Mammon & Manna
Surprise the Wolrd #1 — Bless
March 17, 2019
Commonwealth Bridge Worship
Habit #1
I mentioned last Sunday that we will be looking over five different habits that could surprise the world. And the first habit we want to go over today is:
Bless.
To cut to the chase, the habit we want to foster as a church is “to bless three people every week — at least one of whom is a member of our church and at least one of whom is not.”[1] This is what I’d like all of us to do starting this week.
Now, what does it mean to bless somebody? Michael Frost, the author of Surprise the World suggests that, when it comes to a human-to-human blessing, we should understand the term “to bless” as “to add strength to another’s arm,” or in other words, “to build someone up” and “to lift someone up.”[2]
With this definition in mind, let’s walk through three possible ways to accomplish this task of blessing somebody.
The first is through words of affirmation. Remember the time when you received a word of affirmation and encouragement out of nowhere? Whether in person, through a text, or a card — telling you that you are thought of or remembered?
I still remember the time when I worked as a waiter and received this note on a receipt that said how much the customer appreciated my service. That small gesture is forever engraved in my heart because it felt like divine nourishment that added strength to my arm. I’m sure you can think of similar examples of when you’ve received such a timely affirmation and encouragement.
The second is through acts of kindness. Providing some kind of practical support for others without expecting something in return.
Over the past month, I’ve been coming to Sherwood on Sunday morning with two full crates plus a couple of bags. And strangers have been helping me out by carrying these crates into this room. These people literally added strength to my arm by lightening my load. There are many other examples like this: babysitting an exhausted couple’s kids, shoveling snow out of a neighbor’s driveway, or offering to give a ride to those without rides.
The third is through giving gifts. A gift that shows the recipient “that he or she is known, cared for, and valued.”[3] It could be a gift that fits the needs of the recipient. Or it could be a gift that is nothing more than an expression showing or voicing that you thought of the recipient. We often give and receive such gifts with our loved ones, such as with our parents, our children, our friends, or our significant others. But what if we extend these acts beyond our inner circle?
So, what do you think? Do you think we can do this together — blessing three persons per week? Perhaps, you are thinking to yourselves right now: I like the whole idea, but why should I do this repeatedly every week? Why should I make this a habit? I already do this when I have time and energy.
Mammon
To this question, I want to share two stories. One is a parable Jesus told to his disciples. And the other is my personal story.
The first story comes from Luke 19:1–9, called “The Parable of the Dishonest Manager.”
Either you hate this story, or you are confused. Jesus said what?
Let’s retrack the story. Here is a man, a manager, who is first caught squandering his boss’s property. So, to prepare for his impending unemployment, he starts reaching out to his boss’s clients. To build a good rapport with them, the manager settles their accounts by generously writing off their debts. He is again caught by his boss; but this time, the boss praises the manager for acting shrewdly, or wisely.
This is the story Jesus told his disciples, telling them, ‘You have something to learn from people like this manager. Go and makes friends for yourselves by using dishonest wealth.’
But here, “dishonest wealth” is not money gained in a dishonest manner, instead it is money that is in and of itself dishonest or unrighteous; or more precisely known as mammon — a limited resource that rules everything around us.
This is how Samuel Wells, an Anglican priest, describes mammon:[4]
Mammon means I must use all my energy making sure that of the limited amount of cake, at least I get enough on my plate.
Whether back in Jesus’ day or today, our world has always been driven by this concept of mammon — of there not being enough. It is an unavoidable reality. And it is something that rules every part of our life — not only the handling of our money, but also the handling of our time, our attention, our energy, our environment, our human interactions, and even our blessings. We busy ourselves trying to get a piece of the pie on our plate and on the plates of our family, and we do everything we can to keep that piece ours. Once we’ve claimed our piece of the pie, that’s when we think about the common good. We think about others, once we know our piece is safe and secure. And a lot of our fear stems from the idea of losing our piece of the pie. The consequence of mammon’s rule is perpetual anxiety.
Manna
This is where I want to share the second story — my personal story.
I started seminary in Fall 2012. And my first winter break was brutal. That December, the Sandy Hook shooter took 26 innocent lives, many of them being ages 6–7. During that same period, one of my friends passed away from a car accident. That friend was my age, and a pastor’s kid like me, so his death hit even closer to home.
That entire break I struggled with these tragedies around me. I realized how blessed I was, not the kind of #blessed we use on Instagram, but more of a realization that I’m living on borrowed time. Everything about me seemed too good to be true. Here I was, a healthy young man, receiving a great education, with a great family who loved me, with no major life struggles. Yet, what I witnessed with my own eyes was a world full of tragedies and sufferings. This disconnect made me uncomfortable, anxious, and guilty. I didn’t know what to do with my plate full of blessings. And I was afraid of the possibility of someday losing these blessings.
After coming back from break, I shared this struggle in my small group. And the pastor mentioned the concept of manna.
What is manna? In the Old Testament, when the Israelites were wondering in the wilderness, they were starving to death without food. And what God did was to rain down bread on them, which they called manna. It was the food which God provided daily, always more than what they needed. “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little” (Ex 16:18); it was God’s gift for everybody to enjoy. But if they tried to save up manna for the next day, it would “stink and get maggots in it” (v. 24).
Manna is fundamentally different from mammon. While mammon perpetuates the economy of scarcity, manna offers the economy of abundance.[5] The way I conceptualized the blessings in my life was through the lens of scarcity. I was afraid that I had too much on my plate compared to others. I was afraid that I would lose these blessings at some point. I was afraid of the idea that these blessings would not last forever in my life.
But as I reflected on this concept of manna, I realized that what I had on my plate wasn’t even mine to begin with. These blessings weren’t something I needed to hoard and save up, but they were something I needed to enjoy at that moment — and not just personally, but with others so that everybody could enjoy. Again, the idea is that God provides more than enough for everyone.
A New Reality
If mammon is an unavoidable human reality, manna is a reality God establishes through Jesus Christ (i.e., the Kingdom reality). Jesus wants to free us from this perpetual anxiety of “not enough”; and desires us to live abundantly. He says in John 10:10,
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
This is the amazing grace we have in Jesus; that his grace is limitless and boundless, that his grace is available to all, that his grace is more than enough for everyone, and that his grace is to be enjoyed and shared.
I believe the habit of blessing others each week is an act of resistance against the captivity of mammon, and a step into living in a world of manna. It’s much more than blessing others so that our neighbors may gain strength. We are blessing others so that we can remind ourselves and others that there are more than enough blessings for us to enjoy and share. This habitual reminder will not only change the way we think about God’s grace, but also the way we think about our time, our attention, our money, our relationship, and our environment.
This is also why I encourage you to give. Traditionally, churchgoers have given one-tenth of their incomes to the church, also known as tithing, inspired by Jacob’s speech: “…of all that you give me [O Lord,] I will surely give one-tenth to you” (Gen 28:22). But regardless of the amount — it’s up to your liberty how much you give — this act of offering each Sunday is much more than strengthening the ministry of our church; it is our habitual reminder that whatever we have comes from God, and God gives us more than enough, so that we may enjoy and share with others.
And circling back to today’s first story, I think what Jesus is asking us to learn from the manager is the way he shared mammon to provide generosity to others. Yes, he did that with the money that wasn’t even his to begin with, but that’s the whole point. Whether it is our money, time, energy, or blessing, whatever we have is God’s gift given to us abundantly; and what it means to act shrewdly is to enjoy and share these gifts from God generously for the sake of building friendships. Thus, the act of blessing three people during our busy week is us acting shrewdly. It is our act of resistance against mammon and our faithful walk in manna.
Christchurch, NZ
This week, we are faced with news of the senseless violence all the way from Christchurch, New Zealand, yet this news still hits close to home. When you think about the 49 innocent people who lost their lives when they were just gathered at mosques to pray — you might think that what I said today is just complete gibberish. You are saying there’s enough of God’s grace for everyone to enjoy and share? What about our Muslim brothers and sisters? Where was their grace? If that’s where you are, I hear you. If you are just frustrated by your helplessness in this situation, I hear you. I feel the same way.
From my understanding, the root cause of this terrorism comes down to this: The pie is not big enough for everyone. This is our pie. And I’m not going to let you steal our pie. And the goal of this act of terror was to also make us live in that fear of not enough, paralyzing us with that same perceptual anxiety. There are not enough policies, not enough good people, not enough love, not enough God.
Mammon is an unavoidable human reality, yet manna is a reality God desires for us. This new reality is established through Christ, and we join this new reality through our habitual acts of enjoying love and sharing love; for perfect love casts out fear.
We are joined through our little acts of blessing others, however small or insignificant our acts may seem, so that we may strengthen each other to bring God’s healing and justice to our midst and especially to those who mourn and suffer.
We are joined through our shrewd acts of resisting against the culture of mammon that demands our fear — resisting the urge to believe that there is not enough pie for everyone.
So again, I encourage you to join me in fostering this new habit of blessing three people every week — at least one of whom is a member of our church and at least one of whom is not. Whether through words of affirmation, acts of kindness, or gift giving, let us surprise the world with the abundance of God’s grace. Perhaps, it may be appropriate for us to reach out this week those who are deeply affected by this senseless violence against the Muslim community — sharing our love, support, and solidarity.
Let us pray.
[1–3] Michael Frost, Surprise the World, 29.
[4–5] Samuel Wells, “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” Duke Universit Chapel, May 13 2006.
