Generosity and our Spiritual Journeys

Let’s start with a joke from a sermon entitled "Anyone Can Honk!" from Dr. Rodney E. Wilmoth, who was the Senior Pastor at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Omaha many years ago:

A group of clergymen met once a week for breakfast to share mutual concerns with one another. They were all neighbors and they enjoyed each other's company and it gave them an opportunity to talk about their profession. One week the Rabbi told of a very unusual event that had happened the week before. Apparently he had conducted a Bar Mitzvah service in the Temple and when it was over a man inquired of the Rabbi who had trained the boy. The Rabbi told him that it was he and also the other Rabbis who were on the staff. The man said that he was greatly impressed by what he saw and would like to return later in the week and make a personal contribution. The Rabbi said that he was a bit suspicious because the man did not look like the kind of person who could or would make a contribution. However, on Wednesday of that week, the man returned and presented the Rabbi with a check for $25,000. One of the other clergymen in the group asked if the man was a member of the Temple. The Rabbi simply smiled and said, "He is now!"

Even though it is a joke, I think it contains some interesting principles. Indeed, even in scripture we see indications that how we handle our finances may determine how God reaches out to us. In Acts 10 - a short description of phase 1 of the spiritual journey of Cornelius, we see that there is a link between generosity, the giving of one's own money to the poor, and being invited into the spiritual life in Jesus Christ.

 Preparation of the Heart: Generosity

Most of us would want to turn the story all around. We would want to say that we come to Christ first, and then learn to be generous. But one of the principles of this story is interesting: the heart that gives generously hears the generous invitation of Christ to enter the Kingdom of God.

There is a deep connection between the preparation of the heart to enter into God's presence and generosity. God’s presence more easily finds a home in a heart prepared with generosity. Let me state it in the boldest and simplest terms: How do you prepare to come to church? Do you prepare with a daily (or weekly) centering prayer in which you give yourself fully to God? Do you allow your soul to hear the call to be generous to others who are in need? The giving of ourselves to God and others is a necessary preparation for us to be able to worship authentically as a Christian community.

In Acts 10:1-8, Cornelius is pictured as a Gentile, a Roman, who headed up the Italian Regiment that was stationed in Caesarea. Cornelius officially had a leadership role in the oppression of the Jewish people (as a commander of Roman troops whose assignment was to protect Rome’s hegemony), but at the same time he felt within his soul a yearning to understand more about Judaism and the God that the Jews worshipped. He had not converted to Judaism at this stage of the story. He was not circumcised, but he was part of a group of devout and God-fearing Gentiles that could be found all throughout the Roman world, wherever there were Jews who worshipped. These were people who were drawn to the Jewish message of the monotheism of God: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deut. 6:4). He also apparently understood that the Torah calls us to be generous in our relationships with other people. Though he was not yet ready to become a Jew (for in doing so he certainly would have endangered his job, his status, and possibly even his citizenship in the Roman Empire), he reached out to the Jewish people and the Jewish God with a genrous heart.

Cornelius reached out to the Jewish people by giving regularly to the Temple and to the poor. And to God he reached out regularly through prayer. The Scripture is clear that in Cornelius' soul there was a connection between the two practices. The interior reaching out to God in prayer was mirrored by a heart-felt generosity to the poor among the Jewish people. Note that even the angel himself links these two practices together: "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea."

The spiritual journey principle here is fascinating. It turns out that part of Cornelius' preparation to hear the call of Jesus was prayer and a generosity expressed specifically by giving to the poor. Morton Kelsey, in a very small yet powerful volume called Spiritual Living in a Material World, says this about Cornelius:

"Even in his position, Cornelius cared for the Jewish people and was always fair and just. His love was expressed not only with words but with generous gifts both to the poor of the Jewish community and to the synagogue that had taught him so much. Jesus had praised the poor widow who put her last copper coin into the Temple treasury, and Cornelius showed similar generosity. The actions of Cornelius show that any generous person, even a pagan, can be a vital instrument in the mission of Jesus and the Church. Generous giving to those in need brings one close to God. It is love in action."

I think Kelsey correctly understands Cornelius' spiritual journey. Many of complain of a spiritual poverty. We wonder why God isn't very close to us. We wonder why we don't hear the voice of God. We wonder why God seems like He's a million miles away, even when we pray. Cornelius' spiritual journey teaches us that sometimes it is not enough for us to pray for God to come to us. We must not only pray. We must give. God looks deep into the heart and He knows it is much easier for us to pray than it is to give. Anybody can pray, for it costs us nothing but a few seconds of time. But if we link prayer to concern for others, if we put the interior life into a context where love can be acted out, then our prayers take on a substance that is authentic. Our prayers can then truly ascend to the heart of God. Prayers and giving transform our hearts so that we might be able to receive whatever God might wants to give us. It is true - generous giving to those in need brings one close to God. How often we forget that! We prefer to believe that if we only drew closer to God, then we would find the courage to be more generous. Generosity can be a fruit of the Spirit, but I would suggest to you that what Cornelius' journey teaches us is that it acts as preparation for the presence of the Spirit to find a true home in our hearts. If you want God to be close to you, learn how to act like God acts in the world. Pray - yes! Give - yes! Do both practices together and you will sense God’s presence in your life.

 Discovering Spiritual Life: The Heart of God

Second, Cornelius’ journey reminds us that prayer and giving are linked together in every phase of our journeys. Prayer and giving prepare (phase 1) Cornelius to receive the presence of God when Peter preaches the Gospel (phase 2), and no doubt God wanted Cornelius to learn more about prayer and giving after he embraced a Holy Spirit empowered spiritual life (phase 3). Cornelius discovers the power of prayer when it is centered on Jesus. This Jesus responds to his heart-felt desire to enter into a living relationship with the Jewish God by permitting the Holy Spirit to fall upon him and his whole family. Cornelius’ personal Pentecost helps him discover new power in prayer. And doesn't it make sense to assume that once Cornelius encountered the living reality of Jesus Christ and the empowering presence of the Spirit, that he would give more to the cause of God, rather than less? Morton Kelsey concludes (and I agree) that giving on an ongoing basis is characteristic of a spiritual journey which succeeds in reaching the heart of God. Kelsey writes:

"It is impossible to continue on the narrow and rocky spiritual pathway unless we give of our material substance for spiritual and charitable purposes. It is nonsense to say that we want to go further up the spiritual pathway, that we are giving our lives utterly to God, if we spend most of our energy and financial resources on ourselves, our desires and interests. This attitude is worse than nonsense: It is hypocrisy, and Jesus made clear what he felt about hypocrisy. When we live totally for ourselves, the spiritual path winds up in a dead-end canyon. When we come to that point, there is often a flash of lightning that illumines the whole sky and calls us to reflect.

Money is the congealed energy of our lives, what the world gives us for what it thinks we are worth - though not what God thinks we are worth. Unless we give of our money or energy for outer spiritual purposes - to individuals and institutions that are dedicated to the realm of the Spirit - the spiritual journey can come to a jarring halt."

It is simply not possible to become spiritually mature unless we have learned the joy of generosity through giving. Here we must make some distinctions, because Christians sometimes fall into traps. Kelsey is not saying that giving automatically leads us into a deep spiritual life. We can give a whole lot of money for inappropriate reasons. Such gifts, from God's perspective, are not considered a sign of spirituality. If we give our money so that other people think we are generous (in other words, if we give to draw attention to ourselves), then in fact, we have our own reward from the giving.   People will know we have given. That has nothing to do with growing spiritually. If we give in order to influence the church or other groups to perform our agenda so that we can exercise control over other people, we get our reward.  We control other people.   But we have done nothing to take one step toward a deeper, more authentic, servant life.

We see this all the time in the church, when people say, "I won't give to the church unless the church does such and such." Fine, even if you get your way and you win, God sees that as a non-offering. Generosity should be practiced unconditionally. Our journeys require giving to be practiced in an unselfish way. We give to raise up the cause of Jesus Christ, and not our own status within the body of Christ. We must be careful, for it turns out that in the spirituality of giving our motive for giving is far more important than the amount we actually do give. This is the why the widow who gives just a few pennies but gives all that she has symbolizes pure devotion to God; her sacrificial offering is more highly valued than the richer person who doesn't really give nearly enough but shows off in the process. Let us be very careful why we give and let us give only for good spiritual reasons - that is, because we are responding to the love of God.

 Ministry to the Poor and the Cross of Christ

Third, we learn from Cornelius' spiritual journey that God calls each and every one of us to a profound commitment to the poor. It is not enough to give to satisfy a church’s demands for money to keep its organization afloat. We don't hand you a piece of paper saying that your dues are $1,000 per year for the privilege of occupying the pew seat that you're in. We give out of the generosity of our heart so that our church might help people. Helping other people is at the heart of the generosity that Jesus calls us to embrace.

Throughout the years I've shared with you from the works, both fiction and nonfiction, of the Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo. In The Girl I left Behind, Endo relates the story of a shallow young man who is hungry for love. But it's really the story of the young woman he picks on to use and abuse for his own appetites. She represents Endo’s vision of the Christ we Christians leave behind as we pursue our own selfish agendas. Her name is Mitsu and she's a country girl living in 1960's Japan. She has a heart of gold. Whenever she sees anyone suffering, her heart reaches out and desires to touch their lives. Mitsu, however, has fallen in love with the main character of the book, a man of no moral nature, a man who just uses other people. Desiring to look pretty for him, she works overtime for a full month to gather up enough yen to buy an expensive and beautiful cardigan sweater.

One day, as Mitsu leaves the factory en route to buying the sweater, she sees a woman and two children - the wife of her boss and their offspring. The mother is fretting because she doesn’t have enough money to pay for the older child’s school meals. The husband is a gambler who has already used up all the paycheck he was supposed to get that day. He doesn't care about his child. As Mitsu looks upon the pathetic picture of mother and child, her heart begins to soften. Just as she had done at other times in her life, she thinks, "I should do something for them." But then, for the first time in her life, a hardness of heart begins to develop. She walks off up the hill.

Prior to this incident (on her first date with her scoundrel of a boyfriend), she saw a Salvation Army person and made a ten yen donation to the pot. He handed her a cheap aluminum crucifix. She was a Buddhist, and not a Christian, but she saw it as a good luck charm. Since she had lost her Buddhist one, she took the crucifix and put it in her pocket, assuming it would bring her good luck. That's where we pick up the story - as she heads toward the sweater store. The crucifix begins to speak to her!

"The tired face of one gazing down with pity on these lives whispered to Mitsu. Won't you turn back? That money you've got would really help those children and that mother.

But . . . Mitsu tried desperately to resist that voice. But, I worked hard every night. I really worked hard.

I know. The voice replied sadly. I know. I know just how much you want that cardigan and how hard you've worked for it. And that is why I'm asking you. I'm asking you to use that thousand yen for that mother and her children instead of for that sweater.

Why should I? After all, it's Taguchi-san's (their father) responsibility.

There's something more important than responsibility. The important thing in this life is to link your sadness to the sadness of others. That is the significance of my cross."

God calls us to understand that the wounds and hurts that impel us forward and which try to be fulfilled by the accumulation of material things can only be healed by the cross of Christ. Jesus could have had anything He wanted in the world. He could have given Himself anything the world had. And in response He goes to the cross and He dies for us so that we might have eternal life. When we look to the poor and we soften our hearts in order to reach out and meet their needs, we really see the cross of Jesus Christ in their lives and the heart of Jesus Christ within our souls.

This is what Cornelius’ spiritual journey is all about. His giving mirrored the love of God for the poor and Jesus honored that sacrifice by bringing him to the very heart and center of the new Christian faith. Jesus can do the same for you and for me. Giving is not about dollars and cents. It is really about the course, value and depth of our spiritual journeys. If we recognize in the sight of others who are hurting, the face of Jesus Christ calling us to grow, then we discover what our Christian faith is really all about.

Morton Kelsey concludes (and so do I):

"If we read our Bibles carefully, we will find a strong emphasis on giving--from the story of Jacob, who vowed to give a tenth of his property to God if he returned home safely, to that of Paul, urging his church to share with one another and support the fellowship in Jerusalem. And at the center of the Christian message is God giving of himself through his Son on the cross to save all humankind. How can we ever give enough to show our gratitude for that kind of generous, sacrificial love?"

Copyright (c) 1999.  All rights reserved.  This article may be distributed for private use only.