Life Meets Doctrine

i am starting to open up more and more to the verses that follow one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible. for years now, i have loved the mutifold truths in Luke 12:32: Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. i love it! the metaphors are loaded in there (flock/sheep, father/children, king/kingdom). the goodness of God is there. the removal of our fear. the giving nature of God. and so much more. i love it!

for the longest, though, i didn’t know what to do with the following verses. and even now i don’t really know what to do with them, but i do feel like they have more meaning, they are taking more shape, they aren’t quite as scary as before. Luke 12:33-34: sell your possessions, and give to the needy. provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. this is right after the tender reassurance of God in Luke 12:32.

the power is built up in verse 32:
* we have no need to fear
* we are the sheep of the greatest shepherd
* we are the children of the most generous, wealthy father
* we are the offspring of the most pleased, happy father
* we are the subjects of the most powerful king
therefore we are commanded to sell our possessions and give to the needy. oh the truth shows up over and over again. God’s pleasure and God’s love is not meant to terminate on us! we are missing it if we become the final stop of God’s financial blessings. we are meant to be the passage through which his blessings flow.

it is striking to me in Luke 12:33 that we are commanded to do two things: (1) sell our possessions, and (2) give to the needy. if Jesus only said give to the needy i could get away with the occasional closet cleaning and giving to Goodwill. i could get away with making a monthly pledge to help a missionary. but Jesus doesn’t only say give to the needy. he says sell your possessions. we must take a hit for the team! we must feel the effects of loss! we must give something up – something we currently like and use and enjoy. otherwise we lose the power of the whole thing. we lose the blessed freedom of realizing that Jesus is better than the stuff – the good stuff, the sweet stuff, the stuff we really want to keep.

i am sure there is more to be had in this passage, but this is all i will post for now. please, Jesus, help me to give as you have given to me – with the care of a shepherd, the heart of a father, the authority of a king’s son, and the generosity of the richest (or poorest?) man in the world.