You may have gathered that I’m something of a people
watcher. I find it fascinating to observe the way our society functions. Of
course, all that observing I do is from my perspective, and therefore it’s
limited and biased! Unfortunately, I’m not always as aware of that fact as I
should be, and as a result, I have an unfortunate tendency to pass judgment on
people about whom I really know very little! I’m afraid that the inconvenient
truth is that we all can do that from time to time. The hard part of it is that
it’s not a very generous outlook. I have to confess that I’m not very
“generous” when it comes to “Superbowl Sunday.” I must admit that part of that comes
from the fact that some of the players in the game will make more in one
evening than most people will make in their whole lifetime. But then that can
be true of a lot of top athletes in other sports as well, including the ones
that I love to follow.
I think what concerns me about what I see in connection
with the Superbowl is how much money we’re spending this weekend—essentially on
our own entertainment. For example, this year retailers are projecting that we
will spend twenty billion dollars in connection with the Superbowl. That’s just
consumer spending. That’s just what we’re expected to spend on TV’s, fan gear,
and food for hosting parties. To put that in perspective, the agricultural
production in the state of Nebraska for the whole year is around twenty-five
billion dollars, if I have my figures correct. We’re going to spend that in one
weekend. When you think about everything that goes into “Superbowl Sunday,” I’m
not sure anyone can measure the total amount of money that we Americans will
spend on this event. To my eyes, eyes that admittedly can be judgmental at
times, that can seem like an awful lot of self-indulgence.
By contrast, when I read our Scripture lessons for today, I’m
reminded that one of the central messages of the Bible is that we who claim to
be people of faith in the God of Exodus—the God who looked on the oppressed
people with compassion and who liberated the captives—are called to embody that
spirit in the way we relate to people around us. And over and over again, the
Bible defines that in terms of practicing “justice.” What I find striking in
our lessons for today is the clear and concrete way in which they define practicing
justice! The prophet Isaiah says this means that we’re to “free those who are
wrongly imprisoned”; we’re to “lighten the burden of those who work for you”;
we’re to “let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people” (Isa.
58:6, NLT). More than that, we’re to “share food with the hungry,” “give
shelter to the homeless,” and “give clothes to those who need them” (Isa 58:7, NLT)! It seems clear that “justice” means
“compassion” and “generosity.”
Unfortunately, we tend to take a different approach toward
the needy in our world. That’s especially true with those who may challenge our
sense that the world is an ordered and predictable place where we can rest
assured that everything will turn out the way we want it to as long as we “follow
the rules.” When we feel threatened by someone like that, we tend to fall into
the pattern of judging them. We analyze them and assume we know why they “fell
through the cracks.” When we adopt a “judging” mindset, it’s impossible to
practice “justice.” Rather than opening our hands to share generously, when we
live out of fear we tend to close our fists to protect what’s ours. But as I
read our Scripture lessons for today, it occurs to me that the prophet Isaiah was
trying to encourage people recover a spirit of generosity as a way of restoring
their relationship with God and as a way of restoring their community.
The hard question that our Scripture lesson confronts us
with is how we can find a way to open our hands to give the gift of generosity
to the people around us. I would say it starts with faith. To learn generosity
toward others, we have to overcome the fear that there might not be enough and
trust that God will provide for our needs. There are times in our lives when we
wonder whether there will be enough, and it can be hard to trust that God will
provide. But as I look over my life, I realize that there was always enough. Learning
generosity starts with trusting that God will provide for our needs. I think
generosity also comes from cultivating a spirit of gratitude. When we recognize
that we have received far more than we could deserve or expect, it leads to
sincere gratitude. And when we’re grateful for our lives, we can be a lot more
willing and able to relate to others with generosity. And I think practicing
generosity takes a good dose of humility. When we remember how many times we’ve
failed and instead of getting what we deserved God’s grace has let us off the
hook, we’ll be more likely to extend that grace and let others off the hook.
Generosity is not easy to learn. And it can be even harder
to practice. It’s hard to know when someone is truly in need and when they’re
just scamming you. And it’s hard to know how much you should give a person who
is destitute. And it’s risky, because you can’t control what they’ll will do
with the help you give them. But for my
part I would say I think practicing generosity is worth the risk. Again, I
think it’s important to hear what the prophet Isaiah says about practicing generosity
as a way of restoring our not only relationship with God, but also as a way of
restoring our community and our society.
At the end of the
day, we who profess faith in the God of Exodus, the God who liberated his
oppressed people out of his great love for them, are called to practice the
same generosity toward the oppressed people in our world. We who have received
the gift of being let off the hook time and again by God’s grace are summoned
to extend that same grace to those who fall short, for whatever reason. We who
have experienced the open hand of God giving us all that we need and more can
do no less than open our hands and extend them to the people in need around us.
The Bible can get uncomfortably specific about whom that
includes. Isaiah says that we practice the generosity we’ve received from God
when we stop hiding from those who need our help (Isa 58:7, NLT). I don’t
know about you, but I’ve been there, and it can be uncomfortable. It can be
hard to practice generosity, but when we open our hands and offer generosity to
those around us, particularly those in need, we’re demonstrating the difference
God’s grace has made in our lives. Jesus calls that living as the salt of the
earth and the light of the world. The good news is that in 2024, the last year
for which we have statistics, our charitable giving as a society totaled almost
600 billion dollars. The not so great news is that’s only about two to three
percent of our national economy. Of course, it’s hard to measure generosity
simply in terms of dollars. It’s clear that there are a lot of people who are
giving a lot to help a lot of people. But there’s always room for improvement.
I think we all have room to grow when it comes to practicing generosity in our
daily lives. I think that’s at least part what Jesus had in mind when he said,
“you are the light of the world.” I
think he wants us to show the difference God’s grace makes in our lives every
day by opening our hands and giving the gift of generosity to the people we
encounter.
[1] ©
2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 2/8/2026 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
