“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:28-35
“Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? The tourists are having coffee and doughnuts on Deck C. Presumably someone is minding the ship, correcting the course, avoiding icebergs and shoals, fueling the engines, watching the radar screen, noting weather reports radioed in from shore. No one would dream of asking the tourists to do these things. Alas, among the tourists on Deck C, drinking coffee and eating doughnuts, we find the captain, and all the ship’s officers and all the ship’s crew. The officers chat; they swear; they wink a bit at slightly raw jokes, just like regular people. The crew members have funny accents. The wind seems to be picking up.
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us to where we can never return.”
Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper & Row, 1982) 40-41.
Dillard’s passion reminded me of Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders. He was not messing around during his three years in Ephesus while laboring among them. Meanwhile, modern day churches appear to be run more like cruise ships with people lounging rather than laboring.
Comfort has become the idol rather than courageous service. Where generosity comes into view is that Paul would urge us to set an example of sacrifice and provide people what they need to flourish. That might mean we give them “life preservers” to make it through the storms of life.
So, here’s my shout out to you all in the same spirit. Most so-called followers of Christ flatly ignore the teachings of Jesus on money. They are chilling on Deck C in luxury and rationalizing their disobedience as acceptable. Are you among them?
Notice how Paul uses the word “remember” twice. Firstly, he wants us to we remember his example. Secondly, he locates his example in the words of the Lord Himself. In plain terms, generosity is better than anything they are offering on Deck C. And when we share this with others, we can literally save their lives.