Although we may be comfortable with the expository style of the Fathers, the extensive use of Luke in paraenesis makes us uneasy. This is evident by the church fathers’ use of Luke 6, the Sermon on the Plain, and Luke 12, 16 and 18, the loci for Luke’s record of Jesus’ discourses on the proper use of possessions. The Fathers might not call this a theology of stewardship, but they clearly see the need to preach about the relationship between life in Christ and the expression of that life in works of charity. Over and over again they will exhort the people of God to be busy in living the charitable life. In some cases, this instruction is largely moralistic in tone and purpose.
But the majority of the exhortations to Christians about possessions or continence or perseverance flow out of a christological foundation that demonstrates how works of charity are a natural expression of the baptismal life in Christ. And as prime examples of these Christic virtues, the church fathers appeal to biblical and early Christian saints who reflected in their lives the characteristics of Christ.
As an illustration of this and as a fitting conclusion, we listen to a conflation of two sermons of Augustine, one from Lent and the other from the first Sunday after Easter, both of them on Luke 6:37-38, which Augustine uses to equate forgiveness with almsgiving, and almsgiving with forgiveness. In Lent and Easter, almsgiving is for Augustine and all the Fathers, the manifestation of the Christian life:
The season of Lent has come round again, the time when I owe you my annual exhortation; and when you also owe the Lord your good works as suited to the season; not of course that they can be any use to the Lord, but they are of use to you . . . to our prayers we must add, by almsgiving and fasting, the wings of loving kindness, so that they may fly the more easily to God and reach him. For this the Christian mind can readily understand how far removed we should be from the fraudulent filching of other people’s property; when it perceives how similar it is to fraud when you don’t give to the needy what you don’t need yourself. The Lord says, “Give, and it will be given to you; forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Lk 6:37-38).
Let us practice these two sorts of almsgiving, namely, giving and forgiving, gently and generously; since after all we pray to the Lord that good things may be given to us, and that evil things may not be repaid us.27 . . . Notice too, my brothers and sisters, what you say just before: “Forgive us our debts,” in order to carry out what follows: “as we also forgive our debtors”
(Mt 6:13, 12). You give alms, you receive alms; you pardon, you are pardoned; you are generous, you are treated generously. Listen to God saying, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and all things will be given
to you” (Lk 6:37-38). Keep the poor in mind. I say this to all of you; give alms, my brothers and sisters, and you won’t lose what you give. Trust God.
I’m not only telling you that you won’t lose what you do for the poor; but I’m telling you plainly, this is all that you won’t lose; you will lose the rest.
Come now, let’s see if you can cheer the poor up today. You be their granaries, so that God may give to you what you can give to them, and so that he may forgive whatever sins you have committed. “Shut an alms up in the hearts of the poor, and it will pay for you to the Lord” (Sir 29:12, Vulg), to whom be all honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.28
It is an honor to be part of this landmark event of giving pastors and laity access to the voices of the church fathers. Thanks to Thomas Oden for the privilege and opportunity to participate in the project. An effort of this magnitude would not have been possible without the enormous help of two research teams. Thanks to the staff of the ACCS office at Drew University, led by Joel Elowsky, especially Joel Scandrett, Michael Glerup, Calhoun Robertson, Alexei Khamine and Hsueh-Ming Liao, who were instrumental in gathering the texts that led to the selections in this volume, as well as editing the vast number of citations into a workable text. And thanks to the Fort Wayne team at Walther Library of Concordia Theological Seminary, led by Bob Smith, including Duane Bamsch, Craig Harmon, Jeffrey Ahonen, Piotr Malysz, Jason Braaten (the servant of the last hour who was also paid a denarius) and especially John-Paul Salay. Each person on this team scanned, edited, organized, provided footnotes and undertook numerous tasks to free me to pursue the joy of reading, selecting, marking and arranging these patristic citations into a comprehensible manuscript. It is my hope that the preaching and teaching of the church today will be renewed and refreshed by their efforts to make available the living words of the Fathers.
A. A. Just Jr.
June 11, 2002
Feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle