TAKERS AND GIVERS

Homily for August 7^th, 2015: Matthew 16:24-28.

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,” Jesus says. “But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” What is Jesus trying to tell us? He is speaking about two kinds of people: the takers and the givers. Takers are the people engaged in what is called “the pursuit of happiness.” Some takers seek happiness through pleasure; others through amassing financial or material possessions. Others seek happiness by trying to gain positions of power; others still by seeking honor and fame.

All of those things – pleasure, possessions, power, and honor -- are good in themselves. They become harmful for us only when we make them central in our lives. That is what the takers do. They think that if only they can get enough of one or more of these four things, they will be happy. Always and inevitably they end up frustrated. Why? Because they can never get enough. As a man of great wealth said: “Anyone who thinks he will be happy if he has a lot of money, has never had a lot of money.” The takers, then, are those who lose their lives – through frustration at never having enough. The happiness they seek always and inevitably eludes them.

Who are those who, in losing their lives for Jesus Christ, find happiness and thus save their lives? These are the givers. They put the Lord God at the center of their lives. Remembering Jesus’ words in the parable of the sheep and the goats in the 25^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, “Anything you do for one of these little ones, you do for me,” their goal in life is to serve. In doing so they discover that Jesus words are true: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35). That is the only saying of Jesus preserved for us outside the four gospels. Paul quotes it as something already well known in the Christian community.  

So which are you? Are you a taker, or a giver? If you’re a taker, I can promise you one thing: you will always be unhappy and frustrated, because you’ll never get enough. You will always be wanting more and more and more. It is the givers who find true happiness: the happiness Jesus is talking about when he says: “Give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over will they pour into the fold of your garment. For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).