An Emaciated Mercy

I've been going to a small church for a couple of weeks.  I wanted to go to a church nearby my house.  I feel like it's a negative thing to travel far and wide to get to a church that’s just right for me.  It's not a sin or anything but I felt that if I was looking for a church that was just right for me then I was looking for a church for the wrong reason.  There is faith and hope needed in every corner of the world after all.  I wanted to be useful where I went to church, so a smallish church.  I wanted to be able to go there anytime so nearby.  I like communion every Sunday and I choose accordingly. 

The church that I choose will remain unnamed.  They are driving me off.  I want to be an instrument (St. Francis) but can God use me in this place so bereft of grace to work hope back into dry bones?

There I sit in the pews and I hope someone will engage me in conversation so I can give them a piece of my mind, but that may not help.  How will a bunch of crusty old fuddy duddies listen to what I have to say?  If I have the boldness that God commands and exhorts in Joshua will they have ears to hear what the spirit says to the churches?

What is their soul crushing, joy sucking message?  You can’t sin.  This church seems like a relic in this era.  Most churches are too far on the other end of the pendulum.  They are too grace filled???  Nothing matters, but your faith and love.  I have a message for them too but this church, flying in the face of humanity and history expects true perfection after Christ’s forgiveness. 

What arrogant rubes?  It brings to mind this passage from the 17^th chapter of Ecclesiasticus.  Yes, there is a chance to leave sin behind every day, but there is power in our weakness.  Praise God for his mercy he lavishes it on all who turn towards him.   

25 Return to the LORD and renounce your sins, plead before his face, stop offending him.

26 Come back to the Most High, turn away from iniquity and hold all that is foul in abhorrence.

27 Who is going to praise the Most High in Sheol if we do not glorify him while we are alive?

28 The dead can praise no more than those who do not exist, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.

29 How great is the mercy of the Lord, his pardon for those who turn to him!

30 For we cannot have everything, human beings are not immortal.

31 What is brighter than the sun? And yet it fades. Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.

32 He surveys the armies of the lofty sky, and all of us are only dust and ashes.

I think that modern Jews sort of believe that their good and bad deeds are going to be weighed at the end of the world.  They believe that God has mercy and will give mercy to those who seek it, those who were close to even.  That’s probably a little obtuse version of it.  We Christians sort of believe that too; just that Christ Jesus is the tool by which we receive grace.

So too, back in the times of this Jesus after the return from Babylon and Persia that they believed that there is power in being sorry.  There may be more power in being sorry than having nothing to be sorry about.  After all, how boring would creation have been if there were nothing but greatness?  If Earth was populated by giants of intellect and morality Jesus, son of David would have been a blip in history and no one would have put up with your awful B.S.  If everyone was good enough there’d be no beautiful choice, no reaching up from the bottom that society and humans hit.  There’s no greatness if there’s nothing but greatness.

This little church believes that you’re going to give an account for what you believe and do.  This church’s preacher starts every sermon with the specific albeit frightening assertion that we will all be on the hook for what we’ve done.  This is, basically, a gospel-less gospel.  This is a Church of Christ where Christ doesn’t make sense.  This is a salvation without a savior. 

But we believe that God looks down on you, with your foibles and quirks, and loves you.  Sometimes he loves you in spite of your faithlessness.  Sometimes because of your broken spiritual wings.  He loves the lame, the frightened, the meek, the week, the sad, and the lonely.  “Man cannot have everything.  Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.” But God… 

I don’t know where you are on the pendulum of God’s grace.  Somewhere all the way over towards God’s demand for works.  Faith without works is dead of course.  Maybe you’re a figurative member of this church and are hoping to get a ticket into heaven without using Christ as your only ticket in.  Maybe you’re in a church or in a place in your life where you think God is so grace-filled, he really doesn’t care how you behave.  You may think hippie faith is the answer to the world’s problems.  Wherever you are on the spectrum; spend a day on the other side. 

For the fans of James spend a day contemplating and meditating that, “It is the gift of God so that no man may boast.”

For the Pauline lovers maybe you should spend a couple of hours a day or a whole week trying to turn towards God again.  Let’s strive for faithful observance because if you don’t have proofs of faith then your faith is shallow and even the demons have faith in God.

Because Sometimes There's More Truth in a Lie.

24 Lying is an ugly blot on anyone, and ever on the lips of the undisciplined.

25 A thief is preferable to an inveterate liar, but both are heading for ruin.

26 Lying is an abominable habit, the liar's disgrace lasts for ever.

I don't know if anyone has ever told you, but truth is malleable.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  When is the last time you heard someone hedge something they said?  "I had no knowledge," that means you told someone not to tell you.  Mayor Ford in Toronto said he didn't believe there was video of him smoking crack.  He failed to say that he didn't smoke crack.  Politicians do this a lot.  They've raised it to an art form, haven't they?  Like they think they can say they didn't pay someone money for sex because someone else paid.  

If a lie like that is malleable can truth be as well?  Truth.  They say truth is elusive.  They say to get to the bottom of things is the only place you can find good truth.  It is as if you have to break open a truth peanut to get to the actual truth.  

Still there are all those questions women ask their men about whether they look fat in this dress, or if they'd still love her if she was terribly disfigured in an accident.  Truth maybe frightening.  Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if this place in life is where you want to be.  Be honest.  Was that the right job, degree, city, house, car, church?  Should I wear a bob, ladies?  Should men wear a mustache, sideburns?  It's okay, maybe even healthy to have some honesty about not being completely happy. 

Now look in that same mirror and beware...too much honesty can be bad too.  When you start looking for that ingredient that you left out maybe you start thinking about a whole new recipe.  You haven't been happy with this car so you get a new one.  You've never liked this chin; let's get a new one.  You hate your wife's nose hair; buy her a nose hair trimmer before you get a new girlfriend.  I think Oscar Wilde said in the Importance of Being Ernest, to keep your eyes wide open when looking for a spouse and half shut when you've found one.  Another way to say that is, seek truth but not too much.

Here comes Jesus II talking about truth and he wants to boil it down to false witness.  But, 'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' isn't always the truth.  I said you look bookish.  To me that is a good thing.  To you that isn't a good thing.  I said I hate it when you do that.  You thought I said I hate you when you do that.  I asked what's happening with this sit. as an abbreviation for situation; you thought I said sh**.  

Jesus II and the ten commandments seem to have this view of lying that is very pigeon-holed.  Maybe that's a good thing.  One thing is clear is that we think it's worse than theft.  Lying is abominable.  It lasts forever.  It is a nasty discharge on your face and it will not go away.  It is an open sore that you can't put a bandage on.  I'd rather enjoy the company of a person who punches me in the face than lies constantly.  Liars...well...they're collectively the Grinch.  

James points this out too.  And I think he has a more sensitive view about the shackles of truth.  He knows that a gossiping tongue telling the truth is still dishonest.  He knows that a verbal attack on the lips can trump a violent one on the fists.

Jesus, the best one, tells us not to make pledges or promises but to let our yeses be yes and our nos be no.  I think he is clearly trying to push away the infantile statements about innocence that a politician may keep on hand.  I think he seeks a person who is actively in search of the truth.  After all truth is more than facts.  Facts can sometimes lie, if you haven't heard.  

Truth is...well it's God.  It is love and in love their can be no dishonesty.  Whether it is true or not.  You ever think about that?  God will one day make you perfect, a lie that all creation is waiting for, for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed.    A substitute is making us clean so that we may be what we aren't and have what we haven't earned.  Our nature being with God is an unholy lie but Christ is the way and the...what...the truth and the life.  Isn't that the answer Christ gave Pilate when he asked what truth was?  The answer was Christ standing before him soon to be lifted up. Truth about to be killed for something he was innocent of...a lie.  Truth traded in for a lie but God's love makes it truth.

Welcome to the World

22 Have you cattle? Look after them; if they are making you a profit, keep them.

23 Have you children? Educate them, from childhood make them bow the neck.

24 Have you daughters? Take care of their bodies, but do not be over-indulgent.

25 Marry a daughter off, and you have finished a great work; but give her to a man of sense.

26 Have you a wife to your liking? Do not turn her out; but if you do not love her, never trust her.

How pertinent is it that I'm writing a blog about raising a daughter when my sister has just hours ago given birth to her first little girl?  I'm pretty stoked.  I love having niephews.  Yes that's a word, Spell Checker.  I love all the ones I've had so far.  I love Seren Eclaire, and Everrito, and Caediboo, and Williamino, and Murphy the Mess, and JDOC, and Luke-ee (Not sure how to spell this.  It seemed more creative when I said it than when I wrote it.  It sounds like, "Follow Duke-ee," from a single episode of a Gummie Bears Cartoon.).  Here, into the fray comes...I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell the world.  I've been sworn to secrecy.  

So it's pertinent.  But is it too presumptuous?  Probably.  But I hope I'm not making up the wisdom that I'm eschewing.  I hope I'm trying to give a sense of this Jesus' stuff.  I hope I'm introducing you, not berating you with wisdom.  After all wisdom has a still, kind, sweet voice.  Yes, sometimes she stands on the street corners and yells when no one can hear her.  But the voice of wisdom is a soft yell.  She shouts with a bedroom voice.  

Now let me just tell you that I think verse 26 needs a little less chauvinism and maybe mix in a little less crazy but hey I've never been married.  Plus, I wish he hadn't compared raising children to the raising of cattle.  Then again, I'm not a parent.  Maybe raising a kid is like raising a kid...get it?  Young goats are called kids, right?  Is that right?  I'm going to Google it.  Yep.  I was right.  Still a dumb joke, though, I know.  Anyways, I always give parents the same advice about how to raise a child.  One, brand them on their lower back not their thigh.  Two, don't force them to potty train.  I think they should beg to learn the ways of the toilet about the time they're ready for fourth grade.

So since I obviously have no idea what to say to parents about raising a child lets see what Jesus II has to say.  One, teach them so that they will profit you.  Two, keep the goal in mind.  

I hope I'm not stepping on any toes but your children will one day be good for you.  I'm not talking about that moment when they pop out and your heart feels good.  I'm not talking about them letting you move in when you're a hundred.  While this was part of the message then; it's more now.  Children are part of you becoming a better adult.  They refine your thinking.  They teach you grace and patience.  They make you smarter and if you're wise you can learn from their wisdom later in life.  They are a bread basket of lessons.  Take and eat.  The lessons...don't eat the babies.  Sit down and make a list of the things you've learned about people from watching your kid.  How do you want to be more like a child?  Are you learning anything through them?  Start paying more attention, you should be learning a great deal.  They are your teachers as you are theirs.

And parent with the end in mind.  I know we get this message when starting to look for a job, or train for a marathon, or bake cookies.  However, do we need this advice when we talk about child raising?  I'm not saying pressure them to become a Quarterback.  I'm saying that there are traits that you think they'll need.  There are ways that you wish you were raised differently.  Don't be flippant about the things that will make your baby into an adult the world can be proud of and God can really use.  Don't put items on the list like, "I want my baby to forgive."  That's to simple and amorphous.  How will you get them to forgive?  "I want my baby to climb every mountain," look! this isn't a Miley Cyrus song(get it?) this is your child's life.  How about this one.  "I want my child to play an instrument because that kind of determination and hard work will serve her in every endeavor and that talent is something almost every adult wishes they procured growing up."  That's parenting with the end in mind.  

"I want my kid to excel in all subjects.  If he can't, then I want him to try thoroughly and never give up because you don't have to excel in school to excel in life but you can't give up."  That's parenting with the end in mind.  Some parents want their kid to be spiritual but don't have the sense to purse spirituality.  Some parents want their kid to read but they don't read enough to them.  That's not parenting with the end in mind.

In the comments feel free to leave bad advice for parents, as a joke.  Make sure it's funny.  In private make a list of the traits you want your kid to have and some ways you can help them achieve them.  If you don't trust yourself (in conjunction with your spouse), have a trusted friend look over your list and make sure you're not putting too much pressure on your kids.  Make sure that you're not trying to live your life again through them.  We've seen that on enough t.v. dramas.

Wisdom is Better than Sexy!

Ecclesiasticus 11:1 A poor man with wisdom can hold his head high and take his seat among the great. 
2 Do not overrate one man for his good looks or be repelled by another man's appearance. 
3 The bee is small among winged creatures, yet her produce takes first place for sweetness. 4 Do not pride yourself on your fine clothes or be haughty when honours come to you; for the Lord can perform marvels which are hidden from the eyes of men. 
5 Many kings have been reduced to sitting on the ground, while a mere nobody has worn the crown. 
6 Many rulers have been stripped of their honours, and great men have found themselves at the mercy of others. 

Thou shall not see with normal, materialistic eyes.  Thous shall look at the world not as the rest of the world sees it but as God sees it.  The Ecclesiastes author might tell you to not overrate someone because there'll be a season where their beauty will go away.  Kings may have been made to sit on the ground because it was just a time to sit on the floor as opposed to a time to sit on the throne.  However, this is the writer of Ecclesiasticus and this author is much more concerned with what is wise.

That is why this author starts off with the richest person in the pericope.  A poor man with wisdom is a sage character in literature throughout history.  Lao Tzu, Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, even Christ; these days we think you can't be a holy man full of prophecy and wisdom without smelling like the beasts of the field.  I know Mohammed wasn't always dirty, but he received the Koran in the wilderness, right?  Buddha rejected all the world's creature comforts(including toilets(I know toilets weren't invented yet, it's just a silly example.)).  This is what great philosophers and meta-physicians do.  They sit under the stars and think.  Theirs, according to this passage, is true wealth.  

So who cares if Brad Pitt looks more handsome than I do in a tux?  Or in any clothes whatsoever?  Or not in clothes whatsoever?(Verse 2)  Okay, yes all women care, but should I?  I seek wisdom.

Who cares that the bee isn't as big as the eagle?  Who cares that no one ever pointed out the pretty bee like they do the pretty jay or robin?  Maybe the lark or dove isn't batted at by everyone who ever sees one unlike the bee.  However, honey IS sweet.  Ain't ever seen a farmer of peacocks but a lot of people keep bees. (verse 3)

Who cares if you are rich of bank and house and car?  Who cares if there are more bills in your wallet than there are cobwebs in most?  So your shirts are from Italy, suits are from England, and your lapel pins are diamond?  Who cares that you have a sports car for every day of the month.  Who cares if you're a 1%-er?(verse 4)  I still seek wisdom.  

Wisdom in comparison to that is dross.  Wisdom is a kingdom that cannot fail to defend itself.  Wisdom is the finest duds you could ever drape yourself in.  Wisdom is the sweetest fruit you can labor to produce.  Wisdom is sexier than Brad Pitt.  (Too bad for me Brad Pitt has enough wisdom to keep his considerable advantage in the handsome/wisdom race a run away victory.  I have to guess that if he was without wisdom then...)

Wisdom is more than reignments, but it IS the Emperor's finest uniform.  Wisdom is more than luxury, but it IS the opulence.  Wisdom is more than beauty, but it IS a vision.  Will you seek wisdom before a 401K?  Will you seek wisdom before stuff?  Will you seek wisdom before extras?

In the comments say something that you will do to seek wisdom before seeking something that is, in effect, superfluous.  Don't cheat; it must be something superfluous that you were going to get and try to redefine what actually is superfluous to yourself.     

Late for Lent

Ecclesiasticus 11:7

7 Do not find fault before making thorough inquiry; first reflect, then give a reprimand.

8 Listen before you answer, and do not interrupt a speech before it is finished.

9 Do not wrangle about something that does not concern you, do not interfere in the quarrels of sinners.

10 My child, do not take on a great amount of business; if you multiply your interests, you are bound to suffer for it; hurry as fast as you can, yet you will never arrive, nor will you escape by running away.

11 Some people work very hard at top speed, only to find themselves falling further behind.

Tomorrow morning when you wake up from a night of sleep you will be blissfully unawares that your least favorite blogger to read has in fact done what we all hoped he wouldn't do and that is continue his quest to wrestle with this book tucked gently away inside the Catholic Bible.  

It has been such a long time that we were all hoping that he would have given up the idiocy, that a world so concerned with technology might have the stomach for a blog about wisdom.  He didn't.  

We bet that there was a chance he would recognize that a world with too many blogs wouldn't need another phony expert telling phony supplicants something that has already been said and learned by far better, wiser, and smarter people over the last 2000 years.  He didn't.

However, he did decide that we need more wisdom and that he should redouble his efforts to put out there both the wisdom and encouragement for all to seek such wisdom.  Those people who've taught and learned better than us throughout history are more in need of a bath than we are and less of a need of wisdom although I will admit that is very historo-centric.

And so now we do turn once again to the cauterizing of a wound left by the sword of lethargy and ineptitude.  We are struck by the tools and gadgets that we made to help us and have hurt us.  We live thoroughly unwise lives.  And another guy named Jesus born a while before everybody's favorite Jesus has a book full of wise sayings to help us acclimate to a wiser existence.

First, hear the suggestion in verse 10 of chapter 11.  Do not take on a great amount of business.  If you multiply your interests you are bound to suffer for it... 

Granted I need to hear this admonition.  If you don't know me here's a little list of hobbies to give youa  little picture of what I'm like:  I like comics, movies, t.v., books, and music.  I like classic cars and coins and shoes.  I wear pens in my hat, I wear funny socks and interesting underwear.  I like to blog and I go to school.  I have three jobs to include going to school.  I like to infuse liquors with interesting flavors and I do so way more often than I drink.  I like to dance, sing karaoke, run on my treadmill, play basketball, BBQ and we aren't even half way through I imagine.  All of that stuff makes me sound schizophrenic but it really just makes me...well...schizophrenic.  

This passage is about putting all of your eggs in just two or three baskets.  I know there is this quote by Robert Heinlein, "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."  

All my life I've agreed with this statement and wanted to be a jack of all trades.  But think about the course of study for this list of capabilities.  It's too scattered and amorphous.  Let's see if we can't get Mr. Heinlein, the creepy orgy-ist, to agree with the writer of Ecclesiasticus.  How about we specialize for seasons?  How about each of us pick one of the things on this list of capabilities of human beings and just try to add that to our repertoire?  And if you've got enough on your plate how about knocking a couple things off?  I know, I know, what if you really need to conn a ship (steer a boat)?  Tough.  

Heinlein and the author of Ecclesiasticus both want us to do things in this world.  Neither want us to have the specialization of ants. However, between being a worker bee and excelling at nothing because you're kind of crappy at a ton of stuff are two opposite points on a pendulum with an entire civilization in between.

Try this.  Take an inventory of things that you do in life.  List your talents, abilities, hobbies, goals, dreams.  Now make a list of the things that aren't on that list you'd like to be.  (Don't go crazy, no one would expect Beethoven to wire his house's electricity or Einstein to...comb his hair?)  Now cross some off of the first list.  This isn't optional.  Pick the top three.  Family should be one, and job, and three should be...what?  Don't tell me.  Tell yourself.  Next, put just one from the second list on the first.  Pick a time period like three months or three years and make it happen.  

Think of the possibilities for this exercise across the spectrum of our species.  What do we learn if we all add a skill, talent, hobby?  Some people will choose something dumb.  Some would choose something evil, but if the rest use this as an experiment in gaining wisdom then the world will push back from a thanksgiving binge undo it's top button and let go a sigh of such complete satisfaction the likes of which aren't known..  Anyone care to take the challenge?  Comment what you're giving up for a season and what you're adding.  

P.S.  This would have been a good post to make in conjunction with the beginning of lent.  #Fiddlesticks #41days2late #stupidnontwitterhashtags 

Hipsters Un"IN" church

Ecclesiasticus 8 : 8-12

Do not ignore the talk of the wise,

  be conversant with their proverbs,

since from these you will learn the theory and art,

  of serving the great.

Do not underrate the talk of old men,

  after all, they themselves learned it from their fathers;

from them you will learn how to think,

  and the art of the timely answer.

Yesterday, I went to a class for young adults.  The class’ purpose was to explain why Millennials are leaving the church.  If you haven’t heard, we are leaving the church.   Some say that this is because we’re taking longer to get married.  It is common for young people to stop going to church on their own in college and get back into it when they get married and have kids.  However, these days if we get married at 30 and have a kid at 35, then there is a lot longer window of church inactivity.  Others say it’s because we believe in science; as if we never did believe in science.  This class explored a study and subsequent book about why we said we were leaving.

Millennials said they were leaving because they have doubts and they never felt like they could express those doubts at church.  They say they look for more authentic expressions of faith than they find at worship services.  This class was attended by quite a few older people.  These older people genuinely wanted to know what may have been holding back their own kids possibly.  These older people listened with rapt attention.  I was bored.  I just think we’re full of it.

I think the generation that invented hipsters isn't seeking authenticity.  They’re seeking the inauthentic but calling it authentic.  They want to listen to the bands that no one has heard of.  They want to wear ironic clothes that aren't practical.  They seem beatnik but their just using that as a front.  You cannot join their secret club old, unhip, uncool people; you can’t join even if you listen to old music and like funky old clothes because their rules are just tactics for exclusion.

Kids are just bored.  They’re seekers of fix.  They’re hopeless romantics because the things that they’re passionate about are fame and influence; but they seek them with flippant twitter feeds and ironic shirts and facial hair.  That which they want they cannot get with what they’re doing and so they are HOPELESS.  They have no hope.  They aren't skipping church because, ‘it’s a temple built to man’s hypocrisy.’ (That isn't a quote; just sounds like something stupid that they’d say.) 

The truth is that the older generation is genuinely seeking for a way to engage with a generation that is incapable of engagement.  Not all of us obviously, but our generation is bored and large swaths of us are broken.  We say things like, ‘we’re searching for more authentic expressions of our faith,’ but we’re not.  We say things like, ‘we believe in science and anybody who believes in the metaphysical is a buffoon,’ we saw it on the Daily Show.  We have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips on our smart phones but we find wisdom creepy, boring, even a little too slow.

If the church wants to reach the young people that are running away they don’t have to go and pander to them.  They don’t have to coddle them and assure them that they can be anybody they want to be inside the church walls.  The youth need to meet the aged.  The young need to get in touch with the generations that have gone before; the generations that built the Empire state building in 415 days.  Our forebears fought world wars and grew facial hair without it being ironic.  Our ancestors got law degrees while tending a farm.  Our founding fathers learned to read by lamp light with wicks they had to tend.  The bigger limbs of our family trees fought wars while cutting enough firewood for the winter and living in houses they built.

The old is hardened; the young is doughy, fluffy, and plump.  The old are sinewy; the youth are syrupy.  If the church wants them to come back it needs to get them in shape.  It needs to help them pump up.  WE, millennials, generation X and WHY and all of the rest of you and us who are 20-45 and aren't in churches you aren't NOT in church because they’re inauthentic.  Man up; you’re just lazy.  I haven’t had a conversation with you about something of value outside of the church in my life.  Your weakness reflects back at you in church.  Your complete and utter blobiness scares you out of church; not faith, not Christ, not Christians, and not God. 

Please forgive me for using strokes too broad.  I know there are bad churches or bad people at good churches, but a bad church isn't an excuse to run off and be sad; it is a mountain to climb.  We blame it on the rain but never on our fear and shyness.

Look at what Jesus has to say.  “Listen to your grandpappy and grandmima.  Pay attention when they give you rules to live by.  He’ll/she’ll teach you how to attend to greatness.    Don’t brush them off as crazy old coots.  They learned it from their forebears and from there it was drawn out of the primordial soup of history.  It isn't knowledge.  Knowledge is on your smart phone.  It is wisdom.  It needs no wi-fi and has much greater value.

A couple of ideas for growing in wisdom this month…

Talk to an elderly relative every day/week.  Call them on the phone.  Take them out to lunch/dinner.  Adopt someone who you know.  Make a list of questions to ask them about substantive things.  Listen; don’t talk.

Read a book by an author who is at least 100 years old.  Put your smart phone to work for Wisdom.

Do something difficult every day.  Try a menial task that you do after you’re home from your hard day of work.  If you’re young there is a high likelihood that your work isn't hard; it’s just arduous.  If you can’t think of something, make your food for tomorrow every evening and a sack lunch to give to someone who is homeless.  Try dusting all of your books.  Try moving all your furniture and cleaning underneath.  Clean your garage.

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.