Jim Dowrie was a wiry, wilderness-wise backpacker who often co-led weeklong Sierras treks with my first youth group. Around a campfire with 15 high school and college students Jim often read aloud from John Muir’s diary or the Sand County Almanac. His love of creation was palpable, pointing out Indian Paint Brushes and geological wonders, riveting his eyes on the Alpenglow, and sharing the lore of the land.

After a night of Muir legends and Sierra lore, as Jim and I made our way to the crest of a 13,000’ pass, I said, "You were really having fun last night." His face lit up and he said, "I love turning them on to the incredible mysteries of these mountains! I want them to love this place and take as much joy from it as I do." Two things happened, Jim’s joy spread to everyone who hiked with him, and Jim experienced the joy of a generous, sharing heart!

The third of the Jewish holy days just past, Succoth, celebrated gratitude for the harvest and God’s bountiful care. The words of Deuteronomy remind Jews, indeed all believers, of the centrality of joy and generosity, "You shall rejoice in your festival; you and your children, your servants, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow that are within your gates." This holiday is about God’s generosity, and the people’s joyous response to God’s gifts, and their happiness when they share those gifts and themselves with others, for it is in community, not isolation, that authentic joy and generosity are experienced.

The union of joy and generosity is a defining character of the Christian life. A life without joy is not the abundant life that Christ intends. A life without generosity is a solitary existence. A life without the union of joy and generosity is a life of fear, self-protection, and self-serving. St. Paul understood how the power of such fear directs lives. In place of fear Paul urges the attitude that "God loves a joyous giver who gives without regret or obligation" (II Cor. 9:7). Paul promises that God will eliminate fear and selfishness; a promise that contains a great truth, "And God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have what you need for yourself and more than enough for every good cause" (9:8).

Tracy Cochran and Jeff Zalesky in, Transformations, underscore Paul’s truth in their reflection on Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge, "Before the Phantom shows Scrooge his own grave, London’s most notorious miser is a phantom himself, a shadow hunched up against the world, cloaked in suspicion and hatred. Then in a cataclysm of emotion, ‘his face wet with tears,’ the knowledge that he will die smashes through him, exposing the childlike soul buried for so long… All Spiritual transformations, like Scrooge’s, have an emotional content, and no wonder. The sudden awareness that life has been lived encased in psychological armor, cut off from the sacredness of the world, must bring with it a piercing remorse. Rebirth, like birth, is painful: but what follows inevitably is joy."

The reality of God is the reality of eternal delight, God’s and our own. The transcendent truth is that we human beings are created in joy and it is God’s intention that we live in everlasting happiness. Through Scriptures that are filled with tales of banquets, reunions, reconciliations, feasts and celebrations, singing and dancing, rejoicing and loving, God and Christ invite us to claim joy and generosity as our spiritual inheritance.

Let us discern and claim the healthy joys that nourish our humanity and engage our spirituality. Why crawl when God calls us to dance? Why weep when we can rejoice? Why be enslaved to pain and injustice, when God offers us liberating righteousness? Why give in to a masochistic worldview when the every essence of our spiritual being is eternal delight and joyous generosity?

Do we not carefully plan for the joy of our children, a spouse, or a friend, and find great enjoyment when we give them a gift that delights and makes them happy? That is the joy of generosity!

Our mission teams go to Guatemala as healers and our youth to Mexico or Arizona as builders. They go to places of material poverty and deprivation. They see suffering that most people do not want to imagine. Upon returning they tell us of the joy and blessing they received being with these people. That is the joy of generosity! Without belying the severity of the situations they encounter, their stories and photographs are of joyous meetings, authentic sharing, and of lives transformed – their own and those of the people they serve. That is the joy of generosity!

Jack and Ruth Frost were "old school Christians," the kind for whom the church was the hub of their lives. They were always in church, always in the "Frost pew," and always generous. On payday, Jack and Ruth had a spiritual practice of writing the first check of every month to pay their pledge to the church. As many of you, they said it kept their priorities straight. They explained that it gave them great joy to fulfill their generous pledge because this church made a real difference in their lives and in the community. For 23 years I have written the first check of the month for my pledge, for the same reasons.

Ruth and Jack embodied three elements of the morning lessons. They gave generously from a grateful sense of joy – no obligation, no regrets, just joy. Second, they believed and they were not disappointed in their trust that "God is able to give you more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause"(II Cor. 9:7,8). And, finally, they quietly and humbly followed the command in Timothy "to do good, be rich in good works, and generous and ready to share with others. For in this way you will store up a treasure, which will be a solid foundation for the future. And then you will be able to win the life which is true life" (I Tim. 6:18,19). It is in this same spirit of trust, generosity and joy that we delight in this church family and respond to God’s call!

A note, we do not think of Timothy’s "storing up a treasure that will be a solid foundation for the future" and "winning the life which is true life" in terms of heaven and eternity. On the contrary! The true treasure of joyous generosity is looking at the church that your values, work, and gifts support and knowing that your investment here is an investment in spiritually strong children and youth, morally engaged people, a force for the good of the community, and compassion for those with needs. And what is "winning the true life"? It is to rejoice and live your lives in "righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness." And, it is to know that you are "running your best in the race of faith!" Eternity is at the end of that race, but to live full and abundant lives of joyous generosity is the purpose of our lives on earth! This is the joy of generosity: God loves a joyous giver so always and in all ways give it all you’ve got!