Luke 6:27-38
Here’s a test: You’re shopping online, scrolling through all the options and possibilities, thinking about what you want. You let your curser rest on one particular item, then a message pops on screen saying, “Going fast!” or “Only 2 of these left!”
How do you react to that?
If you are like me, your immediate response is a slight feeling of alarm. The thought enters your mind, “If I want this I had better act fast or I will lose the chance. Someone else will get it.”
This happens, even if I am intellectually aware that this is a technological trick. That it’s probably not even true. That, honestly, my world will be none the worse even if I do miss out on purchasing this item. Yet, it plants this seed in my head – I might miss out.
Someone else will get it. I will miss out. This is the essence of the scarcity mindset.
Over the past six weeks, we have been thinking about what we’re calling “The Economy of Jesus.” There are ways Jesus approaches economic matters that are radically different from what we are accustomed to, and very challenging to our own desires.
We began in January introducing something called the “Gift Economy.” Instead of approaching something with a transactional mindset, we have the option of mutual gift-giving. This means we give without strings attached. It is something that is necessary for authentic loving community to exist.
Next we listened to Jesus speak in the Synagogue as he presented his mission, or purpose. The concept of Jubilee, which is an Old Testament notion that restores others to wholeness. And if this is his purpose, then we know it is ours as well.
The next week we heard the rest of Jesus’ sermon in the synagogue, where he very pointedly told us that God is not for us and against others. In this way, we are challenged to stretch our own understanding of love.
We then considered the notion of call – something that people of faith may experience personally. In Luke’s story of how Peter, James, and John were called, we heard Jesus saying, “Go out into deeper water.” And when we do, the abundance of good things we find there will take us to a new level.
When we are listening for God’s call, we are likely to hear the call to give sacrificially – as I did. To give sacrificially is to give in trust – trust that there will be blessings galore. We are invited to lean into this blessing, even when it feels counterintuitive, because it draws us near to God and an experience of the fullness of joy therein.
And today in our reading Jesus invites us, once again, to shed our scarcity mindset and believe in God’s abundance. Because we know that God provides. We know that there really isn’t a shortage of good things in this world God created. There is abundance, which is another way of saying there is grace. Which points directly to love.
Have you ever been approached by a mother or a father who is expecting their second child, and hearing them say to you, “I am afraid I will not be able to love this child as much as I love my first child.” They are afraid they’ll come up short and there is nothing they can do about it.
At that point, if you are a parent who has been through it yourself, you might offer them assurances. You’ll say something like, “You will find that there is more love inside you than you ever imagined. You will find that love is not finite. There is an ever-expanding amount of love in you, so you will be able to love this child as much as the other.”
Most parents know this because we have been through the experience of feeling the love in us expand beyond the boundaries we thought were there. We have felt the explosion of love, the experience of feeling love in a way that we never have before. We know that love is not limited.
This is one important way that we as human beings are made in God’s image. And this truth is the foundation for everything else that matters.
Love leads to grace, which leads to generosity. And that, I will boldly declare, leads to happiness.
It’s what we are meant for, what we have been made for. You cannot really stop this abundant divine love and grace from pouring out into the world.
There is a story about St. Francis of Assisi that illuminates this truth. Francis took these words of Jesus so seriously, he gave away everything he had and joined a monastery. In that community, he used to get in trouble for how quickly he was willing to give away his clothes to others. Francis’s abbot was aggravated about the cost of having to constantly replace Francis’s coats, so he ordered Francis to stop giving them away. But Francis found a loophole around his vow of obedience. When he met someone who needed a coat, he’d say, “I can’t give you my coat, but you could take it from me…”
The Abbott would have had to imprison Francis in his cell to stop his generosity. Which would have killed him, sooner or later. A spirit of love is meant to thrive and grow. A spirit of grace is meant to spread to infinity and beyond.
A spirit of generosity is what we are called to, my friends. Today you are invited to pledge your generosity for the coming year. We have asked you to wonder about the people and circumstances in your life that have taught you the meaning of generosity. We have asked you to examine your own giving patterns with the question, “Is there room for me to give a little more?” We have asked you to consider the very real possibility that giving sacrificially, giving in trust, will increase your joy.
Yet, it bears repeating that no one is ever asked to give more than they can. Each of us is asked to give as we are able to – not one bit more. Today, it is my prayer that you have found the sweet spot, that level of commitment that meets all your needs.
As we bring our pledge cards to the communion table today, may you know this blessing:
A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.
Picture – Adobe Stock Images
