Pentecost 10 (NL2) John B. Valentine
Psalm 50:14-23 July 28, 2024

“INFECTIOUS GENEROSITY”

Have any of you ever heard of something called a “TED Talk”?

• TED ... as in T-E-D ... which stands for “Technology, Education and Design” ... and ...

• TED Conferences were ... and still are ... these renowned annual conferences that have been going on since back in like 1990 ... that bring together people from a whole variety of fields to share ideas and learn from one another and generally to cross-fertilize peoples’ ways of thinking ... and ...

• TED Talks are the individual components of those conferences ...

Talks ... usually just fifteen to twenty minutes long ... wherein some researcher or business leader or other such expert takes to the stage to present what they call an “Idea Worth Spreading” ...

Sharing valuable new knowledge and innovative research as pertains to their own fields in ways that make sense to people outside of their fields.

Now ... if you’ve ever heard or seen a TED Talk ... you probably don’t need me to tell you what a big deal the whole ‘TED Talk’ thing is ...

And if you haven’t ever heard of TED Talks before ... trust me ... they’re big deal!

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Anyhow ... I picked up this new book the other day ... by a fellow named Chris Anderson.

Chris Anderson’s claim to fame is that he is the so-called “Head of TED” ... he’s the CEO of the TED Talk Empire ...

And his personal crusade has been that of finding new ways to tackle tough global issues by leveraging media, technology and entrepreneurship ...

And the title of his brand-new just-out book is this ... Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading.

You see ... no less a person that Chris Anderson thinks that ...

Of all the ideas out there by which one might ostensibly change the world for the better ...

The singular idea he believes actually could change the whole world for the better is ...... “generosity”.

And this book that he’s written lays out the whys and the hows and the wherefores as to why generosity COULD change the world for the better ... and HOW it actually might become a reality.

So the funny thing is ... I picked up this book ... because I thought that just maybe it could become the next read for ‘PJ’s Book Club’ ...

After all ... I’d be interested in reading about what one of the key thought-leaders of our time thinks is the way to change the world for the better ... and thought maybe you might too!

But as I actually started reading it ... I discovered that this “big new idea” that Chris Anderson is selling ...

• is something that the Church has been talking about for the past two thousand years ... and ...

• it’s something that the people of God has been talking about for at least the past three thousand years ... and ...

• it’s something that I have been preaching about for the past thirty-six years ... on and off .......

“STEWARDSHIP”!

I kid you not ... you’ve got this 21st century ... avowedly-‘post-Christian’ ... thought-leader says that the one thing that could actually change our world for the better ... is STEWARDSHIP!

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Now I know ... we could make all sorts of jokes about how ‘stewardship’ has been the bane of the Church’s existence over the past two thousand years ...

For most of what passes for stewardship talk is about ‘the need of the church to receive’ rather than ‘the need of the giver to give’ ...

And most stewardship sermons and so-called ‘Temple Talks’ and the like somehow conclude with the idea that there’s good news and bad news ...

• The good news being that God has already given us communally everything we need to be about God’s work in this place ... and

• The bad news being that it is in your pocketbook and not the congregation’s.

But equating ‘stewardship’ with ‘fund-raising’ falls ever-so-far-short of what stewardship is really about.

Because ... at the end of the day ... stewardship is about life.

Stewardship is an approach to life in the big picture.

Stewardship ... properly understood .... is nothing less than ALL that we do with ALL that we have ...

• Our time and our talents AND our treasure ....
• Our relationship with ourselves ...
• Our relationships with our neighbors ...
• Even our relationship with God.

Stewardship is literally an approach to life ... an approach to life grounded in the awareness that all we are ... and all we have ... is a gift from God.

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So take ... for example that text that Jerry read for us a little bit ago from Psalm 50.

That Psalm is a call to stewardship ... and it begins ... and ends ... with one very particular word ....

“THANKSGIVING”.

It basically says “Be thankful, people” ...

Then it goes on to list all the sorts of things that WILL happen to you if you aren’t thankful ..

Then it returns to it’s invitation to “Be thankful”!

Now ... I suppose that there’s a way to read that text that says ...

“If you aren’t thankful ... if you aren’t a good steward ... then God is going to get you ...”

In fact ... that’s the way many people have interpreted that text down through the ages ...

But I think it is FAR better to understand it as reading “If you aren’t thankful ... if you aren’t a good steward ... then LIFE is going to get you.”

You see ... stewardship is an idea that goes back to the very first stories in the Bible ...

And how it is that God creates ...

And how it is that God then entrusts what God has created to those whom God has created.

Stewardship begins with this idea that our place in this world is not simply random ...

That we aren’t simply seven billion individuals randomly scattered hither and yon upon this planet we call ‘Earth’ ....

But rather that we are part of something bigger than any of us ...

That we are created to be part of a community ...

And that part of being part of the community is about contributing to the well-being of the whole rather than just contributing to the well-being of ourselves.

For when we forget that we are part of the human community ... of the ‘children of God’ community ...

When we forget to begin and end with thankfulness ... we turn in on ourselves ...

And all of those negative outcomes that that lesson talks about ...

• “making friends with a thief when you see one” ...
• “letting your tongue frame deceit” ...
• “slandering your kinfolk” ...

They just may well happen ...

Because that are an expected outcome of our turning in on ourselves ... being “incurvatus in se” as Martin Luther phrased it.

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But an attitude of thankfulness changes things.

An attitude of gratitude demands that we see things differently.

To borrow some beautiful words of David Steindl-Rast:

You think this is just another day in your life.

It’s not just another day; it’s the one day that is given to you today.

It’s given to you. It’s a gift. It’s the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.

If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day of your life, and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.

Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment.

Look at the sky.

We so rarely look at the sky.

We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going.

We just think of the weather, and even of the weather we don’t think of all the many nuances of weather.

We just think of good weather and bad weather.

This day right now has unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same that it is right now.

Open your eyes.

Look at that.

Look at the faces of people that you meet.

Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom, not only their own story, but the story of their ancestors.

We all go back so far.

And in this present moment on this day all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water, if you only open your heart and drink.

Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us.

You flip a switch and there is electric light.

You turn a faucet and there is warm water and cold water — and drinkable water.

It’s a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience.

So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which you can open your heart.

And so I wish for you that you would open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you; just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch — just by your presence.

Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you, and then it will really be a good day.

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So over the course of the next four or five weeks ... we’re going to do a deep dive into this whole idea of “Stewardship” ... and what it means to be good stewards of all that God has given us.

And we’re going to look at the why’s and the how’s of biblical stewardship a bit more closely ...

And we’re going to consider what it might mean for us to look at our lives through the lens of stewardship.

But let’s be clear. It all begins here. With an attitude of gratitude.

Think on these things.