This sermon is built around the idea that we are blessed to be a blessing, or what you might call "Open-Handed Living in a Close-Fisted World" ...
(To listen via youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhad0zhIpXY&t=1084s)
Today’s reading is from Luke, Ch 10 -- The Parable of the Good Samaritan...
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
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Open Handed Living in a Close-Fisted World…. And it is a close-fisted world, isn’t it? That’s one of the things that strikes us in the parable we just read. Not many would do as the Samaritan man did…. He was remarkably open-handed with his care, his energies, his money.
When God our Father blesses us, it’s because He loves us. But He very often blesses us with a second purpose in mind…. He means us to share the blessing with others.
We are Blessed, to BE a Blessing.
His plan is for His Children to live open-handed lives, lives grounded in His love, other centered, willing to share, generous with our time, talents, and treasure -- Open Handed Living. Sounds a bit like heaven, doesn’t it?
Listen for the blessings received and shared in these scenes:
A young veteran, after being healed from a debilitating bout of PTSD, creates and administers multiple statewide wounded warrior programs. A young couple with a charming but small home sleep outside in their cargo trailer so that visiting family can stay comfortably in the house. A family of outdoor guides take friends out for free on days off, because they want to celebrate the incredible beauty of their place on earth. A world-class tennis coach who pulls old duffers aside to share a tip or two, because he feels so lucky to be able to help people have fun. The wealthy guy down the street who genuinely encourages neighbors to freely use and enjoy all of his tools and toys.
Living Open-Handedly in a close-fisted world: Folks who round their tips up to the nearest five dollars because they prize the opportunity, for just a couple of bucks more, to make someone else’s day. Or those folks we describe as helpful, good to have around... They are the people who routinely subordinate their own interests in order to meet the needs of others…
They are the folks we say have a servant’s heart.
And they go through life with a kind of low key, native, but intentional generosity, other-centered, ready to share what they’ve been given, sometimes even looking for the opportunity… These people understand that they have been blessed so that they can be a blessing to others.
Rather than going through their lives grasping, clutching, stingy, close-fisted, their daily lives are given over to a willingness to share, intentionally and freely, out of the blessings that they have been given.... Whatever those blessings might be: material wealth, or time, or energy, or skills, or emotional stability, or strength of spirit, or faith and hope, or simple care and attention….
We are Blessed... to be a Blessing.
And of course, the ultimate example of Open-Handed Living, is Our Lord Jesus himself, whom Paul describes this way in Philippians chapter two: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped; rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!
For us. He gave his own “right standing” with the Father to us.
In Christ, our Father has been astoundingly open-handed with us!
Consider Paul’s gospel in miniature, so beautifully proclaimed in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 – but let’s read through verse 10 in order to catch Paul’s complete thought: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Being saved then is not the end, it’s the beginning. We are saved, blessed, simply because God loves us. But it is also true that we are saved, and blessed, in order to be a blessing.
Made in His Image and redeemed by Christ’s blood, God has designed us for open-handed living. Blessed to be a Blessing…. Time and Talents and Treasure, and Faith and Hope and Love, and Eternal Life. All these ways God has generously blessed us…. The thought occurs --- isn’t Stewardship simply about being Open-handed with HIS stuff, his blessings?
I mean, it is all His stuff, right? And He means for us to share with others who need, right? This IS loving others as ourselves, right? Can you be a good steward and live a close-fisted life? It sure wouldn’t seem so....
We are called to be open-handed with the blessings God has given us. Even to the point of actively looking for opportunities to share those blessings….
This is the message in Jesus’ parable of the Talents, found in Matthew chapter 25. Jesus is teaching His disciples about the coming end of the age. He tells them a parable, in which three servants are entrusted with their master’s wealth, to manage for him until he returns. When the master returns, each is called give an account for what they did with his wealth, what they produced with it.
Notice the idea of blessed to be a blessing here -- the one to whom he gave 5 bags doubled it, producing another 5, the one to whom he gave 2 doubled it, producing another 2… the master commends and rewards them both equally.
There is an important biblical principle here -- God asks of us according to what He has given us. Five produced 5, 2 produced 2, the master is equally pleased with both...
But the one to whom he gave a single bag, this guy literally buries it -- pretty grasping, pretty stingy, eh? He produces nothing with it, and the Master is, well, very unhappy with him. And in the end, this guy ends up with nothing. Perhaps he should have been a bit more open-handed with his Master’s blessings… He had been blessed, in order to be a blessing.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of my favorites because it so clearly depicts what open-handed living looks like in the context of the great commandment – love your neighbor as yourself. Importantly, it centers on the question “who is my neighbor?” Think for a moment of the characters involved... In the parable, this question is answered in the broadest possible terms. That is, the term “neighbor” crosses social, economic, geographic, ethnic, and even religious lines.
This term “neighbor” would certainly seem to include the desperately poor, those who suffer in Extreme Poverty, would it not?
What does Extreme Poverty look like? First, we don’t commonly find it in America; it is especially concentrated in Africa, and to a lesser extent, Southeast Asia. It begins with chronic, severe deprivation. Malnutrition in children frequently results in developmental disability and even permanent cognitive impairment. Hunger in adults saps physical, emotional, and mental energy –- imagine going without any food for several days at a time, the effect it would have on your abilities. Lack of safe water spreads illness and disease among the young and old alike. Efforts to secure drinking water and a few scraps of food consume the lion’s share of the day. Little, if any, time and energy is left for education, income-producing work, and community improvement.
Worse, long hard experience has taught those living in extreme poverty that they simply cannot have an impact on their circumstance – they have no meaningful options for improving their situation. They are, in a very real sense, prisoners. Can you imagine the burden of living as a prisoner, without hope? When we are deprived of all hope, we are effectively robbed of our humanity; our living becomes a sort of deadened, going-through-the-motions-necessary-just-to-survive for another day.
The biblical word for this condition is oppressed – not by an evil dictator, but by a systemic failure in our world – the result of our collectively fallen nature. The biblical word for this systemic failure is injustice. Injustice… as in a man wrongly convicted of murder, but imprisoned for life nonetheless.
As rock star and global poverty crusader Bono has prophetically said of fighting extreme poverty:
it’s not about charity, it’s about justice.
Think about that phrase for a moment: it’s not about charity, it’s about justice.
God’s word has a LOT to say about doing justice where the poor are concerned:
In Ezekiel, God condemns Sodom for not helping the poor and the needy.
John asks how the love of God can be in us when we see people in need, have the means to help, but do nothing.
Luke, quoting John the Baptist, boils the idea that we are blessed to be a blessing down to it’s very simplest: the one who has 2 coats should share with him who has none; the one who has food should do the same.
Paul, writing to Timothy, tells him to encourage those who are wealthy to humbly use their money to share generously with those in need.
James, the brother of Jesus, and leader of the headquarters church in Jerusalem, puts it plainly: Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows and orphans in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
God speaks thru Isaiah, angrily taking his people to task for their empty religious ceremonies, sacrifices, and trappings,-- (what we might call cultural christianity) – and declares that what he really cares about is justice in the form of tangible help for the oppressed, the weak, the vulnerable, the marginalized.
And finally, Jesus famously equates, in Matthew 25, tangible help given to the thirsty, the hungry, the sick, the isolated, to love shown for Him: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.”
Really? Really. “I tell you the truth”... He means it!
This sampling of verses, focusing on our response to the desperately poor, does not stand alone. Scholars note that there are over 2000 verses throughout all 66 books of the bible that deal directly with issues of poverty, oppression, and wealth.
If we want to walk with God, we have to care about the same things that He cares about.
The biblical mandate for being open-handed towards the least and last is crystal clear. He means to bless them through us.
Open-Handed Living is how we align ourselves with an Open-Handed God. it’s not about charity, it’s about justice.
You and I did not cause this state of injustice that the desperately poor endure; however, it is we who hold the keys to Godly change... We have a special blessing, unique in the world, given us by God, who put us in this time and place, to share, to use in helping the poor. Simply put, being born into 20th century America, we have resources that most of the rest of the world cannot even imagine.
A conservative approach to comparing incomes around the globe, adjusting for exchange rates and purchasing power, shows that an annual income of $40,000 puts one in the top 2% worldwide; an income of $20,000 puts one in the top 8%.
We, here, in this time and place, are quite simply blessed with a lot of money, compared to the rest of the world.
We have been blessed mightily....
.........just possibly, to be a blessing to the “least of these.”
For perspective, consider that our collective spending on sports, recreation, and entertainment is close to a trillion dollars annually. It would take only one tenth of that amount to finish funding the work of organizations like World Vision in their efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
We are undeniably blessed, uniquely positioned to help the desperately poor. And we understand that scripture commands us to be a blessing to the least of these.
So What does an Open-Handed response look like? As we consider some possibilities, remember one of the principles that we pulled from the parable of the Talents earlier… God does not ask us to use what we do not have. HE provides the blessings that he wants us to use in blessing others.
So both of the following approaches are scalable. If all I could reasonably give to the desperately poor totaled just $20 during the course of a year, and that provided clean safe water to half a dozen small children, that would be worth it, wouldn’t it?
One approach would be the Intentional, Purposeful Sacrifice -- Open Handed Living that says instead of buying this, I’ll give that…. Like staying in instead of going out to eat, even just once or twice a year. Or drinking homebrewed coffee for a week instead of hitting Starbucks… Or using your credit card cash back reward to make a gift instead of buying yourself that little something special you’ve been wanting… Or perhaps giving the time and energy needed to help organize an event to raise funds for a stable full of farm animals for a community in Africa. Some have even downsized their cars or homes in order to free up more money for compassionate giving...
A second approach, more aggressive but still scalable, would be to intentionally leave some on the table in your regular monthly budget for helping the poor. In a close-fisted world, what a radical idea it is to actually budget with giving to the needy in mind!
Yet this is exactly what God commanded His people to do. Consider this passage, repeated 3 times in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, in which God gives his people instructions for living justly - -openhandedly - in the Promised Land. In addition to telling His People not to worship idols, or steal, or slander, or hate their brother, and to honor the Sabbath, and to love others as themselves, and to be holy as He is holy, He gives them (and us) this command:
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien.
I am the Lord your God.
In contemporary language, this scripture would read like this: If the Lord has blessed you with an income, don’t spend all of it on yourself -- set a little bit aside for helping the desperately poor.
Then, all that is left is to find those needs which stir your heart the most, and then to direct your gifts accordingly. This, by the way, is one of the secrets behind cheerful giving... to find the needs which stir your heart the most, and direct your gifts accordingly.
Making room in your Budget for helping the “least of these” -- Obedient, Intentional, Purposeful, Open-Handed – and very, very effective.... Do you suppose there’s a “Well done, good and faithful servant” in this? We are blessed to be a blessing.
And it makes a difference.
In 2008, 25,000 children were dying of preventable causes each day. Today that figure stands at 18,000. Those of you already giving to this work – Praise God, It is working!!!! How Cool is that!!!
Maturing practices in what’s called Transformational Community Development are successfully bringing self-sufficiency to regions previously thought to be beyond help. Illness, lost productivity, and death due to unsafe drinking water has been halved in the last 25 years. Aids no longer poses an existential threat to whole communities in Africa.
All the gifts, the shared blessings, large and small, have combined to truly make a difference.
And to the extent that this work is completed by Christian Organizations, a powerfully relevant and inviting witness is given. This is work worthy of our efforts.
Truly, we are blessed to be a blessing.
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Here’s a true story to close our time together today. A friend of mine tells it like this… Walking into Walmart in a rougher section of his town one day, Mark noticed a guy on the usual beggar’s corner who looked less able, skinnier, more sunburnt, more something, than the usual panhandlers. Mark does not usually give handouts, but felt something tugging at him. The guy just looked for real, and the weather was really, really hot.
Going into the store for the things he had come for, Mark added a cold pepsi to his cart. Returning to his car, he got up his nerve and walked over to the guy sitting on the corner, and handed him the cold drink with a smile. The man did seem genuinely appreciative… The next time Mark saw this guy, the guy actually recognized him and thanked him again for the cold drink, saying that it had really hit the spot... and that he had really needed it that particular day.
Over the course of the next month, Mark had more challenges than usual to his equilibrium. But the memory of how good it had felt to do something for somebody in worse shape than he somehow persisted in his consciousness, helping him to keep his focus on the good, the right, the beautiful.
A buck seventy eight, and a small risk in making personal contact, had brought him closer to God, he says -- not in a dramatic sense, but in a way that added a small bit to the sense of purpose that we all search for each day.
Mark had discovered that he was blessed, to be a blessing. May it be so in our lives, to the glory of Our God...
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Scripture References:
Luke 10:25-37
Philippians 2:6-8
Ephesians 2:8-10
Matthew 25:14-30
Ezekiel 16:49
1 John 3:17
Luke 3:8-11
1 Timothy 6:17-19
James 1:27
Isaiah 1:10-17 and 58:5-11
Matthew 25:31-46
Leviticus 19:9-10
James 2:15-16 / 1 John 3:18