Thoughts on Generosity in the Face of Uncertainty

If you are a regular at Mosaic you have heard again and again how we implore each of you to stay engaged and connected to Mosaic. Not in as much that we think we are a special organization or have some unique thing about us that necessitates your engagement, but in that, we truly believe the Church matters. We have been going through our series for the last several weeks making this case.

And, if you are a commissioned member of Mosaic or have been through our Blueprint class, you know we long more than anything for all who would make it their life mission to follow the way of Jesus to give of themselves to the Church. If that is not Mosaic then fine, but find that community and connect, pour in, and be nourished by it.

The great temptation of 2020 more than ever has been to just sort of wait, to give yourself over to habits of ease - maybe even extra habits of pleasure or leaving the disciplines of life to the side. It is not bad so what does it hurt. As we have said before though, the way of Jesus isn't predicated on the idea of is it good or is it bad, but who are you becoming in so doing - whatever it is you might find yourself doing.

There has been a conviction driving the leadership and staff of Mosaic throughout the pandemic, and that is that God is still on the move. That He is still speaking and acting through all of this. That the Kingdom is still coming to Birmingham, and all the earth, as it is in Heaven. We have been compelled by this conviction that in the midst of all the difficulty, pain, and heaviness, we are still a people. The Church has not been quarantined even if we have to be in quarantine. The very Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and quickened the followers of Jesus to become the Church all those centuries ago is the same Spirit breathing life into us now. Here. In 2020.

The fruit of the Spirit is meant to be lived out in all times. Joy. Peace. Love. Goodness. Long Suffering. Self-control. Kindness.

Even in a time where nothing seems normal or right, the abundant life of the Gospel is available.

That is not dismissing the realities of the last seven months. The loneliness has been real. The isolation has been painful. The uncertainty has been beyond anxiety-inducing. Many of us have felt depression for the first time or felt emotional baggage we thought we had separated ourselves from come back again. But this year is not a loss.

Our series has been about the Church, what it is, and what it is meant to be. Karl Barth a famous German theologian says this about the church in his lengthy dogmatics, “[The church] exists ... to set up in the world a new sign which is radically dissimilar to [the world’s] own manner and which it contradicts it in a way which is full of promise.”

We really believe that the Church and our response to life around us should be different. And FULL OF PROMISE. One of the easiest ways we can look into the eye of uncertainty and scarcity and respond counter-culturally is by being radically generous with what it is we have. Not out of abundance, that's easy and normal, but out of little. That is the praise Jesus gives the Widow in the Gospel stories.

In our giving, the ever-helpful C.S. Lewis can guide us: “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.” That has to be true at all times.

So we want to encourage all of you to practice the very thing we confess Sunday after Sunday, "[to be] generous in every way, ... that others might see and know the love of Christ within us, and the glorious mystery of the Gospel."