Give, don't just trade
This week is on Luke 14:12-14:
In Jesus' time, every favor came with a price. If someone helped you out with $10, you can bet they'd want something from you later. It worked out well for them, because money and favors would always be circulating freely inside of a circle of friends, but the problem was that they didn't exit that circle very often. You would be so busy cooking dinners for the three people who'd had you over the week before, that you'd miss the people outside of your house who didn't have enough to eat.
Socialist wealth-redistribution rants aside, there's a big question in Jesus' words about how we invest our money and talents. If you only help people who help you, you're not really giving yourself away. You're just lending yourself out with interest. What if you gave yourself to someone who didn't deserve it, who hadn't worked for it, and who couldn't pay it back? That's crazy talk if you think about all it entails, but they're Jesus' words, so there must be something to them.
If you just invest in people who can pay you back, you're the ambassador from the richest nation on earth, who never leaves the embassy, who throws functions only for the embassy staff, and who has no regard whatsoever for the failed state that exists outside its iron gates. The champagne airlifted in weekly is excellent, but what about the family down the street who is starving?
Jesus wants us to seek out "lame" people. The kingdom is for everyone who wants it. As ambassadors, we're supposed to be out in the failed world we're sent to, distributing God's blessings and announcing his greatness to people who ask where we got it. He is so great! If you sent an ambassador to an impoverished needy nation, would you rather he just hung out with expatriates from your country, or would you rather he got out and shared the good things about your country with people who could benefit from them? Why even pay an ambassador, if he's going to blow all of your money before the world even sees any of it?
I don't think Jesus is telling us to shun our friends and to avoid rich and powerful people. I do think that he wants us to be very careful about how we limit the relationships we pursue and to really think about what we consider to be a good investment of time or money, talent or other resources. The behavior he describes wouldn't look good at all to the shareholders, but it's absolutely brilliant from an evangelical perspective.
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. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."
In Jesus' time, every favor came with a price. If someone helped you out with $10, you can bet they'd want something from you later. It worked out well for them, because money and favors would always be circulating freely inside of a circle of friends, but the problem was that they didn't exit that circle very often. You would be so busy cooking dinners for the three people who'd had you over the week before, that you'd miss the people outside of your house who didn't have enough to eat.
Socialist wealth-redistribution rants aside, there's a big question in Jesus' words about how we invest our money and talents. If you only help people who help you, you're not really giving yourself away. You're just lending yourself out with interest. What if you gave yourself to someone who didn't deserve it, who hadn't worked for it, and who couldn't pay it back? That's crazy talk if you think about all it entails, but they're Jesus' words, so there must be something to them.
If you just invest in people who can pay you back, you're the ambassador from the richest nation on earth, who never leaves the embassy, who throws functions only for the embassy staff, and who has no regard whatsoever for the failed state that exists outside its iron gates. The champagne airlifted in weekly is excellent, but what about the family down the street who is starving?
Jesus wants us to seek out "lame" people. The kingdom is for everyone who wants it. As ambassadors, we're supposed to be out in the failed world we're sent to, distributing God's blessings and announcing his greatness to people who ask where we got it. He is so great! If you sent an ambassador to an impoverished needy nation, would you rather he just hung out with expatriates from your country, or would you rather he got out and shared the good things about your country with people who could benefit from them? Why even pay an ambassador, if he's going to blow all of your money before the world even sees any of it?
I don't think Jesus is telling us to shun our friends and to avoid rich and powerful people. I do think that he wants us to be very careful about how we limit the relationships we pursue and to really think about what we consider to be a good investment of time or money, talent or other resources. The behavior he describes wouldn't look good at all to the shareholders, but it's absolutely brilliant from an evangelical perspective.
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