Charity's most valuable gift: Hope

The early leaders of the labor unions in this country were adamantly opposed to charity.  They believed that if people were treated unjustly, and with no mercy and mixed signals, they would rise up sooner and demand economic justice.

 

But I don't believe this to be true.  Because when it comes to charity, much more than the money or food or clothes we give, we give hope.

 

A young woman who grew up with my daughters is a union organizer.  She organizes home health workers and the like.  It is almost impossible to get those workers involved because they live from day to day with little hope that things will be better for them.

 

So first they need to be offered hope.  They need to know that God desires better for them.  They need to know that others are aware of their problems and their plight.  And then maybe they can hope for more.  Maybe they can stand up and realize their worth to God and to the people for whom they care.

 

But we who talk stewardship and those who would give need first to be sure in the hope of a better world.  We need to see what Jesus saw when he laid hands on a leper or fed hungry people with little.  We need to see strong healthy people caring for each other.

 

We need to envision ourselves as hands of God in this endeavor, so we need to be strong in our hope for who we are and who God's people can be.

 

The most generous people I have known have not been rich or poor, they have been faithful.

 

Lord God,

 

Help us to envision ourselves as you hands of hope in you world.  Amen

 

Copyright (c) 2004, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.
 

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI.  A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care.  She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander.  She is still trying to understand the accent.  While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team.  That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.