So, I'm having a meeting over coffee at a Tim Hortons and a
homeless man is 25cents short of change for his order and turns around
to ask if anyone might have a quarter. To their chagrin, an older
couple tsk tsk's at him as I slip him some change. On the way out, the
lady leans over to me to say, "If you do that every time, you'll go
broke!" "I think we've got lots to share." "Well, that was very kind
of you!" if 25 cents has become our measure of extraordinary kindness,
we've got bigger issues to deal with. "Do not withhold good from those
who deserve it, when it is in your power to act. Do not say to your
neighbors, "Come back later; I'll give it tomorrow" - when you now have
it with you." -Proverbs 3:27-28
I didn't say it to be cheeky. And I didn't post this to my Facebook status to be funny. I'd just met with a bunch of high schoolers I took to Ethiopia in March over their Spring Break, and was afterwards having coffee with one of the students from last year's team. I was asking them what life has been like since coming home, and asking if they might -sacrificially- choose to support an AIDS orphan in Ethiopia for with a monthly gift of $40 a month, having seen first-hand how through those gifts, lives truly (read: TRULY) can. be. changed. $40 a month is not a small amount for a high school student. It also is in their power to act.
It is for all of us.
The verse was what I happened to be reading this morning. Proverbs - Proverbs 3, especially. Words of wisdom. Words to live by in living well. "Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for [wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. [Wisdom]'s ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed. Do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight.. they will be life for you." (3:13-14,17-18, 21-22)
The encounter with this lady grieved me. I spoke to her kindly.
Something else I was just reading yesterday while on the skytrain, in a book called "New Monasticism". the premise of it about living in intentional community. Used without permission, but I feel like he wouldn't mind too much. :)
* * *
The stories we hear about money are mostly stories about scarcity. The reason we have economics, I learned in college, is because of scarcity. There’s just not enough stuff for everyone to get what they want. We’ve got limited resources and unlimited desires. So human beings develop systems to organize our economic relations and try to make sure everyone gets enough. We try to dream up the system that will best deliver the resources to the people who need them. We do this because we have to in order to survive.
Rarely do we question this basic story. Most debates about economics simply ask which of the systems that people have dreamed up best distributes the limited resources available to us. We accept the assumption the scarcity. But Jesus didn’t. [There’s] a story about how Jesus taught and healed all day once in a deserted place where a crowd had followed him. About suppertime, when the disciples no doubt starting to get hungry themselves, they came to Jesus and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves” (Matt 14:15). The disciples were being economic realists. There wasn’t enough food in that deserted place for all those people. Two fish and five loaves of bread – that was all they had. But Jesus said, “They need not go away, you give them something to eat” (14:16).
Jesus didn’t buy the assumption of scarcity. He knew a different story about how the world works. In the beginning, the earth was dark and void of any resources. But God spoke and there was light. God spoke and there was land, water, trees, and fish. “All things came into being through [Christ], and without him not one thing came into being “(John 1:3). Jesus knew a story that didn’t begin with scarcity but with God.
There is an economy of abundance that is more real than the stories of scarcity that we know. Jesus took the two fish and five loaves, gave thanks, and broke the bread. He broke it just as he would later break the bread that he called his body. And he gave it to the disciples. “You give them something to eat,” he told them. And it had sounded like nonsense. But they did. The disciples shared what they had and, miraculously, it was more than enough. “And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full” (14:20).
If we have any hope of salvation, it is because of the miracle of God’s abundance. And if we believe the story of justification by faith, I guess we ought to receive the gift of God’s economy by faith too.
Maybe the most radical thing about God’s economy is that it frees us to be generous. Jesus said “Give to everyone who begs from you” (Matt. 5:42), but I don’t think we believe he really meant it. How could you possibly give to whoever asks? There are limited resources and unlimited request. Wouldn’t you go broke?
Jesus who calls us to generosity is the One who created everything out of nothing and fed five thousand with two fishes and five loaves of bread. As we receive the gift of God’s economy, we are able to better practice the generosity that Jesus thought possible.
I’m not saying that generosity always overcomes the deep divisions that exist between the haves and the have-nots. But God invites us into a context where it’s possible. And sometimes, by grace, the miracle of reconciliation really does happen.
Because the people of God are called together to bless all the peoples of the earth, we can’t step back from public engagement with the filthy rotten system that crushes many of God’s children. But neither do we resist it with the weapons of the world. New monasticism has been learning that celebration is our best tactic of resistance. We celebrate because God has already given to us the daily bread and debt forgiveness that we need to end poverty now.
Our resistance does not come from fear that we will destroy ourselves if we do not take care of the poor, even though that is true. It does not even come from anger, though there are good reasons to be angry with the filthy rotten system. Instead, we resist out of joy. We defy the filthy rotten system when we share our bread with neighbours and remember the manna economy God has given us to enjoy.
~ (adapted from) New Monasticism - Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
* * *
I've been meaning to share some stories from Ethiopia. All I've got for two months is a bunch of zebras on Facebook. :S I will sit down and do it tomorrow.
Bless :)
Rainbow
I didn't say it to be cheeky. And I didn't post this to my Facebook status to be funny. I'd just met with a bunch of high schoolers I took to Ethiopia in March over their Spring Break, and was afterwards having coffee with one of the students from last year's team. I was asking them what life has been like since coming home, and asking if they might -sacrificially- choose to support an AIDS orphan in Ethiopia for with a monthly gift of $40 a month, having seen first-hand how through those gifts, lives truly (read: TRULY) can. be. changed. $40 a month is not a small amount for a high school student. It also is in their power to act.
It is for all of us.
The verse was what I happened to be reading this morning. Proverbs - Proverbs 3, especially. Words of wisdom. Words to live by in living well. "Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for [wisdom] is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. [Wisdom]'s ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed. Do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight.. they will be life for you." (3:13-14,17-18, 21-22)
The encounter with this lady grieved me. I spoke to her kindly.
Something else I was just reading yesterday while on the skytrain, in a book called "New Monasticism". the premise of it about living in intentional community. Used without permission, but I feel like he wouldn't mind too much. :)
* * *
The stories we hear about money are mostly stories about scarcity. The reason we have economics, I learned in college, is because of scarcity. There’s just not enough stuff for everyone to get what they want. We’ve got limited resources and unlimited desires. So human beings develop systems to organize our economic relations and try to make sure everyone gets enough. We try to dream up the system that will best deliver the resources to the people who need them. We do this because we have to in order to survive.
Rarely do we question this basic story. Most debates about economics simply ask which of the systems that people have dreamed up best distributes the limited resources available to us. We accept the assumption the scarcity. But Jesus didn’t. [There’s] a story about how Jesus taught and healed all day once in a deserted place where a crowd had followed him. About suppertime, when the disciples no doubt starting to get hungry themselves, they came to Jesus and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves” (Matt 14:15). The disciples were being economic realists. There wasn’t enough food in that deserted place for all those people. Two fish and five loaves of bread – that was all they had. But Jesus said, “They need not go away, you give them something to eat” (14:16).
Jesus didn’t buy the assumption of scarcity. He knew a different story about how the world works. In the beginning, the earth was dark and void of any resources. But God spoke and there was light. God spoke and there was land, water, trees, and fish. “All things came into being through [Christ], and without him not one thing came into being “(John 1:3). Jesus knew a story that didn’t begin with scarcity but with God.
There is an economy of abundance that is more real than the stories of scarcity that we know. Jesus took the two fish and five loaves, gave thanks, and broke the bread. He broke it just as he would later break the bread that he called his body. And he gave it to the disciples. “You give them something to eat,” he told them. And it had sounded like nonsense. But they did. The disciples shared what they had and, miraculously, it was more than enough. “And all ate and were filled, and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full” (14:20).
If we have any hope of salvation, it is because of the miracle of God’s abundance. And if we believe the story of justification by faith, I guess we ought to receive the gift of God’s economy by faith too.
Maybe the most radical thing about God’s economy is that it frees us to be generous. Jesus said “Give to everyone who begs from you” (Matt. 5:42), but I don’t think we believe he really meant it. How could you possibly give to whoever asks? There are limited resources and unlimited request. Wouldn’t you go broke?
Jesus who calls us to generosity is the One who created everything out of nothing and fed five thousand with two fishes and five loaves of bread. As we receive the gift of God’s economy, we are able to better practice the generosity that Jesus thought possible.
I’m not saying that generosity always overcomes the deep divisions that exist between the haves and the have-nots. But God invites us into a context where it’s possible. And sometimes, by grace, the miracle of reconciliation really does happen.
Because the people of God are called together to bless all the peoples of the earth, we can’t step back from public engagement with the filthy rotten system that crushes many of God’s children. But neither do we resist it with the weapons of the world. New monasticism has been learning that celebration is our best tactic of resistance. We celebrate because God has already given to us the daily bread and debt forgiveness that we need to end poverty now.
Our resistance does not come from fear that we will destroy ourselves if we do not take care of the poor, even though that is true. It does not even come from anger, though there are good reasons to be angry with the filthy rotten system. Instead, we resist out of joy. We defy the filthy rotten system when we share our bread with neighbours and remember the manna economy God has given us to enjoy.
~ (adapted from) New Monasticism - Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.
* * *
I've been meaning to share some stories from Ethiopia. All I've got for two months is a bunch of zebras on Facebook. :S I will sit down and do it tomorrow.
Bless :)
Rainbow
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