But, like Paul, we imply that those whom we approach have plenty and can be asked to share some of their fortune with the needy, or to help with a project. We only supply the means of transferring from one to the other. Paul goes further and commends the Corinthians by saying I know how eager you are to help and further along, God loves a cheerful giver.
That may be, but what about giving at a bad time? Right now, some of us are in a very bad time. Some folks will always say, “Now is not a good time” to put off charitable solicitations. But right now many of us are reluctant to spend money because we know our situations are uncertain, the times are bad. Reminding people of what they cannot do, but have done in the past and should like to do, can be unpleasant: “Going to the Caribbean?” “Doing the opera series?’ as well as “Joining in the Founders’ night at the museum/United Way/Red Cross?” could be provocatively cruel openers.
Now is a good time to consider Paul’s words. They are a challenge to those who would stop because “it’s not a good time” and also to those who would solicit this year as they have in years past, trying to meet goals set in more affluent times.
My own giving tradition is different this year. I have for some years used Fannie Mae stock for my year-end giving. Purchased some time ago, it afforded large capital gains and seemed a good-in-more-ways-than-one way for my family to be “cheerful givers.” That stock is worth almost nothing now. What do I do, come year’s end?
In chapter nine, Paul quotes Psalm 112 in referring to one such Cheerful Giver: He has lavished his gifts on the needy, his benevolence stands fast for ever (v. 9). Earlier the Psalm says this about the happy man who fears the Lord (v. 1):
He is gracious, compassionate, good
a beacon in darkness for honest men.
It is right for a man to be gracious in
his lending,
to order his affairs with judgment.
Nothing shall ever shake him;
his goodness shall be remembered for
all time.
Bad news shall have no terrors for him,
because his heart is steadfast …
(Psalm 112:4-7 – NEB)
Note this man orders his affairs with judgment; in the King James Version it reads he will guide his affairs with discretion. And it is judgment and discretion that is wanted just now by both those giving and those asking. We need to speak WITH charity as we ask folks to give TO charity, crediting those who wish to give as being people of discretion and judgment.
My giving this year will not be guided by standard reductions, discounting each regular gift, but will be an expression of where my diminished capacity to give is essential, maybe even needing to be increased (Food Bank). Wherein I am asked to solicit, I shall endeavor to do so with charity. Now is not a bad time but a good and important one to realize you are always rich enough to be generous but to give and to ask others to give with discretion and judgment, cheerfully. So be it!
Thomas Wilson, a resident of Elizabeth City, N.C., is a Presbyterian minister currently serving as interim in the yoked parishes of Powelton and Belle Haven on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
