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THE MIRACLE OF SUPERNATURAL SUPPLY
2 Corinthians 9:6-13
November 12, 2006A young woman brought her fiancé home to meet her parents. After dinner, the father decided to find out more about the young man. He took him into his study and asked, “So, what are your plans?” The boy said, “Well, I’m a Bible scholar.”
“A Bible scholar. Hmmm? That’s admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in?” The boy said, “I will study, and God will provide for us.” The father asked, “And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring such as she deserves?” The young man replied, “I will concentrate on my studies and God will provide for us.”
“And children?” asked the father, “How will you support children?”
“Don’t worry sir,” said the student, “God will provide.” Later, after the kids left, the mother asked the dad, “So, how did it go?” And the father said, “Well, the bad news is he has no skills, no job, no money, and no plans. But the good news is, apparently he thinks I’m God!”
This father reminds us of two deep truths when it comes to our attitude towards money and human need: First, we want to know who will provide. How will we find the money? Where’s it going to come from?
And second, we tend to confuse ourselves with God. We act like we’re Lord over our situation and our money. And then, because we are painfully aware of our human limitations, we assume that what we have…is all there will be. Our giving potential is shortchanged when we depend on ourselves more than we depend upon God’s ability to provide for us.
The Apostle Paul was no stranger to dealing with money and human need. Our scripture lesson catches him in mid conversation with the church in Corinth. There’s a massive famine in Jerusalem, the church there is in severe crisis, and Paul is asking the church in Corinth to step up their giving so they can feed all the believers in Jerusalem. Basically, he expects the Corinthians to give away about 40% of their annual income to support the church in Jerusalem.
Now wait just a minute, Paul! That’s an unrealistic request – and no one in their right mind would do it! I can’t believe your asking me to give beyond my means! I know how much I make and how much I can afford to give to the church. And if I give more, who will provide for my needs? How will I support my family? I can’t just give and give and give – eventually I’ll simply give out.
Friends, that attitude comes from what I call, “a theology of scarcity.” And when we operate out of a theology of scarcity, we live in fear that our resources will be limited to what WE can provide. We assume we will never have more than enough – we will only have enough when we have more.
Some years ago, a financial planning magazine conducted a survey which asked the question, “How much additional income would you need a year to feel secure?” For people earning an average of $40,000 a year, the most popular answer was $20,000 - $20,000 more dollars a year would make life work. Next, the survey asked people who made $60,000, “How much more money would you need a year to feel secure?” Do you know what the most frequent answer was? $20,000. Then the survey asked those who made $80,000, “How much more?” And the most frequent answer was… you guessed it - $20,000! …
How much is enough? More. That’s the theology of scarcity at work. Now, can you imagine what a theology of scarcity does to our generosity? It kills it, that’s what! If we convince ourselves that the only way to have enough is to have more – and we can’t imagine where we’re going to get more – we won’t dare give anything away! We assume that what we have…is all there is. But Paul reminds us, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
In other words, God is ready to give you whatever you need to fulfill God’s purposes. God is more ready to give to God’s work than we are! He has a surprising, spiritual, supernatural bounty He wants to send out to the world through you and me. God wants to pour out His blessings in astonishing ways so that we will have the resources to do what needs to be done. Call it the miracle of supernatural supply – and the miracle of supernatural supply is the starting point for God-like giving. Why? Because MY willingness to give begins with God’s willingness to give. And God is always ready to give us whatever we need to fulfill God’s purpose.
Year's ago, Delta Air Lines launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Delta is ready when you are." Their message to potential travelers was, “No matter how far you want to go, Delta has the means to get you there. In fact, Delta’s only limitation is ...how far you were willing to go.”
Paul says, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” And the message is, no matter how far you want to go in your giving, God has the means to get you there. In fact, the only limitation God has, is how far you are willing to go. God is ready when you are. Now that’s what the miracle of supernatural supply is all about.
As Christians, our decisions about how we will financially support God’s work through the church should be based, not upon a theology of scarcity, but upon our understanding of supernatural supply. We can’t out-give God! Every time we make a commitment and follow through on it, God blesses us in return. Every time we try to out-give God, he says, “You lose!” That’s the miracle of supernatural supply.
Now I know it’s hard to believe. And my family struggles with the same fears and concerns that your families do: if we give more money to the church, how can we be sure we’ll have enough to live on? Where will the money come from? And just how are we supposed to budget a miracle? Where does “wait for a miracle” show up in our financial plan? Does it go under salary; investments; benefits; dividends?
But when I fall into the trap of the theology of scarcity, I try to remember this image: when Sarah and David were little, I used to take them to the mall, and give them money to buy Christmas presents for me and their Dad. They bought our gifts, wrapped them and put them under the tree. And as a parent, one of my greatest joys at Christmas, was seeing what the children had bought for us (with OUR money.) Now, I could have gone out and bought something for myself -- it was my money in the first place. But I was thrilled to see how the children spent MY money on me.
Now, isn’t that just what God does? God doesn’t need our money. But God gets great joy when we return a portion of what was His in the first place, to support God’s work in the world. Friends, what we’re really asked to risk, is not OUR finances but GOD’S faithfulness. (And that, by definition, is no risk at all.)
Our family learned this lesson in a powerful way during the fall of 1991. It was during a deep, nationwide recession, and David’s advertising agency had laid him off that spring. His unemployment benefits were used up, there was no work to be found. We had mountains of unpaid bills and the bank was threatening to foreclose on our home.
Through an amazing turn of events (which I will share another time), I was hired on here at Metropolitan Church. I didn’t make a lot of money, but it was enough to keep food on the table – and I was learning so much from Dr. Quick and the others on staff. David and I were both growing in our faith.
Then, we came to the time of the year that so many Christians dread – Stewardship season! Dr. Quick reminded us of Jesus’ words, “Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And we truly wanted to exhibit a heart for God – so we decided to step up our giving and tithe for the first time in our lives.
As we signed our pledge card, I worried, “This is crazy! There’s no way we can live on my salary – let alone give 10% of it to the church! And yet we trusted that God would provide for our needs. And He did!
Over the next couple months, we were able to sell our home – and moved the family into the Hendrie parsonage. Now that David no longer had to worry about earning enough to support a mortgage, he could pursue his dream of starting his own company – which has grown and thrived in the last 15 years. And when the time came for me to begin my seminary training, I was awarded a full scholarship to United Theological Seminary.
My family learned first hand, that we can be faithful in doing what God calls us to do – because God is faithful in providing for all our needs! Therefore, when we make a financial commitment to the church, we are not making a promise of what we will supply; we are anticipating what God will supply through us. The promise is ours, but the provision is God’s. That’s how supernatural supply works. Our generosity to God is built on God’s generosity to us. And because we trust God to supply whatever we need to live on, we are able to give more, to fulfill someone else's need.
I want to close with this story from Tom Long, professor of preaching at Candler School of Theology. It’s about a seminary student, home for the holidays, talking with his father as they walked down the street. They decided to look for a pay phone to call home and see if they should pick up a pizza for dinner. As fate would have it, they were met by a homeless man who asked them, “Can you spare any change?” The father reached into his pocket, pulled out a handful of change, held it out to the man and said, “Here, take what you want.” The astonished man looked at all those coins and said, “I’ll take it all!” He raked the money out from the father’s hand, and took off.
Father and son resumed their search for a pay phone, but soon realized they had given away all their coins. They needed a quarter to make the call. So the father turned around and called back to the homeless man. “Pardon me, but I need to make a phone call. Can you spare some change?” The homeless man smiled, reached into his pocket, pulled out the change and said, “Here, take what you need.”
Friends, we’re all beggars. Everything we have, is ours because of the open hand of God who says, “Here, take what you need.” And as you and I think about making a financial commitment to God’s work through the church, let us open our hearts to this gift-giving God and say, “Here, take what you need!”
During this next week, I invite you to prayerfully consider how you will support God’s work through Metropolitan United Methodist Church in 2007. This week, you’ll receive my letter and a response card in the mail. I ask you to bring your Response Card with you next Sunday, when we will dedicate our commitments and bring them to the altar during worship.
As you think about the amount you will write on that dotted line, I hope you’ll remember this: “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.”
God's generosity exceeds all our expectations... I pray that our generosity will exceed some expectations as well.
Rev. Tonya Arnesen
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