Helping the Needy vs. Helping the Greedy

Last week was our annual Christmas Parade of Lights in downtown Palestine. Each year, our church has a float featuring our church's children. It is a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun. Several years ago, as a safety concern, the parade officials changed the rules on distribution of candy. Candy can no longer be "thrown" from parade floats. Since the parade is at night, they don't want people being struck by flying jawbreakers and such. Also, due to low visibility, they feared children would run out into the street in pursuit of fallen candy and could be struck by one of the parade vehicles. This was a good move on the part of the parade officials, but it creates an interesting opportunity for us.

Since the new rules were instated, the only way for the candy to be dispersed is for people walking alongside the parade float to pass the candy out by hand. So guess what my role has been during the parade the last two years? Yep. And let me tell you, sometimes the parade moves faster than a brisk walk. There are times when I literally had to quit passing out candy so I could run and catch up with the float (if I didn't stay with the float, I wouldn't have a ride back to the church!). So passing out candy allows me to be one of the few persons who has direct contact with the parade audience.

I noticed something this year, though. There were basically two schools of thought on receiving candy. Some kids were very thankful and appreciative and would respond with a "thank you" or "Merry Christmas" and were often prompted by their parents who responded in like fashion. Then there were others who seemed like they were almost trained to go after whatever free things were available. They were not content with one candy cane, and had no qualms about asking for more. My little sack of candy had to last the majority of the parade, so I could only give one piece to each kid, but parents were jumping in insisting that I give to them as well. And of course, there was no "thank you" to be heard.

This forced an age-old issue to the surface of my mind. It applies for those of us in church work and in service-oriented ministries. And that is this: should we try to make distinctions between needy people and greedy people? When I was in a former church in a small Central Texas town, churches often shied away from helping people because they just assumed they were working the system. My current church has a ministry that helps with utility bills. And while we only can help each family once a year (so we can help the largest number of people) and can usually only pay $40 or $50 on each bill, there are people who will be upset with us because we can't or won't do more. So is there a way to distinguish between the two groups? If there is a way to distinguish between them, is it our place to do so? I think the latter question is really at the heart of the matter.

In Luke 17, Jesus comes across ten men with leprosy. These were social outcasts who really had no existence because they had been ostracized by society. They were forbidden from being in contact with the general population because they suffered from a very severe and very contagious disease. Upon being near other "clean" people, they would be forced to yell out, "Unclean, unclean!" to warn people of their presence. And this time they met Jesus. They cried out for him to "have pity on (them)". Jesus replies that they should go and show themselves to the priest. This was a necessary procedure for them to be re-admitted into the general population. And as they went, they were cleansed. But wouldn't you know that after being healed, only one person came back to thank Jesus. And to this one, Jesus says "Your faith has made you well." But the others were well for crying out to Jesus, weren’t they? Most scholars believe Jesus is speaking of spiritual healing. His faith had saved him.

So did Jesus not know the hearts of the other nine? He asks some seemingly rhetorical questions to the grateful one saying, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? (the grateful leper was a Samaritan)" I don't think much gets past Jesus. I'm pretty sure he knew the hearts of the other nine. Yet he healed them anyway. But the faith of the one, as demonstrated in his gratitude, gave him so much more than a normal earthly existence. It gave him eternal life.

So maybe there is something to Jesus' model. For those of us with limited resources in service ministries, we might be able to learn something from this. Maybe God wants us to minister to all who have need. And maybe only one in ten (to use the numbers from this story) will truly have gratitude and or faith that will lead to their salvation. I think where we get it wrong is we expect everyone we help to have that gratitude...that "saving faith", if you will. But Jesus knew better than that. And I think we are kidding ourselves to think that every person we help through our church or service organization is going to receive help with a grateful heart. Should we guard ourselves against those who do not legitimately need help and are just be working the system? God has called us to be good stewards of our resources and we should be wise and discreet in how we go about helping people. But either way, we should try to meet the needs that are there and leave the results to God. We may never know the eternal results of our service on this side of heaven. But that's where faith comes in, isn't it?

Is Service More for the Servant or the Recipient?

Yesterday in church, I was sitting next to a friend of mine during announcements. Our pastor announced that we would be taking a communion offering for a church that had recently been burned in a series of arson fires. Her initial comment to me was, “Wouldn’t insurance cover it?” Having not yet pondered this I thought about it for a second and replied that giving to them allows them to be blessed by our giving and for us to be blessed by our giving.

I posted a few days ago about how when Christians wait on the establishment to render aid that God is not necessarily glorified. The glory of God is not in knowing that an insurance company will pay for the damages, but in knowing that Christian brothers and sisters are joining together in prayer and support for the hurting congregation. I’m not calling insurance companies bad. I used to work for one. They collect premiums from clients under the premise that a disaster will not happen while the client pays under the premise that a disaster could happen. So paying a claim on a fire after collecting millions of dollars in premiums is the job of the company. That is what they do. So can God use that company to bless a congregation? Absolutely. But is he glorified when the adjuster writes a big check to the church? Maybe so-but not as much as he is glorified when people give of their own resources out of the goodness of their hearts.

God is glorified when people make the choice to give to that congregation. When they help them with the clean-up and they help them rebuild God is glorified. When Katrina and Rita wreaked havoc on the Louisiana and Texas coasts, millions of dollars in federal aide and insurance money were unleashed. But I think God’s glory was not in this money, but in the people who gave out of their own pockets to help the people of those areas and in the volunteers who loaded up their vehicles with tools and supplies and headed down just to do something to start the rebuilding process. The same could be said of the recent events in Haiti and Chile. Numerous governments sent money and resources from all over the world. But the ones who were blessed were the people who sent text messages to the Red Cross, gave to groups like World Vision, donated to a special offering at their church, and especially those who were able to pack up their bags and go in person and help with the effort. Acts 2:42-47 paints a vivid picture of this as believers in the early church who shared their possessions with one another and gave to each other as each had need. They didn’t do this because they had to. It was their choice to love each other in a very real way.

Whether it’s federal money, or an insurance settlement, established entities have their place in accomplishing God’s purposes. If he can use a prostitute (Joshua 2), a talking donkey (Numbers 22), or an Babylonian king (Nehemiah 2), I think he can use a government or an insurance company. But his glory is found when people commit to do the right thing, even when they don’t have to.

So what happens if there is enough insurance money and federal aid to take care of those in need? We know that there will always be a need for service and missions. But what happens when we write off an opportunity to serve simply because a congregation had insurance or because people are receiving aid from somewhere else? We are the ones who miss the blessing. They will be blessed by someone because God has taken care of them. But it is you and I who have missed out on the blessing.