Jesus gives more

Ecclesiasticus 3:30-4:11

Water quenches a blazing fire,
  almsgiving atones for sins.
Whoever gives favors in return is mindful of the future'
  at the moment of his fall he will find support.

Did you know that to give back is a command?  It's not just in the apocrypha.  It's in the normal Bible too. It's in the New and Old Testament so you can't use the new covenant argument.  And no, giving to a church isn't enough.  And no, paying taxes isn't enough.  I loath people who think that taxes should be higher to help the poor but don't help the poor themselves.  There is a woman who is running for Governor named Wendy Davis.  She just released her tax return and I happened to give more to charity than her and her husband.  She makes $267,000 and gave less than one thousand to charity. I gave more than that.  You know I even gave more than the vice-president of the United States.  One year he gave some furniture to goodwill and claimed a $4,600 deduction, apparently unaware that furniture depreciates.  No, I didn't give more than that but every other year I have.  This is not to toot my own horn.  Like I said I loath when some people don't put their money where their mouths are.  But you too.  But I as well.  We don't give enough to charity.  Even though we give more than any other country in the world.  Even though we give more per person than any other country in the world we don't give enough.  Because the cups increase.  The beggars cups held out to all of us by the world are far too many and far too pitiful.  We must give out of our plenty.  I like the way this author puts it.  "Almsgiving atones for sins."  Now this isn't perfect theology but it's really good truth.  Mercy covers over a multitude of wrongs.  Love repays evil with good.  Yes, only blood atones for sins but in truth sins decrease because almsgiving increases.

The second couplet is peculiar.  Who, these days, gives so that when they're down on their luck someone will pay it forward?  These days there's a multiplication of homes and shelters and hospitals and assistance. There are endowments to help when you're down and who gives to those endowments thinking they might one day need one?  I don't.  This is something that I think would surprise people from the past after TV and cell phones and cars.  What would they think of para-church organisations?  What would they think of the business of charity?  They might think it is inhuman...

My son, do not refuse the poor a livelihood,
  do not tantalize the needy.
Do not add to the sufferings of the hungry,
  do not bait a man in distress.
Do not aggravate a heart already angry,
  nor keep the destitute waiting for your alms.
Do not repulse a hard-pressed beggar,
  nor turn your face from a poor man.

Look at this section here and notice how much money needs to go to a poor person.  Go ahead; I'll wait. Funny that we don't even look isn't it.  Wouldn't it be easy if they just put a dollar figure down.  I figure even with inflation most of us would be pretty close.  But that is, I think, a little of the genius of the scriptures. How can you put a dollar figure on a million needs.  That's one thing that I think is wrong with government assistance.  How can there be a price tag on pain.  Suffering comes to all differently and in varying degrees and we want to match a dollar amount or even fifty or sixty dollar different amounts to 28 million on some sort of assistance???  Seems over simplified to me.  But the dollar sign isn't here because this isn't about dollars.  It isn't even about the poor.  Or haven't you heard a wise man say we'll always have the poor with us?  This passage is about OUR hearts.  'Do not refuse a livelihood' is saying let them do their job; not necessarily hire them.  'Do not add to the sufferings of the hungry,' even if you can't assuage it.  'Do not aggravate or repulse' has nothing to do with what you put in their pockets but what you put into their hearts and finally...

Do not avert your eyes from the destitute,
  give no man occasion to curse you;
for if a man curses you in the bitterness of his soul,
  his maker will hear his imprecation.

Turn towards them in love.  Keep your eyes on the powerless.  The poor are the most in danger when they are out of sight and out of mind.  The poor can lose humanity when they're relegated to the outskirts of it.  The eyes of God rove to and fro over the whole earth looking for whom to save and you should have that same mind in you.  The poor move to ghettos because the rich think it'll be easier to help them if they're all in one place but a ghetto dehumanizes thousands of people that need help.  A ghetto isn't a person but a problem.  The poor are people with very simple and straight-forward solutions.  Republicans and Democrats have ghettos and cannot agree how to fix them because they are the ghettos and they are seen as a manipulable thing.  Remember that the ghetto, a thing, is full of the hearts and souls of the least of these. Real human beings.  If you want to solve the problem of the ghetto you'll have to kneed yeast into dough really get your hands into it.

Gain the love of the community,
  bow your head to a man of authority.
To the poor man lend an ear,
  and return his greeting courteously.
Save the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor,
  and do not be mean-spirited in your judgments.
Be like a father to orphans,
  and be as good as a husband to widows.
And you will be like a son to the Most High,
  whose love for you will surpass your mother's.

So you're not a politician who gives a pathetic amount of money to charity?  No?  You haven't had to try to work with the other political spectrum to fix gang violence and teen pregnancy?  No, not you either?  Maybe then, we could look at what you can do.  Here are some suggestions from 2000 years ago.
-Respect people in authority.  I know they're sometimes stupid and sometimes you could even call them vindictive but respect can make them better people than they are.
-Listen when a poor man asks for money.  Allow him the opportunity to humanize himself in your eyes so that you might see his humanity.  I'd just assume give the money you might give to him to a convenience store clerk for a hoagie or burrito.  Don't be a jerk.  Don't call a dude who is asking for change a bum.  Heartless!  Don't tell him to get a job!
-Maybe let more of your compassion go to fatherless and widows in charity and in the real world.

Sometimes we use nice shoes as an excuse.  Do you even do that?  You see a guy with a sign and check his shoes and they're expensive and you just assume he's pullin the wool over your eyes.  Look, he ain't rich; but he may be crazy or drunk or worse.  There is no wool.  But would you give if you could prove there was no wool or is that an excuse?  I say this as a man who doesn't give a quarter but who does give to charities.

Sometimes we allow excuses to stop the gift.  That isn't righteous.  It isn't wise.  You may have heard that the guy who runs the Salvation Army is rich; I'm sure I saw a FaceBook meme about that.  You're using that as an excuse not to give.  'The shoes are too good.'  But even if that were true, without shades of gray for a dude who runs a multi-national organization to make six figures but not seven.  Nice shoes aren't an excuse they're a responsibility.  If you're going to have the high and mighty attitude then you are responsible to find the good charity, the beggar without the nice shoes.  Because your charity is your issue and their nice shoes puts more on your plate.  Go ahead, find the pure-as-wind-driven-snow-beggar or charitable organization.  It's your responsibility.

But maybe you give and you'd like to give more and you'd like a way to give just a little more.  Have you heard of Children's Hope Chest (http://www.hopechest.org/5for50/)? They want you to give five bucks a month, pray five minutes a day, fast five hours a week and tell five people a year about their charities for Africans with Aids.  With these credit cards that we have these days you can give $5 a month without even thinking about it because alms is usually that which is in your pocket unawares.  And Faithfulness is grown through faithfulness in the small things.  I suggest that if you want to give a little more you start with five/month to this charity and practice humanizing people who beg.  Then in three months maybe consider10/month. Grow in faithfulness.  Jesus would. Not that Jesus.

Wisdom doesn't Exist on Paper

  This book which is part of the Catholic Bible the Greek and Russian Orthodox Bibles and the Apocrypha is pretty special.  How many books can you think of that have an introduction in the Bible?  Now, not a preamble like there is in John and you can make the case that there is in Revelation and most of the epistles.  I'm talking about somebody saying why they wrote the book.  If you've studied at a Bible college you will have looked at the purpose for every book you study even when there is an introduction like there in Luke/Acts.  That's it. Just Luke/Acts as far as I can remember has this purpose logged by the author.  Paul doesn't even like to say why he wrote a letter when he is clearly trying to get two sisters to get along(Philippians).
   Ecclesiasticus' purpose is part of a new sermon though too.  It is a reminder to not just leave the Bible on the page.  It is an encouragement to incarnate the Word of God in your own life.  After all Jews before us and now we are a people of the Book.  Our faith isn't part of some building that can be razed.  Our Holy of Holies had its curtain torn asunder and its people brought into union with our deity.  And what God brings together let no man tear asunder.
  We need this remonstrance often, don't we?  Look at America, with its million dollar churches.  What's that?  You say my church don't cost no million dollars?  First, you church DOESN'T cost a million dollars.  Second, you get my drift.  Our churches are too fat, too expensive, too concerned with masturbatory use of its facility.  But what is it that our guy said about the gates of hell not withstanding US?  We do have this problem with leaving the ministry in our buildings and leaving the good news in our hearts.  We've been scared quite a while about the term evangelical and its political implications that we forgot to be tellers of the good news.  

Eccus 1:1-14
Many and wonderful are the gifts we have been granted by means of the Law and the Prophets and the others that followed them, an education in wisdom on which Israel is to indeed to be complimented.  But it is not enough merely for those who read the scriptures to be learned in them; students should also be able to be of use to people outside by what they say and write. So it was that my grandfather Jesus, having devoted himself more and more to reading the Law and the Prophets and the other volumes of the fathers and having gained ability enough in these matters, was brought to the point of himself  writing down some of the things that have a bearing on education in wisdom, in order that those studiously inclined and with obligations in these maters might make all the more progress in living according to the law.

So look, the author is Jesus(not that one), but his Grandson is going to publish/translate his grandfather's sayings because he is interested in taking wisdom off of the page and putting it to good use.  What use is the Law and the Prophets if you don't obey?  (I hate that I even have to make this obligatory statement but...)  If you fail in your following does that undo their wisdom? No.  It is the demand we make upon ourselves to try to live to a higher standard.

We believe that divorce is wrong even if we do it.  We believe that homosexuality is a detriment to the soul and to society but sometimes we are pretty big butt-heads about saying it.  We believe that Miley Cyrus is terrible and awful but we don't want her to die; just put clothes on and stop making music and especially being famous for music videos and performances she thinks are edgy but are just tasteless and profane.

Whoa...Too far?  Not far enough?  We are at the end of the logical progression of the faithful watching family programming that amounts to smut and inviting that into our hearts for decades instead of inviting a holy God into our hearts.

This message makes me feel like an old fuddy-duddy.  'Kids with their awful music.  Why in my day...' in my day we had Madonna sharing kisses with Britney on stage.  My day wasn't much better and for that matter the day when MASH was the #1 show wasn't all that much better either. The tragedy wasn't necessarily the content of the voice but that the voice was the world's and not the creator of the world.

I guess my question is...Have we been granted many and wonderful gifts by means of the Law and the Prophets or was it enough merely for us who read the scriptures to be learned in them?
Students should also be of some use to people outside by what they say and write and let us be clear DO.

Because wisdom is the opposite of one of Plato's forms.  There is this couch-i-ness outside of existence to which all things that are couches can be compared.  The form of couch doesn't exist in nature for then all things that weren't it, wouldn't be couches.  But wisdom only exists when it is used.  There is no axiom that has value in and of itself.  One does not simply gain by knowing that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Wisdom's power is that it can/must be used to in fact be wise.  The knowledge that my redeemer lives is powerful lived out but not simply sung.  It is only poignant in song because it has truth.  'For God so loved the World that he expects you to do all that is within you to heal its wounds is wise.  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have ever lasting life," holds no power until you believe or did you think the guy holding the John 3:16 sign was using it as a talisman.  One way that you hear this in the New Testament is James saying that faith without works is dead.  Another way is Paul expecting his flock to repay him a continuing debt of love.  So the question for you is, is your wisdom useful?

Jesus' New Year's Resolutions

Psst...

I just finished reading a book called Ecclesiasticus.  It's part of the Apocrypha. I don't know if it's part of the Catholic Bible.  It is NOT part of the TaNaK, or Hebrew scriptures.  I really liked it.  It's sounds like Ecclesiastes so you'd think it's just like it.  It's not.  It's a cross between Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Poor Richard's Almanac.  I don't know; you'll see.  It isn't authoritative; but it is great.

    The parameters of this blog should be as follows. 

1. If you read the whole blog you will have read the whole book.  (This blog is intended to be sort of educational/exploratory.)

2. If you read the whole blog you will hear commentary that is not always correct. (Ha ha ha)

3. I'm going to be making certain political statements. (Sorry, I'll try to make them non-bumper-stickery.)

4. I'll make posts when I'm good and ready; but I'll try to get through the book and have at least 52 posts by the next time this date rolls around.

  After all here I am on the first day of the new year and I want an adventure.  This? A blog about an unpopular and obscure book of wisdom literature?  Yes.  For the pursuit of wisdom is a love story.  It is a torrid affair.  It is heart wrenching drama.  The Bible sometimes uses wisdom as an incarnation like in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and some have even wrongly thought wisdom was the love interest in The Song of Songs.  (I said wrongly.)  Some think wisdom as incarnated IS Christ or the Holy Spirit.  

  I think it's more along the lines of personification for importance's sake rather than the early writers making some sort of theological statement.  But it is so important to God who personifies wisdom that it is part of the deity.  Wisdom is something that also incarnates all of us just like the Holy Spirit.  However, no one needs faith to have wisdom.  Someone needs only a dogged nature.  Wisdom is an adventure not just a love story.  Wisdom sends you on a mission.  Wisdom must be hunted and sought-after and climbed and mounted and churned.  Wisdom is a Rocky-style montage.     

  Wisdom is the pursuit of life's delicacies.  Laughter will never be as sweet or as plentiful until enjoyed with Wisdom.  Pain will never be as sweet and sorrow never so deep as the soul who has wisdom.  And actual delicacies.  Wisdom loves the good.  Good art, food, poetry, music they are all the haunts of wisdom.

  Wisdom is the muse for them all.

  You want a great way to start a new year?  Do you have New Year's Resolutions?  What are they about? Eating right?  Here's a little gem about that from Ecclesiasticus 37:27-34

My son, in the course of your life test your constitution,

and do not allow it what you see is harmful to it;

for everything does not suit everybody,

Do Not be insatiable over any delicacy,

do not be greedy over food,

for overeating leads to sickness,

and gluttony brings on biliousness.

Many have died of gluttony;

beware of this and you will prolong your life.

   Advice I obviously need to hear and surprising for someone so long ago. (Could anyone overeat back then?)

But maybe your waistline isn't too big and you're resolved to travel...

Eccus. 34:9-11

A much traveled man knows many things,

and a man of great experience will talk sound sense.

Someone who has never had his trials knows little;

but the traveled man is master of every situation.

I have seen many things on my travels,

I have understood more than I can put into words.

Maybe you just want to get along better with your kids...

Eccus. 30:1-3

A man who loves his son will beat him frequently

so that in after years the son may be his comfort. (Don't get any ideas, Dad)

A man who is strict with his son will reap the benefit,

and be able to boast of him to his acquaintances.

A man who educates his son will be the envy of his enemy,

and will be proud of him among his friends.

Now maybe you have a problem with corporal punishment but this holy man doesn't.  Notice if you don't like this, the strictness still applies but the heavy hand of parents is just not physical.

You may point out that this was a less enlightened time and that could be true.  You may want to point out that I am not married even though Jesus son of Sira, the writer was.  Still though, I think a lot of teachers in schools today think that our schools would be a lot better if the kids were afraid of getting a spanking at home for bad grades or behavior at school.

There are other resolutions I will explore in the coming weeks and months.  I am hopeful that hearers will come from all over Judea to hear this message from one who is calling out in the wilderness.  If you have something to say, remember that thousands of instances of anecdotal evidence is real evidence.  May God bless this journey, its hearers and its...me.