Be Generous

“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison

There seems to be a contagion in this land.

Well, to be fair, history will tell us this contagion has always been in the land….. but it feels prevalent today, at least to me.

It is that idea that anyone who is not “like us” is “against us.”

We live in a culture that is very polarized right now. It’s a culture where it seems fine to demonize others just because they are others. We demonize the immigrant for “taking our jobs and resources.” We demonize the LGTBQIA+ community for being “sinful and against the nature of God.” We demonize those who speak out for rights of others or advocate for changes, calling them “woke” and “liberal snowflakes” even when all they are trying to do is gain a better understanding. We demonize the teachers for “teaching an agenda” without asking ourselves what agendas are even being taught.

All of this seems backed by an idea that Christianity is and should be the prevalent religion in a nation whose very first amendment states that there is a freedom of religion and laws cannot be established to block that very freedom. There are Christians out in this world actively working to dehumanize others simply for being different.

But the Church (as in the entire Body of Christ) isn’t meant to be full of only like-minded, like-belief individuals who operate almost as a hive-mind collective. Jesus didn’t come only to call the Pharisees and the religious (in fact, he called them out most often for being hypocritical). Rather, the church is a church for the sick, the lost, the sinner, the imperfect person. And it should remain that, even as the sick become well, the sinner become saved, the lost become found, the imperfect strive for perfection.

The church must remain generous, not just with its funds, but with its very essence. And with the American holiday of Thanksgiving upon us in just two short weeks, why not discuss this today?

What makes generosity work? It’s continuing actions of giving, of course, but there is much more than that. It’s responding to the entire world and its needs, not just being stingy with the few that are deemed “saved” people. It’s reaching out to those who have been considered the scapegoats and showering them with love. It’s showing the world that there is light and hope and joy and peace and much more love than there is hate. It’s resisting the urge to claim that the church is persecuted simply because there is a counterculture against it (and not addressing WHY the counterculture is even there in the first place). It’s counteracting despair and recognizing that all people have the right to be treated with dignity and respect, even if they are different, even if they are on the opposite spectrum politically, even if they don’t think the same, act the same, look the same or believe the same. It’s learning stories and giving freely of the same exact love that was given.

After all, Jesus said in three of the four gospels:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

~ Mark 12:30-31 (NIV)

Magical people, whether or not you believe in The Church, I urge you to be generous with your love. Be generous with your peace. Be generous with your hope. Be generous with your peace. Be generous with your joy. Be generous with the magic that makes you so very much you…. but also strive to not diminish the magic that makes others different from you.

Magical friends, if you are a believer, I urge you to shower love instead of hate, hope instead of judgement, peace instead of condemnation, joy instead of sorrow. Be the resistance against the divides that polarize the nation. Love that neighbor as yourself. Be the church that exists to help others. And for the love of all that is holy, work on striving for the perfection that is Christ, not the self-righteous hypocrisy of the Pharisees he spoke against.

I know I will try. I will fall, but i will get back up and try again. For that is what it means to be striving for that perfection….. it will never be fully there, but can be within reach if you’re working on writing that story of love, hope, peace, joy, magic, and light.

“Be careful not to dehumanize those you disagree with. In our self-righteousness, we can become the very things we criticize in others …and not even know it.”

~ Eugene Cho

Be generous.

Stay magical.

Write your own story.

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