The Generous will be Blessed

 Read Proverbs 22

Rules, guides, dichotomies—this way or that—the Proverbs would make a great PowerPoint presentation with all sorts of graphs and graphics.

Of course, you have to have a video of me in your PowerPoint doing God’s way and everything else.

I think you could make a good video game from the Proverbs.  Anyone old enough to play Frogger.  You had to get the frog across the road without getting run over by cars and trucks.

It would be the same concept.  You start on one side of the road and have to dodge fools and the wicked as you crossed 31 lanes.  Watch out, the adulterous woman might subtly take your out.  The woman folly is right behind her.

Anger, selfish pride, and putting up security for a stranger come at differing speeds.  Watch out!  There is a gossip going the wrong way in traffic and aiming for you.

Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding move us deliberately across dangerous lanes of traffic.

 Of course, we have to be on the lookout for the sluggard.  No, we don’t. It will take a week for the slothful to even get close.

For those who are investment-minded, I will give you a week or two to think it over, then I’m launching Proverbs the Game, coming to video stores near you.

I’m thinking it will be the merchandising that will make me the big bucks.  Who doesn’t want a Sluggard Drinking Bottle?  Your favorite drink goes down slow if you can manage to get the bottle to your lips.

How about a quarrelsome wife on the corner of the roof T-shirts?

I’m having some fun here with things that are mainly serious, but we should lighten up a little and understand that we are not just a bunch of rule followers.  There must be more.  There is and here’s an example.

Wise and foolish, rich and poor, wicked and righteous all say something about us and the world in which we live, but here’s a truth-teller about who we really are.

The generous will themselves be blessed,

    for they share their food with the poor.

Are we generous?  Do we help the poor?  Is it our nature to share our blessings? Are we rich towards God?

I think most here can answer in the affirmative.  We help people all the time.  Sometimes it’s an effort coordinated through the congregation or it’s a mission of the church.

Sometimes, it’s people in the community that come together to help someone.  Sometimes you just walk across the street with a gallon of milk or a freshly cooked pie.  Sometimes, you just say, “I’ll give you’re a ride.”

Sometimes we are working the social media to get boys trousers size 12 or girls shoes size 6. I know you.  You are generous.

We are also wise.  It’s probably less than one-percent of the time that we ever hand anyone money.  Most of the people that we help don’t manage money very well and people don’t want their money buying drugs

As a result, I know how to buy a bus ticket or pay an electric bill or water bill with no cash changing hands.  We are generous, not naïve.

We don’t do sign-ups for most things.  People still call wondering about getting free turkeys.  I tell them we don’t have a sign-up for turkeys, but if they are hungry—if your family needs food—come and see me.  We feed hungry people all the time.

Yes, I am going to talk to you about God, God’s love, and God’s family and invite you to live God’s way, but regardless of whether you are interested in God or not, I’m not going to let you go hungry. We help the poor and we feed the hungry.

We are generous.

You know that I don’t like transactional.  I call it the vending machine.  I like connections.  I like relationships that are transformational.

Ever since I have been on this transformational over transactional bandwagon if you will, we have given out more food each year.

The proverb says that we will be blessed.  How?  There’s the treasure in heaven perspective and there is the fact that the more we try to make this about making connections with people that might just lead them to God, the more food we have received in donations.

The more we make this about a transformational relationship with Christ Jesus, the more we are blessed to help someone else.

The generous will themselves be blessed,

    for they share their food with the poor.

So, what do we do with this information as we study the Proverbs?

Gain knowledge.

Gain wisdom.

Gain understanding.

Grow in the Lord’s discipline and as his disciples.

Be known by his love.

Be generous, especially with those who have so little.

There is God’s way and there is everything else and generosity is part of God’s way.  God’s people are generous.

Be generous.

Amen.