“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” – Acts 20:35
These words are often trotted out at Christmas
time in an effort to make the season less commercial, a message to children not
to make it all about the packages. It a
phrase found in the book of Acts, given by the Apostle Paul to the leaders of the
church in Ephesus. Paul claims that they
are words that come from Jesus himself, though they are not found in any of the
four gospel texts.
The word that is translated as blessed can be translated in a number of
ways. We sometimes associate blessing
with God’s favor, God’s response to our actions. This is part of the calculus the modern
prosperity preachers announce. If you
make the right choices, do the right actions and avoid the wrong, you will open
your life up to God’s blessings, especially material abundance.
I prefer a simpler translation:
happy or joyful. It is not that our
actions stir God to action, but that the actions that Christ models for us lead
to happiness. The path of discipleship
is intrinsically joyful. We aren’t
earning extra points or extra blessings or approval through our actions, we are
accessing a joyfulness that is already present, already available. Generosity points toward happiness and
joy. Generosity points toward the peace
that comes with contentment. I can be
satisfied with what I have, so much so that I can give more away.
For many in our culture, this is
not obvious. My North American culture
celebrates having and holding on to more.
As I have mentioned in other articles, the Lutheran church in which I
have grown is shaped by a culture of equitable/socialized giving, figuring out
the least we all have to give to maintain the ministry. The idea of giving more than your fair share,
giving toward things that are not necessary when its not a rainy day, can be a
bit foreign. The path of discipleship
leads to a different place, where we give because it is joyful, because our
generosity makes something beautiful, participating in God’s beauty.
Yet the desire to hold on to what
we have is a strong force. You may have
had parents or grandparents who lived through the Depression. You may have experienced poverty or financial
insecurity. You may be looking at
retirement, uncertain if you have enough.
You may currently be making hard decisions about what to spend; what
bills to pay. These are very real fears
that require prayerful wisdom and consideration. At the same time, we need to be honest with
ourselves about what we have and what we can give away. It
turns out that if we wait to be generous until we have enough, we will almost
never have enough.
Generosity is another place where
God gives us the opportunity to overcome fear with joy. We are afraid of running out. We are afraid of being foolish. We are afraid of having less, especially as
we compare ourselves to our neighbors.
God invites us to have more joy, more contentment and more peace. God invites us to participate in the
abundance that is essential to who God is.
God invites us to be generous.
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