When Mt. Zion recently initiated an Endowment Fund, they included four main “quadrants” to which donations might be designated. First, special congregational projects, second, Lutheran seminaries, third, Lutheran missions and finally, what they called “works of mercy.” Now, Endowment funds like this can take some time to build up value (though only “income” is distributed, not “principle”), but I’ve wondered to myself which of the four quadrants will grow fastest. I have my hunches.
To be honest, the one which might have the most potential is the one which, as a church, we have least devoted our energy and money up to this point, namely, “works of mercy.” A fair portion of the ordinary church budget is already devoted to the other three quadrants, but how much of our yearly budget have we carved out for giving to the needy, the marginalized and the neglected? The answer? 0%. None.
This might not surprise you. After all, is this the church’s job? If the church is supposed to feed the hungry or clothe the naked, then why do we have a government? And, after all, isn’t the church to concern itself merely with the Gospel and the holy things of God? In fact, what need is there for a specific section of the endowment for the poor?
The problem, of course, is the pesky testimony of the New Testament. The book of Acts reports that large and organized collections of money were taken to assist other Christians in need. In fact, these collections were so large at times that a detailed system of distribution was organized in the form of the Seven in Acts 6. The church did these things. And who can forget the words of Christ after dividing the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25, “You gave me food…you gave me drink…you welcomed me…you clothed me…you visited me.” Christians have been taught to recognize that in serving their neighbor, they are actually serving Jesus.
It would be hasty to conclude from the annual budget, though, that the Christians at Mt. Zion don’t realize this. I wasn’t surprised to learn that many of our members give regular contributions to the Denver Rescue Mission, the Salvation Army and other such relief agencies. They have continued to make such contributions even in the face of the high overhead and the annoying regular phone call pleas from such organizations. The parable of the sheep and goats has made an impression on them; it has formed in them a desire to put the needs of others before their own. It is as though they’ve recognized the miserly treatment of the poor in the budget of their church and wanted to make up for it in some other way.
Why, in a society that encourages much self-centeredness and personal acquisitiveness, do these Christians buck cultural trends and take responsibility for the needs of people who aren’t among their own family or friends? I think it is because they know by heart the story of the Nativity, the story of a God who came among us as a helpless, needy baby, born to peasant parents, lying in a feed trough.
“There are many of you,” Martin Luther scolded his sixteenth century German congregation, “who think to yourselves: ‘If only I had been there! How quick I would have been to help the little baby!’…You say that because you know how great Christ is, but if you had been there at that time you would have done no better than the people of Bethlehem…. Why don’t you do it now? You have Christ in your neighbor.”
Christ gives us Himself, present in the needs of our neighbor. The one who was born in a Bethlehem stable commanded us to care for “the least of these.” We cannot see Christ, we do not truly worship him or follow him without obeying him in our acts of mercy to those in need. Thanks be to God that Mt. Zion has created, in the form of this Endowment Fund, an outlet for us to take care of these little ones, and without the overhead and without the irksome phone calls to boot.
If you already donate money to social agencies to help the needy, consider donating to the Endowment Fund instead. Designate it to the quadrant “works of mercy.”
Yours in Christ,
Pastor.
