Meditations

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. Deuteronomy 15:7-11

“Deuteronomy 15:7-11 … shows that an “open-handed” disposition toward the poor is required: “The poor will always be with you in your land, and that is why I command you to be open-handed towards any of your countrymen there who are in poverty and need.” This passage is the source of Jesus’ famous saying in Mark 14:7: “You have the poor among you always, and you can help them whenever you like; but you will not always have me.” By citing this passage, Jesus responds to those who would condemn the woman when she anoints Jesus with expensive oil, rather than cashing in the ointment and using the money to help the poor. But Jesus uses this text from Deuteronomy to expose the criticizers’ insincerity. “The poor are with you always,” he says in Matthew 26:11 and John 12:8 leaving the remainder of the text unspoken but implied — “therefore be open-handed toward them.” Jesus, Judas and those who were condemning the woman no doubt knew the full text. They recognized that the text did not mandate that they keep the poor in poverty, but that the presence of the poor was to serve as the reason to be constantly open-handed toward them.”

Kent A. Van Til in Less Than Two Dollars a Day: A Christian View of World Poverty and the Free Market (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007) 77-78.

Open-handed living runs contrary to our flesh, which cries “mine” to all that which our gracious God puts in our hands. God, forgive us for our selfishness. Teach us to live open-handed, and in so doing, to show the world your love. Amen.

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you…to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 3:2, 9-10

“The biblical good news is that believers have been given the opportunity to serve as stewards of the openly revealed gospel of God, to take part in a venture involving the many-sided wisdom and plan of God, as part of God’s stewardship (Eph. 3:2, 9-10)…All can join in stewardship, as part of God’s economy.”

John Reumann in Stewardship & The Economy of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992) 123.

Jesus saved us from sin and death, and our salvation by grace through faith has a purpose. We, His Church, get to participate with Him in His redeeming work as stewards through our service and work in God’s economy! This weekend I will be sharing my recent research on this topic.

I am teaching on “Life in the Economy of God” at the invitation of my friend, Steve Bury, executive director of Urban Impact at Rainier Ave Church (Friday and Saturday) and Emerald City Bible Fellowship (Sunday) in Seattle, Washington. I’d appreciate your prayers.

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Mark 14:6-9

“Jesus knew that by selling the perfume for whatever price it was, it was not going to solve the problem of the poor. If the disciples were honest about the poor, the only way to tackle it was not to engage in piecemeal charitable acts but to follow the radical social redesign envisioned in Deuteronomy.”

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. Deuteronomy 15:7-11.

R. S. Sugirtharajah in “‘For You Always Have the Poor with You’: an Example of Hermeneutics of Suspicion,” Asia Journal of Theology 4.1 (1990): 105.

Grasping life in God’s economy is linked to living out the “radical redesign envisioned in Deuteronomy” through the Church. Open-handed living leads all of us from shifting from “piecemeal charitable acts” to the radical enjoyment and sharing experienced by the early church in Acts and many communities of faith today where the gospel is preached and followed.

“The Poor One and poor people in general are God’s question to us. God gives us responsibility in the world by asking us a question which we have to answer. The question is constant, permanent, living, for “you will always have the poor with you [Matt. 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8].” We cannot sidestep this question, for we are always in contact with the poor, and each one of them puts God’s big question in human flesh…

Whether we like it or not, we have to answer either positively or negatively. Our whole attitude is our response. Scripture reveals that our attitude toward the poor is our response to God’s question. We all can find our place and get involved with this question, which appears to concern economics or human feelings, but behind this question, a spiritual decision is ultimately demanded of us. God adopts the poor to put us all in question, and it is certainly our all that is put in question…”

Jacques Ellul in Money and Power (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1984) 152.

What will I do with the poor, especially since they more than a problem to be solved, but rather people that God loves? What will you do? Perhaps the best answer to the question as Christ-followers is to ask, what did Jesus do with the poor, and to go and do likewise…

“O that God would enable me once more, before I go hence and am no more seen, to lift up my voice like a trumpet to those who gain and save all they can, but do not give all they can! Ye are the men, some of the chief men, who continually grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and in a great measure stop His gracious influence from descending on our assemblies.

Many of your brethren, beloved of God, have not food to eat; they have not raiment to put on; they have not a place where to lay their head. And why are they thus distressed because you impiously, unjustly, and cruelly detain from them what your Master and theirs lodges in your hands on purpose to supply their wants! See that poor member of Christ, pinched with hunger, shivering with cold, half naked!

Meantime you have plenty of this world’s goods of meat, drink, and apparel. In the name of God, what are you doing? Do you neither fear God, nor regard man? Why do you not deal your bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with a garment? Have you laid out in your own costly apparel what would have answered both these intentions? Did God command you so to do? Does He commend you for so doing. Did He entrust you with His (not your) goods for this end? And does He now say, “Servant of God, well done?” You well know He does not.

This idle expense has no approbation, either from God, or your own conscience. But you say you can afford it! O be ashamed to take such miserable nonsense into your mouths! Never more litter such stupid cant; such palpable absurdity! Can any steward afford to be an arrant knave to waste his Lord’s goods? Can any servant afford to lay out his Master’s money, any otherwise than his Master appoints him? So far from it, that whoever does this ought to be excluded from a Christian society.”

John Wesley (1703-1791) in “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity” Sermon 116.9.

Strong but profound words from Wesley. Sadly, many don’t turn to Christ because so many in the so-called “Christian society” look and act nothing like Him. Father, help us gain all we can and save all we can so that we can give all we can in a manner that shows your love today to a broken and lost world, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

“The radical abundance Jesus invites us into is the economy of a shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. It is the interruption of every economic system because it refuses the law of scarcity and insists that the impossible can happen. God’s people can survive for forty years on bread that falls out of the sky. Five thousand people can eat their fill and still have leftovers from a meal of two fish and five loaves of bread. God’s economy is not a new system to be established in the world. It is, instead, the fundamental truth of the universe. It is the miracle that keeps us all alive, despite our rebellion against God and selfishness in relating to one another.

God’s abundant life is not success as the world defines it. It doesn’t mean God wants you to live in a mansion on the hill. Such extravagance is far less than what God desires for every person–a restored relationship with our Father and the family that gathers around his welcome table. The abundant life Jesus offers is freedom from the poverty that says some people are worthless and freedom from the wealth that tempts others to forget God. Beneath the illusions of the power called money, this is our deepest hunger: to know we are loved unconditionally and to know our neighbors in light of that love.”

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove in God’s Economy () 50-51.

In the Greek NT, the term “oikonomia” only appears three times: 1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:9-10; and, Eph. 3:8-10. It can be translated as God’s “economy, plan, or divine order of things.” From these texts, we learn that it is rooted in Christ; it is the opposite of the world’s system; and, it functions through the church.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove opens our eyes to see the divine order of things: life in God’s economy is one of abundance and love in relationship to the Father and all are welcome. All of us! I pray this inspires each of us today not to settle for the life money offers but to take hold of “real” life in God (1 Tim 6:19).

“Of course, salvation is God’s gift, out of his sheer grace–this is the teaching of the whole Bible and grace is free. Those who have truly received this free grace are made investors in heaven through deeds of love.

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has not deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, if one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well, “keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:14-17

Grace, received through faith, does not ease the obligation to invest in heaven through gifts to the needy. Against the pull of self-interest and the excuses of selfishness, grace makes such investment possible.”

Gerard Berghoef and Lester DeKoster in Faithful in All God’s House: Stewardship and the Christian Life ed. Brett Elder (Grand Rapids: Christian’s Library Press, 2013).

Father, thank you for the free gift of salvation and the outpouring of your love and grace in our lives which makes deeds of love possible. May our actions not reflect our stingy selfishness but rather your gracious generosity.

“When Jesus asked the rich young man to sell his goods and give to the poor, he did not say, “Become destitute and friendless.” Rather he said, “Come follow me” (Matthew 19:21). In other words, he invited him to join a community of sharing and love, where his security would not be based on individual property holdings, but on openness to the Spirit and on the loving care of new found brothers and sisters.”

Richard K. Taylor in Economics and the Gospel (Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1973) 21.

As placing our security in individual property holdings and deciding not to follow Jesus are not viable options, may we all find a home in such a body of Christ-followers right away. If we can’t locate such a body, perhaps it’s time you start a community of sharing and love.

“Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and gratitude…He has no need of our works but only of our love.”

Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) in The Story of a Soul (Washington DC: ICS publications, 2005) 316.

Let us deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus with hearts filled with gratitude and lives that spread His love everywhere we go.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. John 13:34

“In short, you should know that it is not riches but men’s use of them which is blameless or acceptable to God. To realize this, read how the holy fathers Abraham and Job became dear to God by the use of their wealth. Indeed, in that Gospel in which the rich man in hell who despised Lazarus is unnamed, we note that the rich Joseph of Arimathea is cited by name.”

Paulinus of Nola (354-431) in a letter as recounted in The Quotable Saint ed. Rosemary Ellen Guiley (New York: Visionary Living, 2002) 179.

Let us be conduits of material and spiritual blessings to our neighbors, our churches, our communities, and the world. God sees our generosity and often like the saints of old, replenishes our cups. The world wants to attain riches. God cares how we use them.