God's Gift Economy--May 23, 2025

God's Gift Economy--May 23, 2025

"Then [the One who was seated on the throne] said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life'." (Revelation 21:6)

Not long ago, I saw a meme on social media that boldly asserted, "Everything that's free is paid for by someone who works," without any other context.  I've seen that same slogan before plenty of time, and I'll bet you have, too.  It's the sort of sentiment you see when people are advocating to have this or that government program ended, and it's also the same kind of thing parents often find themselves thinking when their children seem oblivious to where the money comes from that pays for their snacks, or clothes, or technology.  And sure, at some level, it's worth remembering that the things my children think of as "free" come because the adults in the family are working and earning money, just like it's worth remembering that the programs in our communities, from libraries to schools to Metroparks to roads to disaster relief to food assistance for the hungry, all gets paid for from the taxes taken out of our paychecks.  Fair point.

But it is also worth remembering that God seems to have no problem at all with giving away the things of life for free, and God doesn't seem to make a fuss over who pays or who worked for it.  God's ordering of the world has always been more of a gift economy than a ruthlessly competitive meat market, and God isn't ashamed to say it.  In fact, to hear the book of Revelation tell it, in these words many of us heard in worship this past Sunday, at the end of everything, God is only interested in giving away free gifts without charge, and without questions of who has "earned" it.  The only condition for receiving the water of life is to be thirsty.

Now, I know that the way God operates is always going to be different from the limitations of the present-day world and our various economies and governments.  I know that God, who is limitless and infinite, does not have to worry about how to pay for keeping the sun shining or keeping the rain cycle going.  And I know, too, that all human conversations about goods and services will inevitably have to deal with the unforgiving rules of math, where you have to stay within budgets and live within your means.  So there will always be limits to how much good any of us can do with our resources, whether we are talking about how I spend my personal paycheck, how a family balances income and grocery costs, how a church uses the offerings it receives, or how a country guards the common good of its people.  All of these are valid concerns.

But it is worth noting that those concerns are only one part of the conversation if we are shaped by the vision of the book of Revelation, or the Bible more broadly.  If we take these words from Scripture seriously, we cannot ignore that God ultimately runs the universe on the basis of grace--of generous giving beyond what is earned, achieved, or paid for--and that God does not seem to worry about what all those free handouts of good things will do to us.  God apparently is only interested in running the world as an unending cascade of giving that ripples out in widening generosity and mutual reciprocity, where each cares for the neighbor, and each is cared for in turn by the neighbor... because God is the source of all of it in the first place.  

After all, in this scene from Revelation 21, we have finally arrived at the point in the story where all the things that have resisted God's will are finally vanquished--even death itself, as we heard earlier this week.  So this verse is offered as a glimpse of what the world looks like when God really and truly gets what God wants--without any rebellious schemes, stubborn sinfulness, crooked institutions, or evil tyrants corrupting God's designs. And in this passage, God does not set the new creation up as a meritocracy where only the supposedly "worthy" get access to the necessary things of life, but rather as an unapologetic economy of grace, where the essentials of life are given "as a gift" simply on the basis of our need and our empty hands.  If God were only doling out good things to those who had "earned" them, we'd all die of hunger and thirst. Instead, God has decided to give the water of life to those whose only qualification is thirst for it.

I suppose, like our older brother in the faith Martin Luther famously wrote in his last hours, "We are beggars. This is true."  All of us in the end will find our hands filled with good things, not because we have earned them or worked for them or impressed God with our awesomeness, but because God is good and generous.  God does not see an economy of grace as a failure or a flaw in the great divine design--it is precisely how God intends for the new creation to work.

Now, like I say, I know that the nature of the present arrangement of things is different from God's promised future.  I know that when I go to the grocery story to get the food for tomorrow's dinner, it will require paying with money that came from work I have done.  And as a pastor, I know that the money that went into my paycheck was first made possible by the gifts of other people who gave it for the sake of God's work in this place.  I know that our city, state, and nation all have to balance budget priorities, too, and that invariably, someone will feel that their priorities have been shortchanged while other items get more funding.  That is the messy sausage-making of any kind of administration or government, from a congregational council to a city planner to a national budget.  But let us be done once and for all with any kind of nonsense that suggests God runs the universe on the basis of earning and merit, when the Bible insists from "In the beginning..." to Revelation's new creation scene that God is only giving away gifts on the basis of our need and God's mercy, without any pretense of meritocracy.  The new creation for which we are waiting, and which has begun in the resurrection of Jesus, is wholly an economy of grace.

When we take that seriously, it will change the way we see the world even now.  It might help us to see ourselves as empty-handed beggars like Luther saw. And it might help us to see the beauty of a world in which all have enough to feed their families, simply because God intends for everybody to get to eat. That might make us rethink how we want our resources spent now in the meantime, too.

O God of new creation, we are beggars for sure, and we depend on your grace. Enable us to extend grace and generosity to others around us, whom you love and provide for just as you do for us.