Generosity, in all its Forms, is Inherently Good and Worthy of Celebration

On Sunday morning during faith formation, we discussed generosity — what it is, and what it isn’t.

Put simply, generosity is a way of being kind to others. A generous act is often one that is sacrificial In nature, like offering someone something out of scarcity instead of abundance.

There are many examples of generosity in the scriptures, but one stands out for me. In the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard in the Gospel of Matthew, the boss goes out in the morning to hire laborers to work in his fields. Later that morning, he goes out for more as there’s still more work to be done. Finally, in the afternoon, he hires a few more men who end up working just a short period of time.

When it came time to pay the workers, there was a lot of. anger in the group because the boss decided to pay everyone the same amount of money even though they did not work the same amount of hours.

The boss, noting their anger, expressed his frustration with them. “Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”

I think we can all sympathize with the workers who were upset. We’ve all been in a position in which we felt like we were unjustifiably punished, or when someone else was unjustifiably rewarded.

That said, there’s an important lesson to be learned here.

As Christians, we should rejoice when someone else is the target of another’s generosity. Our reflex action should not be disappointment, because we weren’t on the receiving end. Generosity, in all its forms, is inherently good and worthy of celebration.

This is another example of the “upside-down kingdom” that we discussed a few weeks ago. We all benefit from the grace and generosity of God given to us in Christ — whether we’ve been at this since morning or just showed up in the afternoon.

See you Sunday!