According to Ed, my neighbour next door, "Staying in motels while travelling is too costly." The only way Ed would have driven to Ottawa like we did recently would have been by sleeping in his car at night in Walmart parking lots. He would have taken cans of pork and beans for food and advertised for passengers willing to pay toward gas for a ride east. I asked Ruby, Ed's wife, if he was serious about travelling in such a cost-saving way. She said, "You bet!"
Ruby says that Ed is obsessed with what anything will cost him. According to him, most everything is too expensive and not worth his hard-earned money. Ruby summed it up by saying, "It isn't just the church that wants his money - he is convinced everyone does, even me, his wife!"
"I guess that is why Ed has assured me often that, alive or dead, no church will ever get his money," I said to Ruby.
"Ed wants a coffin with a compartment at the bottom to hold his money. He's determined to prove he can take his money with him," Ruby said seriously.
Since Ruby was getting worked up, I tried changing the subject. I mentioned how I'm getting lots of great strawberries this year. Of course, Ed has been watching my strawberry picking with concern. He asked Ruby why I would pick some berries and throw some on the ground. Ruby told me that she kind of choked on it herself - thought it was a bit crazy.
"I pick off the strawberries that haven't formed well, that are small and shrivelled with knobby ends, and throw them out for the birds. The robins raid my row of strawberries so much; I have to cover it with netting. Since they can't eat freely of the strawberries, I share the deformed ones with them," I told Ruby. She wasn't sure if I was being generous or wasteful and wasn't impressed with either possibility.
Like Ruby, most people aren't comfortable with what seems like foolish waste or questionable generosity. In the Bible, we are told how Judas Iscariot objected when Mary poured expensive perfume on Jesus. Judas claimed the money from the sale of the perfume could have been better spent on the poor. Judas didn't care about Jesus' approaching death. He didn't care about the poor because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put in it.
Many religious leaders were offended by the recklessness of Jesus. His loving acceptance was offered generously to all. Jesus welcomed and ate with tax collectors and sinners. He healed the crippled and the blind on the Sabbath when his critics said he could have waited to heal on any day but the Sabbath.
It is said, we are very generous with what costs us nothing. If it costs us something, we tend not to waste it or be recklessly generous with it. Jesus lived among us to show us God's reckless love for all. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners - everyone. We are all sinners. He generously lived and died for all so that our sins would not be counted against us.
Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." How much did it cost Jesus to die for us? Everything! Was it wasteful or generous?
