Gordon E. Ellis
July 31, 2005
HERE, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED…
On Thursday, a group of us from church will travel to ECUADOR, where we will live in the HOMES of some extremely POOR families. The homes are no different than those we see the POOR living in on our TV sets. THESE are people who earn maybe $3 or $4 dollars per DAY. The man in the home where Diane and I stay spent 3 years saving up for a BICYCLE. And it’s his PRIZE possession, because he KNOWS he’ll NEVER own a CAR. And IN that house, there’s just NO food. You open the refrigerator and it’s EMPTY! What a SHOCK that was for me LAST year! It’s just TOTALLY empty. These people LITERALLY live day-to-day. They go OUT and BUY, EVERY day, the FOOD that they can AFFORD for THAT day. And while WE are there, they eat 3 meals per day. But I’m CERTAIN that they DON’T when we’re NOT there. Well, I have a CONFESSION to make: I have had a HARD time this summer NOT overeating in order to COMPENSATE for this upcoming mission trip, even though I KNOW that it will just make me HUNGRIER while I there, even though I REMEMBER how I took LOTS of granola bars and OTHER snacks LAST year and didn’t end up EATING most of them, AND even though I was SURPRISED last year to find that I had PLENTY of food and was RARELY hungry. STILL, I am TEMPTED to OVEREAT, to COMPENSATE, and I’m FIGHTING it.
I sort of feel like a DOG! Did you ever watch a dog EAT? Unlike a CAT, a DOG will CHOW down WHATEVER you put in his DISH just as FAST as he CAN. And I am TOLD that ONE reason why a dog GOBBLES down his food so QUICKLY is because, for the first FEW million YEARS, when dogs lived in the WILD, food was a RARITY. SO, when a KILL was made, ALL the dogs would gather around the carcass and WOLF down the meat. And it was IMPORTANT to EAT it QUICKLY because, if they DIDN’T, OTHER dogs would GET it. And THAT’S why, millions of years later, dogs STILL gobble down their FOOD just as FAST as they can, EVEN though there are no OTHER dogs in sight, and NO pressure to EAT it quickly.
Well, friends, THAT’S what I call a mentality of SCARCITY. And personally, I believe that we ALL come INTO this world with a mentality of SCARCITY. I think we’re BORN with it! It’s MINE, and YOU can’t HAVE it! shouts even the LITTLEST child. But THEN, SOME of us have life experiences during childhood which FURTHER develop that sense of SCARCITY within us, so that we THINK we have to GRAB and HOARD. We THINK we HAVE to ACCUMULATE and STOCKPILE. And THEN, we have to GUARD what we GET. And THAT’S why TWO of the fastest-growing businesses in America today are the STORAGE business and the SECURITY business. THAT’S because we are LIVING with a mentality of SCARCITY. And the RICHER America becomes, the MORE we seem to HAVE this mentality.
HOWEVER, if we read the BIBLE, and particularly stories like TODAY’S Scripture Lesson, we soon REALIZE that there seems to be something about GOD that tends toward EXCESS, something about GOD that tends toward EXTRAVAGANCE. I mean: LOOK at our Scripture Lesson today! A HUGE crowd has followed Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus PROBABLY wants to get a BREATHER, to have a VACATION from all these HURTING people who ALWAYS seem to be PRESSING on Him. BUT, that’s NOT what He GETS, is it? EVEN in the DESERT, THOUSANDS of people INUNDATE Him. SO, Jesus HEALS them, BECAUSE He has COMPASSION. And THEN, as it grows LATE, His disciples URGE Him to send the crowds AWAY -- so that they can buy FOOD. But INSTEAD, Jesus tells His DISCIPLES to give them something to EAT. Where in the world, they ask, do you expect US to get enough FOOD to feed all THESE people? There must be 5,000 of them! And WE only have a couple of FISH and a few LOAVES. BUT, Jesus BLESSES what they have, and EVERYONE eats and is FILLED! And even MORE than that, they have 12 baskets of food left over, FAR more than they STARTED with. I mean: the food just OVERFLOWS! And to ME, this MIRACLE is a PARABLE about God’s EXTRAVAGANCE. EVEN though they are in a DESERT, the desert BURSTS into bloom once JESUS gets there. There is HEALING for the hurting and FOOD for the hungry, and there’s NOTHING scarce ABOUT it! It’s ABUNDANT!
BUT, His DISCIPLES weren’t thinking about ABUNDANCE. THEY were thinking in terms of SCARCITY. THEY saw the vast NEEDS of the people and BEGGED Jesus to send them AWAY! Well, friends, those DISCIPLES are YOU and ME! We TOO look at the vast NEEDS of the world around us, and we TOO shout in despair: Jesus, send them away! Jesus, work some kind of miracle and FEED them. But DON’T ask US to do it! Those disciples are US!
BUT, Jesus asks US the SAME question He asked His FIRST disciples: WHAT do you HAVE? Oh, We DON’T have MUCH, we reply; just a couple of FISH in our basket, and a few LOAVES. But HE urges us to take WHATEVER we HAVE and be RECKLESS in SHARING it. HE asks us to be RECKLESS about GIVING it away, or as SOME people might say, even THROWING it away on the multitudes. And even though MOST of us don’t BELIEVE this, WHEN we DO give it away, there WILL be ENOUGH! But THAT’S hard to believe! You see: we STILL live with a mentality of SCARCITY, even though we ALL have so MUCH! And THAT’S why WE, in America, can SAY things like: We better not let too many LATINOS into this country; they MIGHT take American jobs. OR, don’t give TOO much to those folks on WELFARE; it MIGHT be a drain on the economy. OR, don’t raise the minimum WAGE too high; it MIGHT make my hamburger COST more. Yes, we HOLD on TIGHT to what we HAVE, thinking that REALITY is somehow a FIXED commodity, and that LIFE is a ZERO-SUM game. After all: if I give to YOU, I MUST be diminished.
On the OTHER hand, I recently asked an ELEMENTARY school teacher HOW she has continued to TEACH for over 30 years. LOTS of teachers burn OUT and have NOTHING left to GIVE. WHY hasn’t SHE burnt OUT or just given UP? And she replied: I’ve found that LOVE is a RENEWABLE resource. The MORE I give love away, the more I GET. One of our congregation’s largest GIVERS told me the SAME thing when I asked him what MOTIVATES him to GIVE so much. I mean: he’s NOT one our wealthier members, but he GIVES between $100 and $200 per week. He said: Well, I’VE found that the more I GIVE, the more I GET. Now at FIRST, his statement BOTHERED me. Did he mean that IF we give money to the church, we get MORE money back? He replied, NO, I just know that my GIVING is NEVER as much as it COULD be, and that in giving MORE and MORE money for God’s WORK, I receive SUCH great JOY and satisfaction, because I KNOW that I am PART of God’s ongoing work, and that I am doing as MUCH as I CAN to HELP, and that I am PART of a HUGE team or a GIANT movement that’s MUCH bigger than all of my OTHER interests and pursuits COMBINED. And THAT feels GOOD! It’s VERY rewarding! Friends, it just feels SO GOOD to let GO of that mentality of SCARCITY that seems to PLAGUE us these days and to take ON an AWARENESS of God’s abundance and goodness and grace. But it’s a CHANGE in our mentality!
A COLLEAGUE of mine, Thomas Long, tells the story of a student of his, who was talking with his father about the various problems of society which are being confronted by the CHURCH these days, problems like poverty, homelessness, AIDS, gambling and OTHER social ills. And AS they talked, they headed for a PAY phone. This was BEFORE CELL phones. They wanted to call home to see if they needed to bring home a PIZZA for dinner. AS they walked, however, they were MET by a homeless man, who asked them, Can you spare any change? I’m HUNGRY.
Immediately the father reached into his pocket, pulled out a handful of change, held it OUT to the homeless man, and said: Here, take whatever you need.
Well, the homeless man just smiled and took ALL of the change, as the father and son KEPT walking and talking. SUDDENLY, however, the father REALIZED that he had given away ALL his CHANGE. He NEEDED a quarter in order to call HOME. Well, turning around, he called OUT to the HOMELESS man: Hey, I FORGOT that I need to make a PHONE call. Can you give me BACK one of my quarters? The homeless man SMILED, reached into his pocket, pulled out ALL the CHANGE that he’d been given. And then, he held out his hand and said, Here, TAKE whatever you need! Well, IMAGINE that sense of abundance and grace from a man who, on the face of it, had so LITTLE. BUT, he was a man who experienced what he had as ABUNDANCE rather than SCARCITY. And WHAT a difference it made. I’ll tell you: I’ve SEEN this to be true SO many times in Mexico and Ecuador. It seems that the POOR know something that WE, who are rich, DON’T. And they don’t HAVE a mentality of SCARCITY. THEY have a mentality of ABUNDANCE. They MAY have NOTHING, but whatever they HAVE, they’ll give it to YOU.
Friends, WHEN will we learn to trust GOD? WHEN will we stop hoarding and guarding, keeping and clutching, and INSTEAD, FOCUS on God’s MIRACLE of EXTREME abundance, so that we continually OPEN our hands to offer extravagant GENEROSITY? I believe that we come INTO this world with a sense of scarcity, holding on tight. BUT, by the GRACE of God, and the LESSONS of Jesus, we can ALL learn ANOTHER way. We CAN come to realize that ALL that we HAVE, and ALL that we ARE, is a GIFT from the HAND of an incredibly GENEROUS and LOVING God. And in RETURN, God asks ONLY that we respond to our sisters and brothers, both HERE and around the globe, with the SAME kind of generosity with which WE have been blessed. And I just HOPE and PRAY that we WILL. Not only is it good for our INDIVIDUAL souls, because as Samuel Johnson said, it is better to LIVE rich than to DIE rich, but it’s ALSO in our BEST INTEREST as a NATION. It IS, in fact, the KEY to our national SECURITY, and EVEN to our very SURVIVAL. Yes, we NEED to STOP being TAKERS and HOARDERS, and to START being GIVERS, ABUNDANT givers JUST like JESUS. WE need to break OUT of our mentality of SCARCITY, and START saying to the world’s POOR and BROKEN: HERE, TAKE whatever you NEED…. Amen.