8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light— 9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; 13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says,
“Sleeper, awake!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
Generous Act of Giving. Would these qualify?
A homeless man named Shelby Hudgens spent hours pushing strangers’ cars that were stuck in a snowstorm in Colorado Springs.
Or how about the college student who heard about it, and a set up a Go-Fund Me page and raised $22,000 for this Good Samaritan?
Or the widow who gave her expensive wedding ring set to the Salvation Army, dropping it into the red kettle at Christmas time in honor of her husband.
Or the 64-year-old man in the UK who donated over 120 pints of blood in his lifetime, saying, “it’s simple and easy to do and you make such a difference.”
Or the teacher who wanted to give children in her classroom books so they would love to read and was given not one, but three books for each of her students, in addition a $150,000 award which she then donated to her school (10 Inspiring Acts of Generosity, Kim Peterson, 2015).
Generous acts of giving are all around us, some are monetary, and others are gifts of action, self, or time. James starts with “Every generous act of giving” so that is where we are starting too.
The one thing I hope you take away from this sermon is that every generous act of giving comes from God. Full stop! Yes, we decide to open our wallet, or help a person in need but the source of all that is good and perfect comes from God. The King James Version declares,
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Every good gift comes from God.
God is the source of all that you have and are.
God is the giver of life and breath,
the giver of food and shelter,
the giver of hope and inspiration. That is why the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness harkens back to this verse, “no shadow of turning with Thee.” When we see God as the “Father of lights” then this idea of no shadow of turning, speaks volumes.
God is the Creator, the maker of the heavenly lights; the sun, the moon, the stars. But those lights are experienced only 12 hours a day if we are lucky. But as the Father of lights, God does not share gifts only half of the time, or have shadows blocking God’s blessings.
Rather God is constant, brilliant and faithful.
God is the source of all that is good and God is the Father of lights. We as disciples of Christ are invited into God’s light.
1 John tells us, “God is light and in God there is no darkness (1:5).
The opening of the gospel of John testifies to Jesus coming into the world as the light and later that if we believe in Jesus we will become “children of the light” (1:1-9, 12:36).
Ephesians invites us to “live as children of the light,” “for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good, right and true” (8-9). We become children of the light following Jesus who is the “light of the world” (John 8:12).
Not only are we children of the light we are first fruits of God’s creatures (18). As you know first fruits are the initial harvest produced; the first, the best, the new crop. That is why scripture teaches us to give our first fruits to God.
Proverbs declares, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce” (Proverbs 3:9). So honor God with 10% of your olives, barley and wool. If you grow several crops you don’t get to give 15% of the cheap one and 5% of the expensive one. Rather 10% of each. We get our word “dime” from the French, expressing the idea of one tenth, or a tithe. So people give 10% of their nuts and their wheat. Now most of us are not framers. I know we have several of you produce a harvest, like the Mannings grow almonds and the Willoughbys grow several crops. But for the rest of us, instead of nuts and barley, we give a percentage of what we have; honoring God with our wealth and with our first fruits.
We are right in the middle of our stewardship season, a time of prayerfully deciding what we will be giving to honor God. For me this decision is based in gratitude for all of God’s blessings. Yes I learned the teaching from the Bible, but my giving has become more of an affirmation of faith, a witness to the love I feel from God.
I have a dear friend who often invites me over for dinner. I love to go and share a meal with a her. I often bring a bottle of wine to share, contributing to the meal. Sometimes I bring bread or berries, but she almost always does the cooking. I started to feel like I was not providing my fair share. So now I find myself bringing things even when I am not invited to dinner. I buy the bag of 5 avocados and I will bring her 2 or 3. Or I purchase a multipack of cheese and I will share some with her. I want to share with her what I have, because I feel like she shares so much with me.
I gratefully share what I have, because I value the relationship.
Giving to God is much the same. I could never pay for all the blessings I have received from God. Yet I gratefully want to give.
I want to give because of the ultimate generous act of giving. Jesus giving his life for me.
Jesus, the light of the world, entering darkness so that I might have a joyful life. Jesus gave that gift to you as well. Jesus died so that YOU could be in this sacred relationship with God and be free from the darkness of this world.
So that YOU can walk with Jesus in the light.
So that YOU can rest in God’s peaceful care.
I hope you can hear this. Jesus died for you. Not just the people sitting around you, or the people who have their act together. Jesus died for YOU. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – (John 3:16)
- To bring home this point, God is holding up a mirror to help us see how we respond to God’s word. “Are we hearers only and not doers,” James asks?
Which one of us, when walking past a mirror does not glance over?
Or when we rise in the morning and see that our hair needs combing just walk out into our day with bedhead? None of us. We see ourselves in the mirror and we respond. We comb our hair. James wonders if we see ourselves in the mirror and then forget.
Some might call this spiritual Alzheimer’s.
We know the teaching, but we forget. Or applied to this lesson, do we hear God’s word about tithing and forget. Once the sermon is over, we go back to what was.
Remember your giving is a generous act of giving. Done out of gratitude to God.
Given as a way to say thank you to Jesus. So when you look into the giving mirror you are free to respond. Today can be the day to hear God’s word and do. The day you hear God’s word and you give 10%. This might feel like a stretch, but it is something that one can grow into. You make a plan to move towards tithing. All things are possible with God.
Whatever amount you decide to give, I pray it is given as an expression of your faith,
a commitment to your walk with Jesus.
Come to God’s table with thankful hearts.
Come to Christ’s table remembering his ultimate generous act of giving. AMEN
