"There Should be No Poor Among You"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

July 2nd 2006
The Church of the Good Shepherd

Deuteronomy 15

How many people here owe money to someone? How many people here are owed money? I hate being in debt. I grew up with plenty of money. My dad is a lawyer and he did pretty well so up to a certain age, I never knew what it was like to worry about it, nor did I learn how to manage it. When I left for college my dad decided that it was time for me to learn. So he cut me off, or at least cut back. He helped me but not nearly as much as I thought I needed to sustain the life-style to which I'd become accustomed. One day I checked my campus mailbox and found a letter from a credit card company. I was kind of lonely my first year so anything in my mailbox addressed to me was worth opening. Inside was a pre-approved credit card with a 2000 dollar limit. Just call and they'd activate it for free. I rushed back to my dorm and made the call. Five minutes later, I was in business. Two months later, I was 2000 dollars in debt.

That's okay, the credit card company told me, just send in the minimum payment every month and you'll be fine. So I did. Soon, because I was so faithful sending in my minimum payment, the good people at the credit card company decided that I deserved to have more credit. By the time I graduated I was over 5000 dollars in credit card debt. By the time I went to seminary, about 4 years later, only using my card sparingly, the debt climbed to 10,000. I managed to keep it hovering around 10,000 dollars until my graduation 4 years ago. We were in a terrible hole. We thought we‘d be in debt for a good ten years.. But just last year, out of nowhere, we received some very unexpected financial help, enough help to pay it off. If you've ever had a huge debt just wiped away you know the feeling. It's like being reborn.

  If you'd lived in ancient Israel, you'd have had that feeling every 7 years. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 15:1, “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite or brother, because the Lord's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.”

  What would your life be like right now if every debt you owed and every debt you were owed was cancelled? I imagine some would be worse off because you've lent a lot. Some would be better off, because you owe a lot, but overall, I think we'd probably all be okay. None of us would be utterly broke. And that was the point of the command. Look at verse 4, “there should be no poor among you.” Now later on in verse 11, God says there will always be poor among you and so this sounds like a contradiction but its not.

  Verse 4 describes what Israel should be like. Verse 11 describes what Israel really is like. In other words, no believer, no Israelite should be poor, but because this world is fallen and human beings are greedy on the one hand and lazy on the other, there will always be poor among you, so to make the real situation more like the ideal situation, God said, cancel your debts every 7 years.

  But this is where we hit a dilemma isn't it. Put yourself in Israelite shoes and imagine the objections you might have. On the one hand, there is a real concern that canceling debts, essentially giving away money, could actually do harm by encouraging laziness, enabling indolence, sloth. How many here know someone in a lot of debt who just needs to get a job? But sometimes you can use someone else's laziness as an excuse to be greedy. You can rationalize not helping someone who needs help by saying to yourself, well he just needs to get a job and until he does I'm not giving him a red cent.

 On the other hand, there is a definitive and direct call for believers who have means and resources to share those means and resources generously. You see this call throughout the scriptures. So if you don't have a lot of money and you see a brother or sister driving a nice car and wearing good clothes or, worse, demanding that you get a job, you might think to yourself, that guy is supposed to be using his money to help me out. And sometimes you might use the righteous commands of God to the wealthy as an excuse to live off other people's money forgetting what God says through Paul in 2 nd Thessalonians 3:10 “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

  So there is this dual temptation. On the one hand, greed, I'm not canceling debt this man's for his “own good.” And on the other hand “sloth” condemning the rich for their “greed” but doing nothing to help yourself.

  But God says, “there should be no poor among you.” The person who has money must share it. But the person who has no money must put forth all of his effort to earn it. There should be no indolence nor should there be any greed in the kingdom of God.

Just to make all of that clear God said every seven years set your accounts to zero. This affected the working poor as well as the rich. If a rich man owed you back wages when the 7 year cycle came around, you had to cancel it. God wanted every slate to be clean. But there was more behind this command than meets the eye.

  Let's read on in verse 4: “for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if you only obey the Lord and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.”

  When it comes to money, God wants you to trust him enough to obey. If you cling to your money like you'll never have enough, well guess what? You'll never have enough. But if you recognize that you are the son or daughter of the God who owns everything and use your money as he commands, giving him ten percent back each time you are paid. Sharing generously with whoever is in need, then you will always have enough. That is a promise. You take the blessings God has given you and pour them back into the world and at the end of the day, you'll always have enough. Don't misunderstand. The bible does not say “give to get.” If you give God ten bucks he'll give you 100. It does say if you trust God with everything you have, he'll take care of your needs.

  The seven year cycle, on top of dealing with greed and sloth was intended to teach people to let go of their money and trust God. But even then people got greedy. Some lent money five out of seven years. But when year six rolled around, they wouldn't lend anything. Why? The debt would be cancelled in a year. People's lending was conditioned on repayment. God was not pleased. “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard hearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. Be careful not to harbor this evil thought, “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts is near” so that you do not show ill will toward your brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the Lord against you and you will be found guilty of sin.”

Now, there might be some here breathing a sigh of relief and thinking, “Well, thank goodness that was the Old Testament. I'm a Christian. I live in the New Covenant. This stuff doesn't apply to me anymore.” Well you're right. This law was fulfilled and believers are no longer are obliged to cancel debts in the 7 th year.

In fact, Jesus has given us a new command. Let me read it: “And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you. Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked .”

The Old Covenant says that every 7 years you cancel debts owed to you by fellow Israelites. Jesus says always be willing to cancel the debts owed you by everyone, even your enemies. It's okay to lend and expect to be paid back, but always be willing not to be paid back. Why? How much do you owe God? Not only do we owe him life and breath, but each of us owes him absolute perfect obedience. How many have paid back God what you owe him? God himself has paid your full debt on the cross. He paid it all off in blood. Since our enormous debt has been forgiven who are we to demand what we are owed by others? We give freely because we have received freely.

There should be no poor among us. No one here in this church especially should ever have to worry about getting enough food, having clothes or being provided with shelter. That is your responsibility as a believer, that is our responsibility as a church. There should be no poor among us. At the same time, no believer should ever presume to suck off the community. If you're being helped, and you have the ability to work, you better be working. Again, Paul says, you don't work you don't eat.

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