How to Be Stingy

I love a great cup of coffee. It’s one of those simple pleasures of the day that has entered my routine. Thinking back now, coffee became part of my routine somewhere around my Calvin College days. Not so much as a part of my day to enjoy. Rather, I think I saw it as more of a necessity. Since I worked a full-time job alongside a full-time college class load, caffeine quickly became the drug that got me through, and I became a junkie. As other junkies who sink to the bottom of the barrel, I often found myself stopping by the gas station convenience store to refill my travel mug that had effectively become a permanently attached appendage at the end of my arm.

This was a long time ago. Starbucks was barely a thing—they had fewer than 100 stores nationwide. Biggby was still a long way from starting. Most people had never even heard of a latte before. Even so, getting my fix with gas station coffee is a pretty desperate low. But, as I was approaching graduation and stared looking beyond all-nighters to write papers and read chapters, something happened to my firmly entrenched coffee habit. One of my sisters introduced me to gourmet coffee from a local company right here in Grand Rapids.

It seems that in a very short period of time my habit of coffee turned into a love for coffee—specifically, a love for good coffee. I started learning about different coffees and how geography and climate affect the flavor of coffee beans. I learned where the best coffee in the world comes from: the Blue Mountain coffee plantation in Jamaica—if you are willing to pay $50/lb. for coffee beans. I learned that coffee is at its absolute best when it is brewed at precisely 192 degrees. Anything beneath that leaves coffee that has a more bitter taste. Anything hotter than that—especially coffee that is made in a percolator—ends up burned and loses its bright, earthy flavor. 192-degree filtered water in a French press pot, using Arabica beans from central America or Indonesia is the only way to go.

Yup. I love a great cup of coffee. But now I have a different kind of problem. It’s a problem that I think all of us have in some fashion or another. It’s not just about coffee, and it’s not anything new. We can see an example of this in the Bible too.

2 Kings 5:1–16 NIV

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.” As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!” When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.” But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage. Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.” The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.

Naaman’s Advantage

Naaman is one of those characters in the Bible who shows up very briefly and then is gone again. So, we don’t know much about Naaman. But, one verse of this passage packs in all the information we need to know about Naaman. A commander, a great man, highly regarded, victorious, a valiant soldier; BUT also, he had leprosy. We pick up details elsewhere in the passage to figure out that Naaman is extremely wealthy and had numerous servants. In only one verse with a string of attributes, we figure out that Naaman is a person of advantage. Naaman has an advantage over many others because of his wealth, because of his success, because of his connections.

Naaman is the kind of guy who could always get what he wanted, and he had the means at his disposal to do just that. Nothing stood in his way. I don’t think we should jump to any immediate conclusions about Naaman because of this. Maybe he was a jerk. Maybe he was a super great guy. The point here in this story is that Naaman could have been any one of those because this story is meant to show us a general picture. Naaman is symbolic of all people who have been blessed with advantage. Naaman might be the extreme. But it’s a hyperbole. It is an intentional exaggeration in order to make a point. And in this case, we are meant to see that, in some degree, we are all people of advantage. We have all been given blessings by God. We all have resources at our disposal. Every single one of us has received some kind of abundance from God.

I know that so very quickly we can get caught up in playing games of comparison. We all do that. There is always somebody out there who has more than me. There is always someone who has more money than me. There is always someone who drives a nicer, newer car than me. There is always someone out there who gets better grades in school. Always someone else who scores more points on the team. Always someone else whose dinners and desserts come out immaculate and perfect every time. Always someone else who gets the job promotion and closes the deal ahead of me. Always someone else who makes the cutest crafts and scrapbooks. Always. Someone. Else. We compare ourselves to others. And when we do that we quite often seem to find ways of downplaying or minimizing our own advantages because we always find others who seem to have MORE advantages. But none of this can get around the reality that you and I all have advantages. We all have talents and successes and resources. And every single one of those things has been granted to us as a blessing from God. Period.

That is what the example of Naaman ought to show us in this story. We are all Naaman.

Naaman’s Downfall

The question in this story is not, “What do we do with those advantages?” In this story the more important question is, “What do those advantages do to us?” Naaman’s tremendous advantage is also his downfall in this story. The advantage becomes the downfall because Naaman is not aware of what these advantages have done to him. Let’s take a closer look at that.There are a couple things that Naaman’s advantages produce in him leading to his downfall. It is his leprosy that brings these things to the front of the story. Naaman finds a potential solution to his leprosy problem by seeking out the prophet Elisha. We don’t need to assume what Naaman’s expectations are for this encounter with Elisha. The passage lays it right out for us. Naaman thought the prophet would make a big deal over this. Naaman thought this would turn into a giant spectacle of greatness. Naaman’s servant calls him out on it. “If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, you would have done it.” But Naaman is ticked off because Elisha won’t even come out of the house to see him. Elisha sends a messenger. It is no small detail in the story. Before we can talk about what Naaman ought to be doing with his advantages, this story needs to show us what Naaman’s advantages are doing to him. In this first instance, we see that his advantages create a wall of pride. Pride is what Naaman cannot get past in this first encounter. Elisha doesn’t just step on the toes of Naaman’s pride, God uses Elisha to stomp all over Naaman’s pride. Naaman doesn’t just receive a slice of humble pie. He gets the whole pie.

We see Naaman’s pride displayed in this story by the way he reacts to his treatment from Elisha. He walks away. Naaman is so angry that the prophet won’t kiss up to him, that he turns away from the healing that is offered to him. His pride is such a big deal to him, that he refuses to accept God’s invitation to be healed. Maybe this isn’t so hard to understand. Naaman is used to having people look up to him. He is used to being called upon by others. It isn’t too hard to imagine that Naaman often received praises and flattery from others for all his many accomplishments. No one ever treats Naaman the way that Elisha just did. It is an insult to Naaman’s pride, a bruise to his delicate ego. But it was completely necessary in order for Naaman to be truly healed.

The other thing we see in the example of Naaman is entitlement. His advantages and his privilege elevate him to a place where he feels he is entitled to better treatment. For Naaman, this means that the Jordan river in Israel is not good enough. Naaman thinks he deserves better. He thinks he is entitled to more. So Naaman protests and refuses to follow the instructions from Elisha.

Entitlement is a tricky thing. It just sort of sneaks up out of our advantages. I imagine that for Naaman, once he got used to the good life, it’s hard to go back to anything else. After so many years of living with only the best, then nothing less will ever measure up. And here is where entitlement creeps in. Entitlement convinces Naaman that he deserves it—that he has somehow earned it. After all, his position wasn’t just handed to him. It would seem that Naaman has had to work to achieve success and notoriety. He puts in long hours at the office. He holds responsibility for a good share of government business. That has to be worth something. Right?

Pride and entitlement. This story about Naaman and his privileged advantages brings those two things front and center. And the way the author places those details into the narrative tells us that this is quite intentional. I’ll say it again. We are all Naaman.

I confess, I am a coffee snob. Maybe I’m not into lattes and flavored coffee drinks. I mean just plain ordinary black coffee. I am a coffee snob. I like Guatemala Antigua whole bean coffee from Schuil coffee house over on the southeast side of Grand Rapids. I know, it’s rather specific. Here’s the other side to my coffee snobbery. I don’t like grocery store coffee. Folgers is just the worst. I have gotten so accustomed to always enjoying really good coffee, that now I have convinced myself that anything less just won’t do. I have convinced myself that I am entitled to better coffee. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to drink the stuff that we serve here after the service on Sunday morning? But here’s the thing: that’s not your fault, that’s not the fault of the coffee, it’s not the fault of the people who volunteer to make coffee. It’s my fault. I have a problem with entitlement. I’m a coffee snob.

Sure, coffee is petty and trivial. But today we are confronted by the example of Naaman to examine and confess that we are all people who have taken the blessings of our advantages and turned them into entitlements. Instead of receiving resources and successes as gifts from God, we have convinced ourselves that somehow these are all things that we have earned ourselves; that somehow we deserve all of these things; that we are entitled to it.

I suppose our consumer culture doesn’t help with this. Advertisements constantly bombard us with that very same message. I deserve a new car, a better wardrobe, the latest smartphone, whatever. I’ve worked hard for it. I’ve earned it. I’m entitled to enjoy it. So, what are those entitlements in your life? What are those items or perks that you’ve convinced yourself that you must have because you deserve it? And besides, everybody else has it too, so why shouldn’t I? Like Naaman, we elevate our lives to high standards of expectation. And Like Naaman, when we come across situations which confront our pride and entitlement, we turn up our noses and walk away because we’ve come to believe we deserve better.

And this is exactly what takes a person like me—someone who has been so incredibly blessed with unimaginable advantages—and turns me into someone who is stingy instead of someone who is generous. It happened to Naaman. It can happen to any one of us. Instead of living every day in the realization of God’s rich grace and provision, we instead live day-after-day in the stingy trap of entitlement. Instead of gratitude for the rich blessings we have received, instead we focus on what we don’t have, or want to have, or think we deserve to have.

Naaman’s Redemption

So, let’s talk about how this story ends for Naaman. He does he turn around and receive the healing of God. And because of how the story unfolds, the blessing he receives from God is about more than physical healing from his leprosy. Naaman also receives redemption for his attitude of entitlement. Here is why that is so important. You and I here today may not be suffering from leprosy. We may not be in need of God’s healing for a particular skin disease like Naaman had. But every one of us is in need of God’s healing redemption to bring us out of our own pride and entitlement. We all need that.

Pay particular attention, then, to how this works for Naaman. Or maybe it’s better for us to note through whom this works out for Naaman. Sure, the prophet Elisha is there. But notice that Elisha himself hardly shows up as a character in this story. God uses a few other unlikely characters in this story to highlight just how much our perceived advantages can be either blessings or curses.

Naaman first hears about the prophet Elisha through his servant girl, a slave captured from Israel on one of Naaman’s military raids from Aram. A slave girl. Naaman does not receive this advice from lawyers or experts or military counsel. Those were probably his go-to sources. The story takes its first turn on the suggestion of the foreigner housekeeper. The second place the story turns is on the pleading of Naaman’s own servants to reconsider Elisha’s instructions to go wash in the Jordan river. It’s Naaman’s traveling attendants. He’s receiving correction from his Uber driver.

The high-and-mighty Naaman is portrayed in this story as someone who can only be turned towards God’s redemption by those of the lowest social ranking. These are the least likely people we might imagine to be instruments of God’s blessing. Yet, this is exactly what happens. And, just to make sure the point is certain, the author throws in a scene in which the most powerful characters—the king of Aram and the king of Israel—are left in a political exchange which leaves both of them completely powerless and helpless to affect the story one way or the other.

Did you catch that? The ones whom we would expect to be the power-players are left completely empty. And the ones whom we would expect to have nothing are the very ones who turn this story around and bring Naaman to the place of redemption before God. After Naaman is healed from leprosy, he goes back in order to express his gratitude and give his gifts to Elisha. And Elisha drives the point of the story even further by refusing to accept Naaman’s gifts. Elisha takes no part in this spectacle of pageantry. He demonstrates that all Naaman’s advantages of power and wealth and resources had nothing to do with God’s favor and grace.

What do we take from this story? It might be tempting to think of ourselves as the underdogs and try to gain some comfort that God uses the unlikely characters of low standing as the most important characters of the story. But it’s not fair for us to do that. We are not the powerless servants in this story. We are not the ones with no advantage. I’ve stated a few times already: we are Naaman. We are the ones who live in a time and place of tremendous advantage with unimaginable resources. And in this world of such abundant blessings I get bent out of shape by petty things like coffee and slow wifi.

I need redemption too, just like Naaman. I need redemption to once again see that all this incredible advantage that I have in this world is not my entitlement. It is not something that I have earned or in any way deserve. Our resources and our successes are a gift from God. Period. All that we are and all that we have is a blessing from God. Period.

So, instead of responding to my advantages with an attitude of entitlement, maybe today you and I need to take a lesson from Naaman and find a new way to live in response to all the blessings we have from God.

I have a rule when I go out to eat in a restaurant. I always tip the server at least 20%. This is true no matter how the service was. Even if the server forgets to bring out the bread and never comes by to refill drinks. It doesn’t matter, I still tip at least 20%. The reason I do this is because I want to live in a way that reinforces the generosity of God to me. I refuse to continue living in a worldview of our culture which says what’s mine in mine. I refuse to continue living in a worldview of our culture which says that restaurant servers only get a tip if they earn it. I refuse to continue living in a worldview of our culture which only receives and exchanges resources based on our perceived entitlements of who deserves what.

God gives blessings of his grace freely without anyone earning it or deserving it. That is what God’s redemption has brought to me. That’s the worldview I want to live in! How I tip restaurant servers is one small example of how this worldview of generous grace shows up in my life. I am sure there are many other places in my life that need work to improve my generosity of grace.

You see, rich and poor have nothing to do with how much money I have or how many possessions I own. No. The difference between rich and poor is about what you do with it. And that difference begins today with the acknowledgement that everything we have is a gift from God. We don’t own it. We don’t deserve it. We are stewards of it. We have been redeemed by God and restored to the wonderful and joyful task of being stewards who take care of the resources entrusted to us. And in that task, every single one of us is rich.

In order for the life-changing truth of this grace to be just that—life-changing—it needs to show up in the way I live. It needs to have a regular and consistent practice of generosity that isn’t about entitlement. I need to have regular habits of freely sharing the advantages of my blessings that have nothing to do with any perception of what is earned or deserved, but rather a sharing that is motivated completely by gratitude for God’s grace freely given.