“…the passage in Mark where Jesus tells the rich young ruler that if he really wants to be perfect, then he must sell everything he has and give it to the poor, whereupon what the rich young ruler does is turn on his heel and walk sorrowfully away because he has great possessions. Jesus made no attempt to hold him there, shouted no reproaches or entreaties after him, simply let him go as the parish let me go, but you feel that the look in his eye as he watched him disappearing down the road was as full of compassion for the young man himself as for the poor whom the young man could not bring himself to serve fully.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

John the Baptist said, “If you have two coats, give one away”, and  “Do the same with your food.” (Luke 3:11)

The gift of Giving is different from the gifts we have talked about so far. In the gifts of prophecy, serving, teaching, and exhortation, we are dealing with intangible gifts: seeing, teaching, encouraging and helping.  For someone who has the gift of giving, we are dealing with the tangibles of life – the “stuff” we have and our willingness to part with our “stuff”. 

The “Gifted” giver is someone who joyfully shares what they have with others, whether it is financial, material, or even personal time and attention – and they give without a need to vet the receiver. The giver is concerned always for the needs of others and always seeks opportunities to share goods, money and time with them as needs arise without expecting something in return.  The gifted giver then is someone who is not inclined to hoard or save but seeks to give away with the trust that G-d will continue to provide. 

Our innate human inclination is to gather as much stuff as we can so that we have the things we need to survive. What happens over time is that our gathering becomes hoarding, because we are always concerned with the “other shoe dropping” or the “rainy day” that will surprise us. 

Being a giver requires only the willingness to see into your abundance and continually see the way to and the willingness to meet the needs of others.

Pastor Dave

We spend so much time and money and energy trying to keep or make ourselves fine. Often it is necessary, this time, money and energy we put into our fine-ness. For example, I have recently started to ride an exercise bike five times a week. I work out to keep my blood pressure under control, my cholesterol level under control, and hopefully my weight level under control. If my only purpose for working out was to fit into a “Speedo”, well then I have lost not only my mind, but lost sight of why I want things in my life to be fine. Too many people believe that if their lives are good, then that is their primary concern — there is no reason to worry about anyone else. “I’m OK — so You’re OK”. In actuality, what they are saying is “I’m Fine, so I sure hope You are Fine — and if you are not, well too bad because I am Fine”. In fact, too many people avoid their friends and family who are “not fine” because it makes them uncomfortable. Seeing others who are not OK threatens our “OK-ness”. Pope Francis once wrote: 

“Lent (is) a beneficial time to “prune” falseness, worldliness, and indifference: so as not to think that everything is fine if I am fine”. 

He says Lent is an intentional time for us to look outside of ourselves, so as not to fall into the trap thinking that as long as I am fine then everything is fine. The expression “I’m OK so You’re OK” is, well, NOT OK. 

We will embark upon the season of Lent in ten days. And as always, with the start of Lent, we are asked to discern how to spend our time in Lent. It may be ten days away, but if all of society can focus two days on whether a ground hog will predict the obvious weather situation, then we can take ten days to consider the not so obvious — how we should deal with our sin. So before we can approach Lent, we need to embark on some self-awareness. So, how are you? Are you fine? 

You probably have heard this mantra before: 

“Jesus came to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable”.  

In other words, Jesus came to make the “Not fine, fine — and the fine, well, not fine”. Think about our friend Nicodemus from the 3^rd chapter of the Gospel of John. What he heard about Jesus threatened his “fine-ness” — his understanding of G-d’s love and grace. So he came to see Jesus — but only at the cover of darkness so others would not see that he was not fine. And when he asked Jesus for some clarity, Jesus simply gave him more to ponder — to reflect upon G-d and faith — and what it might mean to be born of water and the spirit. And though nothing is worked out that night for Nicodemus, he does show up at the death of Jesus to help secure a burial plot.  

You see, our faith should not be just about seeking to make sure our lives are fine. Our faith should be about showing up for Jesus and modeling his ministry to love, teach and serve those who are not fine. If we remember the saying: “Jesus came to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable” – then I think we will all be on our way to spiritual “fine-ness”.

Pastor Dave