How do you
encourage another human being to be generous? I know that many parents ask
themselves this question while they are trying to raise their children to be
responsible adults. I know that I did. We can teach them to drive a car, to
balance a checkbook, and to cook macaroni and cheese; but it’s considerably
more difficult to teach them to be generous. We humans are, after all,
hard-wired to take care of ourselves; so generosity is not a quality that comes
naturally. And yet, generosity is part and parcel of God’s nature; so, if we
want to reflect the love to God to others, generosity should be part and parcel
of our natures, too. But how can we
move from being selfish to being generous? Charles Dickens thought that he had
the answer to that; and he told us about it in his most famous story A Christmas Carol. You remember Ebenezer
Scrooge, who changed from being the most tight-fisted man on the planet to the
poster child for generosity. He learned to be generous after becoming
enlightened about his own loveless childhood, learning that happiness is not in
money but in human relationships, and being threatened with a lonely death if
he continued to ignore his fellow human beings.
But when Jesus
met Zacchaeus, he didn’t do any of that (Luke 19:1-10). He didn’t recall memories
of a loveless childhood or threaten a lonely death. In fact, it doesn’t appear
that Jesus talked about much of anything after he told Zacchaeus to come down
out of that tree. But something obviously happened, because Zacchaeus changed
from being a corrupt tax collector who had made a fortune by over-taxing his
fellow citizens to a generous man who promised to return all the money that he
had overcharged them; and then, give more on top of that! What happened,
anyway? I wish that I could give you an answer to that question. If I could, we
could all use it to help other people become more generous, and the world would
be a better place! But I don’t know how Jesus did it. What I do know is that the
transformation of Zacchaeus from a miser into a generous man was just as much
of a miracle as any of the healings that Jesus ever did! But even though I can’t
tell you what happened to change Zacchaeus, I can tell you what Zacchaeus was
like after that change.
He became
satisfied with what he had. He no longer overcharged people when he collected
their taxes. That’s because generous people aren’t driven by the desire to get
more stuff. They don’t need designer clothes and a big house in order to be
happy. What makes them happy is the satisfaction that they get from helping
other people, whether they do that by being generous with their money, their
time, or their talents. Generosity and satisfaction go hand in hand, like soup
and a sandwich, or macaroni and cheese.
Zacchaeus
also learned to say “yes” when folks asked him for help. Generous people have
an amazing ability to say “yes.” They may not have more money, possessions, or
time than anybody else; but they figure out a way to say “yes” when someone
needs help. That’s because the good of other people is important to them! And
generous people don’t hoard their possessions, because they know that
everything they have belongs to God, and that God intended for us to be channels
of God’s own generosity. Zacchaeus even learned to ask, “What can I do for
you?” Generous people don’t wait for opportunities to come to them. They look
for ways in which they can bless others. They carry Blessing Bags in their cars
so that they can help someone begging at an intersection. They keep extra cans
of nourishing food on hand so that they can donate to the Boy Scouts when they
are collecting for the local food pantry. They are quick to make a casserole
for the neighbor who had a sudden death in the family. They know that some of
the neediest people will never ask for help; so the generous person goes to
them.
And
Zacchaeus took himself a lot less seriously than he ever had before. He stopped
worrying about whether he had enough money, and started wondering how he could
help other people with it. Giving up your attachment to all the stuff that you
own is incredibly liberating! Life is an adventure if you’re always looking for
someone to help; but a terrible burden if you’re always worrying about what you
have. Maybe that’s why the people who have the least are often the most
generous. I have heard story after story of people who are homeless gladly
sharing the little they have with others who have even less.
Satisfaction
with what we have; caring about others as we care about ourselves; and freedom
from worrying about the stuff that we own: those are characteristics of a life
that is lived as Jesus wants us to live it! And those are also the
characteristics of folks who are generous. American philanthropist Andrew
Carnegie once commented that "No one can become rich without himself enriching
others. The one who dies rich dies disgraced." We aren’t all able to give
generously like the very wealthy. We can’t give away $27 billion, as Bill Gates
has done during his life; or like Warren Buffett, who has given away $21
billion. But we can set aside time to
volunteer at a soup kitchen, or to visit friends who are sick or confined at
home, or even to take care of a child so that her parents can have some
much-needed time together. We may not be able to do much; but we can be
generous with what we have. And that’s all God asks.
In the end,
we are generous because God has been generous with us. Aside from the
possessions that we have or the money in our bank account, God has given us the
air that we breathe, the beauty of nature that surrounds us, the friends who
love and support us, and the creativity to make our world a better place. And
if that is not enough, God came to us in Jesus Christ who died for us, and
offers us the joy of eternal life through his grace! Oh, Zacchaeus, come down
out of that tree! Jesus wants to stay at your
house tonight. In fact, Jesus wants to stay at our house tonight, so that he can transform us into the generous
people that God intends for us to be. What a generous gift; and what a loving
God!
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