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)

Generous Love

“There was an elder at Scete who was hard working so far as his body was concerned but not too sharp in his logismoi. So he went to Abba John Colobos to ask him about forgetfulness. Having heard a saying from him he returned to his cell – and forgot what Abba John said to him; so he went back again to ask him. Having heard the same saying from him again, he returned; but when he reached his own cell, he forgot again. He went on coming many times and being overcome by forgetfulness on returning.

Later on he met the elder and said to him: ‘Do you know, abba, I forgot what you said to me again, but I did not come [back] so as not to trouble you.’ Abba John said to him: ‘Go and light a lamp,’ and he lit one. He spoke to him again: ‘ Get some other lamps and light from it,’ and he did so. And Abba John said to the elder: ‘The lamp was not damaged in any way when you lit the other lamps from it, was it?’ ‘No,’ he said.

So the elder said: ‘Neither is John; if the whole of Scete were to come to me it would not impede me from the grace of Christ, so come whenever you wish, without questioning.’ And thus, by the patient endurance of them both, God removed the forgetfulness from the elder. This was the practice of the [monks] at Scete: to give eagerness to the combatants and to coerce themselves to win each other over for the good.” (GIVE ME A WORD, pp 135-136)

Greed: A Deadly Sin

In our consumer driven culture, the sin of greed is often forgotten, buried under our ever mounting possessions.   Consumer spending in the US in 2013 was said to comprise 71% of the US economy.   I suppose that means we even think of our purchasing ever more goods as being both patriotic and a sign of being blessed.  As an alternative to giving things to people who already have more than they want, many charities in the US offer chances of giving Christmas gifts which actually benefit others and which don’t add items to our closets, attics, basements, garages or landfills.  While obviously Christmas gift giving often is done for pure love and joy, I certainly do hear a fair amount of comment from people who feel compelled to give or participate in gift exchanges which they aren’t interested in and sometimes can’t afford.   I also hear of those who feel completely frazzled by the frenzied shopping sprees they have to go on to meet all of their ‘gifting’ obligations.  And there is a degree for many that the lure of shopping is that power to purchase which makes us feel good about ourselves.

Since we Orthodox are also in the Nativity Fast, we have reason to consider whether any of our own desires or behaviors in this season are in fact sinfully selfish rather than done for others in love.   Sinfulness and repentance are not what some people want to hear about in the Christmas Season, but we Orthodox are in a lenten time as well, and so should joyfully welcome clear sightedness about our own behavior.  Socrates thought the unexamined life is not worth living.   Repentance and confession tell us our life is worth living that is why we examine it!

St. John Cassian reminds us that greed is not a minor sin, but has shown itself to be a deadly one.  Cassian points out that it is greed, avarice, which leads Judas down a deadly path.

“Consider Judas, who was numbered among the apostles and who did not wish to crush this serpent’s deadly head – how it destroyed him with its poison, entangled him in the snares of desire and drove him to a criminal and speedy end by persuading him to sell the world’s redeemer and the author of human salvation for thirty pieces of silver. Never would he have fallen into the abominable villainy of betrayal had he not been infected with the disease of avarice, nor would he have been guilty of sacrilegiously denying the Lord if he had not first been in the habit of stealing from the purse that was entrusted to him.” (The Institutes, p 181)

Abba Chomai said: “Do not let your hands be stretched out to gather in; let them rather be stretched out to give.”    (GIVE ME A WORD: THE ALPHABETICAL SAYINGS THE DESERT FATHERS, p 317)

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)

Christmas Charity: Giving to God

St. Augustine gives us a wonderful image of Christian giving and charity:

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all;

but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”

(quoted in Attending to Your Marriage by Charles Joanides, pg 148)

Links to all of this year’s blogs related to the Nativity of Christ can be found at Christmas Blogs 2012.

St. Nikolai & Thankless Prosperity

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us often not through direct commandments but in parables.  Parables are stories which have one or more lessons which are derived from the story.  In Luke 12:16-21, Christ

“… spoke a parable to them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.  And he thought within himself, saying, “What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?” So he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.  “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.'”

But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?”

So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.'” 

The Holy Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic comments on the parable:

“Jesus spake a parable unto them, saying: ‘The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within himself, saying: ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’

He was not just rich; he had such a yield from his harvest that he did not know where to store it. Looking at his wheat-covered fields, and his orchards and vineyard whose branches were weighed down by fruit, his gardens over flowing with all kinds of vegetables and his hives full of honey, this rich man did not look towards heaven and cry out with joy: ‘Glory and praise to Thee, O most high and most merciful God! How great an abundance Thou hast, in Thy power and wisdom, brought forth from the black earth! Thou hast, through the sun’s rays, poured sweetness into all the fruits of the earth! Thou hast given every fruit a wonderful form and particular flavor! Thou hast rewarded me a hundredfold for my small labors! Thou hast had mercy on Thy servant, and hast poured such gifts from Thy full hands into his lap! O my most wondrous Lord, teach me to give joy to my brethren and neighbors with these Thy gifts. May they, together with me, rejoice and thankfully glorify and praise Thy holy name and Thine inexpressible goodness.’ ” (Homilies, pgs. 270-271)

Resolutions for the Year of the Lord 2012

The old & the new

Some people make New Year’s Resolutions, but for many of us Christians, the resolve is one that we make related to our sacramental confessions – to do God’s will in all things.  Here are a few ideas from St. John Chrysostom for what we might commit ourselves to this year in our effort to follow Christ:

“The sources of our existence have been made common so that we all might live more securely. God has made you rich; why do you make yourself poor?   He has given you money, not to shut it away to feed your own destruction, but that you can pour it forth to the benefit of others and for your salvation.”

It is hard to convince ourselves that we can afford to tithe – or that we cannot afford not to tithe, since the tithe is the Lord’s to begin with.  Thankfulness of spirit can lead to joyful, generous giving.   Entitlement thinking – “everything I have is mine” – can lead to that poverty which Chrysostom mentions above – “you’ll never be rich because you are greedy” (as was told the baker in one of the legends explaining why he abandoned greed and began giving a baker’s dozen to his customers).  Thoughts like “I deserve wealth and prosperity” are also a form of entitlement thinking.  Entitlement thinking leads to seeing others as a threat – “they” want to take away my entitlements” – which causes us to lose love for one another.

“God has also made the possession of riches unstable so that the intensity of man’s madness for it might slacken. Let us not consider riches to be a great good.”

The instability of the economy, the stock market, investments and retirement funds – this is not merely the risks of capitalism, but Chrysostom says is part of God’s plan to teach us not to greedily trust in riches.  Obsessing over profit and prosperity is for St. John a form of insanity which possesses a great many people.   Wealth does not equal virtue.  Wealth in itself is not the greatest virtue (= good).  Love is the greatest virtue and good.

“The great good is not the possession of money, but to posses the fear of God and piety. A righteous man, even if he were the poorest of mortals, would need to but spread forth his hands toward heaven and call upon God, and the clouds would pass away! But gold, saved in abundance, is more useless than clay for delivering one from impending calamities.”  (St. John Chrysostom,The Rich in this World, pgs. 6-7)

The pursuit of happiness – a declared right for Americans.  Yet often we mistake the pursuit of wealth for this happiness.   Indeed wealth can give us a sense of power and well being, but that also can be deceptive.  Wealth is one of those things for which an appetite is never satisfied.  When is enough enough?   What are we willing to sacrifice to gain just 10% more?   Freedom or friendship or faith?  Are we willing to kill or force others into slavery and poverty so we can have 10% more wealth?

What is the relationship between loving God and neighbor and our own wealth or pursuit of happiness?   This is the moral question we must ask ourselves for our personal wealth can never be separated from the ethics taught by Christ in the Gospel.

The Truly Rich are Those who Give Their Wealth to Others

“The love of beautiful objects must not become purely selfish. If it does, we shall end up not knowing what the true beauty is like. It would be sad indeed if people were to say of us:

‘Their land, their slaves and their capital assets are worth fifteen millions, but they themselves are only worth three pennies.’

[…] We must continually repeat those amazing words of the Lord: ‘Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, where there are neither robbers nor rust.’ (cf. Matt. 19:21; 6:20) The truly rich are not those who keep their riches to themselves but those who give to others. Happiness comes not from possessing wealth but from giving it away. Whatever is generously given away becomes a fruit of the soul. It therefore become’s the soul’s wealth.”   (Clement of Alexandria in Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary, pgs. 294 – 295)