I have been pouring over budget numbers for St. Ann school next year. And I have been trying figure out the best way to make the figures ‘work’.  The numbers are telling me our school is in store for some belt tightening.  Fortunately, God has a way of answering my prayers.  For there in my e-mail inbox was a wonderful letter from a Nigeria banker, and for just a small fee, I can have 13.5 million deposited in my bank account! Talk about God answering prayers!   

We’re all a little skeptical, aren’t we, of people giving things away for free.  We all wonder, what is the string attached?  Where’s the catch.  (For those of you who don’t have access to e-mail, the Nigerian banker is perhaps one of the oldest internet scams going.  I am not expecting my 13 ½ mil. at any time soon…)  Something for nothing sets off rightful alarm bells.  There is no “free lunch.”  Or is there? 

Paul says:  “When I preach, I preach the gospel FREE OF CHARGE.”  Jesus, the day he hears of his cousin’s death, begins a long day of freely giving what was in his heart to give – preaching in the synagogue, giving away God’s divine power when he heals the man with the unclean spirit, (last week’s gospel).  Then he brings his healing touch to Peter’s mother in law, followed by “ALL who were ill and possessed by demons”.  And in one of the more comedic lines in the gospels, Mark comments that that meant the entire town.  He was involved not only in a free lunch, but free breakfast and dinner on that day.  He cured them all.   

It got me to thinking, where does that kind of freedom come from?  At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus knew that there was a freedom to love without counting the cost.  He learned it from ‘rising very early in the morning’, and spending time in God’s presence. There ‘absorbed in prayer” as one translation puts it, Jesus drew the strength he needed to give and give and give.  Paul seemed to know that same truth.  He was asking nothing in return for his work – save that they come to know what he knew – a love that saved him and redeemed him.  Paul learned that on that Damascus road – seeing the light that knocked him off his high horse, and then, once God has his attention, brought him forgiveness for becoming a mass murderer in the name of God.

And where do you and I learn that truth?  For it is a crucial one for the spiritual journey.  It is so easy to count the cost, isn’t it?  In a hundred ways, it is easy to become angry or cynical or frustrated because people aren’t changing quick enough to suit our timetable. We preach the gospel with strings attached – that people are grateful or respond to our loving, or at least NOTICE that we are going out of our way to love them. 

Jesus and Paul knew a different freedom, didn’t they?  Paul could become anything to anyone in an attempt to win them over.  Jesus could not be shackled to his success in Capernaum, but rather free to ‘go to the other towns as well” –because he had met his God in his prayer – and that was enough to sustain him.   

So, if you had to get out your ‘freely giving away the good news meter’ –how high would it register this week?  Maybe a quick way to check is to observe how quick you are to become resentful?  Or to count how many times you notice that others didn’t thank you for what you did for them.  WHY SHOULD IT MATTER if you really are free enough to preach the gospel?  And if you freedom meter is running pretty low, then run to your deserted place, and let God restore your heart’s freedom in those quiet moments of prayer. 

I got my e-mail from my Nigerian banker this week.  It would be nice if it were true – if there was a free lunch coming from that widowed couple with out heirs.  I’m not holding my breath.  But I am in line to receive, not the greatest free lunch, but the greatest free supper there is – the one who nourishes me and gives me himself FREELY at this table for my life and the life of the world.  And for that, I can’t wait.