LOVE GIVES... LOVE

Ezra 4:24-6:22; 1 Corinthians 3:5-23; Psalm 29:1-11; Proverbs 20:26-27

“Moreover, I hereby decree that you are to help these elders of the Jews as they rebuild this Temple of God. You must pay the full construction costs, without delay, from my taxes collected in the province west of the Euphrates River so that the work will not be interrupted. …And without fail, provide them with as much wheat, salt, wine, and olive oil as they need each day. Then they will be able to offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the welfare of me and my sons.”

“I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.”

“The Lord gives his people strength. The Lord blesses them with peace.”

“The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit….”

This has been an interesting season. Last year, I got involved with a number of charitable organizations and foundations, and it seems they all had their annual fundraising campaigns in the last four weeks or so. Each is needy, especially this year. But the entire process brought to mind another reality. Simply, the world’s needs are never going to be solved with money. Even Jesus understood this when He remarked to Judas that the poor will always be with us. There is so much need and only so much any human (or all humans) can do. I was happy to play my part but a bit dismayed that my proverbial “drops in the bucket” lacked any real significance in the overall scheme of things. With each check, I found myself wanting to convey a more significant and lasting gift than money to these worthy organizations.

That’s when I was reminded of Peter’s response to the beggar in Acts. “I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” Give what matters. Frequently, this requires gifts of self or time much more precious to us than cash. So be it. Take time, for instance, to buy the bread that strengthens the stranger. Don’t just buy the paint. Put it on the house. And as giving becomes more personal, expect some conflict with recipients over the appropriateness or value of the gift. Not every beggar wants to eat; not every cripple wants to walk. Charity for charity’s sake may be a moral standard, but that is not to say it has any eternal value. Gifts of eternal value are those that build the Kingdom.

We need to own that just throwing money at a perceived problem does not reflect the giving modeled by Christ. At best, it represents mere “charity” even the Enemy can potentially twist to his purposes. By way of example, this weekend, two people were talking directly behind me. I wish I could have ignored them, but I could not help overhearing. One fellow was telling his buddy about a friend who had graduated from George Washington University and still spent roughly four to five months a year literally living in a box under the Potomac River bridge in Washington, D.C. Then the other shoe dropped. The young man spent the rest of his year traveling the world on the roughly $150,000 to $200,000 a year he made begging. Now, that seems hard to swallow, but as it raises an important spiritual truth, let’s just get to the point. Christians need to be about a lot more than charity. They need to be about changing the world into the Bride of Christ. And that, dear friends, takes a lot more than money. As Jesus lived our example, sometimes, it takes sweat, tears and even blood. It requires actual engagement in the cause, not just peripheral participation. Most of all, it takes love.

How fundamentally might the world be changed if the gifts we gave actually had eternal, spiritual and physical significance not subject to the effects of inflation or recession? The answer to our giving problem is not really money at all. It’s value. Some of us don’t give anything at all. That’s not good. But some of us give things of lesser value just so we can protect and horde that which we more highly prize. That’s just as bad and perhaps worse, if we are fooling ourselves in the process. We give donations to support others’ work so we can still make Saturday’s golf game. We send e-mails so we can avoid the awkwardness of an actual hospital visit, and our own feelings of inadequacy (protecting our self-image). When we do these things, we really aren’t giving at all. We’re “obliging.” The Lord calls on us to make gifts of our time and talents, as well as our finances. But mainly, He equips us to make gifts that matter.  We must be willing to share.

Somewhere deep down, most of us understand the best gifts permanently change someone’s world for the better. At a deeper level, a few even understand the most valuable gifts cost more than money. The Holy Spirit gives us love, but He gives us that love to share as Jesus did. References to Jesus’ monetary situation are few and very far between. That’s because His best gifts had nothing to do with financial security or tangible assets. It seems pretty clear He relied on others for His material needs. What He was able to give others as a result of that support, however, always dwarfed the original gift. It seems to me Jesus’ life provides a pretty decent standard.

First, let’s be clear: “receiving” itself is not a sinful concept. Receiving without multiplying or sharing may be. Jesus did not scorn the rich simply based on their material blessings. He had no problem with the use of a year’s wages to anoint Him before His final days. He challenged wealth only when it got in the way of faith or was symptomatic of miserliness. Wealth is not, in and of itself, a sin. But it certainly can be a hard to control blessing.

Second, Jesus never encouraged indiscriminate giving or giving based on guilt. Christ Himself condemned casting our pearls before pigs. We have no obligation whatsoever to give to every allegedly charitable cause that calls or comes knocking, and we should not feel guilty about it, either. The Lord went out of His way to remove guilt as a motivation for much of anything, yet it still may be the single most emphasized or capitalized upon reason people give. How sad. Guilty giving robs the gift of joy and blinds us to the blessings that made the gift possible in the first place.

Finally, Jesus was willing to risk everything He had, when it mattered. He did not just put His financial security on the line. He gave Himself to lift others up. In fact, He gave at a depth that made money superfluous. He gave Love, until He was completely poured out.

I’m no Christ, but I am called to be a re-presentation of Christ. As long as I am trying to hold onto things lesser than Him, I can never fairly re-present Him or effectively build the Kingdom in His power. I know what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to risk it all so He can fill me up. I’m not sure I’m up to that challenge. But at least today, I can stop kidding myself that my problem is simply a financial one.