Jim Benfer

A Prayer for Giving

Rev. Jim Be= nfer

Scripture <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Reading: 1 John 3:= 11-20

Sermo440

For Sunday = 8-5-07

= I want to bring a p= rayer to you today that has spoken to millions of hearts and draws its meaning from = the gospel of Jesus Christ. Altho= ugh it is not found in the Bible, it will probably be familiar to you because it is reprinted many times each year. To pray it is to ask God to give you a servant’s heart. The prayer of which I speak is kno= wn as the Prayer of St. Francis, and it is found in our United Methodist Hymnals. It was written approximately eight hundred years ago in the thirteenth century. It is numbered in our hymnals as n= umber 481. Let me read it to you:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is ha= tred, let me sow love;

where there is in= jury, pardon;

where there is do= ubt, faith;

where there is de= spair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,<= /span>

grant that I may = not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood,= as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in givi= ng that we receive,

it is in pardonin= g that we are pardoned,

and it is in dyin= g that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen. [1]

Unlike so many prayers, this is not a prayer asking for something so much as it is communication with God that speaks to= the very need we have as disciples—We need to give ourselves in love to others.

One of my Old Testament professors at semina= ry, Dr. Powers, related a story to us students about prayer that you may find beneficial:

“My wife bought us a full sized poodle= to keep at the house who was jet black and was quite misbehaved. I therefore named him Satan becaus= e of the pranks he would do about the house.&nb= sp; He was, however, a very intelligent dog and could be taught to do ma= ny tricks—I taught him to pray.

You doubt me, but just listen. When we had company over to the ho= use and the subject of the dog would come up, I would have Satan come out and d= o a few tricks. Then I would tell= the dumbfounded visitors that I had taught the dog to pray. I would then command the dog to pr= ay and he would stand up on his hind legs in that kind of dance poodles can do with his front paws together.

My guests would always objects saying, “That’s not praying, that’s begging.” My reply would always catch them up short. I said, “Sure it= is, that’s how you pray don’t you?””[2]

&= nbsp; What a challenge for us in our prayer life, not to always be begging for what we want, but asking for what we really need to be the disciples Jesus wants us= to be! The last three statements= of the prayer will become our focus points in this message because they speak = to an ever-closer walk with God in which we become the givers.

The first point is the truth that givers receive. St. Francis’ prayer says, “for it is in giving that we receive.” This is a sta= rting point in faith growth that spurs further development in our faith. When we give either money or time,= we are giving a condensed form of ourselves.&= nbsp; However, in agreement with John Wesley’s teachings, it is the = gift of ourselves (our time and efforts) that really make a difference in our fa= ith growth, and make us worthy of the name steward.

In 1758, Mr. Wesley preache= d the following: “Who is an understanding man and endued with knowledge amo= ng you? Let him show the wisdom = from above by walking suitably to his character. If he so account of himself as a s= teward of the manifold gifts of God, let him see that all his thoughts, and words,= and works be agreeable to the post God has assigned him. It is no small thing to lay out fo= r God all which you have received from God.” [3] It shouldn’t escape our atte= ntion that Mr. Wesley said our “all.”

The apostle John speaks abo= ut our hearts condemning us. Is this= not the work of God’s Holy Spirit at work to chasten or to reward us? God so desires that we learn from = this initial step of faith so that he closely works in our hearts to speak to our obedience or disobedience to his will.&nbs= p; The bottom line for us is that obedience in giving results in reward= and faith growth. When we give, we begin to learn from Jesus the way to true life and joy.

The story of St. Francis is= the story of finding joy in giving. “Francesco” as his friends called him was born with the = true name of Giovanni. His mother = was French and his father an Italian merchant.= He got his name because of his love for singing French troubadour so= ngs, and his nickname meant little Frenchman.&n= bsp;

Francis had a profound reli= gious experience that led him to embrace a life of poverty, even though his paren= ts were wealthy. It is said that= one day his friends noticed that he was exceptionally happy.

“Why are you so happy= ?” they asked him.

“Because I have married.”

“Whom have you married?”

“Lady Poverty!”=

He then gave to the poor al= l he had. If his parents gave him more, he immediately gave it away. Dre= ssed in rags, he spent his time praising the beauty of poverty to any who would listen, or rebuilding an abandoned chapel, or enjoying the beauty and harmo= ny of nature. After his preaching began to have a following he petitioned pope Innocent III for the right to establish a monastic order. T= he “order of lesser brothers” or Franciscans was born. [4]

Of course, St. Francis is an extreme example, but it speaks volumes about the strong connection between giving and the inner reward of God’s Spirit within us.

The second point is that in giving forgiveness, we find God’s forgiveness. The prayer says, “it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.” Our scripture poin= ts out to us that “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.” [5] John wrote his epistle to as a tea= ching tool to help Christians know that God is at work within them. Therefore, he points out signposts= in our lives that speak to our relationship with God and others. He speaks about Cain and Able, tho= se first brothers and the striking differences in their relationships. Able was able to live with a heart= open to God and others, but Cain was not. Hate and lack of forgiveness both have their origins in hearts that don’t know real love.

Jesus underscores his most famous prayer wit= h the warning, “But if you do not f= orgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” [6]

In Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai, the Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was miss= ing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his = gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said. Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer= put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was ov= er, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been= a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . .= . The incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other l= ike brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeleto= ns, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: "No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness." Sacrificial love has transforming power. [7]

Not long= before she died in 1988, in a moment of surprising candor in television, Marghanita Laski, one of our best-known secular humanists and novelists, said, "W= hat I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forg= ive me." [8]

What a s= ad statement of truth! Like the prodigal son in scripture, we all need someone, especially our heavenly Fat= her to give forgiveness to us. In= an ever-growing stream of faith, once we have learned to trust God’s Spi= rit through our own acts of giving, we can learn to give more than just the physical necessities of life to others—we begin to be able to trust t= hat we can give spiritual gifts like forgiveness to others. Doing so, allows us to experience = and understand the true nature of God’s acceptance and love for all people. In this we experience= the great grace of God’s forgiveness and begin to live with the freedom a= nd joy of God’s children.

The third and last point of the praye= r is the highest level of faith attainment—to die to ourselves. The prayer says, “and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.” This is = much more than some statement of dying and going to heaven in some simplistic fashion. This statement goes = to the very heart of Jesus’ commands to his disciples. “Whoever finds his life w= ill lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” [9]

&nbs= p; All of the previous parts of the prayer that sound so good hang from this line. Without being able to s= ay “I will give up my life and let God do with it what he pleases”= can we possibly hope to say let me sow love, let me pardon others, let me be yo= ur instrument of faith, let me give others hope, let me be your light, or let = me fill others with your joy. On= ly a life in connection with God through Jesus Christ can say these things, and = only a life with this relationship can give everything and know by faith that eternal life is already their reward.

&nbs= p; In November 2003, Gary Torrance joined the waiting list for a double lung transplant. Sadly 14 months later, at the age of 23 years, his time ran out. This is his families thoughts:

Living with someone who has Cystic Fibrosis (CF) brings = joy and pain. A CF child is a very special child and the things they do and achieve, despite their illness, are very special things. It is a different = life and one which dictates your daily routine as a family, especially as the condition progresses and your loved one depends on you more and more each d= ay to help them to get around, to carry out simple tasks, which to them are exhausting.

When the subject of transplant assessment was first mentioned, you realize how bad things have become and you are fearful becau= se you know that there are never enough donor organs and that demand outstrips= the number of available organs for transplant

What is it like to live with someone on the transplant l= ist? You live in the hope every pager message or telephone call could be the transplant coordinator informing you of a possible donor organ. You live wi= th a suitcase packed with clothes to take to hospital for the operation. You liv= e in hope that the transplant will happen. You live with the anxiety that your l= oved one will not be well enough to undergo the operation. You live with the anx= iety around the risks that the operation itself will bring. You live with the anxiety that the call will not come in time. You live in the knowledge that there is nothing at all that you can do to change what is happening to your family.

For us the call did not come in time. There were simply = too few organ donations. Initial feelings of acute distress are followed by ang= er and frustration that it was your loved one that never got that life changing transplant, your loved one who would never live out their dreams and go on = to achieve even more in their life. Losing a much loved family member while awaiting a transplant leaves an immense void and a feeling that it might ha= ve been so different, had there been more donors. [10]

This is one type of giving = your life away that makes a huge difference for others, but there is so much more that God wants us to give. St. Francis had it right when he began to give away= all he had, but it was in giving his life away to others that he found eternal life.

There are still those aroun= d us who are desperately in need of transplants.&nb= sp; They need the life-giving, life-changing presence of Jesus in their hearts. They need transplants= of your presence with them, your love for them, and encouragement and hope. Only when we give our lives away, = losing them to selfish interest, can we ever hope to transplant the miraculous lov= e of Jesus into a dying soul. In a= world lost in hatred, injury, doubt, despair, darkness, sadness and misunderstand= ing, Lord, show us how to give, how to pardon, and how to live. In the name of the Father, and the= Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!=