Some facts about the Christian virtue of generosity

·      God is the source of all we have, and we are stewards of all He has given us.

·      We are accountable to God for how we respond to His generosity toward us.  

·      Faithful stewardship is a key to the abundant life that Christ came to give us. 

·      We are most like God when we are giving. 

·      The biblical tithe is where things get real.  

Conclusion  If you want a Godly foundation for living in this materialistic world, seek God’s perspective on your money and possessions, and seek to grow in the Christian virtue of Generosity.

 Matthew 6:32-33  “…indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God  and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”   

Sermon for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, 2021- "From Self to Self-Giving"

 Readings:
            Amos 5:6-15
            Psalm 90:1-12
            Hebrews 3:1-6
            Mark 10:17-21

Into            Throughout Scripture, the Lord is persistent in challenging our worldly tendency to place ourselves and our material possessions ahead of Him and ahead of the needs of others.  What we do with what the Lord has materially given us is a big deal with God.

Readings   This morning in our reading from the Prophet Amos, God rebukes the people of God for building houses of hewn stone and planting pleasant vineyards, He says, while at the same time trampling on the poor.   

In today’s Gospel, Jesus challenges the rich young man to sell all that he has, give it to the poor, and follow him.  Jesus is not so much focusing on the fact that the young man is wealthy, because God is the source of all things; rather, Jesus is challenging this young man on two things more specifically: first, on what he is doing with all that God has given him; and secondly, that he has placed the love of mammon ahead of his love of God, although, interestingly, he is a man who seeks to be devoted to God.  Jesus says in Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” God says in Exodus 20:2 that we are to have no other gods before Him, which is the first of the 10 Commandments.  Anything we put ahead of God in our lives is, by definition, an idol.  Wealth and possessions can so easily become our idol.

The Rich Young Man          The young man apparently thinks that his abundant possessions can provide abundant life.  This is a malady common in our today’s materialistic society. To think that life in abundance can be found in material possessions is simply an impoverished view of life, at least life as God intends it.  Jesus says in John 10:10 that He came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  The abundant life Jesus is talking about is one of submission to God, perfected relationships, mutual love, sacrificial giving, radical generosity, having God’s transcendent purpose for living, and having a clear vision on where we are headed as children of God.  Jesus’ point to the rich young man today is that he will only find these things by following Him.

This rich young man is on the same journey that we are all on, and he sadly choses to take a different road.  Our Christian journey is to be from self-centered-ness to a Christ-centered-ness, from self-absorption to self-giving, from a life focused on the kingdom of this world to life that seeks the Kingdom of God. 

Our pilgrimage is, of course, a life-long journey and one we cannot make on our own.  The Holy Spirit empowers us for the journey and Jesus promises to walk the road with us.  The fact is that we are all a work in progress.  In Christ, we are ever moving heavenward, until at our last day Jesus takes me by the hand and presents us to the Father, unblemished, healed and perfected. We can all say amen to that.

Spokes of a wheel       A helpful visual for me has always been life as the spokes of a wheel.  Each spoke represents some facet of your lives… our family, career, relationships, hobbies, spirituality, our wealth, whatever.  But something needs to be at the center… the hub of our existence, so to speak.  Given our human nature, tainted by this world as it is, we place ourselves and our material needs at the center.  To the world that sounds right, and Jesus Himself said in Matthew 6 that God knows we need all these things, but the center of our lives needs to be God Himself.  God calls us to a much more transcendent and meaningful life than what the material world can provide, one in which all the various facets and spokes of our lives are submitted to Him.  That is the Christian call.

My on-going journey from self to self-giving       Let me tell you a bit about my journey as it relates to all this.  It was over a half-century ago that Nancy and I got married- (I love now being old enough to mark my journey in half-centuries.  It helps me realize how long and far Christ has taken us).  We married right out of college in 1970.  We soon discovered all the American middle-class struggles of mortgage, career, balancing finances, raising children and securing their future.  Family and career became the center of my existence.  God was there, but He was, in effect, somewhere on the fringe, just another one of those spokes in the wheel.  

One Sunday morning, while standing in the churchyard where we were attending, about to go into adult Sunday School, I was contemplating these things.  Nancy was off doing her ministries.  The kids were in Sunday School and nursery.  It was just God and me.  From what I knew about being a Christian, it was not rational to have God in some compartmentalized fringe of my life.  I thought of Jesus’ words in His Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6, “…²⁵ [be not anxious] about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? … ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

That morning in the churchyard was a watershed moment in my life, a Nicodemus, John 3, born again moment. Perhaps you have had a similar encounter with God.  God invited me to receive him as the hub of my life.  I have been stiving to do that ever since.  

Because it is the topic of God’s message to us today, let me mention one thing Nancy and I did soon after, which was to move to the biblical tithe as a submission of our finances to the Lord.  Of all the facets and spokes of our lives, our pocketbook tends to be one of the last things we sanctify to the Lord.    

Closing      So, in closing, know that God has much to say about how we are to deal with wealth and material possessions with which He has graced us.  The rich young man was not ready to hear the words of our Lord; as for you and me, let us follow Jesus.

In Honor of Laura

 Sermon

Memorial Service for Laura Coppernoll, October 4, 2021

Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity, North Augusta

The Reverend Rob Hartley, Preacher 

I am honored to offer some words today as we celebrate Laura and honor God who has gathered Laura to Himself. 

To Phillip and the family, on behalf of all of us here at Holy Trinity, and everyone present, know that our love, prayer, and condolences go out to you.  Prayers from us have been unceasing all during Laura’s struggle with this terrible disease, and those prayers will continue. 

Laura has been a faithful and giving servant of our Lord over all the years I have known her.  I will always admire her zeal for the Lord, her devotion to her family, her ministries both among us here at Holy Trinty and out in the community, particularly her work with Life Choices Pregnancy Center in Aiken, and of course for her passion for caring for God’s creatures.  It is surely appropriate that today is the Feast Day of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals.  I think that is a God thing!

Times like this can become an unreal blur.  Grief can do that to us.  But today we stop and celebrate the great reality of what has taken place, and that is Laura is now united in a perfected and healed way with the God who created her.  Laura was faithful to her promises to God, but God has also been faithful to his promises to Laura.  Hear one of God’s promises to Laura in Romans 6:5, “… if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”  

So, today is Laura’s resurrection party, her own Easter celebration, Easter being all about resurrection to new life with God.   The words and the tone of the service today reflect this… What we celebrate is that death does not have the final say in Laura’s life, God does.   Alleluia.

Our Romans 8 reading today says we who are in Christ are Children of God, and if children, then heirs; that is, heirs of the Kingdom of God.   To be heirs of the Kingdom of God means we have a place at God’s table forever.  Table fellowship is a powerful image used and ordained by Christ at the Last Supper and is an image of the fellowship we will all have with God for eternity.   

Laura has now taken her place at this great Banquet Table of our Lord.  In just a moment, we ourselves will participate in a foreshadowing of that great reality as we also commune at this Lord’s Table behind me.  All baptized members of God’s Holy Church, regardless of denomination, are invited to come forward with Phillip and the family and commune with God.  Even if you aren’t sure where you stand with the Lord and perhaps would rather not take Communion, please come forward with the family anyway- just cross your arms over your chest and you will receive words of blessing from Fr. Ross. 

As our liturgy today says, “All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”   

May this wonderful family move forward from here in the blessing and power of God’s Holy Spirit…  in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen                           

The Rev. Rob Hartley, Oct. 4, 2021