The congregation of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York decided that God has called them to care for the homeless. They provide lodging, a soup kitchen, a clothes closet, and anything they can to help the homeless in downtown New York City. But some of their clients are “service resistant,” refusing to sleep in the beds provided, choosing to sleep instead in cardboard boxes and the like that they drag up on the porch of the church.
The church folks do not really mind, but the owners of Trump Tower and other famous landmarks across the street do mind. On more than one occasion, the owners have gotten police to haul the homeless camping out at the church off to jail under charges of “unlawful assembly” and the like. The church has had to file suit several times to correct the situation, and they have always won.
However, the church has faced problem after problem in keeping the doors to the shelter open. The pastor in charge would make adjustments to address one problem, only to have to start over, making new adjustments to keep the homeless shelter going. One day after making yet another modification he said, “All right, I think we’ve got it, as long as another shoe doesn’t drop,” and then added the prayer, “God I need your help — please, no more shoes.”
Those words had barely come out of his mouth when the secretary walked into his office and said, “Sir, there is someone from the police department here to see you.” Of course, the pastor’s mind was immediately troubled and he thought, “Lord, not another shoe.”
The policeman walked in and said, “Pastor, we have just shut down an illegal factory making bogus Timberland boots, and we need something to do with them. Could you all use 700 pairs of boots?” God has a sense of humor in his answer to our prayers and in his extravagant provision.
God is extravagant. Last week in this column, I wrote about “The Parable of the Sower.” In the parable, the farmer sowed his seed extravagantly, not just in the good, plowed soil, but also in the road, the rocks beside the road, and the unplowed ground occupied by weeds, thorns, and vines that would choke emerging crops.
Jesus is the primary sower of seeds, but we are also sowers. We are called to sow extravagantly even into the lives of people we might not expect to be responsive to the message, for everyone needs to experience the love of God and hear the message of salvation.
What kind of seeds should we sow? We must first sow seeds of kindness. Jesus commended the Good Samaritan for being kind and caring about the man who had been robbed, beaten, and cast aside. The Samaritan went out of his way to help the man, and he went to significant personal expense to care for this stranger. It was risky, but the man needed help, and the Samaritan sowed extravagant seeds of kindness into the man’s life.
Whether our acts of kindness are small, like smiling at someone, or big, like rescuing a stranger and paying his hospital bills, if we want to be like Jesus, we must learn to sow extravagant seeds of kindness every day into the lives of others.
We must also learn to sow seeds of generosity. Some of our most wealthy people are donating massive amounts of money to help change the world, and that is wonderful. You and I may not be able to match the dollar amounts that they give, but all of us can give something. The question is not how little we should give, but how much we can give and still meet our needs and the needs of our families.
If we can give a 10 percent tithe, we should stretch and give that much to our churches and to causes that seek to change the world. If, however, we can afford to give 50 percent or even more of our income away to sow seeds of God’s compassion into the lives of others, we should.
We can sow seeds of sharing the message of the Gospel. When Mary Magdalene saw Christ in the garden after his resurrection, she immediately went to the gathered disciples who were confused and grieving over the crucifixion of Jesus and said, “I have seen the Lord.” In one way or another, each of us has seen Jesus. He has changed our lives and brought us salvation. How and to whom can we share our witness boldly and extravagantly?
A pastor was surprised to learn that one of his parishioners was in jail. When he visited him, he asked him, “Marshall, why are you here?” Marshall responded, “I’m here because Jesus saved me.” He went on to say that after he came to Christ at an outreach center sponsored by the church, he had begun to grow in Christ.
Eventually, he became convinced that he needed to set things right for his past misdeeds. He remembered an old warrant on him that everyone else had forgotten. So, on Christmas Eve he turned himself in. He told the pastor that he would be free in six months, but for now, as he said, “I’ve got an outreach center started in my cell.”
We are all called to mission. It may be in redeemed areas of previous sin or failure in our own lives. Regardless of where we may be in mission, we must reach out to those in need and strive to sow seeds of compassion into their lives in the most extravagant way possible.
Dr. Dan Darby is a retired United Methodist pastor.
