The six-year-old came home from Palm Sunday services proudly
carrying his palm. Mom and Dad quizzed him on his Sunday School
lesson for the day. He responded enthusiastically, "Jesus came
to Jerusalem on a donkey. And the happy people waved their palm
branches and sang, O Suzanna..."(1)
Palm Sunday. Jesus says to his disciples: "I want you to go
into town and borrow me a donkey. If anyone catches you, tell
them I need it." Right.
Brings to mind Gunner Bob Reinhart, one of the boys in
Senior High Sunday School. He happened to notice the keys
dangling from the ignition of Mr. Bothwell's new Olds Rocket 88.
It was Palm Sunday afternoon, and Gunner decided to take the car
for a Holy Week spin. Mr. Bothwell noticed his car taking off
from the front of his house and ran down his driveway after it,
slippers on his feet and Sunday funnies still in hand. "Why are
you taking my car?" he cried. Gunner, apparently remembering the
lesson of the morning, yelled back, "I need it."(2)
As you know, both capitalist and communist have at sometime
claimed Jesus, but he was neither one of those. Jesus was a
"borrowist"...he borrowed everything. He borrowed boats from
which to teach or by which to cross a lake. He borrowed houses
in which to eat, teach and care for people. (Some of them did
not fare very well either - one lost its roof so a paralytic
could be lowered in to be healed.) He borrowed sons, brothers,
husbands to be disciples. He borrowed the Upper Room in which he
ate his last supper with his borrowed friends. Borrowed was the
manger in which he was laid after birth, borrowed his tomb after
the crucifixion.
We think of Jesus as a giver, not a taker. He was a giver
of health, love, truth, even the ultimate, his own life. Yet
Jesus, throughout his entire career, borrowed things. I wonder
why.
Actually I do not wonder. This was not just Jesus'
lifestyle as an itinerant rabbi. There is a lesson here. Jesus
was teaching us that all we have is borrowed from God. He
ignored all strictures against lending and borrowing, because
none of us really has any POSSESSIONS...things we have been
loaned perhaps, things with which we have been entrusted, things
over which we are called to exercise responsible stewardship...
but no POSSESSIONS. Bigger barns, Swiss bank accounts, even
gaining the whole world - those are not OURS. Life itself is
ours on loan, borrowed, so how can we claim anything we have as
our own?
The pilot of a jumbo jet with a full passenger load was
coming in for a landing when he discovered that the wheels would
not let down. He radioed the control tower and was told to
circle the airport, dump his fuel and then come in for a belly
landing. Meanwhile, the ground crew would grease the runway with
foam and have ambulances, fire engines and emergency vehicles
along the landing strip. The pilot conveyed this information to
the passengers over the intercom. The plane made the approach.
It was a white knuckle landing. As the plane squealed along the
runway, metal against concrete, the screams of those inside the
plane drowned out the sound of the screech outside. Miraculously
nobody was injured. As the passengers left the plane, a priest
said to the stewardess at the door, "Remember, the rest of your
life is extra." She, being a Christian, quickly responded, "It's
all extra, sir, from the very beginning."(3)
We find that difficult. We are taught that "You get what
you pay for...There is no free lunch." Even in Sunday School we
pick up on a subtle "Accounting Theory" of faith - you get what
you have coming to you. Indeed, Gunner Reinhart did get it when
he returned Mr. Bothwell's car on that Palm Sunday afternoon.
One does not "borrow" donkeys - or Oldsmobiles - and get away
with it. Does one?
But this tit for tat, quid pro quo, balance sheet,
Accounting Theory of faith does not square with the Jesus of
borrowed donkeys...etc. Jesus says to us things like, "Give to
him who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow
from you."(4) And "If you lend to those from whom you hope to
receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to
sinners, to receive as much again. But...lend, expecting nothing
in return..."(5) The theological word for all this is GRACE.
As youngsters we learned that GRACE is the unmerited favor
of God. But there is more to it - even you and I can and should
be sources of grace. In the context of all this borrowing, we
might say Grace is what is loaned, knowing there never will be
any repayment, knowing there never CAN be any repayment, and
knowing that it does not matter.
No doubt, you remember Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, in
which Jean Valjean served nineteen years in prison for stealing a
loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children. On his
release he is unable to find work because he is an ex-convict,
but a Christian bishop takes Valjean into his home and feeds him.
However, the ex-convict gives in to desperation and steals the
bishop's silver plates. He is arrested and brought back to the
bishop's house. The compassionate cleric claimed to have GIVEN
Valjean the silver. "And Jean," he said, "you forgot to take
your candlesticks." Grace.
Sometime back TIME magazine(6) ran a cover story called, "The
Church Search," and examined the return to religion of the Baby
Boomers who wandered away in their youth. The article said,
"Increasing numbers of baby boomers who left the fold years ago
are turning religious again, but many are traveling from church
to church or faith to faith, sampling creeds, shopping for a
custom-made God." Too bad. They do not need a better one than
the God of grace whom Jesus came to help us know. Perhaps the
Boomers would not search so much if you and I did a better job of
showing that grace.
What do we do with grace once we have received it? The late
David Steele was the pastor of Christ in Terra Linda Presbyterian
Church in San Rafael, California and a columnist for The
Presbyterian Outlook. Something he wrote sometime back bears
sharing.(7)
It was the Friday of a holiday weekend. Pastor Steele had
left the house at 6 am, driven two hours to a distant golf course
to meet old, seldom seen golf buddies. The day was perfect; the
course in wonderful shape; fellowship marvelous. His game?
Lousy! So now he is driving home trying to focus on the
positives - the weather, the course, the friends - and to forget
his awful score. Easier said than done.
Suddenly, all heaven breaks loose under his car. Strange
knocking noises, steam, the temperature gauge in the red.
Trouble. The next intersection has two big gas stations, but
they are both the kind that feature mini-marts instead of
mechanics. Help! Fortunately a small garage is in the next
block. So, at 1:30 in the afternoon, he coasts into Bridge
Automotive in Oakley, California.
A two mechanic garage. The owner looks up as Dave stops and
says, "Broke your water pump." Inspection proves he is right.
So here is David Steele at the beginning of the holiday weekend,
fifty miles from home with a broken water pump. Who cares about
golf scores? Jim, the owner of the garage, looks at the car,
shakes his head and points to the vehicles parked nearby. "Wish
I could help you, but I have these folks on my neck and we are
taking off for the mountains tomorrow at 1 o'clock. I cannot
touch your car until next Wednesday. But we will help you find a
mechanic."
The "we" turns out to be Jim's wife, Kathy, who runs the
office. She begins phoning up a storm. At last she shouts, "Joe
on the other end of town can work on it today. He is a good
mechanic."
Now to get the car to Joe's. She calls Triple-A, but they
won't pay for the tow because the car is already at a garage. A
few more calls confirms the bad news - it will cost $40 to get
the car to Joe.
Now what? Call the tow truck. But Kathy is incensed. It
is not right to pay that extra money. She gets out her book and
starts figuring the job, calling the parts place to make sure
they have a water pump on hand. She hands an estimate. If Dave
leaves the car overnight, Jim will fix it in the morning. Pick
it up Saturday at noon.
"But your husband said he can't do it."
"He will help you out," Kathy says confidently. "Besides I
am half owner of this business," she adds with a little wink.
And sure enough, after a brief confab, it is agreed.
Whew! But now what? How does Dave get home? His luck
holds out. Right next door is a stop for the Bay Area Rapid
Transit Express Bus that will get him to the Concord Station. He
can ride the subway to El Cerrito. It will be easy to get
someone to get him home from there.
Kathy checks with the store by the bus stop. A bus is due
soon. She leaves Dave with a big smile. He is so grateful.
Here he is, a stranger in a big jam. Kathy and Jim have knocked
themselves out to help.
At the bus stop there is a fellow in his forties with a back
pack. He and Dave get into conversation. He is a former wino
who has kicked the habit and now is on his way to Seattle where
an inheritance awaits him. As they talk he lights up his last
cigarette and checks his change for the bus. It is obvious he
needs more to get to San Francisco, his evening destination.
Before you know it, Dave has whipped out his wallet and peeled
off a pretty fair-sized bill which he gives enthusiastically.
Dave Steele says that is uncharacteristic of him. "I am
usually one who resists panhandlers and seldom shells out
anything more than change. Yet, here I am acting like Lord
Bountiful." Hmmm.
As the preacher and the traveler exchange stories, Dave
becomes aware that he is in this generous mood because HE has
been helped. Now, here is someone HE can assist. He wants to do
it. Grace cannot be paid back, but it is meant to be passed on.
David writes, "As I am thinking about this the bus appears
in the distance. My companion looks at me and says, "Fellow, I
don't know your name, and it really doesn't matter. But I want
you to know that some day that bill will be in my wallet and I
will run into someone who needs it. I'll pass it on." Good for
him.
At the end of his story David Steele asks, "What does one do
with grace?" And then he answers, "Recycle it, of course." Let
someone else have it..."Give to him who begs from you and do not
refuse the one who would borrow from you...lend, expecting
nothing in return..." Grace. Go borrow me a donkey...O
Suzanna...
Amen!
1. Pastors Professional Research Service, March/April 1993
2. John Robert McFarland, "A Borrower and a Lender Be," The Christian Century, 3/21-28/90, pp. 295-296
3. Pastors Professional Research Service, 7-9/89
4. Matthew 5:42
5. Luke 6:34-35A
6. 4/5/93, p. 45
7. David Steele, "Amazing Grace," The Presbyterian Outlook, 10/28/91, p. 14
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