share
The Grace of Giving
By Linda Rex
June 30, 2024, Proper 8 | After Pentecost—As I grow older, I find that I am more and more aware of how far my actions and behavior are from my ideals and beliefs. One of the areas in my life where this is true is the area of giving.
In our New Testament passage for this Sunday, 2 Corinthians 8:7–15, the apostle Paul reminds the members in Corinth about a gift they had pledged to give their sister church in Jerusalem. The members in Jerusalem were suffering through some hard times, while their brothers and sisters in Corinth were prospering. Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to follow through with their pledge and to help their needy brothers and sisters.
What did the apostle Paul use as the basis for his request? He went back to the foundation of all our giving—the realization that Jesus gave all for us. The One who had everything—the Son of God who had all the benefits and blessings of eternal glory with his Father in the Spirit—left his abundance behind to join us in our broken human flesh. In Jesus Christ, the Son of God dwelt among humans as a human being, and experienced the poverty of our existence. He who had everything became poor, that in his poverty, we might be made rich. We find our spiritual wealth in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and his gift of the Spirit. He paid the ultimate price, gave it all up, for our sakes.
In the light of this, Paul says that we are to give as we are able, to care for and help others. For what purpose? For the sake of equality. This is an interesting point. He doesn’t say that it’s wrong or bad to be wealthy, but that wealth provides an opportunity to help lift others up. Neither does Paul say that poverty is bad, but rather, it provides an open door for creating communion—a place where those who have can bless those who have not, to bring the two together in unity. The goal is not that everyone is the same but that each has what they need.
The divine Persons of the Trinity are each unique but are equal and yet are one. They created us as human beings to be equals. But inevitably, we find ways in which we elevate ourselves at the expense of others. We push others down, that we may be raised up. Our goal should not be to do this, but to follow Christ—the One who came down, lowered himself down into the place where we are, to bring us up to where he is in glory. This is the calling he has given each of us—to be turned outward, toward others, not to push them down or keep them beneath us, but to lift them up, so there is equality. We are designed to live as unique equals in union and communion with God and one another.
So back to my comment about ideals and actions. In this life, it is a real challenge to live this out. There are so many things demanding our attention, so many responsibilities, and so many opportunities. All around are possibilities, ways to spend our money, to use our time, and to occupy our attention. It’s possible to spend every moment from the time we wake up to the time we close our eyes in sleep attending to what’s right in front of us without ever noticing that all around us are people in need. It is so easy to be so self-absorbed that we never attend to the need that others may have to be lifted up into a space beside us, to share life with us, and to be included in the unity and oneness of our life in the Trinity.
And the greatest need of each and every person here on earth is to know that they are loved, accepted, forgiven, and included in God’s life and love. Yes, they have physical needs too. In Paul’s day, the needs the Corinth church helped with were food, clothing, and shelter. Their financial contribution ensured that their poverty-stricken brothers and sisters would have the basics of physical life. In the same way, we can look at the blessings the Lord has given us and find ways to enable those with less to have what they truly need.
It is Christ’s life in us by the Spirit who enables us to see those around us with new eyes, and to recognize opportunities to lift others up out of their need, to join us where we are. It is God’s Spirit at work in us who enables us to do this. Giving is a grace of the Spirit. Our ability to recognize a need and to actively work to fill that need, comes from God himself—the One who saw our need as poverty-stricken human beings, and came in Jesus Christ to lift us up to life with our Triune God, now and forever. How might we open ourselves up more completely to the indwelling Spirit, so that God can lift others up to share in the Triune life and love?
Thank you, dear Trinity, for your selfless generosity toward us in our brokenness and need. Thank you, dear Jesus, for generously offering yourself to us so that we might join with you in your life with your Father in the Spirit. Grant us the grace to love others as you have loved us, by being generous and helpful to those in need, in your name, Jesus, by your Spirit. Amen.
“But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also. I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. I give my opinion in this matter, for this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to do this, but also to desire to do it. But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability. For if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality— at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; as it is written, ‘He who’ gathered ‘much did not have too much, and he who’ gathered ‘little had no lack.’ ” 2 Corinthians 8:7–15 NASB
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/olitthe-grace-of-giving.pdf ]
[More devotionals may be found at https://lifeinthetrinity.blog ]
[Subscribe to Our Life in the Trinity YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ourlifeinthetrinity ]
Right in Front of Us
by Linda Rex
August 6, 2023, Proper 13 | After Pentecost—In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Last Battle”, there is a scene which profoundly pictures how we can have everything we’ve ever wanted right in front of us and still not see it. In this part of the story, the black dwarves are comfortably sitting in a lovely meadow in the new Narnia, and Aslan the lion has given them a great feast of tasty foods to enjoy.
Unfortunately, the black dwarves are blind to these heavenly realities. What is a lovely meadow in reality, to them is the filthy dirt floor of a smelly stable. The tasty treats they are enjoying to them are wisps of straw and grain, covered with animal waste. Even though there was enough food for them all to enjoy, the dwarves believed there wasn’t enough, and soon were having a fight over who got what.
This picture of our inability to see what is right in front of us is the author’s way of helping us to understand how we can be in the midst of God’s kingdom even now, and yet be living as though we are still enslaved citizens of this earthly realm. Blind to the spiritual realities, we may live as though we are unloved, God-forsaken orphans who have to struggle to have the smallest blessing in this bleak, dark world, when in reality, through Christ, we have been included in God’s inner life and love, and by the Spirit have all of heaven’s blessings available to us.
In the New Testament reading for this Sunday, Romans 9:1-5, the apostle Paul spoke of some of his fellow Israelites as being in this place of blindness. Paul said he had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart because he longed for them to see and understand all that Jesus Christ had done for them, but they refused to receive it. His concern was deep enough that he was even willing, if God had allowed him, to sacrifice his own inclusion in Christ’s life so that they would recognize theirs. It broke Paul’s heart that his people, the human lineage of Jesus, could not and would not embrace the truth which was so evident in Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension.
The gospel story for today in Matthew 14:13–21 tells how Jesus was actively ministering to a crowd of over five thousand people, even though he had hoped for some time alone to deal with the loss of his relative John the Baptizer. His compassion moved him to offer healing to those in need, and the task was so large that as the day drew to a close, his work was not done. The disciples encouraged him to send the people away so they could get food for themselves. But Jesus told his disciples, “You feed them.”
This was an interesting statement, because it was obvious to the disciples that this task was impossible. The disciples did happen to have five loaves and two fish, but to feed over five thousand people? The men were still in a space of blindness with regards to the spiritual realities. Even after all of their time with Jesus, and even after he had spent all day performing miracles, they couldn’t imagine being able to feed the people with five loaves and two fish. The day was getting darker, the situation more serious, and Jesus was telling them it was up to them to solve this problem!
Going for a moment back to the passage in Romans 9:5, notice who Paul says Jesus is. He didn’t say Jesus was a nice guy who helped people, healed the sick, and told good stories. What he said was, Jesus Christ was and is both fully human and fully God. The problem in dealing with feeding the large group of people was that the disciples still did not realize who Jesus was. This is the central spiritual reality we all need to embrace, for it makes a profound difference in how we deal with the everyday situations in our lives which seem to be beyond our ability to handle.
Notice the profound difference which occurred when the disciples placed their five loaves and two fish in Jesus’ hands and then acted as though he could and would do what was needed in the situation. Jesus told them to organize the people—so they did. Jesus blessed the bread and broke it, and told them to share the food with others—so they did. When all was said and done, everyone had all they needed and there was even enough left over to fill twelve large baskets. Jesus told them not to neglect to gather the leftovers—so they did. Nothing was wasted, and all were fed.
The irony was that even after he did all this, the disciples still seemed to be blind as to who Jesus was. They needed their eyes opened and their hearts awakened. The spiritual realities are not something we touch, taste, feel, like our physical senses, so it seems at times that they are not real. But Jesus Christ is our living Lord, and he reveals himself to us by his Spirit. He loves to take what little we have and put it to work doing great things for his kingdom in this world. And he loves to include us in what he is doing even though at times it may not make sense to us.
In spite of how things may appear at the moment, God is present and at work in this world and in our lives through Jesus by his Spirit. Ask him to help you see the truth of what’s really going on. Ask him to awaken you to the spiritual realities—and get ready for a challenging journey of discovery!
Father, please awaken us by your Spirit to the spiritual realities we are included in. Enable us to see and know Jesus for who he really is, and to respond to him in faith, trusting him with all that we have in every situation. Grant us the grace to follow wherever he leads, and to do all that he asks of us, believing he will do more for us and in and through us by your Spirit than we could ever ask or imagine, for your glory. Amen.
“I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” Romans 9:1–5 NIV
[Printable copy: https://lifeinthetrinity.blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/olitright-in-front-of-us-updated.pdf ]
[More devotionals may be found at https://lifeinthetrinity.blog ]
[Subscribe to Our Life in the Trinity YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@ourlifeinthetrinity ]
Giving Living
By Linda Rex
It’s been an interesting journey as I have participated with Good News Fellowship in caring for the community in which we located here in Nashville. I’ve experienced a wide spectrum of responses to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and deed. Some were expected, while others were very unexpected.
As a Christian in today’s culture, I have found that people have unspoken expectations of me. Because I am a Christian, they seem to believe I will be, or should always be, nice, friendly, and well-behaved—and I inevitably disappoint them. Many people assume because I am a Christian that I am examining them and their lives in detail so I can have something to criticize or put down—and I’m not.
As a Christian, many people say, I must never make anyone feel bad or tell them that they are wrong and must change—after all, they are free to do whatever they want—it’s a free country, right? But sometimes the most loving thing I can do is to bring to their attention something hurtful or dangerous they are doing to harm themselves or others.
Some people seem to believe that since I am a Christian, I’m obligated to help anyone who comes to me and asks for help, no matter what the circumstance or situation. If someone is in need or struggling, it is my responsibility to help them and give them whatever it is they ask for, no matter the cost to myself or the inconvenience it may be for me to help them, or that it might not be in their best interests for me to help them in that way.
Yet God calls us to be, as followers of Christ, generous and giving. We are to share all the gifts God has given us with others. We are to be compassionate, understanding and loving. We should be positive examples of “giving living”—by nature being generous with all God has given us as our participation in Christ’s own generosity.
The fundamental thing is, we are not created as human beings to have a life centered around our own selves. Self-centered living destroys relationships. A self-centered person expects people to orbit around them as they slowly drain people’s energy and heart out like a black hole consumes the stars around it. When we center our lives and other people’s lives about our own needs, desires, and plans, we become more and more selfish, cold, and calculating.
Now, speaking for myself, I recognize there are times when I am self-centered and do not even realize this is what is going on. How disconcerting to walk away from a situation or conversation and realize I have made myself the center instead of keeping Christ and others at the center! These types of realizations keep each of us humble and dependent upon God’s grace and the patience of those near and dear to us.
If we want to be followers of Christ, though, we need to be attentive to these nudges of the Spirit and realign our center to where it should be—in Christ. It is important to be attentive to what the Spirit is saying in each moment and to follow Christ’s lead in our generosity because if we focus on ourselves, we will come up empty. God is the source of all things, including the capacity to be generous and giving, especially when we do not have the energy, resources, or heart to give.
A life centered in Christ is a life which draws its sustenance and well-being from the Source of all things, our Abba. When we are drawing our life from the Life-giver, we will find that our life and our being will be enriched and grow. If we are drawing our life from within ourselves or from the other people in our lives, we will eventually find ourselves frayed, worn-out, and exhausted, and our relationships in shambles.
This is also the case when it comes to our giving. Our generosity must have its roots in Jesus Christ himself. He is the one who came into our humanity, laid down his life, died our death, and rose again on our behalf and for our sake. He set aside the benefits and privileges of his divinity to live within our humanity, even though it cost him his human life. There is a fundamental generosity in the being of God which is rooted in God’s very nature as love.
First, and foremost, God in Christ is the center around which everything in this cosmos orbits and from which everything draws its life. Giving to others and being a giving person must begin with this center. Our center, the center of every part of our being and our life, is in Christ. It is not in ourselves or anyone else. What we do in our lives comes out of who we are, and who we are must be and is based in Christ as the perfect image-bearer of God himself, and the Source of all things.
So fundamentally at the core of our being, because we are made in our Generous and Giving God’s image to reflect his likeness, we are generous and giving people. Our lives, then, are centered around generosity because we are, in Christ by the Spirit, full of a heart of generosity. We recognize all we are and all we have has their source in God himself, and everything in this cosmos, including us and all we think we own, belongs to him.
This true humility with regards to our existence enables us to be open-handed and free with all we have been given since we realize it all came to us as a gift. Even if we worked hard to earn our resources, we recognize and admit that even the ability to earn a living came from the One who gave us the opportunity and capacity to do the work we are doing. There is no holding back what we have been given when we are in the position to help another who is in need or to further the work God is doing in this world to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
But this doesn’t automatically mean we give to every person in every situation without attention to the wisdom of doing so. Yes, we need to be putting our resources to work to further God’s agenda in the world and to spread his gospel. Yes, we should always be generous and giving to those in need. But sometimes the better gift is not to give at all, but to enable that person to trust God to meet their needs in another way.
Maybe we are hindering God’s work in their lives by just giving them cash when we need to be giving them our time and attention instead. Perhaps rather than just giving them our resources, we should be helping them learn what is needed so they can provide them for themselves. These are complicated issues which must be guided by the Word of God and the Spirit, and wisdom.
There is plenty in this world but too often we do not see our plenty as a resource to accomplish Jesus’ mission in this world or to provide for others so they might have what we have. Granted, we’re not all able to share—some of us are the needy as well. But even the needy have something to offer others. We all can share and give, when we draw upon the infinite resources of our generous and giving God, recognizing whatever we have has been given to us as a gift from him to share with others. This is the perichoretic life.
Dear Abba, thank you for being so generous with us, giving us all we need for life and godliness, and for giving us your very best in your Son and in your Spirit. Grant us the grace as you give us the resources to always be generous with others and share diligently in your ministry to this broken and hurting world. In your Name, amen.
“But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also…. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich…. For this is not for the ease of others and for your affliction, but by way of equality—at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality;…” 2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-14 NASB
Hanging on to Stuff
by Linda Rex
One of the most difficult tasks that come with a loved one dying can be going through their belongings and dealing with the things they leave behind. This can be extremely difficult, especially when so many memories arise with each item we handle.
It’s amazing how much a person or a family can collect over the years! Sometimes it’s just the things of daily living, or the important papers or documents. But then again, it may be stuff—things that were useful at one time, but no longer have any use or value.
The memories and feelings that are attached with such items can have more pull on us than we realize. We may hang on to these things because of the fear if we let go of them we will lose everything we associate with those items. Sometimes the loss of something dear when we were young causes us to hang on to similar things when we are older, even though we really don’t have any use for these items.
I remember one time many years ago when I was still married, my husband was doing tree cutting as a way to help with our income since he was out of work. We were called by a man who lived in a quiet cul-de-sac in our small town, so we went to cut his tree. While my husband was up in the tree and I was spotting and praying he wouldn’t fall, the man whose tree he was cutting and his neighbor struck up a conversation. Since they were standing right next to me, I really couldn’t ignore what they were saying.
They got to talking about what they owned and what each other had. Early on it became a contest as to who had the most and best of whatever it was they had. The irony was that nearly everything they named, my husband and I couldn’t afford to own. I guess I could have been insulted, but instead I felt sorry for them. They felt having the best and most of these things was what was necessary to their self-worth and self-esteem, and what was necessary for their happiness.
This came to mind the other night when at our small group we were talking about a famous man who hid all his money in the mantel in his house. By the time it was found after his death, it was moth-eaten and useless. To me that is a good example of the transience of human wealth and property. In our affluent society, so often we don’t know the difference between what we want and what we need.
And sadly, as I have learned over the years, all such things are useless in the face of death and dying. When a person dies, they leave all these things behind. And then who gets them? The answer to that question has divided and destroyed many a family and relationship.
And I think that is what is crucial in this whole discussion. When it comes to the things we own, or the things we hang on to, how do they impact our relationships and the people we love? How do they impact our community and our neighbor?
Many wealthy people are wise enough not to give their children everything they want or to give them large sums of money when they are young. They realize how destructive affluence can be to a person’s character and well-being. When a person understands that money is a tool that can be used for good and that with wealth and abundance comes responsibility and duty to one’s fellow man, then wealth is not such a dangerous thing to have.
But that is a different discussion. Here we are considering the reality that someday the person who is wealthy will have to pass that wealth on to someone else. Everything we own in this life cannot be carried with us into the next. We cannot fill a pyramid with food, luxuries and people to bring with us into the life to come. It doesn’t work that way.
Through all this sorting, I’m being reminded again to narrow down my belongings and my activities to what is really essential and useful for this moment. This is the spiritual discipline of simplicity. Some things are just not important in the grand scheme of things, while others are worthy of our focused attention and devotion. May God grant us the grace to discern the difference and to choose only what is most important. And may he enable us to let go of all the rest.
Lord, we thank you for the abundance with which we live day by day. Thank you for providing us with so many wonderful things, but most especially for the people you bring into our lives—our neighbors, our friends, and our families. You shower your love on us daily. Grant us the grace to see it and always be grateful and generous with what you give us. Through Jesus and by your Spirit, we pray. Amen.
“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—A time to give birth and a time to die; …” Ecclesiastes 3:1–2 NASB
“And He told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, “What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear 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 many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.’ “ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:16–21 NASB
Heart-Sharing
by Linda Rex
I was intrigued by the story of Samson when I was a little girl. Here was a man whose birth was announced by an angel to his barren parents. He was set apart for God from birth, which back then meant he could not drink any juice or wine made from grapes, nor could he cut his hair. As long as he was separated for God in this way, God gave him supernatural strength by which he helped his nation overcome their oppressors, the Philistines.
This was all well and good, and Samson began destroying the enemies of Israel. But he had a small problem. His heart was not fully devoted to God. Many times he gave his heart away to a woman and inevitably ended up in trouble because of it.
In the final scenes of Samson’s life we see the infamous Delilah show up. Delilah stole Samson’s heart, to the place that one night he told her everything that was in his heart. In other words, he told Delilah the secret to his strength. The one thing that God had said was his and his alone, Samson gave to another.
This would not have been a problem, only Delilah was not a safe person for Samson to be sharing his heart with. Delilah took that knowledge, sold it to the Philistine leaders, and cut off Samson’s hair. He became a prisoner then of the enemy. They blinded and shackled him. He could no longer do the work God created him for.
Too often in life we are not careful about to whom or what we give our hearts. Then the people or things we’ve opened our hearts to begin to wound us, destroying the beauty God meant for us to have and our usefulness for his work in this world. We find ourselves trapped in a place God never meant for us to be, bound and shackled. What begins as a moment of pleasure or a relationship of passion ends up as bondage, suffering, and maybe even destruction.
The story of King Hezekiah also tells us about the hazards of opening the heart of one nation to another. In this story the king had recovered from a fatal illness because of God’s mercy. Some Babylonian envoys came by for a visit to share the joy. Now Babylon at that time wasn’t much of a country. And Hezekiah didn’t really think he needed to restrict what they saw. So he showed them everything. He opened the heart of the country completely to them.
There was a small problem with this. What Hezekiah did not realize was that Babylon was on the way up. They were to become the next superpower of the ancient world. And Israel would be one of the nations they would squash. Opening the heart of his nation to Babylonian envoys was not a smart move.
The truth is there is only one person who can be fully trusted with your heart and mine. That is God.
You belong in this universe he created. You were meant to have a place in God’s story. He created your heart for himself and he will do and has done everything he possibly can to protect and care for your heart when you give it to him. He honors your boundaries and will not push himself on you.
If you are willing to receive the gift, he has given you his heart in place of yours. He has given you a whole heart in place of your shattered one. He has given you a strong heart in place of your weak one. Your physical heart may give out and you may die. But his heart in you will live on into eternity.
Heart-sharing. God seeks your heart and mine—he has given his fully to you and to me. The cost of opening himself up fully to us was the suffering we inflicted on Jesus Christ in his life and death. But the payment is everlasting life for us in God’s presence through his resurrection. We need to be careful to whom and what we give our hearts in the world around us. But we can freely and fully give our hearts to the One who completely shared his heart with us. He stands with open hands, his heart fully yours. Will you share?
Lord, thank you for your heart of love that is fully ours in Jesus Christ. Grant us the grace, the courage and faith to share our hearts completely with you. Amen.
“So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, ‘A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.’
“ When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, ‘Come up once more, for he has told me all that is in his heart.’ Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.” Judges 16:17–19 (NASB)
“Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, ‘What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?’ And Hezekiah said, ‘They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.’’ He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, ‘They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.’” Isaiah 39:3–4 (NASB)
Our Life in the Trinity 