THE STEWARDSHIP PARADOX

Gordon E. Ellis
April 3, 2005

We’ve NEVER had it BETTER! And YET, we’ve never felt WORSE about it. To borrow a line from Charles Dickens: It was the BEST of times; it was the WORST of times. Well THAT, my friends, is the SURPRISING state of affairs in our society TODAY, as we discover that CASH cannot create CONTENTMENT, and POSSESSIONS don’t provide us with a sense of PEACE. Sure, we may watch The Fabulous Life of Celebrity Super Spenders on VH1 and GAWK at the extravagant SHOPPING sprees of Hollywood’s best-paid superstars, BUT, we ALSO know that MOST celebrities are just a few steps away from having a MELTDOWN, or ending up in REHAB. I’ll tell you: Grandma was RIGHT when she TOLD us: Money WON’T buy HAPPINESS. And yet, somehow it’s a SHOCK to REALIZE that truth when we live the wealthiest country THIS world has ever produced. And MOST people REFUSE to BELIEVE it, and KEEP on spending, as we see by all the CREDIT card DEBT we keep on piling up.

MOST of us, you see, expect that improvements in our quality of life will make us FEEL better. And SO, we keep on BUYING. Diane and I have NEVER liked the months of February and March. They are DREADFUL months, and they DEPRESS us. And a few years ago, we REALIZED that nearly EVERY February or March, in our 32 years of marriage, WE have made a MAJOR purchase. And we did it THIS year too! We bought a NEW used car. And it’s BECAUSE we THINK it will make us FEEL better, but it DOESN’T. Improvements in our quality of life rarely DO -- at least NOT by themselves. Gregg Easterbrook wrote a book called, The PROGRESS Paradox. And IN it, he makes the point that LIFE is getting BETTER in our society all the time: our houses are BIGGER, our incomes are GROWING, our health is IMPROVING, and our environment is becoming CLEANER. We’re EVEN enjoying a drop in CRIME rates, and decreases in certain PROBLEM areas such as divorce, drug use, teen pregnancy, and abortion. SO, WHY isn’t all this GOOD news making us JUMP for JOY? Well, Easterbrook has some intriguing THOUGHTS about WHY we feel so ROTTEN, even though we have great WEALTH, and HOW we can be HEALTHY and yet, UNHAPPY at the SAME time.

First of all, he says, it’s ALL the BAD news that we hear. BAD news SELLS! As they SAY: if it doesn’t BLEED, it doesn’t LEAD. It’s always some kind of DISASTER that draws us to TV news reports, and it’s the BAD news that keeps us GLUED to the TUBE through an ungodly number of commercials. It USED to be that the WEATHER portion of the news was called the WeatherCenter. NOW, it’s the STORMCENTER. WHY? Because BAD news SELLS! Well friends, how MUCH bad news can we emotionally DEAL with before we start feeling MISERABLE?

Secondly, Easterbrook says that we don’t SLEEP enough. Did you know that Americans sleep one hour LESS per night than people did a GENERATION ago -- and 2 to 3 hours LESS than people did a CENTURY ago? With that kind of SLEEP deprivation, it’s NO WONDER we feel down and cranky!

We’re ALSO full of ENVY, he says. Award shows, People Magazine, feature films, celebrity internet sites, and TV programs like The Fabulous Life of Cameron Diaz ALL bombard us constantly with information about how the WEALTHIEST members of our society LIVE. And THAT is BOUND to make us feel ENVY, even though our OWN lifestyles might be very COMFORTABLE.

Easterbrook ALSO says that the solution to ONE problem creates ANOTHER problem. He describes this as the UNSETTLED character of progress. We invent an ANTHRAX vaccine, and then WORRY about its terrible SIDE effects. We create a nationwide network of CELL phones, and then live in TERROR that some distracted driver will run into us with his SUV. We develop miraculous CURES for diseases, and then FEAR that we WON’T be able to AFFORD them. You see: the UNSETTLED character of progress OFTEN leaves us feeling ANXIOUS about the future, and DISCOURAGED.

Well, for ALL these reasons, and more, WE are going through what Easterbrook labels, The PROGRESS Paradox. We are feeling BAD while living WELL. However, there IS a SPIRITUAL component to this problem. And it’s one that’s CLEARLY addressed by St. Paul in his second letter to the church at Corinth. Writing to Christians in this WEALTHY Greek city, Paul reminds them of their promise to give him a BOUNTIFUL gift for the POOR Christians living in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 9:5). And, even though he DESCRIBES this as a VOLUNTARY gift, it’s pretty CLEAR that he expects them to be GENEROUS. And if they ARE generous, he promises them MANY rewards. For St. Paul, you see, true HAPPINESS is found in what we GIVE, NOT in what we RECEIVE. And SO, he tells them: God LOVES a cheerful GIVER (v. 7). Do YOU want to be ENRICHED in every way? Then let’s see some great GENEROSITY (v. 11). Are you interested in glorifying GOD? Then show your brothers and sisters the GENEROSITY of your sharing (v. 13). Are you looking for God to provide you with EVERY blessing in abundance? Then, DON’T be a MISER! SHARE abundantly in every good work (v. 8). You see: WHAT St. Paul is DOING here is laying out ANOTHER paradox, The STEWARDSHIP Paradox.

Now, in ANY true paradox, we’re faced with a statement that APPEARS to be contradictory, but which turns OUT to be TRUE. In Paul’s words to the Corinthians, he’s saying that PERSONAL enrichment comes from great GENEROSITY, and that BLESSINGS in abundance come from SHARING abundantly with others. In OTHER words: we RECEIVE the most by GIVING the most, or to put it ANOTHER way: the MORE you GIVE, the MORE you GET! I had an old man in my LAST church; his name was John Zucchi. And I have NEVER seen GARDENS that produce the way JOHN’S gardens produced. SO, I ASKED him one day: John, WHAT is your SECRET? How do you produce so MUCH? He replied: Son, I learned a LONG time AGO that the MORE I give AWAY, the MORE I RECEIVE. And it’s TRUE! It just KEEPS on growing! And I BELIEVE that it’s because I give AWAY almost ALL of it. And I’ll tell you: NOTHING brings my wife and me SO much JOY! We LOVE giving it away! We LOVE sharing it with EVERYBODY we know, and EVEN those we DON’T know at the SOUP kitchen.

Well friends, THAT’S the Stewardship Paradox: the more you GIVE, the more you GET! AND furthermore, the more you GIVE, the more JOYFUL you’ll feel! Now, the FIRST part of this paradox makes perfect SENSE, doesn’t it? St. Paul, uses an AGRICULTURAL image: the one who SOWS sparingly will also REAP sparingly, and the one who SOWS bountifully will also REAP bountifully (v. 6). Now, THAT makes SENSE. And whether you’re growing MELONS or MISSION projects, it’s TRUE! We CANNOT expect significant RESULTS without making a significant INVESTMENT. There will be NO great harvest of PUMPKINS in the fields, nor PEOPLE in the pews, unless we SOW bountifully, making SIGNIFICANT investments of our TIME, our TALENT and our TREASURE. The more we GIVE, the more we GET! It’s as SIMPLE as THAT! And it’s TRUE!

HOWEVER, the OTHER half of this paradox DOESN’T make such good, logical sense, does it? I mean: HOW does giving AWAY what we have lead us to HAPPINESS, joy and contentment? It’s NOT quite so CLEAR how GENEROSITY can make us HAPPIER in today’s RICH, but rotten-feeling, society. Well, a man named Patrick Johnson from Mississippi found the LINK between the two! It happened one day as he was writing a CHECK for an air-conditioning unit. Johnson is a vice-president at BancorpSouth Investment Services, and he does very WELL for himself financially. However, he has discovered LATELY that his GREATEST joy is NOT found in managing fixed-income portfolios. His GREATEST joy is in GIVING! And it’s a JOY that borders on HILARITY. It STARTED as Patrick was writing out a check to help purchase a central air-conditioning unit for a local HOMELESS shelter. And AS he was writing, he started PRAYING. And REMEMBER: prayer is MOSTLY listening, it’s 90% listening. Well, AS he prayed, suddenly he SENSED, or maybe FELT, something of the immense JOY that God must be feeling as Patrick MADE this contribution. THEN, he began contemplating the JOY that would be felt by those HOMELESS men in the shelter as they slept in air-conditioned rooms in the sweltering Mississippi HEAT. Furthermore, he decided to TELL the people at the shelter that he was GIVING this gift because of his Christian FAITH, hoping that, THROUGH him, THEY might feel something of GOD’S love for THEM. And what JOY it would bring THEM, he thought; IF they could FEEL it! And maybe SOME of them, in the process, would glorify GOD, instead of Patrick, which would bring even MORE joy to GOD. And AS he HEARD and FELT all this in his prayers, what welled up INSIDE of Patrick was LAUGHTER. In fact, he LAUGHED right out LOUD! And it was a SPONTANEOUS laughter, a HILARIOUS laughter, BORN out of the JOY that was being experienced by GOD, by the homeless men, and by Johnson himself, ALL because of this ONE small GIFT.

Well friends, IF that story SURPRISES you, it shouldn’t. When St. Paul writes the words: God loves a cheerful giver in verse 7 of our Scripture Lesson, what he says, in the original Greek, is THIS: God loves a giver who is hilaros, which is the ROOT word of our ENGLISH word, hilarious. SO, what Paul is SAYING here is that God loves a hilarious giver, God loves the person who gives with spontaneous JOY and laughter. SO tell me: WHEN was the last time you actually LAUGHED as you sat down to fill out your PLEDGE CARD to the CHURCH, or to write a CHECK for your church PLEDGE? WHEN was the last time you actually LAUGHED as you wrote a check to Every Dollar Feeds Kids or Bread for Life, Habitat for Humanity or The HEIFER project, the YMCA SUPPORT Campaign or The United Way? Well, if you HAVEN’T laughed, and felt IMMENSE joy, then MAYBE you’re not giving at a LEVEL that will TIP you OVER with HILARITY. OR, maybe you’re not FOCUSING enough on the JOY that GOD must be feeling, or the NEEDY people must be feeling, as a RESULT of YOUR generosity. Friends, I believe that HILARIOUS GIVING is the SOLUTION to the PROGRESS Paradox! I believe that HILARIOUS GIVING is the ANTIDOTE to the UNHAPPINESS that we cannot HELP but FEEL, as we spend our days living in this SELF-OBSESSED, CONSUMERISTIC society.

You know: Diane and I were thinking one day about how MUCH we have to be thankful for. We are SO very BLESSED! And AS we’ve been doing our TAXES for 2004, we’ve been reflecting a little bit on the past YEAR. And even though we had some very nice vacation time, and even a CRUISE with 16 friends, what REALLY made us HAPPY this past year, what REALLY brought us JOY and SPARKED our MARRIAGE, our FAMILY life, and our SPIRITUAL growth – what REALLY brought us to the point of EXCITEMENT, of LAUGHTER and HILARITY – was all the GIVING that we did, both our MISSION TRIPS and our MONETARY gifts. And when we REALIZED that we gave away WELL over 10% of our income last year – MUCH of it to and through this CHURCH – we were EXCITED, and I mean HILARIOUSLY excited! And to us, THAT feels SO much BETTER than buying a NEW used car or going on a CRUISE! In fact, of ALL the spending that we DO, the spending that INVARIABLY gives us the MOST joy, the MOST fulfillment and the MOST excitement, is the money that we give away, because THAT’S how we SHOW our LOVE for GOD and God’s CREATION!

In The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook tells us that HE believes that we would ALL be better off IF we were more GRATEFUL, more FORGIVING, and more SPIRITUAL. And he CHALLENGES us to move BEYOND our materialistic obsessions and to RECLAIM a mostly HOPEFUL view of the human prospect. And we CAN capture a more hopeful view, but ONLY by learning to GIVE with JOY and LAUGHTER. Friends, AS we commit ourselves to Christian stewardship, both WITHIN the church and outside of it, WE will discover that God is truly ABLE to provide us with every blessing in abundance, as it says in verse 8. And AS we share our resources with people in NEED, we will find that WE will be enriched in every way for our great generosity, AND that we will find ourselves FILLED with the surpassing grace of God (vv. 11-14). And finally, AS we make sacrifices for others, we will come to see that money CANNOT buy happiness. ONLY generosity can bring happiness and joy! And who knows? AS we LEARN this truth and GIVE generously, we MIGHT even break out in LAUGHTER, in a HILARIOUS, JOY-FILLED belly laugh. Oh friends: in a world that SO often makes us feel ROTTEN and miserable, we NEED to know the TRUTH: that hilarious GIVING is the KEY to contentment, the KEY to JOY and the KEY to fullness of life. And I hope and pray that ALL of us will LEARN this truth FIRSTHAND, and SOON, and that it might BRING ON a really HUGE belly laugh! Amen.

A BELLY LAUGH!

Sources:
Leonard Sweet, The Stewardship Paradox, Homiletics, September-October, 2004.
Johnson, Patrick. “Hilarious giving.” Generous Giving Web Site, Generousgiving.org. Retrieved April 19, 2004.
Wessel, David. “Sad little rich country.” The Washington Monthly, November 2003, 51-53.