Make a Selection A&M UMC Main Page Adult Ministries Bible Studies Celebration Ministry Children's Ministries Church Calendar Church Council Directory of Members College Ministries Grad Stu/Young Pros Class Journey to Christ JumpStart Links of Interest Map to Church Music Ministries Newsletters Prayer Ministries Sermon Transcripts Staff & Contacts Sunday School United Methodist Women Vision Path Statement Weddings Weekday School Worship Services Youth Ministries

I have a little riddle for you. What do Barbara Fusar Poli, Maurizio Margaglio , Chad Hendricks, Shani Davis, the Apostle Paul, and the Corinthians have in common? The answer: None of them liked to be let down.

Barbara Fusar Poli and Maurizio Margaglio came out of retirement for the Winter Olympics being held in their homeland of Italy . They had high hopes of becoming Ice Dancing Gold Medallists. Now I have to admit, Ice Dancing ranks below Curling in my favorite Olympic events and Curling does not rank high. However, the other night when they started throwing people all over the ice running into the wall and putting headlocks on each other, it got interesting. Then when I saw Barbara Fusar Poli glare at Maurizio Margaglio for dropping her in their competition, I shuttered. One newspaper columnist wrote, “Every man in the world knows that look.” As I watched the drama unfold, I saw it confirmed. Nobody likes a let down.

Chad Hendricks and Shani Davis, American speed skaters, could not match that intensity, but they tried. I heard that Hendricks was watching the Olympics on TV four years ago and said to himself, “I can do that”. So he did. He qualified for five speed skating events and won the first one. Expectations of five gold medals hanging around his neck began to emerge in his mind. The second event was a team event. Hendricks was shocked when his teammate Shani Davis pulled out to focus on his individual race the next day. They quarreled in the pressroom, ignored each other in the arena – why? Because nobody likes a let down.

Perhaps these last two weeks of “As the Olympics Turn” has given us a greater understanding into Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He too had expectations. Listen to them being expressed in II Corinthians 9:1-7 on page 183 of your New Testament. Hear now the word of the Lord.

Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you – in this undertaking. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion.

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. In this passage Paul expressed to his partners in ministry the expectation of generosity and gladness. Let us pray.

Paul seemed to be telling the Corinthians through his pastoral pen the same thing Barbara Fusar Poli was telling Maurizio Margaglio through her penetrating glare. Nobody likes a let down.

The expectations had been built up for more than a year. Paul had asked the satellite churches to join together in ministry to the church in Jerusalem that had come on hard times. The Corinthians were eager to help. Their enthusiasm was contagious. Once the people in Macedonia heard that the Corinthians were contributing, they practically begged Paul for the opportunity to participate in the effort, despite their relative poverty. Now Paul was faced with a potential problem. What if the Macedonians response, given out of poverty, was more than the Corinthians response, given out of prosperity?

Jerry Compton brought a devotion to staff a couple of months ago about a little church of around 100 members who determined to assist a poor family for Easter. They had four weeks to collect the gifts. One family made up of a single mother and three teenage daughters determined to do something significant. After all, they’d been through tough times and had compassion for the poor. They made potholders, babysat and cleaned houses for extra money. They reduced their use of electricity and simplified their diet to save money for the cause. The year was 1946 and in four weeks they accumulated $70 for the special offering. While everyone else had on new Easter clothes, the Smith girls were glad to wear their old clothes and hold 3 new $20 bills and a crisp $10 bill, which they joyfully placed in the plate for the special offering.

If you are like me, you are not surprised to discover that that Easter afternoon the pastor stopped by the Smith house and presented them with an envelope from their church. It was the offering for the poor family in town. That was when they discovered they were the poor family in town. Inside the envelope they found 3 new $20 bills, a crisp $10 bill and seventeen crumpled $1 bills.

Paul did not want something like that to happen to Corinth . So he sent an advance party to check up on the expectations. He did not want the Corinthians to be humiliated by being unprepared. Philip Hughes wrote in his commentary on II Corinthians, “It was not so much a question of their readiness to give, but of the need for efficient planning to get the money in.”

This brings me to two questions I often hear during a stewardship campaign. The first question is, “Why do we have a stewardship campaign?” Paul gives us the answer - In order to develop a plan to live up to the expectations God has for us - expectations of generosity and gladness. The second question is, “What if my heart and mind are bigger than my billfold?” That is “what if I decide to tithe, give one-tenth of my income, but cannot find it in my budget?” There are two responses to this question. Some have stepped out in faith and started tithing immediately. It took some significant adjustments in lifestyle and some extraordinary blessings from God, but I have never heard a bad report from those who have done this. The second response is to step toward the tithe. Calculate what percent of your income you are currently giving and increase that by 2% of your income a year for five years. Anyone can go from nominal giving to the full tithe in five years with very slight impact on how we live. As Dr. Hughes went on to say in his commentary, “The chief problem at Corinth in connection with this charitable project was that of organization, not unwillingness to give generously.” They needed a plan and so do we. After all, nobody likes a let down.

Expectations had been built up with the eagerness to contribute. They had been checked up with the sending of an advance party. Now Paul hoped that the Corinthians would live up to the expectations – expectations of generosity and gladness: sowing bountifully, reaping bountifully and giving with a glad heart. Expectations were high, but Paul had confidence in the Corinthians. One more riddle. What did Matthew Dolezal, Max McGee and Susan Jones have in common? The answer: They have each taught me so much about life through their deaths.

Matthew Dolezal was 8 years old when he died. He had the brightest red hair and the biggest smile. Max McGee was the same age as me, only in much better shape, until he was diagnosed with a terminal disease only weeks before his death. Susan Jones was 59 years old and so full of life. She was the Choir Director at Faith UMC in Richmond , Texas where last Sunday at the 11:00 service she directed the choral anthem, started the doxology and then collapsed from a brain aneurysm. At her funeral one of her choir members said, “I don’t know how far we got into the doxology. I only remember singing ‘Praise God’, and then she was gone.”

By my standards these three, and so many others I’ve known, have died too soon; but each of them has taught me a lesson that I want to share with you this morning. The lesson they have taught me that life is not to be measured by how long we live, but that life can only be measured by how well we live. These three lived life well and God expects no less from us. Let us live into those expectations – expectations of generosity and gladness. After all, nobody likes a let down.

Amen.