Saturday, 14 November 2009

• The Biblical Basis for Giving Graciously

  Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
  "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
  "Which ones?" the man inquired.
  Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
  "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
  Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
  Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
  When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
  Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
  Peter answered him, "We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"
  Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
    -- Matthew 19: 16-30
  
  My pastor has been doing a series of sermons called FLIP.  We are concentrating on the sermon on the mount and how Jesus vividly turns those things that the world thinks are right and true on their head and shows that the world's ways are wrong and selfish.  I have been thinking about some of these issues that come up in the Sermon on the Mount and I have found how our culture likes to rationalize the Words of Christ.  We take some of the principles but we put caveats on them, we make them more safe and more comfortable when Christ was none of these. 
  
  The issue that comes to mind the most these days for me is that of giving to the poor.  Americans love the concept of giving to the poor--to help out and give charity to "those less fortunate than us."  However I find when I talk to people about giving to the poor and examine my own actions and heart, something gets lost in translation between what Christ talked about and what we do and how we justify our service to the poor.  I call this rationalizing methodology.  In other words, we take a pattern laid out for us quite clearly and make it more rational to our circumstances or, more specifically for this situation, our economic status.
  
  The other day the conversation at the dinner table with my parents turned to helping the poor and my dad stated that we should only give to the poor that which will actually help them and not give something to them that will make them worse off.  We should help them be self sufficient and make sure that they are not just faking need or wasting the money or gifts.  At that point, I said something that I had a gut instinct about, but had not really researched in the Bible at that point.  I said that I didn't recall Christ giving any caveats for giving to the poor.  I didn't remember Him saying "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor as long as they are using it rightly and it is helping them become self sufficient, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."  Like I said I had not researched it yet but I didn't recall anything of that nature in the Bible.
  
  So I went to the Bible and I looked up any passage that talked about giving to the poor, especially Christ's teachings about it.  Going through each passage, I never once found a caveat to giving to the poor.  Every time the command was simple: give. 
  
  Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. (Lev. 19:10)
  
  There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. (Deut. 15:11)
  
  You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. 42"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. (Luke 11:40-42)
  
  Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. (Luke 14:12-14)
  
  These are just a few of the passages that give pretty clear commands concerning the poor.  None of which have circumstances in which are NOT to give to the poor.  Nor are there any situations that delineate between the good poor and the bad poor where one will use the gift for good and the other for bad.  It just says "the poor."  So at this point you are probably thinking, "Great, are you telling me that I should give to the poor regardless of what they use it for or whether or not they will become self-sufficient."  Simply put, yes.  Unless we can find in Christ's teachings guidelines and caveats that allow us to refuse service to who we want if they don't fit the perfect description of "the poor," then we must give freely and recklessly.  If we perceive even the slightest bit of need then we should give because that is what Christ has commanded of us.  Americans--and the rest of the West in general--love using rationality in order to simplify things and justify actions.  But I say to you all that Christ did not call us to rationalize his teachings but to live them, to be like Him, to let God perfect us through His Spirit. 
  
  So beyond pure Scriptural prompts, for what other reason does this reckless giving make sense?  I tell you, God gave us life, He gave us grace, He gave us a Savior, He gave us redemption, He gave of Himself fully and joyfully.  We are sinful, hateful, dirty creatures.  We are enemies of God.  We are the poor.  God gave freely without caveat or delineation.  He did not give based on circumstance, but instead gave His grace to us all.  All of a sudden it makes sense why Christ commanded us to give to the poor, to stand up for those who were oppressed, to care from the widow and the fatherless, to care for the sick, visit those in prison, clothe those who have no clothes, etc, because God did exactly that for us even when we take those gifts and do evil with them or when we can never be self sufficient.  We are the sick, the poor, the imprisoned, the naked, the oppressed.  And yet God loved us and gave to us without distinction.  So with that, we need to analyze our thoughts when we are finding reasons to NOT give.  Chances are we will find that there are other motivations involved in that decision.  Whether it be our own greed, our own pride, our want for power over the poor, etc., God had none of these when He gave us the ultimate gift in His Son, Jesus Christ.  So like Jesus taught, go and give...freely and recklessly.
  
  It's a shame that some must go without
  But I was no fool to think it might be my problem
  Needy hands were reaching out
  I kept my spare change and my pride in a tight fist
  In a tight fist
  And now at the last
  Everything is changed in this pale light
  That death has cast on all I've done
  On all I've done
  I'm a good man on the whole
  Who could blame me for looking out for number one?
  I never killed, I never stole
  A small indulgence now and then, so what of it?
  I'm a good man
  I'm a good man
  Am I a good man?
  I thought I was
  But the rewards of this life now count for naught
  My body, soon buried and left to rot
  The time's gone, how quickly it all has passed
  My God, now I see how I've squandered each and every breath
  Now at the last
  Everything is changed in this pale light
  That death has cast on all I've done
  On all I've done
  Now at the last
  Everything is changed in this pale light
  Looking back, I am undone
  I am undone
    -- Thrice, "At the Last" from the album Beggars
  
  
  

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