Why bother to play fair?

ON PLAYING FAIR

Mt. 9:36-10:8

It is a warm summer day.  A mother and three-year-old son are sitting under the shade of a tree.  For an afternoon snack, she gives her boy a glass of lemonade and two biscuits.  He is enjoying this when a child from next door walks upon the scene.  Being about the same age, he stands there hungrily eying the snack.  A dilemma presents itself.  The mother has more lemonade but no more biscuits.  The only solution is for them to share.  She says to her son, "Bobby, would you like to give Tommy one of your biscuits?"  Whereupon, Bobby clutches both biscuits tightly to his bosom and emphatically says, "No, they’re mine."  The mother presses a little harder.  Then Bobby begins to cry, repeating the same words, "No, they’re mine."  It is obvious that no sharing is going to take place, unless the mother forces the issue.

That is a typical scene and a typical problem with little children.  It is not easy for them to learn how to share.  In today's Gospel reading, Jesus said to His Apostles, "You received without charge, give without charge."  He had just endowed them with the power to cast out demons and to heal the sick.  They were to exercise those gifts without any thought of personal gain.  In other words, they were not to charge for their services.  To Jesus, it seemed to be a simple matter of fair play.  This power had been given to them free of charge.  They were to use it the same way. 

We can see the good sense of that for the Apostles.  It would have been shameful of those men to go out and profiteer on what Jesus had just given them.  We can also see the good sense of it with the little boy and his biscuits.  He did not bake them or buy them.  They were given to him.  It only seems fair for him to give one of them to his little friend who had none.  Unless he learns to do that, he will always be a little boy, living in a very small world.  We can see this about others, but the test comes in applying that same logic to ourselves.

Let us start by identifying those things to which we can claim ownership.  We have worked for them.  We have earned them.  They are all ours.  Money might belong in this category.  Most of us get up every morning and work hard all day long.  At the end of the week, we collect our wage.  It is not a gift.  We have bought it with a large chunk of our time and no small amount of toil and sweat.  We have every right to claim it as our own.  I would not dispute that for a single moment.  I am sure you deserve every penny you are paid and probably more.

Use that money to make your life better.  Provide yourself with a comfortable place to live.  Drive as nice a car as you can afford.  Eat good food.  Wear nice clothes.  The money that makes these things possible is yours.  You have earned it.  You have a legal right and, to some extent, a moral right to the claim of ownership.  Some things belong to us because we have paid the price for them. 

But then we come to that other category - the things that have been given to us.  We did not work for them.  We did not earn them.  They came to us as a matter of grace.  For example, most of us have been loved from the day that we were born.  Babies do not earn that.  They are incapable of earning anything.  All that they need is given to them simply because they need it.  You and I were treated that way as infants.  Later on, as incorrigible teenagers, we were loved when we were not very lovable.  In a strict sense, we did not deserve love, but we desperately needed it and to most of us, it was freely given.

Jesus said, "You received without charge, give without charge."  He was appealing to our sense of fair play.  If you have ever been loved when you did not deserve it, then love someone who does not deserve it.  It is a simple matter of fair play.

On this point, we need to revisit the issue of money.  It is true that you and I have a rightful claim to the money that we have earned, but that does not mean we have an absolute right to every penny.  There is another aspect to the matter.  Hard work is not the whole story.  Allow me to use myself as an example.  I earn my living as a priest.  In order to hold this position, I had to go to school and study.  I did not earn the physical and mental ability to pursue that course of study.  Those were given to me.  They were sheer grace.  I did not build the school in which I studied.  That was provided for me.  It was sheer grace.  I think I have the right to say that I earn my livelihood, but it would be blind arrogance for me to clutch it to my bosom and say, "Mine, all mine."  That is not true for me or for you, any more than it was for the little boy with the biscuits.

In large measure, our material possessions have to be recorded on the grace side of the ledger.  They were given to us.  Sure, we worked hard for them, but the ability to work hard was given to us.  Some people do not have that.  They would give anything just to be able to get up and go to work for one day.  You and I do that every day.  It is a priceless gift.

Lord Jesus, You said, "You received without charge, give without charge."  Help us to be generous and share all that we have received.  Why?  Because it is a simple matter of fair play.

MY WEBSITE URL IS HERE