A cartoon on my bulletin board shows two well-dressed corporate types walking past a discouraged-looking beggar holding an up-turned hat out to them. It is clear that they have not put any money into the hat. One of the passers-by says to the other: "Here I was, all this time, worrying that maybe I'm a selfish person, and now it turns out I've been suffering from compassion fatigue."

Maybe the beggar could have found work if he had really tried. Maybe he was suffering from mental illness or alcoholism and should have been institutionalized. Maybe he was prone to violence. Maybe he was a deadbeat dad. All of these things are good reasons not to give him money and not to risk "compassion fatigue." But how many times do we dress up our own selfishness in respectable jargon to keep us from having to part with our money? And how does God feel about that?

Whenever I look at this cartoon, I worry more about the two men passing by than I do about the beggar. The caption would work just as well under a picture of the two well-dressed religious types who hurried past the gravely wounded man between Jerusalem and Jericho, just before the Good Samaritan came along. Whether those two men were suffering from compassion fatigue, haste, or selfishness, they missed an opportunity to do God's work in the world because they were so busy keeping to their schedule and keeping their money in their own pockets.

Our new vision statement calls us to "Giving Extravagantly" as one way to embrace our baptismal call. And I think that there are two reasons why we should consider giving in ways that the dictionary calls: immoderate, wasteful, spendthrift, unreasonable, unrestrained, prodigal, outrageous and absurd.

The second most important reason is that we are people of great abundance, and we can afford to give extravagantly. Thousands of children still die each day from hunger in this world. How can we continue to deny an abundance that makes dieting a higher priority for us than searching for food? Our giving to ELCA World Hunger should be unrestrained -- we could easily double what we give and still have plenty of resources for ourselves. We could give extravagantly to the Camp Calumet and LSS appeals and still have more than enough money left over to eat out occasionally. Can we justify to God the reasons that we have for "conservative" giving?

But the most important reason of all to give extravagantly is because we must give that way if we want to participate in the extravagant love of God, the giver of Jesus Christ. As we grow in our giving, from small giving that costs us nothing, into extravagant giving, we grow in our faith. We are only bystanders unless we love and give extravagantly.

Jesus said: For where your treasure is,there your heart will be also. (Luke 12:34)

When our giving to people and needs outside of ourselves and our families is small, our faith cannot stretch and grow. When we grow in generosity, we will discover that we will be more joyful and we will walk more closely with God. Our hearts linger near our treasure. We need to remember that as we decide how to use the material wealth that God has given to us.

God's Abundance: Live It!

Bishop Margaret G. Payne +