I've been thinking a lot lately about the widow's mite.* It's always bothered me that organizations hold large and lavish dinners and "thank you's" for their big money donors. It bugs me because of the widow's mite. What if we threw a large and lavish dinner for the donors that are giving $10 (as an example) of their money every month faithfully for years on end? What if we celebrated the mite donations rather than the large ones that always gain the most attention? What kind of message would that send?
I've listened to a fair number of fundraiser dinners and pledge drives in my lifetime and I'm always unsettled by the meager "thank you" faithful donors get when their dollar amount doesn't reach the organization's ideal for a celebratory thank you.* I think we have it backwards. I think we should start inviting all to the dinner, regardless of their dollar amount donation. And don't set up the seating according to dollar amounts either, mix them up. I'm addressing the Church here (and non-profit para-church organizations) because, as far as I can see, God has addressed this with us already. And I think we've forgotten or we've chosen to interpret it differently. In James 2 favoritism is discussed. Oh I can hear the protesting as I say that. But in that silent moment when you have to be honest with yourself think about it. Those large, lavish dinners for top dollar donors that aren't open to the $10 a month donors, what would you call that? Preferential treatment. Placating. People, it's favoritism at its roots. It is. I know, *you* wish it weren't so but wishing doesn't change what is fact.
The message it sends to those $10 a month donors is that while their donation is appreciated it just isn't quite enough. There are a *million* donor departments and consulting firms that would disagree with me. That's okay, I know what I know. I know what people share with me. I know what I observe. And most importantly I know what God says about it. God calls us to live backwards from how the world lives. I'm so crazy I think it would be awesome to take it one step further and invite the big money donors to fund a large and lavish dinner for the lower dollar donors!* GASP. It's such a bold and out of the box idea. *grin*
How have we gotten to the place in the Church where people who throw a lot of money in the offering get coddled and expect to be treated with preference? Oh those people wouldn't say they expect that and organizations/churches wouldn't say they coddle - in fact with that one question I have managed to offend pretty much every single organization and church in America - but they do. Again, this calls for an honest moment.
What kind of message would top donors send to the various organizations that they support if they were put off because they didn't get a thank you gift or dinner or something? Well it would reveal motive for the financial gift for sure. I've run into a few of these donors in my years touring Christian organizations/churches through jobs. They aren't pleasant people the minute they aren't thanked as they think they should be or their "suggestions" for the organization/church aren't implemented. And the moment that happens their financial gifts develop a stench. But those $10 a month donors? They are always genuinely surprised and grateful for any show of appreciation for their gift. Listen, those $10 a month people know their gift isn't much. They might even feel bad they can't give more. But those gifts, they count. They matter. In the end they add up to more than the gift of one top dollar donor. Their sacrifice, while they don't expect it to be recognized and appreciated, should be. More so than the top dollar donors. Go back to James 2, it's right there.
Now I'm not saying we shouldn't thank top dollar donors. I'm just saying that regardless of the dollar amount of a donation the "thank you" should be the same. $10 to one person is as much as $1000 to another. It's the same in their worlds. So in the world where thank you's are issued for financial gifts the thank you should be the same as well.
Celebrate the mite and you'll be living backwards.
*If you aren't familiar with the story click here. If you aren't familiar with what mite means click here and scroll down to "2 mite noun". You are welcome. :)
*And no, this is not because I didn't get invited to something and need to passive-aggressively point it out. In all honesty when I get invited to things that I know are costing money in order for the organization to keep my money I prefer to not go and just send in a donation. I don't see how it makes sense to spend money to get money. Again, a *million* donor departments and consulting firms would disagree with me and that's okay. Perhaps I'm just too simple minded for them. But I think that phrase "less is more" applies here as well. :)
*Take it one step further and use the money you would pay for a large and lavish dinner and put it instead toward the organization/church you support and just send a nice "thank you" email (why spend money on printing, paper, and postage?). I know, now I'm really talking crazy here. *wink*
Showing posts with label The Book of James. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Book of James. Show all posts
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Saturday, April 06, 2013
Yeast.
We are in the "middle"* of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and I've been thinking about yeast, or leaven. To one who reads God's command to remove the leaven from your homes, communities, and bodies without surrounding context or understanding of God the command seems...strange, weird, odd, controlling, and whatever other kind of negative connotation you can, or want to, come up with. But to the one who reads it within surrounding context and with an understanding of God the command makes sense and speaks of God's great love for us and of his desire to see us grow in relationship with him.
If you don't know what yeast is or does let me explain because it is at the heart of this particular command - more figuratively than literally but that comes later. Yeast is what causes bread to rise, beer to have carbonation, turns fruit juice into wine, and other things. It feeds off of simple sugars in the product being used and breaks down those sugars which in turn causes alcohol and carbon-dioxide to form the fermentation that causes things to rise and/or bubble up. There's the most simple explanation.
So it seems yeast is getting a bad rap with God. I mean, what did yeast do to offend God so much? Ah. It didn't. It is simply serving as a vehicle for God to teach us a bigger lesson. Just like we use various things as props for our object lessons so God is using yeast as his prop for his object lesson with us. He's pretty creative that way.
We first see God's command to observe a time of unleavening in Exodus and Leviticus. It is combined or is directly on the heels of God's command to observe Passover. Coincidence? Oh I think not, and neither should you. For those who might be a little hazy in their history let me give you a quick refresher on the Passover. God moved the Israelites out of Egypt in the course of one night, after many other things had happened, and he commanded them to go and go quickly. They didn't have time for their bread to rise before baking it so they made it without yeast and got going. Prior to this, the pass over was the Angel of Death that passed over each home in Egypt and those who didn't have the covering of lamb's blood on their door frame lost their first born to death. The Angel passed over those who were covered by the blood of the lamb. (Ever heard that phrase before? Hmmmm.) See, if the Israelites had waited on their bread to rise they might have changed their minds and decided that the knowns of Egypt - as hard as it was - was better than the unknowns of the desert they were going to trek into. God knew their thinking patterns and their tendencies so he made sure they had a reason to get out quick and not experience any lag time. Yeast would have given them the lag time.
So every year God has commanded his people to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a reminder that when we allow yeast to sit and rise there's time for all sorts of "trouble". It comes on the heels of Passover as a reminder that we are or can be passed over by being covered in the blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lamb covers the "trouble" yeast may provide.
It is true that every day we should be aware to the figurative yeast, or leaven, in our lives that is there. It puffs us up in the areas of phoniness, falseness, feigned virtuousness, and prideful thoughts. Figurative leaven also appears in our lives through impure activities like porn addictions or drug abuse. It appears in our speech through gossip and judgments passed on others. It rises in us through what we allow ourselves to be exposed to that serves as a trigger for other damaging behaviors. The leaven in our lives is throughout and we should be aware of it daily and removing it daily. We should but let's be real, we don't.
We get used to the leaven in our lives. We grow comfortable with it, it has become second nature to a lot of us. Because of that, it is harder to pinpoint it because we don't have "eyes to see and ears to hear" most days. I believe that is why God asks us to purposefully stop using leaven in our physical lives for one week so that we can become attune, again, to the leaven that has invaded our spiritual lives and has been allowed to rise within us all sorts of displeasing and sinful things. It takes a little bit of work to abstain from leaven in the physical and a lot of work to remove it in the spiritual. Like everything else worth developing it is a process and mistakes will be made.
God allowed me to see the process, spiritually, firsthand during the Feast this past week through a physical example. I had been super mindful of the leaven in food and had been doing good at abstaining. I was thinking through my choices and paying close attention to any places of hidden leaven. (Rice crackers? Totally leaven free!) Then on day 5 (actually day 6 since sundown had come and gone) I made a mistake. Oh not willingly, not rebelliously, not in frustration over being deprived of leaven. I just didn't think. I sat down after a night of cooking with my cook group and we served up the pound cake and dug in. Didn't even think about it. In fact, when I was almost done with slice two (quit passing judgement) it occurred to me that pound cake has leaven in it and I had just consumed it without a second thought. Oy. Now, you may be reading this and yelling at the screen, "Beth! So what?! Who cares? God doesn't really and besides there's grace. Sheesh you are taking this a little too far." Guess what? You are absolutely right on the middle point, "....there's grace." Yep. There sure is. There is grace and I'm so grateful for it. And does God care that I consumed leaven? I'm going to go with yes and no. He asks that we, his believers and followers, observe his appointed times and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is an appointed time. But he also knows we are going to stumble and that is where his grace covers. We can, and do, unknowingly introduce leaven into our lives without even thinking about it and by the time we realize it usually we have consumed enough of it to make a difference.
Transfer that thought to sin, as yeast/leaven is symbolic of sin. Sin enters our lives, whether it be knowingly or not, and by the time we realize it there's enough of it in our systems to make a difference. Right? Right. In fact, Paul addresses this very topic with the church of Galatians, and therefore us. "You know what they say, “Just a little yeast causes all the dough to rise,” so even the slightest detour from the truth will take you to a destination you do not desire." (5:9, The Voice) Another version of the Bible, The Amplified Version, says it this way, "A little leaven (a slight inclination to error, or a few false teachers) leavens the whole lump [it perverts the whole conception of faith or misleads the whole church]." Just the slightest amount of sin will cause a detour in our life. First it puffs up in the heart and then makes its way to our words and actions. That's called a detour my friends. And it's so subtle at first, almost unnoticeable. But the smallest amount causes a large amount of "puff". And before we know it the sin has risen to the point of over spill. (Has that ever happened to you when baking? It has me, I've had bread rise over the top of the bowl and spill over - what a mess!) When we over spill we then have a mess that needs to be cleaned up. Unfortunately sometimes we choose to stay in our mess for a season, other times we clean it up right away. The choice is yours. But the longer you leave the mess there the more chances you have for the yeast (sin) in your life to expand. A few years ago I tried making a new dinner roll recipe. I got it all mixed and nothing happened. They didn't rise in the time they were supposed to. I threw up my hands in frustration and we left the house and had to go buy dinner rolls (which if you know me you know I was super bugged - I prefer from scratch!). We were late so I had left the mixed dough in the pans and baking sheets I had placed it on and planned to dispose of it when we returned home later that day. Imagine our surprise when 12 hours later, as we walked back through our door, we came home to risen dough all over the place! It had finally risen during our 12 hour absence and we had bread coming out of our ears! It was everywhere! I didn't see it coming, I thought the yeast was inactive and the dough would just sit and I could just throw it away when we returned home. That didn't happen. And isn't sin just like that? We knowingly, or not, introduce it into our lives and sometimes the yeast doesn't rise right away so we are deceived into thinking we "got away with it". But then it rises and we have a mess to deal with.
Perhaps now you can see why God, in his creativity, chose to use yeast as his prop for sin in our lives. It works so well as a visual. Perhaps you can maybe even now see why he asks his people (of which we who are not born Jewish are because we have been grafted in) to observe a time of unleavening in the physical to show us the leaven in our spiritual lives. It's because he desires us to be leaven free in our relationship with him. Any leaven in our lives hinders our communication with him. And he desires for us to be free of that so we can clearly hear his voice in our hearts and lives. Have you found some leaven in your life? Psalm 51 is a great way to walk through the removal process and get back into right relationship with God. Being in relationship with others you can trust to hold you to high standards is advisable. (King David had Nathan, which led him to his repentance over his sin and what Psalm 51 is recording) Being willing to shed light on the leaven in your life to expose it and kill it off is advisable. In James 5:16 we are told to confess our sins to another so that we may pray together and find healing. Not to be condemned by others but to be prayed for and to be introducing to healing. This is important in remaining as leaven free as possible. I don't know about you but I want to be leaven free in my relationship with God so that my life - its words and actions - glorify his name.
Maybe in the past (meaning right before you read this post, if you've made it down this far) you've thought the command of God's to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a) just for Jewish people or b) weird or c) old fashioned/antiquated/outdated/not applicable. If so, I get it. I'm right there with you...or I was. Now I've allowed myself to hear from God on such commands and I've allowed him to correct my thinking and perspective on such things and guess what happened when I allowed him to do that? I got it! I was able to clearly see what his intent and desire was, and is, in his commands that I was placing in a,b, and c! And what is his intent and desire? To have a relationship with him that honors who he is and what he has done in my life. And what he has done is so much, so to observe his commands is the least I can do.
*Okay well when I started writing the blog we were in the middle, now we are done. {sigh} #lifegotinthewaynotimetowrite
If you don't know what yeast is or does let me explain because it is at the heart of this particular command - more figuratively than literally but that comes later. Yeast is what causes bread to rise, beer to have carbonation, turns fruit juice into wine, and other things. It feeds off of simple sugars in the product being used and breaks down those sugars which in turn causes alcohol and carbon-dioxide to form the fermentation that causes things to rise and/or bubble up. There's the most simple explanation.
So it seems yeast is getting a bad rap with God. I mean, what did yeast do to offend God so much? Ah. It didn't. It is simply serving as a vehicle for God to teach us a bigger lesson. Just like we use various things as props for our object lessons so God is using yeast as his prop for his object lesson with us. He's pretty creative that way.
We first see God's command to observe a time of unleavening in Exodus and Leviticus. It is combined or is directly on the heels of God's command to observe Passover. Coincidence? Oh I think not, and neither should you. For those who might be a little hazy in their history let me give you a quick refresher on the Passover. God moved the Israelites out of Egypt in the course of one night, after many other things had happened, and he commanded them to go and go quickly. They didn't have time for their bread to rise before baking it so they made it without yeast and got going. Prior to this, the pass over was the Angel of Death that passed over each home in Egypt and those who didn't have the covering of lamb's blood on their door frame lost their first born to death. The Angel passed over those who were covered by the blood of the lamb. (Ever heard that phrase before? Hmmmm.) See, if the Israelites had waited on their bread to rise they might have changed their minds and decided that the knowns of Egypt - as hard as it was - was better than the unknowns of the desert they were going to trek into. God knew their thinking patterns and their tendencies so he made sure they had a reason to get out quick and not experience any lag time. Yeast would have given them the lag time.
So every year God has commanded his people to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a reminder that when we allow yeast to sit and rise there's time for all sorts of "trouble". It comes on the heels of Passover as a reminder that we are or can be passed over by being covered in the blood of the Lamb. The blood of the Lamb covers the "trouble" yeast may provide.
It is true that every day we should be aware to the figurative yeast, or leaven, in our lives that is there. It puffs us up in the areas of phoniness, falseness, feigned virtuousness, and prideful thoughts. Figurative leaven also appears in our lives through impure activities like porn addictions or drug abuse. It appears in our speech through gossip and judgments passed on others. It rises in us through what we allow ourselves to be exposed to that serves as a trigger for other damaging behaviors. The leaven in our lives is throughout and we should be aware of it daily and removing it daily. We should but let's be real, we don't.
We get used to the leaven in our lives. We grow comfortable with it, it has become second nature to a lot of us. Because of that, it is harder to pinpoint it because we don't have "eyes to see and ears to hear" most days. I believe that is why God asks us to purposefully stop using leaven in our physical lives for one week so that we can become attune, again, to the leaven that has invaded our spiritual lives and has been allowed to rise within us all sorts of displeasing and sinful things. It takes a little bit of work to abstain from leaven in the physical and a lot of work to remove it in the spiritual. Like everything else worth developing it is a process and mistakes will be made.
God allowed me to see the process, spiritually, firsthand during the Feast this past week through a physical example. I had been super mindful of the leaven in food and had been doing good at abstaining. I was thinking through my choices and paying close attention to any places of hidden leaven. (Rice crackers? Totally leaven free!) Then on day 5 (actually day 6 since sundown had come and gone) I made a mistake. Oh not willingly, not rebelliously, not in frustration over being deprived of leaven. I just didn't think. I sat down after a night of cooking with my cook group and we served up the pound cake and dug in. Didn't even think about it. In fact, when I was almost done with slice two (quit passing judgement) it occurred to me that pound cake has leaven in it and I had just consumed it without a second thought. Oy. Now, you may be reading this and yelling at the screen, "Beth! So what?! Who cares? God doesn't really and besides there's grace. Sheesh you are taking this a little too far." Guess what? You are absolutely right on the middle point, "....there's grace." Yep. There sure is. There is grace and I'm so grateful for it. And does God care that I consumed leaven? I'm going to go with yes and no. He asks that we, his believers and followers, observe his appointed times and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is an appointed time. But he also knows we are going to stumble and that is where his grace covers. We can, and do, unknowingly introduce leaven into our lives without even thinking about it and by the time we realize it usually we have consumed enough of it to make a difference.
Transfer that thought to sin, as yeast/leaven is symbolic of sin. Sin enters our lives, whether it be knowingly or not, and by the time we realize it there's enough of it in our systems to make a difference. Right? Right. In fact, Paul addresses this very topic with the church of Galatians, and therefore us. "You know what they say, “Just a little yeast causes all the dough to rise,” so even the slightest detour from the truth will take you to a destination you do not desire." (5:9, The Voice) Another version of the Bible, The Amplified Version, says it this way, "A little leaven (a slight inclination to error, or a few false teachers) leavens the whole lump [it perverts the whole conception of faith or misleads the whole church]." Just the slightest amount of sin will cause a detour in our life. First it puffs up in the heart and then makes its way to our words and actions. That's called a detour my friends. And it's so subtle at first, almost unnoticeable. But the smallest amount causes a large amount of "puff". And before we know it the sin has risen to the point of over spill. (Has that ever happened to you when baking? It has me, I've had bread rise over the top of the bowl and spill over - what a mess!) When we over spill we then have a mess that needs to be cleaned up. Unfortunately sometimes we choose to stay in our mess for a season, other times we clean it up right away. The choice is yours. But the longer you leave the mess there the more chances you have for the yeast (sin) in your life to expand. A few years ago I tried making a new dinner roll recipe. I got it all mixed and nothing happened. They didn't rise in the time they were supposed to. I threw up my hands in frustration and we left the house and had to go buy dinner rolls (which if you know me you know I was super bugged - I prefer from scratch!). We were late so I had left the mixed dough in the pans and baking sheets I had placed it on and planned to dispose of it when we returned home later that day. Imagine our surprise when 12 hours later, as we walked back through our door, we came home to risen dough all over the place! It had finally risen during our 12 hour absence and we had bread coming out of our ears! It was everywhere! I didn't see it coming, I thought the yeast was inactive and the dough would just sit and I could just throw it away when we returned home. That didn't happen. And isn't sin just like that? We knowingly, or not, introduce it into our lives and sometimes the yeast doesn't rise right away so we are deceived into thinking we "got away with it". But then it rises and we have a mess to deal with.
Perhaps now you can see why God, in his creativity, chose to use yeast as his prop for sin in our lives. It works so well as a visual. Perhaps you can maybe even now see why he asks his people (of which we who are not born Jewish are because we have been grafted in) to observe a time of unleavening in the physical to show us the leaven in our spiritual lives. It's because he desires us to be leaven free in our relationship with him. Any leaven in our lives hinders our communication with him. And he desires for us to be free of that so we can clearly hear his voice in our hearts and lives. Have you found some leaven in your life? Psalm 51 is a great way to walk through the removal process and get back into right relationship with God. Being in relationship with others you can trust to hold you to high standards is advisable. (King David had Nathan, which led him to his repentance over his sin and what Psalm 51 is recording) Being willing to shed light on the leaven in your life to expose it and kill it off is advisable. In James 5:16 we are told to confess our sins to another so that we may pray together and find healing. Not to be condemned by others but to be prayed for and to be introducing to healing. This is important in remaining as leaven free as possible. I don't know about you but I want to be leaven free in my relationship with God so that my life - its words and actions - glorify his name.
Maybe in the past (meaning right before you read this post, if you've made it down this far) you've thought the command of God's to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread was a) just for Jewish people or b) weird or c) old fashioned/antiquated/outdated/not applicable. If so, I get it. I'm right there with you...or I was. Now I've allowed myself to hear from God on such commands and I've allowed him to correct my thinking and perspective on such things and guess what happened when I allowed him to do that? I got it! I was able to clearly see what his intent and desire was, and is, in his commands that I was placing in a,b, and c! And what is his intent and desire? To have a relationship with him that honors who he is and what he has done in my life. And what he has done is so much, so to observe his commands is the least I can do.
*Okay well when I started writing the blog we were in the middle, now we are done. {sigh} #lifegotinthewaynotimetowrite
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)