A Word from Pastor Lisa: Reluctant Release
“Every seventh year you must cancel all debts. 2 This is how the cancellation is to be handled: Creditors will forgive the loans of their fellow Israelites. They won’t demand repayment from their neighbors or their relatives because the Lord’s year of debt cancellation has been announced….10 No, give generously to needy persons. Don’t resent giving to them because it is this very thing that will lead to the Lord your God’s blessing you in all you do and work at. 11 Poor persons will never disappear from the earth. That’s why I’m giving you this command: you must open your hand generously to your fellow Israelites, to the needy among you, and to the poor who live with you in your land.” – Deuteronomy 15:1-2,10-11
During the 2020 spring lockdown, Grammy and Gramps sent us a grow-your-own butterfly kit with four larvae. We watched the caterpillars grow big and fat before spinning a chrysalis around themselves. Two emerged as healthy butterflies. On a warm summer day, it was time to release them. The minute we unzipped their habitat, I expected them to come flying out, eager to explore a world of blooming flowers. They had been inside that mesh bag for so long, however, that containment was all they knew. Our daughter had to coax them out by hand and then help them take off to enjoy our garden. They were reluctant to be released.
As people who have found freedom in Jesus Christ, we experience much of the same struggle. We are reluctant to be released into that freedom. We’d rather clutch our bad habits, our negative behaviors, our self-loathing, and our contempt for others. We’d prefer to keep scheming against our enemies rather than forgive them. We guard our resources, protect our own, and refuse to share the gifts God has given us. Freedom is easy to believe but difficult to embrace.
We may take comfort in the fact that God’s people have always struggled to embody the freedom God has given them. In Deuteronomy, God has led the people out of slavery in Egypt, provided for them in the wilderness, and now prepares them to enter the Promised Land. But there are important rules for living into that land, including the details from this passage. Every seventh year they must cancel all the debts of their fellow Israelites. If there are poor people living among them, they are not to be hard-hearted or tight-fisted. They must open their hands wide to those who struggle, generously lending whatever is needed. It is through giving to those in poverty that they will receive God’s blessing in all they do.
As a congregation, we strive to release our resources to those in need, whether that be through giving to monthly missions (October is Beacon’s Shalom Center), hosting Head Start, providing through our Wednesday Food Pantry, or advocating through our new Poverty Team. Yet, as always, there is so much more we can do. How will you become part of God’s call to release, to give lavishly without counting the cost, and to share with those in need? May the Spirit nudge you out of your illusions of entrapment and launch you into the beautiful abundance of God’s extravagant generosity.