For Sunday, February 23, 2014 – Matthew 5:38-48
Well, I did it again. I walked past a man asking for money outside the grocery store, and gave him nothing. He asked for a dollar, and I sort of smiled, shook my head, mumbled “sorry” and kept walking. I might as well have brought him home with me for all he continues to consume my thoughts. I have lived in cities for years, and have had the blessing of many such encounters. I have purchased food, I have asked about and listened to life stories, I have gone to restaurants to eat together, I have given money and I have passed by—and still I don’t feel at ease with one of Jesus’ simplest instructions: “Give to everyone who begs from you.” Give what? Give how?
When I lived in a community of “women religious” and “women homeless” in New York, we pondered such questions. Wanting to give, not wanting to enable, we wrestled with how to respond. The women who were homeless themselves, if not for sharing this house with the nuns, took the sternest positions. “They’re just taking advantage of people,” they said. “Don’t fall for it.” The nuns, you probably aren’t surprised to learn, leaned toward generosity and some even kept a pocket of coins and dollar bills for the purpose of giving away to anyone who asked. If all the money had not been given by the end of the week, they would search on the weekend for its “rightful owners.”
Of course, if I read this passage of scripture only as a set of laws to keep, I will have missed the point. Jesus isn’t calling me to a new list of rules, but to a new way of seeing absolutely everything. “You have heard…” what the law says, “but I say to you…” look again, through the lens of God in your midst in this moment. Change the dynamic between yourself and others. Surprise yourself, and the one who is suing you, or forcing you to serve a cause you don’t want to serve, or opposing you. Turn the whole situation on its head and see what will be revealed. The folks you call enemies and evildoers and beggars—you will start to see them as yourself. All of you, a dazzling array of one family, on whom the sun shines and the rain falls. Whether you give or withhold your crumbs will not alter God’s perfect providence. Let down your guard. Be in this place, with this person. Don’t judge it by how it feels. Watch what God is up to.
