Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”There is a direct parallel in a small church in Mississippi. This congregation of about 50 people, many struggling with poverty, voted to use all the donations to help those in need.
Just 50 people, many of them transient in nature, regularly attend the six-year-old Traceway Baptist Church. Yet, from April 2010 to April 2011, the church was able to give away $60,000 to people in the community that were hurting in many ways, said Richardson, who has written a book on the story and subject of generosity called Giving Away the Collection Plate (June 2012).
"Everything that was given to our church in the offering plates was given away to abused mothers that got out of bad situations basically with the clothes on their backs, or people that were trying to break free from addiction, or people that had lost jobs or facing foreclosures, or had extreme medical bills, or anything like that," he said.After hearing of the commitment by Traceway Baptist Church, another church offered them unused space free of charge.
John Richardson, Traceway's pastor, noted why true generosity is critical to discipleship.
"When you really start to live generously, and especially if you feel this is something that God has asked you to do, it just opens your eyes to how incredibly generous God is to us," he said. "Generosity is not just a nice thing to do. It's probably the answer to the biggest spiritual hurdle that we have today in becoming disciples. When you are generous that's an antidote to greed.Our mission is to be an effective witness to God's love. To love as Jesus taught us to love. It is not complicated. It is also the perfect counterpoint to the celebration of wealth and the rich in our culture.
It is interesting that a community of people who know what it means to struggle financially was able to channel those experiences as empathy and compassion for others in the same place. Perhaps the more you have, the more you look at generosity as an obligation rather than privilege.
This past weekend, I was helping a man pick out items from the food pantry. As he was selecting canned and dried fruits, he said. "I don't like these much, but my neighbor really likes them and she cannot get out much any more."
No comments:
Post a Comment