Generous Generosity

ACTS 2:43-47:

43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

The thing that is so striking within this passage is the simple generosity it reports. As Luke saw it, this earliest of all things named church was marked by generosity—of heart, of mind, of spirit, of all things. Needs were met. Wants were satisfied. But most of all, faith flourished. It was alive. It was incarnate. It was the people.

That is so important for us to hear and to grasp in this time and place.

We live in a time and place in which the mainline church is defensive. Too many around us reject us outright because they equate anything church with the hateful stances of a few who will without reservation divide one from another, exclude some from the circle simply because they are not like the others already in, and so on through the list of the ways the love of Jesus has been twisted into something judgmental, exclusive, and—well—ungenerous.

Yet, as I walk among the congregations of this presbytery, I see another reality altogether. I see people committed to working and walking together. I see people ready to help one another. I see people ready to welcome their neighbors into their circles, no matter who those neighbors are. I see people with much in common with the people in Acts—people of generous hearts, minds, and spirits.

And so the work we are to do manifests before us—we need to take who we are and change whom people declare us to be.

Easier said than done.

Early in my ministry, I was a youth pastor. I worked with adolescents. Adolescents are strange animals. They have no idea who they are, so they try on all sorts of personas like some people I know will try on thirty outfits before picking the one with which to face the day. Sometimes, you can be talking with an adolescent and watch them run two or three attempts at self-expression in a matter of minutes. They so desperately want to fit in, yet be utterly themselves. They bounce continually between what the group welcomes and what they really want to be. Usually, by age 35, they’ve settled on one persona that is truly them. It takes time, work, trial and error, and patience to get there. 

So it is with the church.

Rejected by so many, we try on all sorts of personas. We will run after whatever we think might make us more appealing. We will try out anything that will make us attractive. We fiddle with worship styles. We alter all sorts of schedules, trying to find that magical one that anyone can attend. We offer a smorgasbord of programs, sure one of them will be the magic bullet that will draw the crowds into the building. We buy into all the latest programs sure to add members to our rolls. 

But we remain who we are. We are a community of gathered souls, committed to being together, who truly like one another, and who have found some expression and experience of the presence of God within our group. 

The good news is that Acts says that, in the end, is all we need to be.

Something I keep hearing from my colleagues leading presbyteries and from pastors with whom I work is that churches that are doing well practice authenticity.

Authenticity is really nothing more than being who one is. 

So, congregations simply being who they are become congregations that are full of life. The goal is no longer adding members. The goal actually ends up having nothing at all to do with anything statistical. Instead, it has everything to do with being a living, breathing community of Jesus. It is Jesus who altered lives. It is Jesus that revealed a path to follow. It is Jesus who revealed a way to exist in a world ruled by chaos. Joy comes to those congregations that jettison all else save being what Jesus is. 

And what is that?

Nothing less than embodied welcoming, healing, emptying love.

Too poetic?

Authentic churches are those that welcome whomever walks through the door with no regard for who they are, what they are, how they are, or where they are. They simply welcome fellow children of God.

Authentic churches hear the hurt of those rejected by the self-righteous and the bigoted; of those recovering from any number of self-inflicted wounds or wounded by others; and of those simply trying to find their way, but continually running into hazards along the way. Then, authentic churches offer compassionate care to mend, bind up, and restore whoever is before them.

Authentic churches do not wait for others to come to them, but they meet the needs of the world in the world. They give what they have. They offer who they are. They go where any have need. They serve. They really don’t care if any of it bounces back, they simply want to share the love found in Jesus, for they find that loved shared is love that grows, blossoms, and fills them beyond reason. 

How’s that? Better?

Well, there is one even simpler way to state it—be generous and all will be added to you. God loves a cheerful giver.