Raymond F. Collins: One telling remark

He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!” Luke 20:16

“The parable of the Wicked Tenants, a story of greed that leads to violence and murder. Luke has simplified the account of the number of victims who suffered at the hands of the malefactors, but he has retained the thrust of the story as he writes about a series of victims, beginning with a slave who is maltreated and ending with the son who is killed.

Luke has, however, added one telling remark. After his Jesus describes the punishment that the owner of the vineyard metes out to the perpetrators of so much evil, Luke writes, “When they heard this, they said, ‘heaven forbid.’ “No way,” our contemporaries might say. Those who heard Jesus tell this story including those to whom his telling of the story was ultimately directed, were incredulous.

They could not or would not believe that God would punish greedy people who resorted to violence and murder. Of the three Synoptics, Luke is the only one to add this comment, but he wants his readers to know that some people find the idea that God will severely punish greed, violence, and murder preposterous.”

Raymond F. Collins in Wealth, Wages, and the Wealthy: New Testament Insight for Preachers and Teachers (Collegeville: Liturgical, 2017) 153.

Take a moment and read this parable in Luke’s Gospel, Luke 20:9-19. If you read Matthew and Mark’s account, you will find similar narrative, just not the verse that serves as today’s Scripture above, Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-12. And, if you are wondering what this text and reading have to do with generosity, let me make my point first.

Those who through self-justification have talked themselves into thinking they can act as owners and who appear to serve God but by their behavior show are motivated by greed stood among the ranks of the religious authorities in the days of Jesus. When they realized that their greed, the selfish desire to possess which had situated them in power, would be the very tool that would destroy them, they exclaimed “No way!” because that meant what they had would be taken away. No wonder they would try to “lay hands on him that very hour” (Luke 20:19).

Today’s post is an alarm to awaken the greedy and selfish soul to sharing and repentance: the tenants should have been generous sharers from the start. But it’s also a message to people who champion stewardship everywhere: the religious establishment, if they are acting like owners, will not want to hear the message.

The wicked tenants acted like they owned the vineyard instead of sharing with successive servants or even the son of the landowner, their greed led to violence and even murder. We see this pattern today. People will do anything to preserve power and place. Often they retain wealth, acting as owners, is just the first of a pattern of sins. Not good!

Yesterday I said that to live a generous life we must live differently from the world. Today we learn why. Those who follow the pattern of this world will serve money rather than God, and their selfish desire to possess will lead to their demise. This happens to people running in religious circles. What they have will be taken away and given to others.

The “one telling remark” Collins points out that does not appear in Matthew or Mark’s account is the reaction of the greedy listeners who realized he was referring to them. They had been caught in their self-justification and would lose everything. What about you? Are you acting like an owner? The time to repent and share is now.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2

“Any discussion of financial margin would be incomplete without mentioning the pure joy of it. There are three reasons for this joy. First, by lowering expenses below income you live with far less stress and pressure. If the refrigerator breaks down, you don’t. If your car needs new tires, you simply go out and get them. Without margin life struggles and staggers and stumbles. But when margin is present, life flows. And flowing is more enjoyable without staggering.

Second, having financial margin allows beneficence toward others. This is one of the most rewarding of all human activities, and I am convinced it is a subset of love. Meeting the needs of others delivers us from the world of selfishness and into a world of grace and gratitude.

These two sources of joy are sufficient grounds to recommend margin. But there’s yet a third, even greater, source of joy. It is a transcendent kind of pleasure that comes neither from within nor without but from above. It comes from the source of all that is right, and when you approach it you feel its warmth even from a distance.

In giving, you are ushered into a world where cynicism and hatred have been banished. You are considering others before yourself. You are choosing heaven as the place you will put your treasure. You are doing what God asked you to do, and what he did Himself. In giving, you are pleasing Him.”

Richard Swenson in Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2004) 137-138.

As we follow Jesus living life on mission (like the people whose feet are pictured above), not ceasing from our work, but as workers for God in various professions, we quickly find that it’s hard to please God without financial margin as we are slaves to money. As we earn, we must live within our means to create financial bandwidth for the unexpected, for giving, and for living lives pleasing to God.

This requires that we live differently from the world! Because about two-thirds of Americans are slaves to debt and have little or no financial margin, Swenson suggests these three points to motivate us to chart a course and take it. Do it to relieve stress, to have resources to give, and most of all to please God. It may require you to say “no” to much of what the world offers. But it’s worth it!

Need help? Check out my Good and Faithful videos that stream freely. Share them with someone you know who struggles to have financial margin. You may do more than help them find freedom from slavery to debt; you may set them free from the love of money to find stability, resources for generosity, and best of all, to position them to experience boundless joy of a life that pleases God.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Romans 8:13

“Others sit up in the pursuit of the world, and the wealth of it. They not only rise up early, but they sit up late, in the eager prosecution of their covetous practices (Psalm 127:2) and, either to get or save, deny themselves their most necessary sleep; and this their way is their folly, for hereby they deprive themselves of the comfortable enjoyment of what they have, which is the end, under pretense of care and pains to obtain more, which is but the means…

Let us see the folly of it, and never labour thus for the meat that perisheth, and that abundance of the rich, which will not suffer him to sleep; but let us labour for that meat which endureth to eternal life, that grace which is the earnest of glory, the abundance of which will make our sleep sweet to us.

Others sit up in the indulgence of their pleasures. They will not lay them down in due time, because they cannot find in their hearts to leave their vain sports and pastimes, their music, and dancing, and plays, their cards and dice; or, which is worse, their rioting and excess; for they that are drunk are drunk in the night.

It is bad enough when these gratifications of a base lust, or at least of a vain mind, are suffered to devour the whole evening, and then to engross the whole soul, as they are apt enough to do insensibly; so that there is neither time nor heart for the evening devotions, either in the closet, or in the family…And how loth would they be, with David, at midnight to rise and give thanks to God; or with their Master, to continue all night in prayer to God. Let the corrupt affections which run out thus and transgress, be mortified, and not gratified.”

Matthew Henry in Directions for Daily Communion With God (London: William Tegg, 1866) 60-61.

Today’s new header photo fits well with with this reading. It’s the feet of missionaries in training right now, sent from parts of Asia to other regions in Asia that are largely closed to the gospel but open for work. They fill occupations such as teachers or accountants. I received it from a close friend and thought, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:15, Isaiah 52:7). Their devotion to God reflects mortification. Despite possible danger, rather than pursuing possessions or pleasures, they are risking their lives to make known the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What does mortification have to do with generosity?

If we do not mortify the desires of the flesh, that is, put them to death, they will destroy us. That comprises everything from the pursuit of the world and wealth to the indulgence of pleasures. Think of it this way. When not put in their rightful place, they will take over the place in our hearts and our days. Sport and pastimes will consume our calendars and eat up any margin for God and others. To relate rightly to the abundance God supplies with enjoyment and sharing with hospitality, each of us must mortify, not gratify, the desires of the flesh.

What’s this look like in practicality?

Look at your bank and credit card statements alongside your calendar. Your bank statements reveal whether you are trying to amass wealth for yourself, which will own you if not put in play through giving and sharing. Your credit card statements divulge facts about your spending associated with possessions and pleasures; it points to the place where your heart is. And your calendar makes plain your priorities ranging from focus to folly. When assessed honestly together, these items show the state of your stewardship.

Mortify rather than gratify the desires of the flesh to find freedom and grow in generosity.

When they had all had enough to eat, He said to His disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. John 6:12-13

“The economics that Christian hospitality seeks to embody, then, is marked by abundance, surplus, excess, and surprise. In the Gospel accounts of the feedings of the fish and loaves, there are always baskets left over. An uncalculating generosity characterizes these feasts.

At this point, however, some nagging questions persist. Isn’t it actually the case that there is not abundance? People go hungry and homeless. Increasingly, people are working longer hours just to make ends meet.

Don’t we need to work and save to secure our livelihood and that of our children? Isn’t it more truthful to speak of scarcity rather than abundance? These kinds of questions easily lead us to endorse the spirit of capitalism: to compete and hoard, to have tight fists rather than open hands.

I don’t have any easy answers to these questions. They resonate with me and create a deep tension with the conviction that through hospitality we participate in the abundant grace of God. We must see, however, that even though we live in a fallen world of competition and hoarding, this is not the place we are called to dwell…

Christian hospitality, in contrast, embodies the conviction that to live fully is to receive and to give God’s own plenitude. Such plenitude is eschatologically present; the kingdom of God is at hand… Christians are therefore called to live “as if” the kingdom of God, a reign marked by excess and superfluidity, is now present, because it is now present, though not in its fulness.”

Elizabeth Newman in Untamed Hospitality: Welcoming God and Other Strangers (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2007) 101-102.

Think of the “abundance, surplus, excess, and surprise” of life in the kingdom of God and what it means to live in that reality now, though we don’t experience it in all its fulness yet.

The “abundance” links to the the image of the feedings of the fish and the loaves. People are hungry, tired, and broken. They need the nourishment and satisfaction that only God can supply. This reality persists today.

The “surplus” reminds us that there’s more than enough for everyone. So, why doesn’t everyone have enough? Our role comes into view: to gather, but not for hoarding, rather with the vision of sharing God’s abundant grace.

The “excess” reveals our posture as servants. In a world where competing and hoarding to get ahead of others actually leaves people empty, we humbly serve by gathering all God supplies for enjoyment and sharing.

The “surprise” is that we discover life in God’s economy. “To live fully is to receive and to give God’s own plenitude.” But it’s only found in receiving and giving, that is, enjoying and sharing all God richly supplies.

With Newman, I conclude with a question for application: Do you live “as if” the kingdom of God, a reign marked by excess and superfluidity, is now present, because it is now present, though not in its fulness?

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Romans 15:7

“At its core, the practice of biblical hospitality is obeying the command of Romans 15:7 to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” It’s receiving others into our lives — into relationship and, yes, even into our homes. It welcomes Christians as a way to walk in the truth that we’ve been made family through the gospel, and it welcomes non-Christians in an attempt to model and extend the gracious invitation we’ve received from God in Christ.

Leveraging our personal refuges for this mission of welcoming others may feel like a great cost, but it is a cost that is repaid with an abundance of superior joys. Loneliness is traded for community, comfort is surrendered for an eternal purpose, and detached apathy is left behind for a mission meaningful enough to give you life to.

If we walk in this biblical hospitality and view your homes foremost as a gospel weapon, offering our homes for the Holy Spirit to use as He sees fit, then there’s no telling what could happen. It may not transpire fast and it may not be some glamorous story that goes into a book, but God will do what He promised: He will build His church and draw people to Himself through our ordinary faithfulness to leverage our homes for His mission.”

Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements in The Simplest Way to Change the World: Biblical Hospitality as a Way of Life (Chicago: Moody, 2017), 26-27.

My wife and I were watching a movie recently, when the tight-knit group of characters proclaimed, “we’re not friends, we’re family.” They held a bond deeper than friendship. That’s what I recently experienced in Connecticut. There are friends there that have become family to us, thanks to God’s abundant grace to us.

I preached as a guest speaker in Colchester, CT, on Sunday and had (if I am counting correctly) four couples and a total of 11 children, so counting me there were 20 of us for the service and lunch thereafter. I introduced them to the church as my “family” because, in the words of Willis and Clements, “we’ve been made family through the gospel.”

I told them what I will tell you today as readers. When God knits a group of people together who love Jesus deeply, we become family, but it must not stop there. Together, they must open our doors to others. I promised an abundance of superior joys in return and reminded them that their children will live likewise, but only if they show the way.

What about you? Are you using your home as a “gospel weapon”? We tend to think of ours more in terms of a “sanctuary” filled with peace, grace, mercy, love, and generosity. Whatever label you affix to it, leverage your home for God on mission. Use it, like the rest of your earthly wealth, to “make friends” for eternity (Luke 16:9).

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Isaiah 58:7

“Therefore, whatever man you meet who needs your aid, you have no reason to refuse to help him. Say, “He is a stranger”; but the Lord has given him a mark that ought to be familiar to you, by virtue of the fact that he forbids you to despise your own flesh (Isaiah 58:7). Say, “He is contemptible and worthless”; but the Lord shows him to be one whom he has deigned to give the beauty of His image. Say that you owe nothing for any service of his; but God, as it were, has put him in his own place in order that you may recognize toward him the many and great benefits with which God has bound you to Himself. Say that he does not deserve even your least effort for his sake; but the image of God, which recommends him to you, is worthy of your giving yourself and all your possessions.”

John Calvin (1509-1564) in Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 vols., ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960) 3.7.6.

I flew home late last night after sweet ministry and fellowship with friends. But, there’s no place like home! And now the tables have turned. I’ve been blessed by the hospitality of others, and later today we get to welcome Tim Macready of Christian Super into our home.

While reading Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl, I came across this quote. It’s striking. It’s easy to extend generous hospitality to mates like Tim. He’s a dear Christian brother. But what about those society says are “contemptible and worthless”. Notice, because of the image of God in them, Calvin, citing Isaiah, says to do it because they are fellow humans. If it sounds difficult, remember that when you and I were “contemptible and worthless” because of our sin, God made room for us. To make room for the “contemptible and worthless” is distinctly Christian generosity.

Father in heaven, help us extend the same kindness to others that you extended to us, even the most undeserving. By your Holy Spirit, help us value humans over possessions, so we look like Jesus to the world. Amen.

And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers. Philemon 1:22

“A habit of hospitality is fundamental to our identity as Christians. Our primary call is to live out the gospel; a lifestyle of hospitality is part of that call. For some of us, there will be a more particular call to a deliberate and focused expression of hospitality, but for all of us, hospitality is essential to who we are as followers of Jesus.

By reflecting on our own experiences as a guest or stranger, we can identify the components of hospitality that communicate welcome. What made us feel comfortable, valued, safe? What communicated to us that we were inconvenient or in the way? What is it about certain people and places that make us feel renewed and nourished?”

Christine D. Pohl in Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999) 177.

Have you ever experienced hospitality that communicates welcome beyond your expectations and imagination? Like Paul asked Philemon to prepare a guest room for him, I have stayed as a guest in many homes on numerous occasions, but I cannot recall ever feeling so honored as I have this weekend.

Jon and Maria Searles gave me their master bedroom to stay in this weekend.

This sweet couple, with whom someday Jenni and I hope to visit Maria’s homeland, Italy, was so excited to host me, they gave me their own bed. Unforgettable! They inconvenienced themselves, showing me sacrificial generosity in order to communicate welcome to me. I got a glimpse of the hospitality of Christ.

Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. Ephesians 3:8-9

“More than anything else it is the loving contemplation of the Maker that causes the soul to realize its own insignificance, and fills it with holy dread and true humility, and with abundant love to our fellow Christians… I was greatly moved with love for my fellow Christians, that they might know and see what I was seeing, for I wanted to cheer them too…”

Julian of Norwich (c.1342-1416) in Julian of Norwich: Reflections on Selected Texts by Austin Cooper (London: Burns & Oates, 2001) 38.

Special thanks to Shannon and Amy Rodgers for trays of pulled pork nachos (pictured above) at Mark and Kate Whitsitt’s house. Shannon smoked the meat himself special for my visit, though in pain recovering from a car accident. His sacrifice blessed me. Would you pause to say a prayer for his healing from neck pain, back spasms, and the brain tumor the scans revealed?

That’s right, Shannon had the bizarre gift of a car accident to reveal a benign brain tumor that needs to come out.

I wish Jenni was here. What’s sweeter than fellowship with friends? Many ask me: What’s Jenni doing back home when you travel? While I stay with our friends, Jon and Maria Searles, in East Hampton, Connecticut, and teach at Faith and Work 2.0 up in Keene, New Hampshire, today with ECFA colleagues, Sam Huggard and Paul Voltmer, she’s serving on a parallel track.

Jenni and I are about as far apart in the USA as we can be, and yet, we feel like we are walking hand in hand.

While I serve God all over the world as the Generosity Monk, in “loving contemplation of the Maker” she serves as the Soulcare Anchoress, helping people anchor their souls in Jesus. Like the Apostle Paul before us, we share generously the riches of Christ and His abundant love with others. While my work is often speaking and writing, she’s commonly meeting with women, providing spiritual direction, and serving in other ways.

Click to learn more about the Soulcare Anchoress, the perfect complement to the Generosity Monk.

Like Julian of Norwich centuries ago, Jenni has been “greatly moved” by God’s love which inspires her to listen graciously to people and love them well. She also encourages spiritual practices that invite people to put themselves under the spigot of Jesus Christ so He can fill them with His abundant love. She directs people to living water, the only water that satisfies.

My free gift to you today is this: subscribe to the spigot for a biweekly drip.

If the LORD is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Numbers 14:8

“Asceticism and simplicity are mutually incompatible. Occasional superficial similarities in practice must never obscure the radical difference between the two. Asceticism renounces possessions. Simplicity sets possessions in proper perspective. Asceticism finds no place for a “land flowing with milk and honey.” Simplicity rejoices in this gracious provision from the hand of God. Asceticism find contentment only when it is abased. Simplicity knows contentment in both abasement and abounding.

Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us… Simplicity sets us free to receive the provision of God as a gift that is not ours to keep and can be freely shared with others. Once we recognize that the Bible denounces the materialist and the ascetic with equal vigor, we are prepared to turn our attention to the framing of a Christian understanding of simplicity.”

Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 85.

Last night I returned home from Memphis and today I turn around and fly to Hartford via Chicago. It’s one of those weeks. I have the privilege of seeing dear friends on Friday, teaching Saturday up in New Hampshire, and preaching on Sunday back down in Colchester, Connecticut.

On each of these days I will enjoy sweet fellowship and delicious food with fellow believers. It’s a picture of generosity. Neither the materialist nor the ascetic relates rightly with milk and honey. Avoidance and indulgence don’t follow God’s pattern of enjoyment and sharing.

Pray for me, for stamina and strength to feed spiritual food to those I will serve, and to share love and shower encouragement richly. And for everyone reading this, I pray that whatever work God has you doing, speaking or serving, that you do it generously with the strength God supplies (cf. 1 Peter 4:10-11).

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Matthew 5:38-42

“Kingdom obedience is kingdom abundance. They are not two separate things. The inner condition of the soul from which strength and love and peace flow is the very same condition that generously blesses the oppressor and lovingly offers the other cheek. These Christ-like behaviors are expressions of a pervasive personal strength and its joy, not of weakness, morbidity, sorrow — or raw exertion of will — as is so often assumed. All those old “options” that we might think should be kept in reserve, just in case they turn out to be “necessary,” will not even be missed.”

Dallas Willard (1935-2013) in The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1998) 312-313.

I had the privilege of interacting with Dallas Willard at a conference a few years prior to his death. In a private conversation I asked him about the importance of stewardship instruction in seminary settings. He described it as “one of the most important topics that could be discussed as our world is filled with lies.” He added, “The students need to know the truth to know how to live and point the way for others.”

As I read Willard in the quietness of my hotel room yesterday, I could almost hear him reading the text aloud to me. This section struck me about kingdom obedience. It really is kingdom abundance! Or as my family has learned, you don’t figure it out until you live it out. You don’t experientially realize you have all you need in Christ (kingdom abundance), until you have abandoned all other options and followed Him (kingdom obedience).

It’s the people who try to hold onto the things of this world and Jesus simultaneously that have to muster “raw exertion of will” while keeping their old “options” open (as Willard put it). Those people don’t get it, so I like to spend time with people who do to encourage my faith. That’s why I am attending the Stewardship Summit with people like Wes Willmer, Rich Haynie, Scott Rodin, Tami Heim, Shawn Manley, Andre Sergeyev, Howard Rich, Mark Vincent, and others.

They are committed to kingdom obedience, which is kingdom abundance, and we learn from each other.