Bev Franco Essay - San Francisco Theological Seminary

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useless treasures. The faithful disciples, therefore, will share in what God provides, and that means they will partly use it and partly pass it on to others.” 35 Our excess goods are not to be stored up and hoarded. They are to be given away. “One is to accept God’s generosity in the spirit of human generosity, and in turn it will generate more generosity; this increase in generosity will not only assure survival in the present circumstances but it will also amount to ‘treasures in heaven.’” 36 As an illustration, my church supports Heifer International, a charity group that provides young female cows, goats, chickens and other animals to villages in Africa and throughout the world. The idea is that the animal will provide milk or eggs to the village, and then be bred so that another young female can be given to another village. A simple act of generosity leads to abundance which can then be shared. As Betz would say, the villagers give their surplus animals away so that their generosity can generate more generosity. Through their giving, the villagers store treasures in heaven. Jesus expects us to be people of integrity, whose security and focus and loyalties are all in accord and oriented in the same direction: serving and loving God by being open-hearted and generous to all of God’s people. Matthew has placed three parallel sayings about money together to reflect three ways of doing so: trusting in the long-term reward of heaven over the transient rewards of earthly possessions, having a generous focus that is aware of the needs of others instead of a selfish focus that only sees our own desires, and avoiding the enslavement of materialism. We should serve instead to our loving, merciful and gracious God, for only then will our souls be filled with light. 35 Betz, 432. 36 Ibid. 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY Allison, Dale C. The Sermon on the Mount: Inspiring the Moral Imagination. New York: Herder & Herder, 1999. Attridge, Harold W. ed., The HarperCollins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version. San Francisco: HarperCollinsSanFrancisco, 2006. Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W.; Arndt, William F.; and Gingrich, F. Wilber. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3 rd ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000. Berry, George Ricker. The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament with Lexicon and Synonyms. Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1990. Betz, Hans Dieter. The Sermon on the Mount: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount Including the Sermon on the Plain (Matthew 5:3 – 7:27 and Luke 6:20- 49). Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995. Blomberg, Craig L. “On Wealth and Worry: Matthew 6:19-34 – Meaning and Significance.” Criswell Theological Review 6 (Fall, 1992): 73-89. Boice, James Montgomery, The Sermon on the Mount: An Exposition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1972. Crosby, Michael H. House of Disciples: Church, Economics and Justice in Matthew. Maryknoll, NY:Orbis Books, 1988. Davies, W. D., and Dale C. Allison. The Gospel According to Matthew, Vol 1. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988. Fleer, David and Dave Bland, editors. Preaching the Sermon on the Mount: The World It Imagines. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2007. Grundmann, Christoffer H. “Mammon – It’s Biblical Perception.” Mission Studies 12 no. 2 (1995): 157-163. Haughey, John C. “God and Mammon.” Living Pulpit 6 no.3 (July – September, 1997): 6. The Interpreter’s Bible: The Holy Scriptures in the King James and Revised Standard Version with General Articles and Introduction, Exegesis, Exposition for Each Book of the Bible, Volume VII, New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951. 15
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Bev Franco Essay - San Francisco Theological Seminary

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