Sunday, June 30, 2024, 6th Sunday after Pentecost
“The Grace of Giving”
Ps. 100; Lamentations 3:22-33; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9; Mark 5:21-43
A Service of Hymns and Praise
Hymns: #537 “Beautiful Savior”; #843 “Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”; #791 “All People That on Earth Do Dwell”; #809 “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”; #770 “What a Friend We Have In Jesus”; #664 “Fight the Good Fight”; #665 “Be Strong In the Lord”; #660 “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
St. Paul writes in our reading from 2nd Corinthians, “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.” What is “grace?” The definition we’ve all been taught is that grace is “an undeserved gift from God.” And that’s true. Sinners that we are, we could never do enough to earn God’s grace, or to be good enough to earn His love. That word “grace” means God “looks upon with favor,” or “has a favorable disposition toward us” or “looks upon with good will,” all because of what Jesus has done. Only believing Jesus for what He did on the cross for sinners like us will bring us the grace we need. That’s the gift God offers us all.
On the other hand (and isn’t there always an “on the other hand?”), grace isn’t a “never mind” blessing for doing nothing; it’s not “cheap.” Grace comes by having faith, by believing God for His promise and accepting His gift. Grace in that way is the reward for faithfulness, the result of faithfulness, the fruit of the obedience that comes from faith.
Let me put it his way: Will God give grace to the unfaithful, the disobedient, or to unrepentant sinners? Can you cut yourself off from grace by turning your back on God and refusing to accept or acknowledge His gifts? So there is a part we have to play in all this! Our part is to gratefully open our hands and accept the gift we’re being offered, and to say, “Thank you!” “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” the Book of Proverbs says.
Why did God choose to show grace to the Macedonian Church? Not “just because,” but because of what they did because they were faithful. A little background: All through Book of Acts, on Paul’s missionary journey’s, he’d been taking up a collection for the Church in Jerusalem. The people of the “mother Church” were in dire straits.
They’d been persecuted, abused, and nearly starved out of existence. At every stop on his way, Paul asked the other churches to do whatever they could do to help; and the Macedonians had the grace to answer the call. They were hurting, too, and suffering the same kinds of trials; but still they dug down deep and gave what they were able to give, and even more.
“Out of the most severe trial,” Paul writes, “their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” Despite their own trials and troubles, the joy they had in Jesus had them looking to the needs of others. They were looking outward at the world in need, not inward to themselves. They had hearts that reached out, not hearts that turned in.
And that became the proof of their faith. The literal translation of “out of the most severe trial” is “Out of much proof of tribulation.” The Greek word for “proof” there is the wonderful word dokima. Dokima means to be tested and tried by God, to have your faith stretched to the limit, and to be found to still have faith, and even stronger faith, when the testing is over.
For the Macedonians, dokima meant continuing to give even when they couldn’t afford it, and trusting God to make up the difference; and isn’t that what faith is all about? The joy they’d found in Jesus re-defined their outlook. I know you’ve heard the phrase “give until it hurts,” but the real goal of Christian stewardship is to come to the point of the hurt and then keep on giving, knowing, and trusting and believing that God will pour out His grace and “bless you seven-fold” for it. God says in the Book of Malachi: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Paul says about the Macedonians, “I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.” They were begging to be of service. What can I do? How can I help? Here I am; send me! They were pleading for the grace to be able to serve, and to have the opportunity to help and to serve and to share. They considered it a blessing to be able to serve.
So you see how the “grace of giving” works both ways! They were “Blessed to be a blessing.” “From the riches of God’s grace we have all received one blessing after another,” St. John says. And now the receivers of God’s grace become the givers of His
grace; and because of that, they receive more grace, to be able to give even more. It’s the “mustard seed grown to a tree” Jesus told us about. It’s “the planted seed that produces many seeds.” Christian stewardship, despite what you may have been told, isn’t about multiplying money at all, but about multiplying grace.
“And they did not do as we expected,” says Paul, “but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will.” All things in their proper, wonderful, God-blessed order. They gave themselves to the Lord first; they said, “Lord, I’m yours.” And then they asked, “Lord, now what do you want me to do?” If you’re bold enough to ask God what His will for you might be, you’d better be ready for the answer He gives you. Chances are it won’t be something simple or easy or small, but something that seems ridiculous, outrageous, and impossible. That step of faith God is asking you to take might look like a leap off the edge of a cliff. But “faith is trusting what the eyes can’t see.” God “shows forth His power” by doing wonderful things, both for us and through us. The Lord says, “There are your brothers and sisters who need you; there’s where your help is needed. Go help them and give yourself to them, and do it in My name.” “What you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me,” Jesus says.
So, says Paul, “We urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.” Paul asked Titus to take what had been a really great beginning, and make the act of grace complete, by delivering on the promise and carrying the ball over the finish line. The people in Jerusalem needed thoughts and prayers, sure; we always need those. But they needed physical help as well. Necessary and well-intentioned as thoughts and prayers are, you can’t eat them. God’s Word says in the Book of James, “If someone says to a brother in need, ‘Go, I wish you well,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” If you pray to God that someone who’d hungry will be fed, the Lord may just answer, “You feed them.” If you ask God for a miracle, the conduit for the miracle might turn out to be you!
“But just as you excel in everything,” Paul tells the Macedonians, “in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us --see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” It’s a good thing if we’re good at the “God stuff.” It’s good to have faith, and the ability to articulate it. It’s good to have Scriptural knowledge, to be
able to quote that Bible of yours, chapter and verse. Having a heart full of sincerity and love is a good thing; but we also have to become excellent at the giving part.
“Excel in the grace of giving” is the English translation here. but what St. Paul actually says is, “That also in this grace you should abound.” And again, I’m not talking about putting money in the plate, but about putting your heart on the line. “Let us love not just with words and tongue, but with actions and in truth,” St. John says. That means to abound in giving grace - to have the grace that’s been poured into us, pour out of us, in every possible way.
“I am not commanding you,” says Paul, “but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.” That word dokima comes up here again. The test, the proving of genuine love, is that it’s freely given, without expecting anything in return. (What if I’d given gifts to those children, then expected them to pay me for them? That wouldn’t have been much of a gift).
Giving and showing grace can’t be a commandment or an obligation. That kind of grace would be worthless, and not really grace at all. If I only give because I have to, or because I expect a reward for it, my giving will be done grudgingly, always holding something back, not quite trusting God that if I give to the bottom of the barrel, He’ll keep His promise to fill it up again. Remember Elisha and the endless jar of oil? Remember Jesus and the loaves and fishes? What God wants from us is giving that comes from our “want to” and not from our “have too,” giving that comes from the heart. “God loves a cheerful giver.”
Would you like to have a little contest? God forbid that someone else should out-serve me! What a competition that would be – you and I doing our best to try and out-serve each other! Let me show you my love for God and for His Son by the way I love you. Let me prove to you how much I love Jesus by the way I show His love to others. Can you outdo me on that count? Can you do more, love more, serve more? I dare you! Let’s see! Let’s go! Show me what you’ve got! (There won’t be any losers in this contest, by the way; you and me and everyone around us will win!)
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” St. Paul writes, “that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Our motivation, in stewardship and evangelism and everything else – is to do our best to be like Jesus. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and also the sincerest and best and highest form of thankfulness and praise.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus is excelling in the grace of giving. He’s absolutely, totally, completely abounding in giving grace. He’s walking along emptying Himself for the sake of others, as He walks the road to the cross. Jesus is surrounded by crowds again in this Gospel story, all of them hurting, all of them with their particular wants and needs, all of them crying and clamoring for something from Him. And He never says no or turns anyone away; “Jesus healed them all.”
That man Jairus was a synagogue ruler, one of the rulers of the Jews, so many of whom had opposed Jesus’ teaching and had been giving Him a hard time. We don’t know how much Jairus knew about Jesus, or if he even understood who Jesus was, or if he had any faith, or really believed that Jesus could do anything. But he was desperate; his little daughter was dying, and there was no one else he’d ever heard of who might be able to help. Did he deserve help or grace? Was he worthy of it? We’ll leave the answer to that to Jesus. But Jesus, merciful Lord that He is, agreed to drop whatever else He was doing that day, and show a little grace and go with him.
And that woman in the crowd – the “bleeding woman,” we call her – had no hope that Jesus would pick her out of all the faces in the crowd. She was a nothing and a nobody, unnoticed by the people around her. She’d been suffering for as many years as the little girl in the story had been alive. All she wanted was to touch Jesus’ robe, and nothing more. Not a big miracle, not some spectacular thing for the crowd to see; just a little hope, a little help, a little touch of grace. We don’t know if her faith was large or small, either; we’ll leave that up to Jesus, too.
But power went out from Jesus, and passed into her, and she was healed. What kind of power? The power of God, the power of love, the power of faith, the power of impossible, wonderful grace. Do you see what Jesus says to her? “Daughter, your faith has healed you.” He doesn’t say, “I have healed you,” or “God has healed you;” He tells her “Your faith has healed you.” If her faith was small, it was still enough. If she’d had no faith, she wouldn’t have taken the time or the trouble to reach out and try to touch Jesus in the first place. In that way, didn’t her receiving grace depend on her faith. God loves to put His gifts into open hands. If she’d stayed home and done nothing, the Lord of Grace might well have passed her by.
Now, as Jesus pronounces that dear woman healed and free, the messengers come from Jairus’ house to tell him, “Don’t bother the Teacher anymore. it’s too late; your little girl is gone.” And Jesus tells him, “Don’t be afraid; only believe.” Can you imagine
saying that to someone who’s just lost a child? But folks, here’s where we come to the whole point and purpose of grace. Here’s the greatest gift God has to offer us. Here’s the reason Jesus died, and the reason He established a Holy Church in this world, and the reason we have hope and faith, and the reason for us go and tell and love and share the hope we have with the world.
The gift our God is offering us is life! The grace to live, and to live forever! “The child is not dead, but only sleeping,” Jesus says. And they laughed at Him; and no wonder they did. No one can do anything about… this. No one do anything about grief and sorrow and heartbroken death, or about funerals and cemeteries and missing someone you love forever.
The gift of grace Jesus gives us it the promise that He’s turned grim and gruesome death into a nap. They nailed Jesus to a cross, and He hung there until He died. But, as Peter said in his Pentecost sermon, “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.” And because He lives, we get to live, too.
Jesus said to the precious child, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” And she does! That will happen for you one day, too, if you leave this world in faith. You’ll be sleeping, in whatever place in this world they put what’s left of you; and then you’ll hear the voice of Jesus, whispering in your ear: Talitha coum! Arise, child! Time to get up! Your faith has healed you! Come and share your Father’s happiness!
That’s the endpoint of grace. That’s where grace is leading us, and where grace is taking us. And that’s the hope we have to give to our world. May our Lord grant us the grace to excel in the grace of giving, and in the joy of giving grace. May we love one another, and live in God’s grace, until Jesus comes for us at last. In Jesus’ name; Amen.