The Corners of the Field

I graduated from a small state school that, for some strange reason, had a rather large group of students planning to become clergy persons. Several of us gathered for coffee at a book store just off campus and we were there anytime we were not in class.

One day a young minister who had never participated in our jawing sessions ran in the door in a panic. He had just come from history class taught by a professor who took great pride in gigging the preacher boys in an effort to make us think, although we, of course, thought he was an atheist trying to destroy our faith. That morning he had asked this young very conservative preacher what he thought about Jesus and his disciples gathering corn on the sabbath as mentioned in the Bible. The young preacher started a long explanation about the sabbath, but the professor interrupted him saying, “I am not interested in the sabbath, what I want to know is what you think about Jesus stealing that farmer’s corn?” The preacher had no answer and was so shook up he came to us whom he considered to be liberals to find an answer. We did not have one either, so we had to lay aside our charade of “knowing the word” and study.

We discovered that it was a normal practice in those days for the farmers to leave the corners of their fields for the poor. It was the welfare program of that day. The poor were welcome to partake as needed to feed their families.

I hate to burst the bubbles of folks who think they can be dedicated followers of Jesus while finding excuses to ignore the poor, or even take stands against all forms of welfare, but one of the major themes of both the old and new testaments is caring for the poor.

I hated the Sundays when I was forced to speak about tithing. I actually think I hated saying it more than the congregation hated hearing it. It seemed to me to be a cheap way to make God happy and manipulate Him into blessing us. Most of my reluctance came from the realization that tithing was such a small part of the story. The whole story is about each of us being a steward of what we have.

There were seven tithes in the Old Testament. Most of them were plans for individual involvement in helping the less fortunate. One tithe was about the maintenance of the temple—just one of seven. When the prophet Malachi came along, the temple was in ruins and he began to demand that they “bring their tithes,” at least the ones dedicated to caring for the temple, “into the storehouse.” The Baptists and probably others latched on to that one text and proclaimed that “Storehouse Tithing” was the only way to give money to God. So instead of individual stewards finding individual ways to help the poor we just did it all by check with no need to touch or be involved personally with the halt, the lame, the blind, or the beggar at our door…Clean, convenient and tragic.

So, the church became more and more self-absorbed refusing to live by the major principle of Jesus that if we want to save our lives, we must lose them. The church began to consume its members, demanding all of our time, talents and resources to be spent on the church. We even built gyms, so the members did not need to go exercise with the outside world. As I often say the church is supposed to be a filling station where we get inspiration and motivation to serve, but we seem to get filled and then spend all of our time driving around and around the filling station.

I am tired of hearing complaints about welfare, about lazy people living off the dole, and folks driving up in Cadillacs to get food stamps. Tired of folks saying if we feed the poor, they become dependent and unable to function for themselves etc. etc. etc.

Jesus left the widows and orphan’s care to us and we refused to do it, so the state had to take it over and the state is not and cannot do it effectively. A rule that fits the poor in New York city is an ill-fitting mess in Bug Tussle, Oklahoma.

Many years ago, there was a survey of the churches in Maryland. It found if every church would care for 10 families or 24 people the state and national welfare programs could shut their doors. And the chances of that happening are?

The loss of individual stewardship has proven devastating to the individual Christian as well. When tithing is separated from our being stewards of all we are and have, it becomes some kind of tax that a legalistic God requires…No joy involved.

Stewardship is God’s antidote for greed and self-absorption. The concept of each of us being a steward of what we have received is a constant reminder that everything we have is a gift. We may have worked hard to earn it but the mind and the talent to do so was a gift.

The fact that I am responsible for that gift and will one day have to give an account of my stewardship helps me deal with the inborn drive of greed. I am not about to buy a lottery ticket for fear I might win, and I don’t want that responsibility nor that many new relatives.

Stewardship is also God’s way of helping us fight the urge to be self-absorbed. Stewardship cannot be done by writing God a ten percent tip and dropping it in the plate on Sunday. It requires each of us to discover where are the corners of our fields and what is our role in making them effective. That forces us to think outside of ourselves.

A word to the wise. If you can find a way to keep from being overwhelmed by greed or self-absorption take it no matter the price.

We will never impact the world or change it trying to drag folks to a church to hear some lecture and put a dollar in the plate, but what if we all got out of the pews and into the world using our calling to be stewards of our possessions to do random acts of kindness personally to those in need? We would change the world. That is a radical idea so radical it is like there being the corner of a field handy one Sabbath when Jesus was hungry. Wonder if that made him dependent or meant that He was too lazy to work?