What's Mine is Yours

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29 NIV)

Just a little bit of politics today...

In Pastor Chad's sermon yesterday, he pointed out that we can react to what we have or don't have in different ways:

• What's yours is mine and I'm going to take it
• What's mine is mine and I'm going to keep it

It's clear to see that the first way is wrong.  But according to Jesus' teaching, the second way is also wrong.  Only society encourages us to believe that it is right.  But both are based on greed and selfishness.  Jesus tells us to look at it a different way:

• What's mine is yours and I am blessed to be able to give it.

The problem politically is that, like any morality, we cannot legislate it.  We can legislate the first one by making laws against stealing and defrauding the system.  We can legislate the second by creating higher taxes and making laws against tax evasion.  But we can't make laws to make people feel the joy of giving freely.  It is a change that has to come from the inside.

This country's two-party system has become split so widely over the last decade or two.  Each party is so sure the other party is pure evil.  But guess what.  I feel sure that the Republicans don't hate poor people and  I am also sure that democrats don't want to take away anyone's freedoms.  We are all just trying to come up with solutions to today's problems from different angles.

So how do we do it Jesus' way?  We can't legislate it.  Higher taxes will just make people angry and taking away food stamps will just make the poor poorer.  The change has to come from the inside.  And it has to start with each one of us.  We each need to find the ministry we are passionate about and work at it passionately.

Maybe we won't save the whole country.  But like the little boy throwing starfish back into the sea, we can make a difference in our little sphere of influence.  And maybe one day, our own actions will even influence society enough that it can say that the right way to look at what we have is, "What's mine is yours and I am blessed to be able to give it."

Change our hearts, O God.  May we be more like you.  Amen.