistic. There is little ability, maybe even no ability to delay gratification or walk in another’s shoes or realize that other people have needs and their own agenda that are different than mine. It’s just me, looking out at the world and trying to get what I want or need.
Now, we never do quite get over this stage. Some of that me, me, me stuff stays with us. And some of us get stuck there. Something may trigger us our “me against the world” perspective, like when our security is threatened.
Religion, in this stage, is like magic. God is more like Santa Claus…if I am nice and good, I will get rewarded; if I’m not I will get punished. Being generous in this stage of development is like this: What will I get, if I give you something? How much will God give back to me, if I give to God?
The next developmental stage of consciousness is the conventional stage when things are more about us. Instead of me against the world, it becomes us against the world. You are either with us or not. You are either a Democratic or a Republican. You are either a Yankees fan or a Phillies fan or you don’t really care. And of course, our way is the right way, our team is the best team, and the other way is, well, wrong, and that other team, well, they must have cheated or something. You can see this stage clearly when you hear about all those Moslems, they are the reason for the tragedy at Fort Hood. They shouldn’t be in the service at all. They are who we are at war with in the Middle East. It’s us against the Moslems.
At this second stage, religion is more rigid and exclusive. Our path is the right path, Jesus is the way, the only way, and everyone else is going to hell. Or, if we are a little more open then all Christians are on the path to heaven and other religions just don’t get it, yet. Or, science is the way, because religion can’t be seen or measured or proved.
Clear rules and roles are helpful for us in this stage of development. Generosity at this level is important because it is good to be generous to those in need. It makes sense to be generous. If I can help my community by being generous, then I will do that. If I can help my church by being generous, then I will. It’s about us rather than me. And it’s better to give than receive. And, we would prefer to be able to see what good our generosity is doing.
Most of us are at this very wide level of development. Most of us United Methodist are at the higher level of this stage—we are inclusive of many kinds of people, we understand that we are in mission and the world is our parish. Still, we are more comfortable feeling secure with some rules and well-defined roles. We have our own pew that we sit in every Sunday. And we have a bulletin to follow that doesn’t change all that much Sunday after Sunday. Plus, about this time every year, the pastor stands up and asks us to prayerfully consider our pledge for the next year so our church can keep its doors open, the staff paid, and we can continue doing good work in our community.
We all go through the ego-centric, me, me, me stage before we move into the us stage. And many of us will be in the us stage the rest of our lives, not even conscious that there is any other perspective on life. And that is okay.
Ken Wilbur explains two more perspectives and developmental stages. He says we really don’t realize there is another perspective until we get there, when our view of the world and life changes, our consciousness is widened. The third stage, he says, is when we see that life is about all of us—not just me, or our group, it’s about everyone, and I mean EVERYone. Now, in the stage before this one, we believe there is one big TRUTH out there and we are either in process of finding it, or we believe we have found it. In this third stage, we realize that our own personal perspective is important in figuring out what something means and there is no one big TRUTH out there. There are many truths. Ecology, quantum physics are products of this developmental stage. We see and experience everything as interdependent. Boundaries are arbitrary. There are more gray areas than distinctly good or bad areas. Life is complex, multidimensional, and relative of everything.
Each stage of consciousness is simply an increased level of perception. It does not mean you are a “better person” because you see yourself in this developmental stage. There are good and intelligent people at every developmental stage. It is about the way we interact in the world, how we feel in the world, how we think about ourselves in the world. Almost the whole population on earth are in these three stages of consciousness—Preconventional, conventional, and post-conventional stages. We move into them, from “me” to “us” to “all of us”.
There is a fourth stage, or an even wider perspective that very few people experience. I call this the “woo-woo” stage, probably because it’s quite foreign to me, I don’t really understand it. One name for it is the witness perspective because one is able to simply observe without adding meaning to things, it is simply an experience of being “one with” everything. It is also spoken of as “enlightenment” or the “transcendent” stage. At this stage all religions seem man-made because God is in everything and all of life is spiritual because we are all one with the One. Generosity happens because it is the way life is and it’s the way we are. Possessions mean nothing, they just are. Mother Teresa comes to my mind when I think of this stage of development.
I’m sharing these stages because I think it helps for us to be conscious of where we are in our lives. Generosity is something we look at it differently at every stage of our life. I believe all of us want to be thought of as generous rather than the alternative which is what? Being selfish, stingy, self-absorbed, someone like Scrooge or the Grinch. We grow up with these stories and the Bible stories that tell us to be generous, it is better to give than receive, give to charity, tithe to the church. How you hear these messages depends on your perspective. Some of you want to know what you will get back if you are generous. Some of you would like me to define the rules. For example Adam Hamilton expects his church members to be tithing or working toward tithing. His formula for the tithe is found in his book Enough. You take your gross income subtract your taxes and what you are saving for retirement and give God 10% of that amount.
Some of you would respond with generosity if I preached a compelling sermon about how much the church helps us and our community. I could list all the good things we do. Tell a story that tugged at your heart. We all contribute something and together, we provide a place for homeless families once every 6-8 weeks, we are the home of a thriving Boy Scout Troup, we are helping hundreds of people in their journey to learn English, we are providing a safe place for our children to learn about God and the Bible, we are in ministry all over the world through United Methodist Women and through our apportionments (when we pay them). I could go on and say, the United Methodist Church does it better than any church I know because we are connected to every other United Methodist Church. Be generous. Be part of the United Methodist Team.
What I will say is that generosity, like humility, is a way of life. Some of us grow up with generosity shown to us over and over again through the examples of our parents, grandparents. Some of us have learned through experience that it is important to be generous. Some of us are generous only with strings attached. Some of us are be-grudgingly generous. Some of us are procrastinating to be generous. Some of us have really good reasons for not being generous. Some of us want to see how our generosity is used. Some just simply have a need to give. Honestly, I have seen it all—well, maybe not all…yet. And what makes sense to me is that we are all in different stages of our lives and it’s totally up to you to decide how much to give. Just you and God are the judges of your generosity.
Adam Hamilton tells a story about Peter Marshall, the chaplain of the United States Senate for many years, quite a few years ago. A man who came to Peter Marshall for advice. He said, “I have a problem. I used to tithe regularly some years ago, but… but now… I am earning $500,000 a year, and there is just no way I can afford to tithe—that’s $50,000.”
Peter Marshall reflected on this wealthy man’s dilemma. He gave him no advice. He simply said, “I can certainly see your problem. Let’s pray about it.” The man agreed. So Mr. Marshall bowed his head and prayed. He said, “Heavenly Father, I pray that you would reduce this man’s salary back to the place that he can afford to tithe. Amen.”
I conclude by saying this, God doesn’t really seem to mind what we give—whether it is our leftovers or our first fruits or somewhere in between. God doesn’t sit up there on the heavenly throne figuring out how to make us give more. God doesn’t make our lives more difficult if we don’t tithe or easier if we do. God doesn’t even guilt us into being generous. God graciously accepts whatever we are able to do at this time in our lives. After all God doesn’t need our money. We could keep all it, spend all of it, hoard it all. Our generosity isn’t for God’s benefit. Generosity is for our benefit. We are the ones who are blessed through giving. And I don’t mean if you give, God will give more back to you. That’s magical thinking, stage one thinking. It is not how it works. We do not give to God so we can get something in return. No one can guarantee if you tithe you will never lose your job or never have bad things happen to you. I can tell you that generosity will change you. It transforms us. It blesses us. As the wisdom of Proverbs says, we grow richer when we give freely. And the Bible is not talking about richer materially.
Ken Wilbur explains that for us to move from one developmental stage to another, it often takes some kind of challenge or crisis to open us up or wake us up to a broader, wider, deeper perspective. When we are comfortable and secure with the status quo, we don’t change much. And, it is okay to stay wherever you are and that’s probably where you need to be right now.
My challenge for you is to take a look at your life from your perspective, look at the bulletin insert and see what you are able to do. Be as bold as you can. Ask for God’s help. Talk it over. Pray. And make a commitment, even if it seems small to you. The bulletin insert is for your personal use only. Fill it out and use it as a book mark in your Bible or the book you are currently reading. You will receive a letter in the mail this week asking you to make a financial commitment to the church for 2010. Fill out the pledge card in that letter and bring it to church with you next Sunday. If you are going to be gone next Sunday, drop it by or mail it. We do want the pledge card or something from you so we won’t need to follow up with another letter. If you are a visitor, go back to your home church and consider all that I have said. If you don’t attend church regularly, seriously think about it, because I guarantee you there is no place in our society like the church where you can explore and seek a richer and more meaningful life.
And remember, generosity is not about what God needs. It is about what you need. It is about stretching and challenging yourself spiritually. God promise is this: you will be blessed by your generosity because from the beginning of time God created us to be a blessing to others.
Paul said it well in his First Letter to Timothy: “Don’t be haughty and don’t set your hope on the uncertainty of riches….Do good, be rich in good works, and ready to share, that way you will be giving to a good foundation for the future. You will take hold of the life that really is life.” Thanks be to God.
Amen.
My Ten Apples: I have been given ten apples. My income. The Bible says that of these 10 apples, nine of them are for me to use and enjoy.
One-Two – Mortgage/House Payment
Three – Abbe, college.
Four—Car, gasoline, repairs, car insurance.
Five—Retirement, some for utilities, I have a cell phone.
Six—My horse needs a place to stay.
Seven—Food, for me, my dog, my two cats.
Eight—Dentist, Doctor bills, Vetinarian bills, medicine.
Nine—New clothes, renting a movie, going out to eat, stopping for a coffee at The Human Bean, other things like getting the paper, have cable TV.
And this 10th apple, this is the one apple that is holy to God. Giving this apple to God is a way to saying thanks, a way of being obedient, a way of worshiping God, a way of being faithful, a way of being generous. This apple is the one apple that helps supply the resources for God’s purposes to be accomplished in the world through the church.
However, our lifestyle is such that nine apples are not enough anymore. I think to myself, How can I pay all my bills, help Abbe, and have all the stuff I want, and feed all the animals I have with just nine apples? So, I think, hmm, God will not mind if I take a little bite of God’s apple. After all, I really would like to go down to California and see Emma. That’s important. God would want me to go see my own daughter. And Christmas is coming. Last Christmas I didn’t give many gifts at all. I would like to buy a few more presents this year, just a few, just another small bite out of God’s apple. And those tires I need for my car, I need to get them before I go to my sister’s for Thanksgiving. I didn’t save anything for them. I’ll have to take another bite out of God’s apple. And I’ve been wanting a digital camera for a long time and that sale at Fred Meyer’s is a really good one and I have to go down to Corvallis to see Abbe in Pirates of Penzanze and of course, take her out to eat after the play. Soon, all that is left of God’s apple is the core. So, we give the core to God and say, “Here is your portion, God.” What we end up giving God is our left-overs.
Prayer:
Gracious, holy God, we give you thanks this day for this land of our birth and for the wonder of this land’s story and our story. And we give thanks for the leaders of our country, for the good they have accomplished and inspired. We give thanks for all who have served, who have been true and brave, especially in times of need. We give thanks for those who have lost their lives, serving a country that they believe in. Gracious God, we remember our veterans, we remember their many sacrifices. We remember them and we pray for peace in all the world, between all tribes and nations. We pray for peace at home as we struggle to make sense of tragedies and violence and what is beyond making sense. We pray for ourselves and our own families, knowing that peace begins with us and at home.
We pray for the families of those who are deployed. We pray for our nation as we struggle and mourn what happen at Fort Hood. We pray for understanding and justice and peace and what ever we need to realize the gift and the fragility of life. In the name of Jesus, who walks with us through it all, praying for us and with us…Our Father….