Who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. Psalm 15:5
“In order to receive something great from God for yourselves, be the same to the poor! With neither pettiness nor stinginess but with terrific lavishness and eagerness… Freely give this good lot both to yourselves and your beloved, stealing nothing from what has been written but bestowing everything with pleasure and joyousness, as though returning what property belongs to God…
For why should you hoard it up for bandits and thieves and for the vicissitudes of the times, which change erratically and whisk unstable prosperity all about but not deposit it into vaults secure and stronger than the attackers? Display your frugality, then, in other circumstances, and to other people (for I also pray that you’re powerful with kindness), but fight the good fight with us… Convince me that you are genuine…”
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329-390) in “Letter to Alypius” 4. in Gregory of Nazianzus’s Letter Collection: The Complete Translation, by Bradley K. Storin (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2019) 154. Gregory of Nazianzus is the third of the the three Cappadocian Fathers and one of the Four Doctors of the Eastern Church.
Today I’m thrilled to serve with Adel Azmy of NABLA in Egypt with Patrick Johnson of Generous Church and Ereny Monir, my colleague at GTP. I pray God gives us the candor mixed with kindness that Gregory of Nazianzus exhibited in his writings. So, how do we help people shift from giving with pettiness or stinginess to giving with lavishness and eagerness?
I believe it starts by freely coming to serve. We are here in Egypt not because of what we want from anyone but rather because of what we want for them. We aim to impart the reminder to them that because everything belongs to God, giving is merely “returning” resources back to Him and, in so doing, grasping abundant life.
When we disobey, we store up money for ourselves and put it at risk to the instability of the times. Instead we can store in “into vaults secure” in heaven through giving. God, through the reading of Scripture, the sharing of stories, and our service with kindness, please cause humble obedience and genuine generosity to spread across Egypt. Amen.