HOMILY 1ST SUNDAY OF LENT 2020
SERIES HOMILIES ON GENEROSITY
In the Bible there are like about 7000 promises of God. They are like blank checks for us. And God says, if you do this, I will do that.
In the Bible the number 1 thing that God has promised about is connected to generosity. There are more promises related to generosity in the Bible than any other subject.
And when I talk about generosity, I am not just talking about money… I am talking about being generous with your time… being generous with your energy… praise…talents… with every aspect of your life.
So what is generosity? Why is God so interested in generosity that He gave all these kinds of rewards and promises? The answer is because generosity is love in action. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. You cannot be loving without being generous. If I am not generous with my kids… I do not really love my kids; if I am not generous with my wife… I do not really love her. Because love gives. Because God so loved the world that He gave. For that reasons, generosity is love in action. Because love is about giving. It is not about getting.
I was just reading about the major words in the Bible. The word believe is used 272 times in the Bible. The word pray is used 371 times. The word love is used 714 times in the Bible. But the word give is used 2152 times. Why? Because God is a giver… he is a giver of life as we have seen in our first reading when He created Adam and Eve… He is a giver when he send us his only begotten son to save us… and to show us the path for us during this Lenten season as we go to the desert with him… he is a giver who will take us to the top of the mountain for a moment of grace next week. He is a giver who changes everything in our lives, who calms our thirst as he does for the Samaritan woman, who restores the sight of the blind man, and who gives life to Lazarus, who will suffer and die for you and me on the cross.
Everything we have in our lives is a gift from God. If God was not generous, you would have nothing…nada. God is so generous. He gave us breath, sunshine, a mind. And God wants us to be like Him. And I just want to give you 5 of those major promises about generosity as we begin this Lenten season. Let us remember them when we are tempted to think that we are in charge. This is what happens to you every time you are generous, every time you do what Jesus did and avoid being tempted by the devil.
- Generosity honors God, given as an act of worship and as a recognition that everything you have is a gift from God. Proverbs 14:31 says that whoever is generous to the needy honors God. One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”
- Generosity brings God’s blessings. This is a promise. I can give you 100 verses in the Bible about this. If you want to experience God’s blessings, you must learn to be open-handed with what God has given you… help other people with everything you got. (Generous people will be blessed… Proverbs 22:9). St Augustine encourages us to reflect on God’s generosity by having empty hands. He says; “God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.” Maybe that will encourage you make some space in your life, to let go so that you can have empty hands for a little while and see what God wishes to place in them.
- Generosity makes me more like Jesus. Because the most generous person ever lived was Jesus Christ. He sacrificed his own life. The Bible says that we have been saved because of the generosity of Jesus. Every time we give, we become more like Jesus, your heart grows bigger. Proverbs 1:21 says that the greedy always want more, but the godly love to give! And the more godly you become, the more generous you are. Luke 11 also says that purity is best demonstrated by generosity. In other words, lo live a holy life is to be a giver.
This reminds me of a story about a father who took his young son to McDonald’s to buy some French fries and he takes him through the Drive thru, gets the fries for his son, and they smell so good that the father reaches over and gets one of them. And the son says, dad, you cannot have any. These are my fries. The father immediately had 3 thoughts: first, I have realized that my child has forgotten that I am the reason and the source of all fries. He would have not French fries if it were not for me. I brought him here. I drove him here. I bought the fries. I paid for them. I handed him the fries. He would have not fries in life if it were not for his father… and the only reason he got any, it is because of me. The second thing that my child does not realize is that I can take all of them away if I want to. I could take them away instantly. I was totally in charge. He was not. Third, he did not realize I did not really need his fries. That if I wanted fries, I could have bought them for myself. I have plenty of money. I wanted my young son to learn unselfishness, how to share and be generous. Those are the same three reasons God wants you to learn generosity. God does not need your money, your gifts. It all belong to Him anyway. It was not yours before you were born. It is not going to be you after you die. It is all His. He is the source of all fries. If God did not love you and was generous, you would have nothing, nada. He can take it from you instantly and he can give you 1o times of that amount. He just want you to learn how to be unselfish and generous, that God is a fry’s giver. That God is generous.
As we journey in these early days of Lent we are called into the desert, into the unknown, but into the ever-deepening love of God who is so generous and who wants the best for us and from us.
Our response is to turn to Christ again and again, to renew our lives in the path of generosity.
We go into the desert and we go with empty hands as St. Augustine said, but with hearts turned to God, full of thankfulness and love and praise, going to worship God and serve only him.