There are some people that God cares about more than others.
Alien, fatherless, widow. Refugees, orphans, the poor and needy.
In the Early days of the nation of Israel, most of the people lived off the land. They farmed crops or kept animals. So people who had no land of their own had nothing – not only no place to live but also no source of their own food. These were the days before Welfare state, days before “giving to charity” became a fashionable or even a respectable thing to do. The poor and needy had nothing – except they had God on their side.
DEUTERONOMY 24:17 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. 18 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.
Then God commands the Israelites to follow an intriguing practice which expresses an important principle – the principle of the right of gleaning.
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
Because of where the Israelites had come from, God commanded them to care for the aliens, the refugees, the orphans and widows, the disadvantaged. God had rescued the Israelites from slavery, just as he has rescued us from sin and death and hell and the devil, and so we all are under an obligation to care for those who are still trapped and oppressed by poverty and powerlessness. And in this global village, our concern is for poor people not only on our doorstep, but around the world.
We care – because God cares. His Law commands his chosen people to take care of the poor and needy.
LEVITICUS 19:9 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.

Concern for the poor is built into the PROCESS of harvesting

This was not harvesting and THEN thinking how much can we give away – we should do that as well. But the principle here is, “As we harvest, leave some for the poor”
Matthew Henry: “We must be well pleased to see the poor supplied and refreshed with the fruit of our labours.” We must not think of things we don’t harvest for ourselves as lost. We must not think that anything which we leave for the poor to collect up is wasted.
The rich are commanded to be kind and charitable to the poor. In many ways they are ordered to be so by the law of Moses. The particular instance of charity here is that they should not be greedy in gathering in their corn, and grapes, and olives, so as to be afraid of leaving any behind them, but be willing to overlook some, and let the poor have the gleanings. Jewish teachers said, “It should be a sixtieth part of the field;’’ and they must also leave the gleanings and the small clusters of their grapes, which at first were overlooked.
Matthew Henry makes three good points.
1. “Say not, ’It is all my own, and why should not I have it?’ But learn a generous contempt of property in small matters. One sheaf or two forgotten will make thee never the poorer at the year’s end, and it will do somebody good, if thou have it not.’’
2. “Say not, ’ What I give I will give, and know whom I give it to, why should I leave it to be gathered by I know not whom, that will never thank me.’ But trust God’s providence with the disposal of thy charity, perhaps that will direct it to the most necessitous.’’ Or, “Thou mayest reasonably think it will come to the hands of the most industrious, that are forward to seek and gather that which this law provides for them.’’
3. “Say not, ’What should the poor do with grapes and olives? It is enough for them to have bread and water;’ for, since they have the same senses that the rich have, why should not they have some little share of the delights of sense?’’ Boaz ordered handfuls of corn to be left on purpose for Ruth, and God blessed him. That which is left for the poor is not lost or wasted.
Concern for the poor is built into the process of harvesting. In today’s world, concern for the poor is expressed in income tax and national insurance contributions paying for our medical care and for our pensions. We shouldn’t begrudge those contributions, or try to dodge the taxman, because they don’t just pay for OUR needs but for the poor and needy.

But there’s another way we could apply that principle of “giving at the source”: “What you have never had, you don’t miss!” So it can be good to arrange to give to suitable causes by covenant at the source. “Give as you earn” where giving to a charity is deducted by your payroll at the source (with the tax reclaimed as well) is a very appropriate expression of “not reaping to the very edges of the field”.
Concern for the poor is built into our CELEBRATING of God’s goodness

We show our gratitude to God by caring for the poor and needy.
LEVITICUS 23 lays out details of the different feasts the Israelites are to observe: Passover and Unleavened Bread, then Firstfruits – offering the first and the best to God.

LEV 23: 9 The LORD said to Moses, 10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.

Then Feast of Weeks: (= Feast of Harvest, Exodus 23:16)
15 “ ‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD. 18 Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

And AS PART of the instructions for the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest, we read:-
LEVITICUS 23:22 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.’ ”
Matthew Henry: Times of joy, such as harvest-time is, are proper times for charity; that, when we rejoice, the poor may rejoice with us, and when our hearts are blessing God the poor may bless us too.
So it is good that as we celebrate harvest we think of the poor and needy. We share the good things God has blessed us with – we pass on some of our riches to people who have none of their own!
God’s law challenges the greedy

We should not be greedy to obtain every last sheaf, every last grape, every last olive. Matthew Henry “We must not be covetous and griping, and greedy of every thing we can lay any claim to; nor insist upon our right in things small and trivial.”

Here is a principle that has a lot to say to us in these days of the credit crunch and the crisis in world banking. That principle is that greed for the very last penny of profit and trampling on the poor and needy is not acceptable to God, and will end in disaster in the end.

It is fair to say that the current financial crisis gripping the world is entirely due to greed, and particularly greed by the richest of people in the richest of nations. Sub-prime lending to people who were a bad credit risk was simply an attempt to make more money out of people who could least afford it. Spreading those risks across the money markets of the world just exposed people and banks who could less afford to take financial risks to the instability of the markets. And short selling on the stock market then had disastrous effects on the viability of previously stable institutions.

In the film Wall Street, Gordon Geckho had the simple mantra – “Greed is good.” For too long many of the richest people in the richest countries have lived by that mantra – and all corners of the world are now paying the price, in the rocketing costs of staple foods and fuels, and in the instability of the financial world where nobody trusts anybody any more.

All because people insisted on grabbing for themselves the very last penny of profit, and forgot about the poor and needy.

LEVITICUS 19:9 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.

Christians involved in the world of finance have difficult issues to wrestle with in the light of the current crisis. But many are thinking again about the morality of so much of the way business operates.

The principles of not harvesting to the edge of the field are a stark rebuke to businesses which aim to squeeze every last penny of profit out of their workforce. Sometimes the poor and needy are the overworked employees who have to take on more and more overtime just to make ends meet. Or the employees made redundant so that the company can relocate their jobs to parts of the world where labour is much cheaper.

The whole way parts of the stock market work needs to be challenged. Where investors deal in shares of companies to make quick profits rather than help those businesses to grow and thrive. Where whole banks pension funds can be decimated in weeks by fund managers essentially gambling with stocks and shares. People in their thousands losing their jobs and livelihoods. Somebody has forgot about our shared responsibility to the aliens, the orphans and the widows.

And how does this impact on our individual finances?

Pensions – some folk’s pensions are at risk

Savings – should be ethical investments

Greed is NOT Good – we shouldn’t be grasping at every last penny of profit or interest – we should never forget the poor and needy!

I had an interesting discussion with a fellow minister the other day. He was suggesting that in these days of rising prices and shrinking incomes it is good stewardship for us as Christians to haggle to try to get the best price of anything we are buying, to try to get the most for God’s money. I was suggesting the opposite – that if the price we are paying for something is fair and not overpriced, it seems to me that we shouldn’t be trying to squeeze a discount out of the poor shopkeeper whose rent has gone up and whose margins are being cut by his suppliers when the banks are chasing him for every penny they can get and he can’t afford to give his staff the pay rises they need just to make ends meet. I think that the principle of gleaning is on my side. Pay a fair price and let God worry about the few pence we might have saved by haggling. My guess is we wouldn’t have given those few pence to the church anyway!
Generosity is an antidote to greed!

We should be looking for ways to help the poor on our doorstep – our neighbours who find themselves in need. We should be looking for ways to help the poor in other countries that we know about – and we know that Harvest for the Hungry will make a real difference to children’s homes and homes for the elderly and so many impoverished families. And we also should be looking for ways to help the poor around the world who we do not know directly– by fighting for debt relief and for fair trade and for more and better focussed aid – make poverty history!

Jesus warns us that Money is a false God. We can end up serving Money instead of serving God, and trusting in Money instead of Trusting in God.

Sermon on the Mount – Jesus said Matthew 6: 19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ….. 24 “No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
The founder of the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther commented on this passage – “Take a look at your own heart, and you will soon find out what has stuck to it and where your treasure is. It is easy to determine whether hearing the Word of God, living according to it, and achieving such a life gives you as much enjoyment and calls forth as much diligence from you as does accumulating and saving money and property.”
Challenging questions! Which gives us the most satisfaction and enjoyment? Which gets the most effort and concentration? Living our Christian lives? Or gaining money and possessions? Do we have hold of our money or does our money have a hold on us?
Generosity is an antidote to greed. CS Lewis says if we are only giving out of what we have got to spare we aren’t really giving at all. As an antidote to Greed, in his book Celebration of discipline Richard Foster recommends Extravagant Generosity.

Do we have hold of our money or does our money have a hold on us?

LEVITICUS 19:9 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.

PRAYER – May you bless us with discomfort