No one wants to be called a liberal these days, especially if you are a politician or a Baptist preacher. You will be blogged and possibly flogged. You will not be elected unless you are in San Francisco, where they want to outlaw Happy Meals and legalize drugs—at least marijuana. If Sen. Joe McCarthy were alive today, he might call his opponents liberals instead of communists.
However the Apostle Paul called the Macedonians liberals. He was not referring to their view of Scripture; they were deeply committed to the word, especially in Berea. They had a contagious evangelistic fervor. The testimony of the Thessalonians was circulated widely. The church in Philippi demonstrated joy in the midst of difficult times. But they were liberals in their generosity.
“Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (2 Corinthians 8:1-2).
Thanksgiving is a cultural holiday that leads right into Advent. This is one of the greatest times of the year, when Christians can prove we love God by lavishing gifts on the least of those among us. We have the opportunity to give liberally to those who have nothing to give to us in return.
The Christmas story is the gift of Christ. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (8:9). Generosity should be at the heart of the announcement of Advent, just as consumerism is central to society’s message.
The Macedonians begged Paul for the opportunity to give. “They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God” (8:5). It isn’t enough to just give presents; we must give ourselves.
When we visit our grandsons or they visit us, we give them gifts. My son chided us for doing this because he obviously doesn’t understand the role of grandparents. It is our job to spoil them and the parents’ job to train them. My father once said if he had it to do over again, he would skip children and just have grandchildren. I told him he might have enjoyed us if he had treated us the way he did them.
After we give our grandchildren gifts, we then give them ourselves. Our two grandsons, ages 4 and 6, were staying with us for a couple of nights, and while they were with us, we played football, basketball, hide-and-seek, cowboys and Indians and Legos, and we swam, read books and watched cartoons—while they took turns sitting on my shoulders. The gifts were far less exciting than the experience.
What is a holiday activity where we can give ourselves in serving others? Generosity is one aspect of ministry where I hope Texas Baptists will be called liberals.
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Randel Everett is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.
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