The Musings 33
Read: Malachi 3: 6-18
Last week CNN
released the list of top five people who were the biggest charitable donors in
the United States. People who gave a part of their income to different
charitable projects. Second on the list of the biggest charitable donors were
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. According to the
figures released by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Zuckerberg and his wife gave
about half a billion dollars [ $498.8 million] to the Silicon Valley
Foundation. It was in 2010 that Zuckerberg began donating his earning to
charity, when he pledged $100 million for the pubic schools in Newark, New
Jersey. Silicon Foundation is has different causes that it works for in
the city of San Francisco. The causes ranges from providing food and shelter to
the needy, teaching immigrants different languages and so on. Third on the list
was hedge fund creator John Arnold and his wife Laura. Paul Allen the co
founder of Microsoft is next on the list. His contributions which totalled
almost $309 million was mostly given to the Allen Institute of Brain
Science. This institute is committed in doing research on how human brain works
particularly in regards to health and disease The Google co founder
Sergey Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki are next on the list with charitable
giving totalling $223 million. Their charitable giving was mainly to Brin
Wojcicki foundation, a foundation that donates to causes like eradication of
poverty, and for woman and environmental issues. But then who was the top
donor. That place is still ruled by Warren Buffet. Warren Buffet has always
been on the top of the most generous donor in United States. Here are people
who have made a mark on their professional field and at the same time having no
second thoughts on donating their earning on charity. One of the toughest
things people find hard to do in life is to give. The dictum that we all have
learnt in life is how to get more and more. What are the ways by which we can
multiply our earning, how can we make a fast buck. Thus you have people
fighting even petty things. The thought is that I don't have enough and hence I
cant give. Sometimes you find is so disheartening to find announcements during
worship service either by the clergy or the secretary of the parish often
making announcements and pleading with the members to give not liberally at
least in a frugal way so that the parish could run. On one side you have people
who earn more and more giving more and more and earning still more, while on
the other side people who still grumble about giving and continue to live life
with all sorts of complaints and the thoughts that they don't have enough. One
of the values that the Word of God teaches us when we don't give we are
actually robbing God. The Word of God teaches us that it is when you give
that God truly blesses you, blessing us by helping you to understand the
true meaning of life. It is when you give that you understand that a child of
God does not lack anything in God's scheme of things.
It is in the book of Malachi that we find the concept of giving and the concept
of about the teaching about robbing God. The sins that the prophet condemned is
twofold. One is their thinking and the other is the life style that they led.
The thinking that ruled the minds of the people is that since God does not
bless them it is no use serving the Lord [ Mal 3:13-15]. This sort of thinking
makes people to not to give tithes nor offering to God. Along with the guilt of
not giving generously according to the laws of God [Deuteronomy 14:22-29,
Numbers 18:21], they are also guilty of a lifestyle that consisted of legalism,
disobedience and unbelief. It is in such a context that Malachi warns people
particularly the priest that what they were doing was sin as their worship and
action in their life was in total contrast. Hence, Malachi calls people to life
style of worship, where worship involves a life style of people ready to
give generously without thinking about the blessing that God will give but on
the contrary giving as an example of their commitment and faith to the Lord. As
we celebrate Lent, one of the practices that the Marthoma Church endorsed
during the lent season is to set apart the income that would have been used for
our daily dietary needs and offer it as a special offering during the Good
Friday services. This was a very noble action taught by the forefathers of our
Church who wanted to combine our devotion and piety to the Lord in concrete
actions of giving to the Lord. Worship and action went together. Fasting does
not mean that we save for ourselves for the future, on the contrary we fast so
that we not only participate in some form with the suffering of the Lord but
also try to participate in the suffering our brothers and sisters who are less
fortunate than us. Billionaires like Buffet and Zuckerberg are ready to give to
charity. Let us not compare as to what they gave, but let us have an attitude
that as Christian our commitment to the Lord, and the Lenten prayers and
fasting has meaning only when it is transmitted in some forms of concrete
actions like tithing or giving, otherwise we are fooling God with our so called
rituals like fasting and prayer and we are guilty as Malachi said "The sin
of robbing God". Let us think in this lent whether we give or whether we
rob God?
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla