Tag Archives: Generosity

When Feeding is a Miracle

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Jesus’ feedings of the five thousand and the four thousand in the wilderness rank among the most powerful stories of Jesus’ ministry. How did he do it? It seem fairly comprehensible that Jesus healed the sick and the lame, even if these healings were miraculous, but feeding so many people when there was so little food to start with is quite a stretch of belief. Was it all done with smoke and mirrors? The classic attempts to rationalize away the miracle are 1)that Jesus gave a small portion of bread, about as much as a communion wafer, or 2) that the offer of a small amount of food by the disciples or a boy with a few loaves and fishes shamed everybody into sharing what food they had brought but were hiding and hoarding. Neither of these rationalizations, especially the first, account for the obvious amazement on the part of the disciples and the early church that comes across in these accounts. (The second suggestion does have an edifying element to it.) A magician never reveals his or her tricks, and it spoils the fun to try to figure them out, so perhaps we shouldn’t ask the Divine Magician to reveal God’s tricks.

What is clear from the story is that God desires abundance for all. That should not be surprising if we consider the fact that God created the world to begin with. Modern astronomers have discovered thousands and millions of galaxies in the universe and know there are thousands and millions more. How’s that for abundance? The first two chapters of Genesis attest to abundance in creation followed by scarcity once the first humans fell into sin. Which is to suggest that scarcity is a human invention. We see the same sort of abundance in the desert when God feeds the people manna and quails, only to be repaid with complaints about the menu.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims God’s offer to “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Is. 55: 1) Through Isaiah, God tells us to listen carefully to God and eat what is good and delight in rich food. (Is. 55: 2) Interestingly, God ties the abundance of food to an abundance of the Word. Once full of God’s rich food, we will witness to all the people who do not yet know God. (Is. 55: 4–5)

The feedings of the five thousand and the four thousand are obviously occasions of abundance. Where there was scarcity, there is plenty for everyone. One could say that the Fall of humanity into sin has been reversed. Creation has come back to life! This miracle reaffirms the infinite generosity of God. Do we need to know more? So powerful is this miracle, that we can easily overlook the fact that Jesus healed the sick when the crowds flocked to him in the deserted place. (Mt. 14: 14) Matthew also says that Jesus had compassion for the people. Could it be that compassion has a lot to do with whether there is abundance or scarcity? Some of Jesus’ miraculous healings also point to moral and spiritual healing, such as the paralytic who, in the course of being healed, is told that his sins are forgiven. (Mt. 9: 6) How much more should the miracle of feeding bring about the healing of the social body? Matthew’s own conversion from being a tax collector looks like a miracle to me. (Mt. 9: 9)

What should it mean to us that God desires abundance? As fallen creatures, we tend to think abundance means more for me. (Me! Me! Me!) But God does not desire abundance for Godself. (God is abundance itself!) Rather, God desires abundance for all God’s creatures. That is to say, God desires abundance for everyone. Which mean we should desire abundance for everyone. Having the compassion that Jesus had for the crowds is a start for increasing abundance. Since the feeding started with giving away a small amount of food, it follows that we should start the same way. The more we give, the more there will be. What greater miracles can there be than the miracles of compassion and generosity?

The Burglar Who Serves

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AndrewWashingFeet - CopyThe first verses of today’s Gospel (Lk. 12: 32–34) pick up from where we left off last week. That reading ended with Jesus’ little parable about the rich fool who tore down his barns to build bigger barns (Lk. 12: 12–21) only to find that his life was being demanded of him. This reading begins with Jesus’ soothing admonition to “sell our possessions and give alms” and “make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” (Lk. 12: 32-33) This is quite a contrast to two brothers fighting over an inheritance or a rich person gloating over fabulous amounts of wealth. Lest we think Jesus is asking us to make ourselves miserable, Jesus assures us that it is our heavenly Abba’s pleasure to give us a treasure that is the kingdom. If this treasure, the kingdom, is the Abba’s pleasure, then it is our pleasure as well.

It is important to see that Jesus is not telling us to give up desires. The heavenly Abba has a profound Desire for a deep union of love with each of us, a union God would have us share with each other. If God is comprised of God’s Desire, than it follows that we creatures are created with desires. What Jesus is doing here is redirecting our desires from the desires of rivalrous avarice towards God’s Desire that is without rivalry. Isn’t every fight, ultimately, over what we think we are entitled to as our inheritance? Yet aren’t we all offered the whole world to be an inheritance rather than a bone for contention? Since these rivalrous desires embroil us with our rivals, the material inheritance we are fighting for is destroyed as if by moths. Of course, each rival blames the other for being the thief that has stolen the treasure.

Jesus then shifts to an admonition to be ready for the Master’s “return from the wedding banquet.” (Lk. 12: 36) If we servants are alert and ready to greet the master, the master will wait on us as Jesus waited on his disciples at the Last Supper. This little feast shared by master and servants is an image of the treasure our hearts should be set on. The progression of vignettes and admonitions throughout this chapter suggests that the best way to be prepared for God’s coming is to set our hearts on treasure that moths cannot consume and thieves cannot steal. Fundamentally, being alert for the “master” consists of serving one another in the same way that the master serves us when he comes.

The following little parable is comical and a bit threatening. The master who serves those who wait for him is transformed into a thief breaking into a house in the middle of the night. (Lk. 12: 39–40) If our hearts are not set on the treasure of serving one another, but instead we fight over our inheritance and try to gather it into bigger barns, then the God who serves us will be quite alien to us and will be perceived as a thief, a burglar. If our rivalry deepens as it does in the still more threatening parable that follows, so that our rivalry causes us to “beat the other slaves, men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk,” (Lk. 12: 45), then the gracious master will indeed rob us of our victims.

God is both a burglar and a gracious master who serves. God only breaks in to take away all that draws our hearts away from God and from each other. What this burglar leaves in return is a treasure well worth setting our hearts on.

Paul’s Collection for Jerusalem

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AndrewWashingFeet - CopyWe are so used to passing the collection plate in church that we easily overlook the importance of the collection Paul writes about in 2 Corinthians 8:1-9:15 and elsewhere. The emotion and enthusiasm that gushes from Paul’s pen tells us that the collection was of the upmost importance to him. It behooves us to consider how important it was.

Many times, Paul speaks about the joy of giving, not only with money (which Paul had in short supply) but in time and energy and concern for others. It is Paul who passed on Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) while exhorting the Ephesians to help the weak through hard work. This concern for the weak in Jerusalem is one of the factors that inspired the collection. The joy Paul would have us take in giving is accentuated when we consider that Paul’s word for giving generously and joyfully is hilaritas. That is, we should give with hilarity.

Paul shamelessly spurs the Corinthians on to a bit of competitive generosity by boasting of how the Macedonians gave even beyond their means while urgently pleading “for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people” (1 Cor. 8:5). Competition has its problems but I don’t think Paul is holding a contest for who could give the most to the collection. Rather, Paul is holding up the Macedonians as an example to follow, hoping that their enthusiasm will inspire a like enthusiasm in Corinth.  What Paul is urging is a chain reaction of generosity that will spread throughout the churches.

Paul emphasizes the importance of sharing out of abundance, or at least having enough for sustenance, with the hope that such generosity might be reciprocated if the roles were reversed. This is what Paul is getting at in advocating “equality.” In a helpful online article, Sam Marsh suggests that the reason this equality is important to Paul is because he does not want to set up anything resembling a patron-client relationship between the Gentile churches and Jerusalem. The Roman institution of patronage is one of many ways power remained entrenched with those who already had it. Paul is envisioning something very different: a matrix of mutual giving where there is need where everybody takes turns in giving and receiving.

The unity of the church also emerges as a principal motivation for the collection. When Paul met with the elders in Jerusalem, as reported in Galatians 2, Paul said he was admonished to remember their poor, which he very much wanted to do. The debate over admitting Gentiles without circumcision was decided Paul’s favor but later correspondence shows much lingering tension over the issue. If the Gentiles of Macedonia, Ephesus and Corinth should send what money they can spare to Jerusalem, it would be a powerful sign of fellowship uniting one church in Christ.  Paul’s making sure that representatives other churches accompany him to Jerusalem is another indications of mistrust of Paul in the church of Jerusalem.

Most important is the Christological dimension to the collection. Contributing with enthusiastic hilarity is modeled on Jesus who though he was rich, for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty could become rich (1 Cor. 8: 9). This verse has been enshrined in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer in one of the collects for saints who followed the religious life. We can’t help but recall the famous verse in Philippians where Christ humbled himself to enter the human condition and suffer the same vulnerabilities, including death, which humans suffer from. This is a far cry from the billionaire who writes a few tax-deductible charity donations from the comfort of his or her mansion. We can’t compete with Christ in generosity but we can at least empty ourselves of what we do have for the sake of others.

Given the eschatological overtones of Paul’s hope for union of Jew and Gentile, this collection may well have had eschatological significance for Paul, not in an otherworldly way, but as a seismic shift in human culture. The Jewish prophets exhorted the rich to give alms to the poor, but this is the first instance in human history that I can think of where a collection of money was taken up for the relief of those in need. Paul started something momentous. It is up for us to finish the job.