A Generous Spirit

By Rev. Ethan Brown

Pastor and Minister of Care & Discipleship

I think I learned generosity from my dad. By that I do not mean financial generosity, money was a tightly measured resource, a thing of scarcity. Though I believe my parents were financially generous in private, the generosity that I learned from my dad was that of time and energy, a generosity of service. He would cut our neighbor’s yard because she was a widow; he frequently swept and vacuumed areas of our church, though it wasn’t his job; and if anyone had their car hood up in a parking lot, he would change direction to see if they needed help. He gave quickly and abundantly and almost reflexively.

In our staff meeting this week, we spent some time talking about generosity. We noted that generosity is both something that one practices as well as an orientation or posture in life. Generosity is not simply something we do, but a way of being in the world. Generosity must be done out of a desire to benefit the receiver. It requires relationship and connection to know what is truly beneficial for the other person. Yet even as the other’s benefit is the goal, so often the giver receives great gain as well.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It is a haunting question: "where is your heart?" Generosity is a frequent word in churches, but often one saved for capital campaigns or making ends meet at the end of the budget cycle. Generosity should not be saved for high and holy financial times, but for the ordinary practices of our lives.

I wonder, who first modeled generosity for you? What might you say is an essential ingredient of generosity? What does generosity look like for us as a church, not as we meet our budgetary needs, but as we dream about our ministry - budget and service - for next year? In the upside-down economy of God’s Kingdom, may we be people who treasure the practice of giving and who live with open hands.