Being Kind

7 The relatives of the poor despise them; how much more will their friends avoid them! Though the poor plead with them, their friends are gone.
8 To acquire wisdom is to love yourself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.
9 A false witness will not go unpunished, and a liar will be destroyed.
10 It isn’t right for a fool to live in luxury or for a slave to rule over princes!
11 Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs.
12 The king’s anger is like a lion’s roar, but his favor is like dew on the grass.
13 A foolish child is a calamity to a father; a quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping.
14 Fathers can give their sons an inheritance of houses and wealth, but only the Lord can give an understanding wife.
15 Lazy people sleep soundly, but idleness leaves them hungry. despising them leads to death.
17 If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord— and he will repay you!

This proverb is quite a statement. Does God stand at the bank counter, filling out loan applications? Perhaps more literally than we might think.

The vast majority of the world’s people in ancient times earned their living through agriculture. And as any farmer knows, farming is risky. Crops fail because of drought or flood or insect infestation. Cattle die from disease or predators. In the ancient world, these hazards were not alleviated by insurance, fertilizers, or medicine. So lending to a poor farmer was always a risk. You might well not get your money back. Lots of things could happen before the anticipated harvest. To lend to the poor wasn’t necessarily shrewd, but it was definitely kind.

When God came as the incarnate Christ, he identified with the poor, not the rich. The Son of Man, he once said, has no place to lay his head. He and his disciples relied on others for their daily bread. Kindness to Jesus was literally “lending to the Lord.”

Today we are invited to treat the poor as we would treat Jesus. Lending to the poor, with no certainty of return, is a way of making an offering to God.

Do you give or lend to people in need, knowing that you may not get a return? If so, it’s as if you are lending to God.

Lord, help us not to calculate returns. The needs of others are a call to help and serve. When we do so, we give to you. Help us to be generous givers. Amen.