There was a man who was in desperate need – all he needed was a little cash and he could get by. So he decided to go from house to house to see if there were any odd jobs he could do. After being turned down by several home owners he came upon a house where an older woman answered the door. He gave his usual pitch and to his surprise the woman said yes should could use some help – it was perfect that he happened to stop by for the painter she hired had just then cancelled on her.
She told the man, I need my porch painted. Walk around to the back of the house and there you’ll see the porch, the paint and all the equipment needed. When your done, come back to the front door and I’ll pay you $500.
This was better than he expected. He walked around to the back and to his surprise and delight, everything he needed was there ready to go. He set to work taping and prepping, then fired up the paint sprayer and in no time was done.
The woman of the house was surprised that the man was so quick, but, she thought, maybe he had a lot of experience as a painter – so she counted him out the cash. The man pocketed the cash, thanked the women and as he was leaving he hesitated and said, “By the way lady, you need to know, its not a Porsche that you have parked back there, it’s a Mercedes Benz.
Notice in this passage, verse 2, that Jesus says – when you give to the needy. This is an assumption that you already are doing it on a regular basis. He is not saying nor even insinuating: Let’s talk about the possibility of giving to the needy; Let’s talk about who we should give to; Hey, let’s evaluate this…giving to the needy thing...Jesus says give to the needy. There is nothing we can say, are argue to get around that. It is as plain as day isn’t it? Give to the needy.
Let me say right up front here: this is not a stewardship sermon. This is not about giving money to First Presbyterian Church. We have already talked about that recently. So put that out of your mind – this is not about money going here. Is that thought gone? I’ll wait a couple of moments more…I am not talking about giving money and time here.
This is about helping those in need. God expects us to give to the kingdom of God – that is a given.Hopefully we get that. But he also expects us to help those who are needy above any gift to Christian causes. Let me repeat that clearly above and beyond our tithe.
Jesus says to help the poor, Verse 2, verse 3, see that when you have your cup of coffee…assumes you drink coffee; When you help the poor…assumes you help the poor.
The Homeless guy debate.
One of our favorite debates as Christians is the homeless guy debate. You know the woman that ask you for cash on the street, or the guy on the corner with the sign (that is probably a lie). We love to speculate, philosophize, postulate. Do we not give, because they are addicts? Do we give, they need help? If we do give how do we know we are helping?
We could spend all morning on this debate and get nowhere - And we are not going to go there today, because the homeless are needy, but they are not the elected representatives of the needy -They are just the visible poor.
Let us know – there are thousands of poor in this city – we never see
Jesus tell us: first I assume your helping them, each one of you here…..
In Jesus day there were three expectations of Jewish life. Other than sacrifices, these things were expected in every life of a Jew: Giving – our passage; Give to the temple and the poor; Prayer – addressed in verses 5-15 (9, noon, 3 {just like Dr Pepper – remember on the old bottles the recommended times for Dr Pepper?}); Fasting – addressed in verses 16-18 at certain times to seek God’s will and blessing.
Today as we look at giving to the needy in verses 1-4 & 19-24. Let me reiterate – Jesus does not look at this as optional.
First and foremost Jesus demands that we give. You may not be able to see this in the English, it is very strong there in the original Greek. But also notice that there is a promised attached, some kind of reward
4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you
This is a rewarding experienced – Promised – by Jesus himself. Jesus speaks of reward – in both the positive an negative - in very close proximity here, that’s Jesus code for “very important, take notice”.
See, God is so generous, that when you do what he expects, he will reward you. Isn’t that cool? How, it doesn’t say. But I would speculate that a reward from God is pretty great. Who cares what it will be! It has to be great! Why be concerned with the details of a reward – let God figure that out. Whatever he comes up with has got to be better than whatever I could imagine.
Now Jesus is very clear that we should give to the poor, but there is a correct way to give and an incorrect way to give.
What does this say to us about giving to the poor – with strings attached? Basically Jesus says you get a human reward. Verse 2, I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
Self righteous giving requires external rewards for motivation to give,
and for motivation to continue to give.
What about those tip jars you see, usually at espresso places? Do you ever put a tip in there for those folks? Here is a question? If you tip when they aren’t looking – does it count? After all - Mark Twain said
“What’s the point in giving if nobody knows about it? A man only needs so much money. The rest is showing off!”
You know the answer – Jesus just told us the answer in verse 1.
A father wrote a letter to apologize to a certain young man
for not allowing him to marry his daughter.
The letter went as follows:
Dear Marty, I have been unable to sleep since I broke off your engagement to my daughter. Will you please forgive and forget?
I was much too sensitive about your Mohawk haircut, tattoos and pierced nose. I now realize motorcycles aren’t really that dangerous,
and I really should not have reacted that way to the fact that you have never held a job.I am also very sure that some other very nice people live under the bridge in the park, too. Sure my daughter is only 18
and wants to marry you instead of going to Harvard on full scholarship.
After all, you can’t learn everything about life from books. I sometimes forget how backward I can be. I was wrong. I was a fool. I have now come to my senses and you have my full blessing to marry my daughter.
Sincerely,
Your future father-in-law.
P.S. Congratulations on winning the Power Ball Lottery!
Motivations
Jesus isn’t just telling us to give to the needy, but he is moves beyond the shallow acts of kindness thing. We must have the right motivations.
Vandals cut down 6 huge palm trees along a major Miami blvd. The city wasn’t sure if it could pay to replace the large palm trees. But someone had donated 6 more…even larger ones; they even had them planted. The old ones ere 15 ft high and were a nice foreground for a billboard which said “Fly Delta”. The new ones were over 35 ft high…completely hiding the sign, the new donor: Eastern Airlines.
We are to please God – not people.You know..The more we worry about the detail of giving, the more we act in a way that Jesus told us not to
We are told by Jesus to be careful with our treasure, verse 19. Jesus doesn’t reject the desire to accumulate in verse 19 -21, He redirects it from ourselves to others, from material things to spiritual things.
Moth
In the ancient Roman world clothing was considered part of one’s treasure. The rich might have their woolen garments sewn together with gold thread.The moths destroyed their treasure. No moth balls available.
Rust
Of course in Jesus day oxidation of treasured items was very difficult to fight. In many ways we think we have overcome this with technology in our day.
Artificial aquarium salt
You know I used to deal with salt water aquariums as a business. Part of that required using artificial aquarium salt. It is reconstituted sea salt with specific requirements for marine fish. It is enhanced sea salt.
Any old salt will not do, even the sea salt you buy at the grocery store will not do.
I had to lug this stuff around from place to place, and it was messy. The most corrosive stuff I have ever seen. If you don’t use gloves your hands will burn for a long time. Almost anything, it would spill on would be corroded, not just metal. Floors, carpet, shoes, plastics, clothing, watches, nasty stuff. One time, I’m not sure how, it got on the car’s windshield wipers. These things just, like, melted. Katie...well let’s just say was furious with me more than once because of this stuff.
Everything we see and touch will fade away no matter how we try to pretend it won’t. Jesus doesn’t reject the desire to accumulate in verse 19 -21, he redirects it. Jesus talks about the eye, because it is all about focus. He is saying in so many words that what we focus on will either provide spiritual light to our souls or spiritual darkness.
In these verses he is focusing on our giving, in some way to the needy.
Jesus later in the Gospels, says these words as a woman pours perfume over his head: The poor will always be with you...Jesus doesn’t mean – our efforts to help the poor are ultimately in vane, though some would argue that and wrongly so. He means that we will always have the opportunity to give to the needy. We will always be required to follows the words of Jesus. We will never be able to hide from these words. We will never be truly able to ignore these words.
Ok Peter, I get it – Jesus commands us to give to the needy.
What can I do? Now. This week. What a great coincidence that you were thinking that thought right now! And what a great coincidence that this is Thanksgiving week. A week full of opportunity. What are the odds of that?
Let’s look in our bulletin announcement insert. On the back is a group of giving opportunities we pointed out earlier. They have a box around them. Do you have it?
Are you serious and want to do what Jesus commands? How many here are members of Costco or Sam’s Club? If not, I’m sure you go into Wal-Mart, that good Presbyterian store.
I am certain – absolutely certain that ever single person here could at minimum, pick up a can of cranberry sauce, throw it in the cart and bring it for the food bank – what is that, one dollar? Why not next time you are at the store, put on your list – stuff not for me. Pick up something for the food bank, a can, a case, a big bag of rice. Grab a one of those great packs of socks at Costco – about eight bucks.
How easy it that? And the best part, no one will ever know. Sneak it in when you come to church, drop it in the bins in the lobby. Just like Jesus says.
I leave that as a suggestion – Something so simple, if we all did it, would have a great impact.
But you know, let’s think bigger……could you do more?
This isn’t just stuff to do. This is about people’s hard and difficult lives
Go by North Star elementary school and see how many kids are on the playground without a winter coat, without gloves, without a winter hat.
How do these kids do it? What courage they must have. I could’t do it.
What was it with chill factor this week 11 below? Couldn’t you change that? Could you, yourself, personally, see to it that life is better for one kid?
This is about changing lives, in big and little ways.
We had a lady in our church in San Antonio – Betty. Betty is a woman in command. Betty is a woman that would get things done. She would call the downtown shelter every year and ask how many coats were needed.
Yes it does get cold in San Antonio. She would go to a local store and find some very nice children’s winter coats and ask how much the were? $60 each. How much if I buy all 100 of them? $60 each.
Where’s the manager?
She would get the manger down to about $49 and then tell him who they were for – the needy.
I don’t have enough money for all 100 at that price. So, you are saying that some little kids will not have a coat this year?
Eventually she walked out with the coats either at a ridiculous price, or for free.
Then Betty would go to the next store. At some stores she would show up at the coat department and the manager would just say, how many coats do you need Betty, we’ll deliver them to the shelter. Then she would say, thank you, but I came in to buy gloves……
And get this. If she couldn’t get enough donations, she would quietly buy whatever was needed. No one ever knew – I had the inside scoop.
And let me tell you, sometimes it was a major purchase.
The people at the shelter had no idea how the coats got there or who paid for them…..every year they just appeared – hey look, new coats!
And that is how it should be, one little old lady doing her thing.
Isn’t this what Jesus is talking about?
Some here can do a little which adds up to big things,
Some can do things on a Betty scale.
Imagine.
Instead of bringing 1000 pairs of socks asked for to the downtown soup kitchen. 3000 just show up…somehow or another…and the staff scratches their heads in wonder.
Imagine.
You go to Costco to get your kids a pair of their great polar tech gloves like you had last year, but they are sold out because they are all at North Star elementary bought by a group of friends.
Imagine.
A family sows up at AWAIC and is showered with all they need, and the thoughts what will happen tomorrow are no longer thoughts of only disaster, because a family who said to each other - one of our gifts to each other this year will be loading up a couple of carts at the store and giving the stuff away.
Imagine.
You sit down to thanksgiving diner exhausted after spending the day serving at the rescue mission – and your kids don’t complain about what is served?
Imagine. Your life when you take the words of Jesus……Seriously.
