Empty Your Pockets – by Greg Albrecht
Friend and Partner Letter for November 2024:
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996) was a beloved American writer. Her humor, in newspaper columns and 15 books, was flavored with inspiration and wisdom. She concluded a newspaper column published on March 10, 1987 with these insights (my emphasis in bold):
“I always had a dream that when I am asked to give an accounting of my life to a higher court, it will go like this: ‘So, empty your pockets. What have you got left of your life? Any dreams that were unfulfilled? Any unused talent that we gave you when you were born that you still have left? Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven’t spread around?’”
“And I will answer, ‘I’ve nothing to return. I spent everything you gave me. I’m as naked as the day I was born.’”
This season of Thanksgiving (a specific day in November in these United States while for Canadians it’s a day in October) is a beautiful time of the year, a prelude to Christmas with all of its wonderful themes and lessons, filled with gratitude that produces generosity.
We are thankful for all those in our lives who emptied their pockets for us. We think of the self-sacrificial love parents extended to us. We remember those who opened doors for us, stood up, by and for us, who mentored and taught us and upon whose shoulders we now stand. The list of others who have given of themselves for us is a long one for each of us – we do well to follow the advice of that old Christian hymn: Count Your Blessings.
Counting our physical blessings and giving thanks for other humans who have emptied their pockets for our benefit is only the first step for Christ-followers. The all-important second step involves deeper and more transcendent spiritual gratitude, for truly, most importantly, we thank Jesus who emptied his pockets for us:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
The context for this remarkable verse about the self-giving and self-impoverishment of Jesus on the behalf of all humanity is the always delicate topic of physical giving. History tells us that the Christ-followers who lived in the city of Jerusalem following the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, up until the city was destroyed and razed to the ground by the Romans in 69-70, endured extreme poverty.
Christians in Jerusalem, the mother-city of Christianity, were a minority who no doubt experienced much hostility from family and friends who were racial Jews, as the Christian Jews were, but remained Jewish in their faith and religious practices. Jewish Christians in Jerusalem during this time were no doubt ostracized and excluded from economic opportunities, even after they themselves, as recorded in the book of Acts, had given much to others in the early days of the Christian faith. Paul appealed to the Corinthians to give because of Jesus Christ who had given so much to them.
Paul carefully broaches this need of the primarily Jewish Christians in Jerusalem to the primarily Gentile Christians in Corinth in both of his letters to them. What Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is a new covenant philosophy of giving, giving which relies on the generosity and grace of the giver, not upon the requirements of the old covenant mandating a strict ten percent. He explains that Christ-centered generosity flows out of thanksgiving and gratitude.
In the following powerful, inspiring and illuminating passage about physical separations and divisions caused by race and culture Paul shared with Christ-followers in Ephesus, I have enumerated seven ways in which Jesus emptied his pockets for us:
For1) he himself is our peace, who 2) has made the two groups one and 3) has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by 4) setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, 5) thus making peace, and in one body 6) to reconcile both of them to God through the cross,7) by which he put to death their hostility (Ephesians 2:14-16, my emphasis).
Notice the emphasis – for those who embrace the grace of God and follow Jesus, he has destroyed hostility and made peace. Here are seven encapsulated reasons why we Christ-followers are thankful, seven fruits of peace and love Jesus produced by emptying his pockets for us, giving us his all, his very life, on his Cross.
In the parable of the talents – also called minas in more modern translations (Matthew 25:14-30) and in the parable of the pounds (Luke 19:11-27), Jesus presents the gospel as a God-given gift, and we, the recipients, are charged to use the gift(s) we have been given. As we empty our pockets, pay forward the grace of God, and give our lives away, we are loving as God loves us – loving others without any guarantee of return. Giving without any expectation of an in-kind return.
I am reminded of a pastor who made an impassioned plea to his congregation to empty their pockets. “Will you please, at the very least, as we pass my hat through the congregation, empty your pockets of your loose change to help us pay for the many expenses we have?” When the deacon returned with the offering, the pastor looked into the hat and saw three nickels and six pennies. The pastor paused, and the said, “Thanks to the few of you who have given just a little bit of your loose change, and to all of you, thanks for at least returning my hat!”
How and when we give, we may give thanks we are able to give, and that Christ Jesus lives his life of generosity within us, even as Paul told the Corinthians: Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).
Most of all, we empty our own pockets because that is the Jesus Way. Generosity is the life of Christ in us – and all of our giving is framed by the greatest gift of all, Jesus, who emptied his own pockets for us: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich
(2 Corinthians 8:9).
What We Cannot Live Without
There was a country boy who grew up far from town. After his marriage he finally visited town with his bride. In an old country-store he saw a stalk of bananas in the country store. The clerk noticed his fascination, and hoping to make a sale, asked: “Do you want to try one? I’m sure you will like it.”
The young man, who some would dismiss as a “country bumpkin” responded with wisdom beyond his years, “No, I reckon not. I’ve got so many tastes now that I can’t satisfy them, and I ain’t aimin’ to take up any more.”
As Garrison Keillor said in “Lake Wobegon Days”: “Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted, but getting what you have, which, once you have it, you may be smart enough to see, is what you would have wanted, had you known.”
I remember the story of an Amish man who momentarily stopped plowing his field to watch a new non-Amish neighbor move in to the new housing development that bordered his property. The Amish man watched as a huge refrigerator was unloaded, then a mammoth big screen television, dozens of “labor saving appliances” and finally a whirlpool hot tub.
The next day the Amish man and his wife brought homemade muffins and jam to their new neighbors. After they exchanged pleasantries, the Amish man and his wife dismissed themselves, saying, “If anything should go wrong with all your appliances and equipment, don’t hesitate to call me.”
The new resident said. “Wow! That’s very generous of you. I had no idea you were able to fix so many of these newer appliances and electronic devices.” The new neighbor, the Amish man responded: “I have no idea about how to repair your material possessions. But when they stop working, I can tell you how to live without them.”
In Christ, because of him, by and through him, we are most privileged and blessed spiritually, for Jesus indeed has emptied himself for us. He has emptied far more than his pockets, but all of himself, on his Cross. He poured himself out for us.
We cannot live without Jesus – indeed, as he tells us, without him we are nothing (John 15:5). Thus, we recall the simple question Paul posed in 1 Corinthians 4:7, What do you have that you did not receive?
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Thankful for Him, In His Precious Name,
Greg Albrecht
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