Thursday, March 20, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Generosity
Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.
Too late, too late! Generosity is its own reward, and misers make their own misery, although not so obviously here on our earth, where some of us have far more than we need, and others have much less.
Abraham replied, “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.”
Think of a never-ending circle of hope, our pastor said. Generosity begets contentment and contentment begets generosity. That’s a circle round the sun, that’s a wrap, that’s what Jesus is talking about. Give and it will be given unto you, pressed down, good measure.
But Jesus warns us too about its opposite. Plenty of stories and statistics tell us that riches do not result in happiness; in fact the opposite is true. If I am to follow the advice of Jesus and statistics, as well as the wisdom of every religion on the earth, I will no longer ask “How much should I give” but ask instead, “How much should I keep?”
The rich man, no longer proud of his purple robes, begs Abraham to warn his brothers, who belong to the same rich family. But Abraham turns away, because neither the rich man nor his brothers care to heed the wisdom of the ages, which they know but do not follow.
If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.
Jeremiah’s words from Yahweh sear and tear at the softened flesh of the callous and comfortable, if we would only feel.
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
But stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
The very first psalm flings this reality up against the joy of the generous.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
Nothing is more important than to, not only understand this, but to walk and work along this running water. But it is difficult for me. I am seldom satisfied with what I do. I think I will not be satisfied with anything, even sacrifice, until something inside my spiritual mind awakens to the FACT of God’s love, always enough, always more than enough. In The Gift of Aging, hospice nurse Kathleen Dowling-Singh writes of many men and women on their deathbeds who suddenly see that love and receive it. But of course I don’t wait until I die!
“I grow old, I grow old,” and as T. S. Eliot surmised, “I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” Does he mean I will not buy a new pair of trousers since I won’t live long enough to wear them out? Or does he mean that at last I understand that another pair of trousers is something I can give away, rather than keep once more for myself?
“Do I dare to eat a peach?” Prufrock questions everything at the end of his life, no longer confident of his own wisdom or the wisdom of those around him.
More tortuous than all else is the human heart,
beyond remedy; who can understand it?
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh.
Even the flesh of a ripe yellow peach, waiting warm beside the highway in the June Georgia sun? I expect like me, Prufrock has eaten too many peaches made for the market, all the flavors muted by genetics chosen for travel rather than taste.
God’s blessings comes in peaches sometimes, and we do well to taste the good ones and let the warm juice run down our cheeks. This is always true, in spite of my failures, in spite of the roads I take walking away from the living water, in spite of each and every sin, of all the sin that’s fit to print … I am, as are you, as are we all, wholly and completely loved by the One who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist (Romans 4:17).”
Drink of this generous juice and rejoice!
(Jeremiah 17, Psalm 1, Luke 8, Luke 16)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
