Tuesday, March 22, 2022

From Earning to Receiving

Pull Your own Weight  
One of our cultural compulsives within those people who come from the Dutch Mennonites is a  strong work ethic. We value working hard. My wife is a hard worker. I remember a Sunday School Picnic when our care group was setting up for the day, including all the material for a cookout, and Lois was hard at it, getting ready at full speed when one of the others in the care group looked at her and said, Lois, you work like a Mennonite!” He meant it as a compliment, and it’s true. She does! 
 
I have seen this same desire to pull our own weight when we invite people to our house. I can predict with confidence the sentence that comes after “We’d love to come.” The guest almost always asks, “What can we bring?” I’m from Zimbabwe, and when we invite someone, I assume that they bring themselves. They’re Manitoba Mennonites, so they want to help out. When someone invites us, Lois has to remind me as I’m speaking, “Ask what we can bring!” 
 
This is a good cultural trait. A strong work ethic is a good thing. It makes life so much easier for all of us. It’s the reason we can set up and break down for a common meal so easily. Everyone pitches in. As we say, “Many hands make light work.” But, as Reg Toews reminded us last week in the Going Deeper class, every positive trait has its dark side. 
 
What’s the dark side of a strong work ethic? The same attitude that wants to contribute can become a sense of entitlement. “I’ve worked hard all my life. I deserve the benefits of my hard work.” We can start to feel as though we have earned the right to whatever we have. This sense of entitlement can also become a lack of charity towards those who are less fortunate. “It’s their own fault. If they worked harder, they wouldn’t have so much trouble.” Used well, our work ethic is a gift that helps everyone in the community. Used badly, our work ethic actually becomes something that seals us off from each other and from God. 
 
Luke 13 
Jesus warns us against this sort of mindset in the first part of our gospel reading. At the end of Luke 9, Jesus “set his face towards Jerusalem”. He had asked the disciples who they thought he was, and Peter, speaking for all of them, named him as Messiah. As the Messiah, then, he began walking to Jerusalem, where the climax of his ministry would take place. Chapters 9 to 19 then are on the road to Jerusalem. At the beginning of this journey, Jesus tells his disciples that they also must take up their cross and follow him. Then he starts walking, teaching as he goes. Chapter 13, then, is part of this teaching, telling us what it means to follow Jesus. 
 
He taught the disciples and assorted crowds on the way, and in chapter 13 some of those present ask him about a local tragedy – some Galileans had been taken by Pilate in Jerusalem, who executed them and mixed their blood with their sacrifices in the temple. They had been killed, and they and their families had been shamed beyond description. What did Jesus think of this? 
 
Jesus replies that such things happen in life. Apparently, some people thought that these Galileans must have sinned greatly to receive such a fate. Jesus says, “It could have been anyone. It could have been you.” He adds that another tragedy they knew well could have been anyone – the collapse of the tower of Siloam. Again, some people wondered if the victims were to blame. Jesus says, “It could have been you.” 
 
I’m reminded of a well-known line from Solzhenitsyn, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart.” Solzhenitsyn echoes Jesus’ thought here, “When you think of someone who has suffered a terrible fate, remember, it could have been you.” Not just that you could have experienced great loss, like a death, but that you could have been the one to perpetrate great evil. So Jesus warns the people listening, “I tell you; unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” 
 
That’s the point of the parable that follows. A man plants a fig tree. Fig trees normally take several years to bear fruit after they are planted, so the man checks the tree in its fourth year. He tells his gardener to cut it down, but the gardener suggests a year of grace – a year of special attention with just the right amount of care and water and fertilizer, and then we’ll see. If there is still no fruit in the fifth year, he says, we’ll cut it down. 
 
I take it that the meaning is reasonably clear: God plants us, and God gives us all we need to “bear fruit”. If we don’t, it’s because we don’t accept the gift we’re given. If we don’t, we will be cut down. Putting the two parts of our gospel reading together, “repent” means “turn around and accept the gift of life that Jesus gives.” Don’t think that you can earn your way into the kingdom of God. God gives you a gift, you can either accept it or reject, but you can’t earn it. 
 
Isaiah 55 
Isaiah gives a similar message. I remember these verses from my youth at a missionary children’s hostel. Mim Stern, our hostel mother, loved to quote them to us, “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” You want to earn your bread. You can’t. You want to earn the water of life. You can’t. You can only receive it as a gift from God. 
 
Isaiah 55 is in the third major section of Isaiah. The first 39 chapters assume the context of Israel in their own land, facing captivity. Chapters 40 to 54 assume the context of Israel in captivity, waiting for the return home. The last 12 chapters assume the context of Israel in their own land again, but they are having real trouble in trying to put their lives back together. 
 
Israel knows all about trying to earn their own way. They have tried working hard to make things right. They have tried rebuilding the temple to make their worship perfect. They have tried praying more and singing more and earning their way into God’s favour. None of it has worked, because you can’t make yourself good enough to be part of God’s kingdom. You can only receive it as a gift. The two passages come together to affirm and critique our Mennonite ethic of hard work. It’s good: We are to bear fruit. It will never be enough: We can only receive God’s character within us as a gift. 
 
Receiving the Gift 
How do we maximize the benefit of our work ethic? How do we learn to receive God’s gift instead of earning it? I suppose it’s a matter of our inner attitude. Jesus said, “It’s better to give than to receive”, and someone else has added, “It’s also a lot easier.” We like giving. It feels good. It is good. The generosity of God’s people is a real benefit to the whole of society. 
 
We have taught this for many years, and we have reaped the reward. An article in Steinbachonline last March observed that southeast Manitoba is among the most generous regions of Canada in our charitable donations, and added, “when it comes to the percentage of tax filers who donated, Manitoba ranked number one and has been there a long time.” 
 
This is good. Giving to meet the needs of people around us is a positive quality. But one can ask, are we as good at receiving when we are in need? Lois and I are receiving from various people at the moment. Lois had a hip replacement last Wednesday. We received from the expertise and skill of the surgeon and the hard work and care of many accompanying health professionals. We are also receiving food. Several people have either left food or at our door or otherwise made sure that we don’t have to cook for a while. 
 
This is really cool, and we feel cared for and loved. It is good. At some point, of course, we would start to feel uncomfortable. We took a meal to someone else a few weeks ago. Now we receive meals from others. Give and take feels good. But what happens when you have to receive and receive and receive? What happens when you have to receive and can never be the ones who get to give? 
 
That’s the position we are in with God. We can give God only what God has already given us. An old hymn puts it this way, “Naught have I gotten but what I received; Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed; Boasting excluded, pride I abase; I’m only a sinner saved by grace!” 
 
Our texts make this spiritual truth clear: We can only give out of what God has already given us. We can receive God’s life, God’s character as a gift. We can never earn it. There’s another part of this truth, however, that is in the text even if we don’t see it there right away. 
 
Our culture centres on the individual. We believe that “God helps those who help themselves.” We see our response to God as a highly individualistic thing, which reduces the texts to nothing more than receiving eternal life. That meaning is in the text, but there’s more! But the Jews didn’t think that way. In the Old Testament and New Testament alike, the Jews knew that they were part of a larger community. 
 
You see this fact – the basic importance of community – clearly in Paul’s letters. Paul has various commands that he gives to the early church, but one command stands out above all others. “Love each other.” “Carry each other’s burdens.” Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” “Think of each other’s needs as more important than your own.” Over and over again, Paul tells us to look out for the community, to look out for each other. Do a Google search of the topic “one anothering” and see what comes up. It is a major theme in the New Testament! 
 
In this context, we give and receive in community. God gives us what we need through each other. We are Christ’s hands and feet. 
 
Conclusion 
Apply this aspect of community, then, to giving and receiving. The danger of our strong work ethic is that we may think that we deserve other people’s help. We’ve earned it! The benefit of our work ethic is that we’re ready to help each other however we can. The other person doesn’t need to have earned it. We give because we receive. We don’t think in terms of earning our way; we think in terms of receiving the gift of life – a gift God gives us both directly and through God’s people. 
 
An old preachers’ story tells of someone who had a dream of heaven and hell. He found himself standing in the entrance to heaven and hell with St. Peter. Peter said, “Let me show you what hell is like.” “Okay.” 
 
Peter opened the door and the visitor saw a huge banquet table with the guests seated all around it. The table was filled with wonderful food and drink, a real joy and delight. Every guest had a spoon with which to enjoy the meal, but the spoons were too long to reach their mouths, and the spoons were chained to their wrists so that they could not eat. Similarly, the drink was held out of reach. Condemned forever to sit in front a feast that they could not enjoy. A real torment. 
 
Peter closed the door, as the visitor reflected on the irony of such great good held forever out of reach. Then Peter opened the door to Heaven. To his surprise, the visitor saw the same scene. The same food and drink. The same long spoons chained to the people’s wrists. But instead of despair and dismay, everyone was celebrating and enjoying the food and drink. Because everyone was feeding each other. 
 
As a theological exposition of Heaven and Hell, this picture is nonsense. As a description of Heaven and Hell already present in this life, this picture is precisely accurate. God gives us the gift of life directly and through each other. We cultivate the gift of receiving in place of the burden of earning and so we enter into God’s reign. It’s up to you now in the Going Deeper class to put specifics on this picture and figure out what it looks like in practice. May God bless and guide us in a life of learning to receive God’s grace. 
 
 
 
Focus Statement:  As we seek God’s way, we move from believing that we must earn our nourishment, our privileges, even our identity as God’s children, to an understanding that abundant life is a gift from God to all. 
 
Scriptures (NRSV) 
Isaiah 55:1-9
An Invitation to Abundant Life
55 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 
See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 
 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor 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.
 
Luke 13:1-9

Repent or Perish

13 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” 
The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree 
Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 
20 March 2022

 

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