. . .
This could be a snippet of a conversation overheard in any time or place. In a world where it is confidently declared “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” we still encounter examples of real generosity among human beings. In fact, if we’re looking for it, it’s happening all around us. It’s only when we shut ourselves off from the possibility that it eludes us. If we look hard enough, we sometimes find we’re involved in it ourselves, either as the giver or the receiver.
It makes most people just as uncomfortable to be put in a position where they have to receive as it does for them to be where they may be called upon to give. After all, who wants the stigma of being a taker of ‘charity’? And then again, who wants to be forced into giving when they would rather not, just for the sake of keeping up appearances? It is a fragile illusion that covers the world upon which most human beings build their lives.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27 NIV
Giving and receiving, which is harder? I wonder.
What a strange world we live in, where absolute poverty disdains to receive absolute wealth, fearing the risk, fearing the hidden costs. What risk is there in accepting a gift freely given?
There is such a gift freely offered every day and every moment of every day, yet very few takers.
What good can a man enjoy who is certain that he is going to a place of absolute evil, and what evil can a man suffer who is certain that he is going to a place of absolute good? Even knowing this, it is still too much for most men to take the risk of salvation, and many haven’t even come to the point of counting the cost.
Can we really be so naïve as to entrust ourselves to one so much richer than we are? Isn’t it better to remain in our poverty, in blindness, deafness and nakedness than to exchange all these for that free gift? We were made for poverty, and the wealth that is being offered would end all that, all that we have been and known.
. . .
“Salvation is just too great a risk. It’s all just too easy. Find someone else to give your bleeding charity to. I’ll have none of it,” he declared as he walked away.
“But you, son, ‘Hook freely on to someone’s charity. Look really when there’s something there to see,’ ” said the father gently to his obedient child.
This could be a snippet of a conversation overheard in any time or place. In a world where it is confidently declared “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” we still encounter examples of real generosity among human beings. In fact, if we’re looking for it, it’s happening all around us. It’s only when we shut ourselves off from the possibility that it eludes us. If we look hard enough, we sometimes find we’re involved in it ourselves, either as the giver or the receiver.
It makes most people just as uncomfortable to be put in a position where they have to receive as it does for them to be where they may be called upon to give. After all, who wants the stigma of being a taker of ‘charity’? And then again, who wants to be forced into giving when they would rather not, just for the sake of keeping up appearances? It is a fragile illusion that covers the world upon which most human beings build their lives.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Matthew 7:24-27 NIV
Giving and receiving, which is harder? I wonder.
What a strange world we live in, where absolute poverty disdains to receive absolute wealth, fearing the risk, fearing the hidden costs. What risk is there in accepting a gift freely given?
There is such a gift freely offered every day and every moment of every day, yet very few takers.
What good can a man enjoy who is certain that he is going to a place of absolute evil, and what evil can a man suffer who is certain that he is going to a place of absolute good? Even knowing this, it is still too much for most men to take the risk of salvation, and many haven’t even come to the point of counting the cost.
Can we really be so naïve as to entrust ourselves to one so much richer than we are? Isn’t it better to remain in our poverty, in blindness, deafness and nakedness than to exchange all these for that free gift? We were made for poverty, and the wealth that is being offered would end all that, all that we have been and known.
. . .
“Salvation is just too great a risk. It’s all just too easy. Find someone else to give your bleeding charity to. I’ll have none of it,” he declared as he walked away.
“But you, son, ‘Hook freely on to someone’s charity. Look really when there’s something there to see,’ ” said the father gently to his obedient child.
The risk of salvation is worth taking.
5 comments:
Ameyn! Axios... I keep thanking the Lord for allowing me hear, see and learn and imitate many good things from you, Romanos!
Praise the Lord! God bless you!
I think that sometimes we cannot receive the gift easily because we know we are undeserving of it.
While one can say "that's the beauty of our Lord's gift - freely given" - yet we live in a culture where it is so easy to feel guilty about accepting even the smallest thing we feel is not really earned.
It is hard to freely receive, sometimes.
People do, indeed, fear the cost of salvation, or as Bonhoeffer put it, the cost of discipleship. I can recall having that mindset myself when about 13 years old. People are held back by pride.
Salvation is not so much risky as costly. It involves ascesis and kenosis. Complete self offering that is consistent and regular is costly.
The risk of salvation, I believe is in the area of trust. Why? Because salvation is about union not companionship. It is all or nothing at every moment. (Lord have mercy.)
Do we trust God? That is the risk... It is not really a matter of whether God is trustworthy. Rather it is a matter of whether we are willing to trust.
The other "risk" is all the other people we come into relationship with when we enter into union with Christ Jesus. Yikes !! More risk...
Salvation is costly and risky.
But, as you said, it is a risk worth taking and a cost worth paying. However painful...
Thank you, Fr Lazarus, for your worthy comments. I agree, of course, that salvation is costly, more than risky, but I wanted to draw attention to the lesser of the two aspects. The modern man does not even start thinking about costly, usually, or when he does, he is using the wrong ledger, adding up debits and credits like an accountant. You and I know it's not like that... it's more like an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. It's all or nothing, as I wrote about here: http://cost-of-discipleship.blogspot.com/2009/10/life-shall-go-for-life.html
On the other hand, modern man does tends to think in terms of risk, that is, immediate, or at least sudden, success or failure, pleasure or pain. Or sometimes in terms of an investment, does it have potential or not? "If I become a Christian and pretend to be a sinner so that I can pretend to be saved and all that rot, will my investment pay off?" I see hints of that in some of those that inquire about Orthodoxy. I even see it among those who have converted, or ethnics returning to their roots.
They seem not to be after Jesus and life in Him so much as they are after something else, an investment that they want to see grow and make them successful and safe. Hence also the draw of that wickedest of all institutions under the name of Christ, Trinity Broadcasting Network and its affiliates.
Thanks again for your worthy comment on my somewhat half-baked post. I'm not entirely sure I got my point across in it, but maybe this comment expands on it at least a little.
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