01-10-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 10, 2024
Over the weekend, I heard an interesting (troubling) conversation about who was deserving of an act of compassion and who was not. I won’t get into the specifics, though you might be able to guess if I gave you three chances. The determination of deservability has been a discussion point since our ancestors began to walk upright. Whether or not someone deserves something often has less to do with measurable criteria and more to do with fear of scarcity. If there is not enough to go around (whatever ‘it’ might be), then the best way of allocating the finite resources is to deem some as undeserving. In Proverbs, we read, “Don’t withhold good from someone who deserves it when it is in your power to do so” (3:27). In a quick reading of that verse, it appears to imply that it’s ok for us to make determinations about whether someone is deserving or not. But the Hebrew word we translate as ‘deserving’ may not be the best translation. It is a word that suggests ownership, and thus it is not only deserved but sort of required. It’s like borrowing the neighbor’s mower and then trying to determine whether or not your neighbor ‘deserves’ the return of his/her own mower. This is where I need to turn to Jesus and his capacity to totally rewrite the definition of deservability. The Apostle Paul would say that none of us are deserving, and thus we all need grace. I don’t know if Jesus would have necessarily said it that way. Instead of setting the bar low like Paul did, the stories of Jesus seem to suggest that we are all of immeasurable and equal value, and since there is enough to go around (no matter what ‘stuff’ we are talking about), then we should not fall into a scarcity mindset. Love, mercy, kindness, and grace are not in limited supply, and thus we should never imply that some are teetering on the edge of deservability. It is a dramatic shift in some people’s understanding of God, yet when you remove the game-playing and manipulation, it unleashes the power of love, mercy, kindness, and grace. Suddenly, lives are truly transformed.

I confess my own fears and the way insecurity can sneak in and shape my view of the world around me. God of immeasurable goodness, continue to put before me an alternative vision of life, love, generosity, and goodness. Provide me with lenses through which I can see a world not of limitation and insufficiency but of glorious abundance. This is your vision, a vision to which I have been called. Amen.