“Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food.” I have always appreciated this quote from the Rev. D. T. Niles, a minister from the island nation of Sri Lanka. Today I ran across it in its original context and was even more impressed. The full quote goes like this: “Evangelism is witness. It is one beggar telling another beggar where to get food. The Christian does not offer out of his bounty. He has no bounty. We are all simply guests at the Master’s table and, as evangelists, we call others to dinner.”
“The Christian does not offer out of his bounty. He has no bounty.” We in America might say, “Christians do not offer to others out of their personal wealth. We have no personal wealth.”
What Niles means is simply this; all we have to offer to others is what God has already given to us. Generosity of spirit begins with remembering that all that we are and all that we have has come to us from the graciousness of God. Not simply, or even primarily, our material things; but more importantly the love and forgiveness we as Christians have experienced from God in the church. This sense of receiving from God’s grace goes out from our emotional and moral center as we realize that who we are; our physical and emotional and intellectual giftedness, comes directly from God’s hand. Our ability to work and earn a living, our enjoyment of the arts and sports and community life; the love we give and receive within the life of the church; all these things are gifts from God’s hands. They are pleasures to be received at the Master’s table.
At some point all of us begin to ask ourselves a variation the Kris Kristofferson song, “Why me, Lord?” “Why do I have plenty while others suffer?” And the answer comes to us as it has come to many Christians down through the ages, “You have what you have, you know what you know, you can do what you can do – not for yourself but for others. You have been blessed not for privilege; but for purpose.”
True generosity flows out of the awareness that all that we are, and all that we have, has come to us from God’s gracious hand, and that it came to us so that we could pass it on to others. We are invited to use it where it is needed most to serve God’s people best.
We are all beggars, and as beggars we are called by God to invite everyone to the Lord’s bountiful table.
Peace, Delmer