Quid Pro Nihlio And The Gift Of Mercy

My dad and mom were “planners.”  My dad was trained in accounting and knew a bit about investing and money management. He was always concerned that the “government” (broadly defined) would take money and assets that did not belong to them (and he worked for the government!). So he and my mom decided to create a trust and put their house and some investments in it. Prior to that point, I knew nothing of all this stuff and kind of got a crash course in some of these legal terms. I learned the difference between a revocable and an irrevocable trust.

In a revocable trust, people transfer their assets into a trust and it can be “revoked” and changed at any point. In short, those assets can be taken back. An irrevocable trust means that once the assets are in the trust, there’s no changing the arrangement.

In today’s reading from Romans 11, Paul tells his readers that “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.” He goes on to say that we have “now received mercy.” This means that whatever we have been given by God in terms of spiritual gifts, God’s not taking them back! They are ours – to use or not. And one of those gifts that we have been given is mercy.

That may not always sound like a lot, and yet it is, perhaps, the gift that makes our freedom possible. We are no longer bound by what came before us. We’re no longer bound by our limitations and imperfections. We’re no longer bound by the ways we have fallen short. God’s irrevocable mercy invites us to lift our heads and move forward into the world – urging us to bring this same gift to others!

As they say, free people free people!

Then in the gospel today from Luke 14 Jesus is taking up this same theme – albeit it in a different way.

Jesus is dining at a pharisee’s house and, no doubt, the other dinner guests were a bit of a ‘Who’s who” of significant people. Maybe the pharisee wanted others to see Jesus at his house. Maybe it was a draw to get other influential people there as he said, “Oh, and Jesus is going to be joining me. You’re not going to want to miss this!”

Of course Jesus knows that these kinds of dinners – then and now – were ways that  people made connections, cut deals and influenced social outcomes. Which is why the dinner guest invite list is so selective. You invite people who can benefit you somehow.

I reference Ched Myers a lot because of his radical scholarship that helps me to break open these passages in ways I never heard when I was younger. About this passage, Ched says, “Because the meal table mirrors the body politic, Jesus uses opportunities at dinner parties to teach about justice and inclusion…[And so] to a room full of executives intent on ladder climbing, Jesus introduces the radical notion that true social transformation comes from “below.” Luke doesn’t bother to record the audience’s reaction, but we can easily imagine it; in fact, we likely share the shock…Jesus suggests that rather than following the convention of inviting one’s circle of friends and family in the expectation of receiving back in kind, he should give priority to those who cannot reciprocate.”

Talk about an irrevocable gift! You give it all to those who cannot repay you, to those who can’t boost your social standing, to those who really need it.

Isn’t that what God has done for us – inviting us to a banquet table where we are given love and belonging and affirmation. Isn’t that how nature operates as well. And the only ask is that we go out into the world and do the same. And yet, even if and when we don’t, the gift is never taken back!

When I was younger, I never understood the phrase quid pro quo. It’s a Latin phrase that means “this for that” and often signifies that we do something for someone else in order to get something back. As I grew older, however, I began to understand it more clearly and saw it everywhere! Of course we’re seeing A LOT of this in our current political landscape, but it’s something that has been around for a very long time. I do something for you so that you will do something for me.

But when I read the scripture today (and think about God’s mercy), I think we’re more in a quid pro nihlio situation (doing something for nothing). Jesus is advocating for doing for others who cannot repay you. Others who cannot boost your social standing. Others who cannot enhance your life in material or social ways. This, he says, is true giving because the only reward we get out of it is knowing that we have furthered God’s “kin-dom.” And while he uses the dinner table as the point of reflection today, he could be talking about so many other tables that we sit at or convene. 

Whatever tables we sit at and whatever parties we get invited to, I think our readings invite us into a more generous way of living and giving – with our time, talents and treasure. They encourage us to step out of reciprocal systems that might enhance our status or standing somehow and, instead, invite an irrevocable generosity and mercy that begins to slowly change our world.