WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE GET TO THE TOP OF THE        LADDER?

            Last week, my blog was about the bottom four rungs of Maimonides’ charity ladder. We talked about moving from not giving at all (on the ground) four steps up the ladder to giving to the poor without being asked.

            The next four rungs take us even further

 

           

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   ------------               Top Rung **

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   -------------                 Giving in a way that both the donor and recipient don’t know each                                        other.

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   -------------                 Giving when the donor is aware to whom the charity is being given,                                     but the recipient doesn’t know who has given.

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   -------------               Giving when the recipient is aware of who is giving, but the donor                                         doesn’t know who the recipient is.

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            The bottom four rungs are pretty hard, because it requires us to start! Once we’ve done that, it gets a little easier. Now we’re moving further and further up the ladder. The three rungs that I referenced above hinge completely on whether the donor and recipient know who is giving and who is getting. For me, whether the donor knows or doesn’t know, or whether the recipient knows or doesn’t know have the same weight. It’s when both the donor and the recipient don’t know that things start to become way more generous.

            Think of it this way, I am giving to charity without knowing exactly what it’s going to be used for, or who is going to benefit from it. This not only takes generosity, but it takes faith. I have to believe that the charity to whom I’m giving the gift will use those gifts in the way that is intended and in the way that God intends. When I have faith in God, I can be generous. Because, after all, it’s not mine anyway, right?

            Well, that top rung on the ladder above just says Top Rung**. Why? I wanted to write exactly what I read relative to this top rung about the charity ladder. It says it this way:

            Helping sustain people before they come impoverished by offering

            a substantial gift in a dignified manner, or by extending a suitable

            loan, or by helping them find employment or establish themselves

            in business so it is unnecessary for them to become dependent on

            others. This is considered the highest form of charity.

 

            This is a form of generosity that I think goes beyond “charity.”  While it may seem difficult to move from the ground where we’re not giving anything up the ladder to where we’re giving, it’s still essentially a pretty easy task to write a check, or drop some coins in a box or a basket. It’s pretty easy, sometimes, to volunteer our time to a church or an institution or a project.

           

            But this top rung of Maimonides’ charity ladder has us doing way more than the simple writing of a check, or serving a meal. It has us teaching and giving, lending and leading, enabling and establishing, and helping so that the “recipient” doesn’t have to become dependent on anyone!

 

            This sounds a lot like the part of John Wesley’s Manifesto that says we must reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. How do we do this as a church? Maybe we have to look at what our own local church is called by God to do and to be. Once we’ve figured that out, then we are able to step onto and travel up that ladder to the place where we treat everyone the way we would wish to be treated!