Righteousness, Generosity and Blessings

In the Epistle lesson taken from 2 Corinthians 9:6-14, St. Paul quotes a verse from Psalm 112.  The Psalm is an integral part of the argument St. Paul is making.  He is relating righteousness and generosity and blessings.   First, we can consider excerpts from the Psalm:

Praise the LORD. Blessed is the person who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! … the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house; and his righteousness endures for ever. Light rises in the darkness for the upright; the LORD is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the person who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; … He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever; …  (Psalm 112)

The person who fears God and keeps the commandments is considered righteous and is blessed by God with wealth and riches.  God who is righteous  is also merciful and gracious.  The righteous person, like God, is generous and gives liberally and freely to the poor.  God’s righteousness is eternal, but so is the the righteousness of the person blessed by God.

While the Old Testament sometimes gives us a picture that there is a direct correlation between righteousness and receiving blessings, the New Testament presents a more nuanced picture.  One only has to read the Virgin Mary’s song, the Magnificat, to see that God can ignore the rich and powerful and does sometimes choose the poor as the righteous and doesn’t bless them with wealth despite their holiness.

St. Paul quotes this psalm in 2 Corinthians 9:6-14 and it is the basis for his lesson:

The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever.”

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God; for the rendering of this service not only supplies the wants of the saints but also overflows in many thanksgivings to God. Under the test of this service, you will glorify God by your obedience in acknowledging the gospel of Christ, and by the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others; while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God in you. 

St Paul describes our giving, our generosity, our stewardship in terms of planting seed and reaping a harvest. Why crop-raising imagery for generosity?

For St. Paul generosity is not merely giving things away, but rather generosity is life-giving, yielding produce, bearing even more fruit for the Lord.  And fruit is full of seeds which keeps on giving generation after generation.

The harvest is God’s will is accomplished, more blessings and thanksgiving to.  Everyone benefits from generosity, not only others, but we ourselves benefit from the blessings God richly bestows, and God received the glory.

What comes to my mind is a story, I learned long ago about small potatoes.

There was a village whose citizens were successful at growing potatoes to feed the population.  However, over time the villagers being selfish and short-shortsightedly focused on their immediate needs, ate all the biggest potatoes and kept only the smallest potatoes for seed for next year’s crop.  Over time, the villagers began to notice that their own potatoes were becoming smaller each year.  They were not sure why.  There was one farmer, however, who more wisely kept the biggest potatoes for seed for the next year, and ate only the smaller potatoes from his farm each year.  His potatoes seemed to get bigger each year.

The villagers being jealous of this farmer became increasingly suspicious that he had something to do with the reduction in size of their potatoes.  They began to think he was engaged in some kind of black magic cursing their crops.  The villagers becaming hateful towards this successful farmer, eventually arrested him and accused him of witchcraft.  They brought him to trial and demanded to know what he was doing to their crops.  The farmer explained the only thing he was doing was keeping the biggest potatoes for seed each year and eating only the smaller potatoes.  He told them this simple act of self denial produced a great benefit to his harvest.   The villagers were dubious of his claims, but the elders decided to try his method and sure enough through the years their potatoes increased in size.

The story is very much St. Paul’s teaching that those who sow sparingly reap sparingly and those who sow generously reap bountiful blessings.  If we spend all our capital immediately on our own selfish wants, we will find long term that our resources become smaller.  All lessons for us as we Christians think about our own stewardship and giving.  Jesus Himself taught:

…give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38)

When it comes to Christian giving, generosity is the norm.  St. John Chrysostom taught that one is not expected to give everything away, but can righteously keep enough for your own needs to live healthfully and respectfully.    Generosity is the norm for Christians to continue to be blessed by God – but we need the eyes to see that all we have are part of God’s blessings to us.

How much should you give?

“… shall appear before the LORD your God … They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed; every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.”  (Deuteronomy 16:16-17)

Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. (Malachi 3:10)

How often should you give?

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come. (1 Corinthians 16:2)

How should you give?

Cheerfully, as St. Paul notes.

Jesus gave no lessons on fund raising.   He taught us about giving generously, to give cheerfully, freely and willingly.  That is what we Christians should think about in terms of stewardship and our support of the Church.

Each of us should remember that in the Orthodox wedding we pray that God will bless the newly weds with all good blessings so that they in due time may abound in giving to others.   We pray for each family that the blessings they receive will produce righteous generosity benefiting others.   Blessings produce righteousness which produces blessings.

The Cheerful Giver is the Righteous Human

In the Epistle lesson of 2 Corinthians 9:6-11, St. Paul describes the generous giver, which turns out to be for him identical with a truly righteous person.   His words are something for all believers to consider, for often Christians think of the righteous person as an upright person who avoids sinning and chooses a virtuous way of life.  St. Paul reminds everyone that to truly be righteous one needs to know how to be charitable, generous and cheerful about the giving.  St. Paul’s words are to a large extent him quoting, paraphrasing and/or echoing Old Testament texts.  It is in the Scripture he uses that we really see how St. Paul is describing that the righteous person is a generous person.  Below are St. Paul’s words with the Old Testament texts interspersed to who what he had in mind:

But this I say: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Proverbs 22:8-9 in the Septuagint reads:
God blesses a cheerful and generous man . . . He who has compassion over the poor will himself be nourished, because he gave his own food to the poor.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”

While God is able to make all grace abound, St. Paul quotes a text (Psalm 112) that refers not to God but to the righteous person:

Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! His descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house; and his righteousness endures for ever. Light rises in the darkness for the upright; the LORD is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.
For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered for ever. He is not afraid of evil tidings; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. His heart is steady, he will not be afraid, until he sees his desire on his adversaries. He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever; his horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked man comes to nought.

The Lord is gracious, merciful and righteous, but the righteous person is the one who “deals generously and lends“, who gives freely to the poor and needy.  The righteous is not just interested in avoiding sin, the truly righteous is like God in being generous, kind and merciful.  The righteous person isn’t the one who gnashes his teeth when thinking about sinners, but rather is benevolent and hospitable to those who lack clothing, food, or who are homeless or exiles or strangers or refugees.  It is the person who gives to the least of Christ’s brothers and sisters, not the person who judges sinners.

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,

The Prophet Isaiah proclaims (55:6-12) :

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. “For you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

God is abundantly merciful and forgiving – God’s mercy are the seeds Go plants in us to accomplish God’s own will.  God’s Word, in Orthodoxy that surely means Jesus Christ, comes into our lives to change us into the human beings God wishes us to be.  Christ tells us to love others as He has loved us.  We are not just to hold onto Christ’s teachings to purify ourselves, we are to bring forth the fruits of repentance, to be able to offer back to God an abundant harvest through our imitation of Christ’s love and mercy.

while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

Proverbs 11:24-28 offers us this wisdom:
One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.  A liberal man will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered. The people curse him who holds back grain, but a blessing is on the head of him who sells it. He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it. He who trusts in his riches will wither, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.

Those who are generous, charitable, hospitable, benevolent, merciful and kind are the very people who are rich in God and will receive the Lord’s blessings – becoming enriched by God.  Not gathering in more possessions, but being blessed in giving all the more.

And Jesus said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  (Luke 12:15-21)

Blessed is the Generous Giver

“This I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have abundance for every good work. As it is written: ‘He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness remains forever.’ Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.”  (2 Corinthians 9:6-11)

 St. John Cassian reflects:

 “It is more blessed to give than to receive. More blessed than the poverty of the receiver is this generosity of the giver, which does not come from money that has been stored up through lack of faith or confidence, and which is not dispensed from the accumulated hoards of avarice, but which is offered from the fruit of one’s own work and from loving toil. And ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’ because, although the person who has given may be as poor as the one who receives, he nonetheless strives by his own effort to procure not only a sufficiency for his own needs but also, with loving solicitude, something to give to the needy. In this way he is adorned with a twofold grace, both because he possesses the perfect poverty of Christ through his renunciation of all his goods and because by his labors and his disposition he exhibits the liberality of a rich man. He it is who honors God from his righteous labors and gives to him from the fruits of his righteousness.” ( The Institutes, p 230)

Christian Stewardship: Cheerful Giving

St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 speaks to us about the blessings of generous giving.  Ideally, the Christian gives in love, not for reward, not because it is required and not with regret.

This I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness remains forever.” Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

St. John Chrysostom comments:

“The wealth is not a possession, it is not property, it is a loan for use. For how can you claim that it is a possession, if when you die, willingly or unwillingly, all that you have goes to others, and they again give it up to others, and these again to others. We are all sojourners; and the tenant of the house is perhaps more truly the owner of it, for when the owner dies, the tenant lives on and still enjoys the house and if the tenant has to pay for enjoying the house, the owner too has to pay for it to have it to have it built and has to endure thousands of pains to have it fitted up. Property, in fact, is but a word; we are all owners but of other men’s possessions.

Those things only are our own which we have sent before us to the other world. Our goods here are not our own; we have only a life interest in them; or, rather they fail us even here on earth. Only the virtues of the soul are properly our own, as almsgiving and charity. Worldly goods were called external things, even by those who are outside the Church, because they are external to us. But let us make them internal. For we cannot take our wealth with us when we depart from here, but we can take our charities. But let us rather send them before us so that they may prepare for us an abode in the eternal mansions (Lk. 16:9).

Riches are names from use, not from ownership, and are not our own, and possessions are not a property but a loan. If not, then tell me through how many more hands it will pass. There is a well-known wise proverb (and popular proverbs, when they contain any wisdom, are not to be despised): ‘O field, how many men’s have you been and how many more men’s will you be?’ This we should say to our houses and all our goods. Virtue alone is able to depart with us, and to accompany us to the world above. Let us then give up and extinguish that love of wealth, that we may kindle in us a desire for eternal things.” (Daily Readings from the Writings of St. John Chrysostom, pp. 109-110)

Generous and Cheerful Giving

St. Paul the Apostle wrote:

 This I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness remains forever.”

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.  (2 Corinthians 9:6-11)

St. John Chrysostom said:

St. Julianna the Merciful

“Having said, therefore, when, and from whom, and how this money must be collected, the Apostle Paul entrusted the question of how much to those who contribute. He did not say: ‘Contribute such and such an amount,’ so that the command would not become burdensome, and would not give opportunity to the rich who are reluctant to give to cite poverty and cause the truly poor to say: ‘What shall we do now if we are incapable of giving?’ Rather, he confined the measure of each contribution to the ability of those who contribute. ‘Each of you,’ he says, ‘(by himself) is to put something aside and store it up, whatever he has prospered.’ And he did not say, ‘whatever he can,’ or ‘whatever is found,’ rather, ‘whatever he has prospered,’ to show that he will have the influence and favor from above as his assistants. Paul’s purpose was not only for money to be contributed to the poor, but for it to be contributed with great eagerness. Likewise, God appointed almsgiving not only for the needy to be nourished, but also for the providers to receive benefit, and much more so for the latter than for the former. For if he considered only the interest of the poor, he would have commanded solely that the money be given, and he would not have asked for the eagerness of the providers.  But now you see the Apostle in every way ordering by will first and above all for the givers to be joyful: the suppliers to furnish in a cheerful manner. And at one time he says, ‘Everyone must do as he has chosen in his heart, neither out of grief nor necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver,’ not simply a giver, but the one who does this with pleasure. And again elsewhere he says, ‘…he who contributes in liberality; he who gives aid with zeal, he who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness.’ Almsgiving is precisely to give joy and to believe that you receive more than you give.”  (St. John Chrysostom, ON REPENTANCE AND ALMSGIVING, pgs. 141-142)

Keeping Perspective: Financial Crisis and Famine

Sermon notes from 19 October 2009 

 Epistle:  (2 Corinthians 9:6-11):     This I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of  necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness remains forever.” Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and      multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

The cheerful giver –  What can we do to receive God’s love?   Be a cheerful giver.

It is easy to be a cheerful giver when the economy is good – we give from our abundance, and we give and it doesn’t hurt to give because we have more than enough.  Giving from our abundance often allows us to give generously to some extent because it doesn’t change anything in our lifestyle – we are giving a small portion of the abundance and have plenty left over to enjoy ourselves. 

But God does not teach us to give only when things are good for us.  God encourages a generosity even when times are tough, even when the economy has faltered. In times of economic crisis –  God still loves the cheerful giver.  The concern for others doesn’t stop because life has become financially tight.  The command to love – to be concerned about others – doesn’t stop because of a financial downturn, for the financial slump is exactly the time when generosity is most needed. 

The love of God awaits those who show generosity, bountiful giving, liberality. 

In the book THE HUNGRY ARE DYING, Susan Holman writes about the Christian response in 4^th Century Roman Cappadocia when famine struck.   There had been a severe draught followed by famine.  In the agricultural economy of that time, this was not only a food disaster, but also an economic disaster like our current wall street fiasco.  And the response to try to solve the problem is very similar to what is being offered today:  tax relief was asked for all of the agricultural workers who were brought to near ruin by the draught.  The Roman tax system required for a region to come up with a certain amount of tax money – who they taxed and how  was up to the region.  Farmers bore an unusually high responsibility for paying these taxes in the agricultural economy.  But farmers had no money to pay taxes due to the draught and rather than try to shift the tax burden to others who were facing famine, the bishops appealed to Rome to forgive the tax debt.  Also it was decided that the local grain reserves which normally were to be shipped to Rome would be opened to the local residents to ease starvation.  In this we see the 4^th Century Roman Empire attempting to do the same basic maneuvers that modern governments are doing to stave off financial disaster.

 As the famine spread, the church tried to help those who were suffering from hunger and the lack of food.   The rich had money to purchase and store food.  The Church appealed to the rich to open their storehouse – not to give away the food – but to sell it.  The Church offered to buy food form the rich to give to the poor.  But the rich afraid of the dread effects of the draught and famine were not willing to sell their stores of food.    There was not cheerful giving, nor were the rich willing to abandon their stinginess and hoarding ways.  Stinginess and greed are different sins – the stingy hold on to what they have even when they have an abundance while the greedy want to accumulate more even if they have too much.   The Cappadocian Famine was a time when the Church appealed to those who were fortunate to have some food to be givers – even if they couldn’t be cheerful.  St. Basil the Great said in a sermon in 304AD:  “Yet, one must add, such misfortunes of life by trial also produce spiritual maturity, that both poor and rich may be tried by difficulties, and each is rigorously tested by patient endurance.  Such trials prove, especially in times like this, whether the afflicted one is philanthropic, aware of community  identity, thankful, not blaspheming the reversal by letting life’s turbulence turn their thinking upside-down.”

Our own current economic crisis comes in a year when there was already a food crisis forming in the Third World.  While Americans fear their shrinking net worth and retirement funds, they are not yet reduced to the problems caused by the draught and famine which struck Cappadocia in the 4^th Century.  The Christian response to such disaster was to remind people that God loves the cheerful giver, not those who are fortunate enough to be able to purchase and hoard food.

The scriptures however warn of even a worse famine than a food famine – “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,  “when I will send a famine on the land-  not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11).

The crisis of a famine of hearing the words of God, is certainly described in Jesus Parable of the Sower where he says that people cannot understand his words. 

Gospel:   (Luke 8:5-15):   Then the Lord spoke this parable:   “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. [6] Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. [7] Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. [8] Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” [9] Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. [10] He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.’

Jesus spoke in Parables to challenge us to seek out not only the word of God but its meaning.  The parables are a challenge which says that a literal reading of the scriptures is not enough.  If you hold only to the literal meaning of the text, you will not have understood God’s meaning and you will be in the famine of which Amos prophetically forewarned.   The Parable of the Sower is not self-explanatory – we like the disciples have to seek out its meaning or suffer the famine for God’s word.

Why is the sower so careless with his seed – sowing it on rocks, on the walking path, where birds can eat it?   He is not careless, he is generous.  “…your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).  Christ’s sower is a generous giver and distributes freely to all.