Giving for the Future

I have never met a single person who refused to give. We all give for different reasons. Some give to witness the blessings of others. Some give to get back. What I don’t often witness is someone who gives knowing they will never see the result of their gift. They give for the future.

At that time, Jesus entered the home of a certain ruler of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread. And he said to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” When one of those who sat at table with him heard this, he said to him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!”

Luke 14.1, 12-15

Today’s Gospel lesson is about giving when we get no immediate benefit. We don’t get a gift back. We don’t receive some sort of honor or privilege. Oftentimes we don’t even get to witness the beneficiary enjoy the gift. What we receive is a future gift from God.

Let’s take this theme one step further. Let’s talk today about our gifts to the Church for the work of Christ. Today is the commemoration of Saint Theodore the Studite who in the 9^th Century wrote most of the Book of the Triodion that we use every year in the Church.

He could never have known that his words would inspire our worship more than a millennium later. Just as Saint Basil could not have known how his establishment of hospitals and orphanages in the 4^th Century would impact the Church centuries later.

My question for you today is, what are you giving the Church for the future? Sit and think for a moment. Just about everything we have today was given by someone oftentimes generations ago. We are the beneficiaries of their gifts. Who will benefit from our gifts to the Church?

Giving for the future begins with thinking beyond today. Let’s take stewardship for example. When our stewardship giving only reflects what the Church ‘needs’ today we aren’t thinking for the future. Giving to ‘keep the doors of the Church open’ is like a banquet for friends.

Ultimately, giving is about our love for God beyond ourselves. Whether it is stewardship on Sunday morning or a ‘handout’ on the street corner, giving isn’t about us. God knows our heart. He knows if we are giving for ‘now’ or for the future. Do you know your heart?