Week 04–generosity

This Week’s Reading:

Generosity, when it has matured, stems from a practice of contentment rooted in grateful response to God’s rescue. The command to “not fret” and “not be envious” (Ps. 37:1) is only possible for the one who “takes refuge in YHWH,” (Ps 37:40). In between the anxiety (37:1)  and salvation (37:39-40), we find all of God’s painful commands: trust in YHWH (37:3), commit your way to YHWH (37:5), be still and wait for YHWH (37:7), and refrain from anxious anger (37:8). These commands sound pious and spiritual but, when played out in the “real” world, are “impossible for man,” (Lk 19.27). 

Sometimes it takes an anti-hero (Lk 16:1) to help us imagine that Psalm 37:16 could actually be true, that our greatest danger is not lack, but rather having an abundance without being “rich toward God,” (Lk 12:21). In an ironic twist, the dishonest manager (like most of the protagonists in Jesus’ stories, i.e. 19:8 and 18:9) does what Jesus wants his followers to do– generously forgive debts with wealth that never belonged to them, making peace and finding “eternal homes,” (Lk 16:9). It is no accident that the command to “be dressed for action with lamps lit” (Lk 12:35) comes right after another command to not fear and to simplify our lifestyles so we can be radically generous (Lk 12:32-34). If we pay attention to the context, we will see the unwise servant (12:35-48), unlike the dishonest manager, is blind to his true calling in the same way that the nameless rich man is blind to Lazarus (Lk 16:19-30). 

Surprisingly, the sin of greed is personified, not with the miserly, coin-counting of our cultural imagination, but by the acceptable ignorance of the poor we are distracted from seeing on a regular basis. We are only given so much time, and if ours is already full with our own feasting and leisure (Lk 12:45; 16:19) we may find ourselves eternally disappointed when God’s kingdom arrives to “flip the tables,” (Lk 19:45-48). Perhaps our life goal should not be to store up wealth in order to give our children a blessing that fades, but rather to be “always giving” (Ps 37:26) so, “with little or much,” (Php. 4:12) our children “become a blessing” to an impoverished world (Ps. 37:6).