It’s nice to see generosity in action. Sunday while I was going around the sanctuary greeting people, a family slipped me a check. “Use it to meet the needs of people.” That’s generosity in action.
Last week when I wrote my newsletter article for this week’s edition I included the comment that we still needed a pile of money for our apportionments (the money United Methodist Churches give to support ministry beyond the local church). But yesterday, before the newsletter even went to press, a family dropped by a check that will cover most of what we owe. That’s generosity in action.

Some people might suggest that I not announce that the need is met. “If you tell people the need is met, they won’t give anymore.” My assumption, to the contrary, is that if I don’t tell the truth people won’t give any more. I also think that generosity can be infectious. As our people see others being generous – which includes holding on to things less tightly – they can learn to do the same.

Today we had our annual ministerial alliance luncheon. Good food and good fellowship. We also conduct a little business at these meetings. Besides electing the new president for the coming year, we also look at the finances, particularly at how much was raised at the community Thanksgiving offering the month before. The offering goes toward meeting the needs of people in the community. We’d just heard that the offering was down from last year. At that point one of the pastors went to visit the salad bar. He came back with a check for $10,000 to add to the fund. Generosity in action.

We see examples of generosity around us. We see God’s great generosity in Christ. What might we learn from these examples?