Funny... And, sadly, kinda true

I've been reading A Chance to Die, by Elisabeth Elliot in my spare time this week. It's a biography of Amy Carmichael, missionary to India. Of all the missionaries I've ever heard of, Amy Carmichael is one of my "favorites", really inspiring with her courage and faith.

But that's not what I started out on. One passage in the book really got me laughing... and thinking. It's a piece Amy wrote for her family's newspaper Scraps, about the Church's methods and means of raising money back then, and how they just had to have money for the mahogany furnishings, or the stained glass windows, etc... for their poor little church. I've you've ever seen Pollyana, you'll know what I mean. ;D

Here's what Amy had to say:

We must have money. We can't build spires ninety feet high without it, we can't decorate our churches with elegant windows without it, we can't issue costly programmes for our social meetings without it, we can't furnish our sanctuaries with real polished mahogany without it... How are we to get it? You may touchingly plead for 865,000,000 heathen abroad. You may paint a picture terrible and true of the home heathen at our doors. You may work yourself into hysterics over these and other intensely real realities but you wont get the money. So another plan must be devised. We shall get up a fancy fair.

Here's where Amy really lets herself go. :D Poking sarcasm and scorn at a Grand Bazaar to "Liquidate a Debt on Argyle Place Presbyterian Church".

Idle young ladies who like to do good will work sofa blankets, smoking caps, babies' petticoats, and tea cosies...They will entrap old men and young into buying just one ticket for the exquisite chimpanzee which some kind friend presented to aid us in the liquidation of our church debt (he was sick of the creature however, and glad to get rid of it)... Nobody will escape without being regularly besieged by gypsy women, Queen Elizabeths, Mary Queen of Scots, Robison Crusoes, Robin Hoods, knights pages, fool, just to buy this very cheap pincushion, and this beautiful pair of slippers, and this sweet baby doll with real petticoats-- and nobody will escape without being pretty well fleeced- that I can honestly assure you. Oh yes! We shall get the money for our poor dear little church, and everybody will have the pleasing consciousness of having devoted themselves to the noble cause of screwing, wheedling and extorting money out of a selfish, thoughtless public- for the Cause of God! Ah, there is where a little incongruity seems to come in. Let us fancy for a moment we are a band of Israelites who want to build a magnificent abode for the Mighty Presence to dwell in. (Here's where it gets even better) We must convene a committee... Moses says, stroking his beard meditatively, "Ah, the people's tastes must be considered, in the present state of society we cannot do otherwise, though of course it is not a desirable course to

pursue."

"But brother," remarks Aaron, "the Tabernacle must really have decent curtains, and if they are to be of goat's hair they will cost quite a large sum of money, and then theynust be embroidered..."

Then Bezaleel speaks: "You speak, my brethren, as if nothing but the curtains should be considered, but there is a great amount of carving in wood and cutting in stones to be thought of and various curious things to be devised out of gold and silver and brass. These too will cost money."

There is a silence. Moses looks puzzled when in a very hesitating voice Aholiab says, "Have we not, Bezaleel, got both time and talent to devote to this work? Could we not spend and be spent in the service of the sanctuary?" But he is quite squashed by the head-shakings of the committee. Such a thing would never do. "What would become of the families if we worked for nothing? Really Aholiab should be ashamed of himself- such an idea!" etc. etc.

Suddenly Moses' face brightens. "Just what I remarked at first," he says pleasantly, "In the present state of society we must conform a little to the world. We'll have a Bazaar!"

Isn't it a pretty picture-far superior to: "And they came both men and women as many as were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets and earings and tablets and jewels of gold, and every man that offered. offered and offering of gold unto the Lord." Three things we may notice:

1st as many as were willing-hearted

2nd brought their own possessions

3rd unto the Lord

Now we give unto Mrs. So-and So who wrote begging us a letter, or Miss so-and-so who called the other day with a collecting card and unfortunately we were in and could not get off without giving her something... May there not be some clue to the money mystery in these thoughts, taking as our keynote three sentences, not very much believed nowadays:

"The silver and gold is mine."

"Ask and ye shall receive."

"My God shall supply all your need."

1. Is the work for which we want the money God's chosen work for us, or our chosen work for Him? If the former, will not He see after the money necessary? If the latter, then how can we expect anything better than we have?

2. Can we expect a blessing to follow money given grudgingly?

3. Should we not see that our Root is right, before expecting flowers and fruit?

-Whew!- Kind of smarts,but I think too often it's true today. I think of myself when I think I need to buy such-and-such, or even when I want to start some area of ministry and I think to myself, "I can ask God to provide what I need, but maybe I'll just have to scrape up what I can for now."

Wait a minute! That's not how it works! Right? If it's really our chosen work-chosen by God- then obviously He's already got the funds worked out.

So my ever persisting question, where are the workers?

Listen! Listen, English sisters

Hear an Indian sister's plea-

Grievous wails, dark ills revealing

Depths of human woe unsealing,

Borne across the deep blue sea.

We are dying, day by day,

With no light, no cheering ray.

Amy Carmichael