Learning to Receive

My “daughter in the Lord” Mary has a keen insight into the Lord’s servants, being one herself. Recently, she commented that her husband and some of us down here in Katrina-land are great quarterbacks but lousy halfbacks. I recognize a football metaphor when I see one but had to ask what it meant.

“A quarterback gives to others but is a poor receiver. My husband would give the shirt off his back and serve until he couldn’t stand any longer. But he can’t receive a gift graciously. Once he returned a Lazy-Boy recliner we gave him for Father’s Day. He can’t catch a compliment without dropping it.”

She added, “I worry about you burning out and pray for God to give you the encouragement and renewal that you need.”

It might come as a surprise to Mary, but I think a lot about the necessity of learning to receive graciously. Couple of little stories on that subject. (Sorry. Everything reminds me of a story.)

Years ago, Evangelist Perry Neal of Montgomery was passing through our city of Columbus, MS, and I invited him to lunch. As we sat in the dining room of the Holiday Inn, I remarked about the huge “Alabama” belt buckle he was wearing. Without a word, he unsnapped it and handed it across the table. I said, “Perry! I don’t want your belt buckle.” He said, “McKeever, learn to be a gracious receiver!” I said, “Give it here!” And I’ve kept it ever since. It’s as big as a platter and reminds me of a rodeo champion’s buckle, but I break it out occasionally and wear it with my denims, usually while donning my Bo Parker cowboy boots from the same period in my young adulthood.

Cindy Pelphrey, wife of Tom, long-time friends, was serving as a youth minister at a large church. One day a man in the congregation approached her. “Cindy, would you like some turnip greens? My garden is really looking great this year.” Cindy told him the truth: “No, thank you very much. We don’t eat turnip greens and frankly, they’re a lot of trouble to prepare.” The man’s jaw dropped and he walked away. He was obviously hurt, but Cindy had no clue what to do about it. A moment later, her pastor’s wife walked over and put her arm around her. “Honey,” she said, “never turn down a gift. It gives pleasure to the giver, and if you can’t use it, you can always pass it on to someone else.”

I have assured Mary that as a veteran pastor, I long ago learned how to receive. Preachers live off the generosity of others. This, of course, offends some with an inflated sense of ego, and leaves all of us in a quandry. Either we resist people’s gifts and deprive them of the blessings of giving, or we overdo it and become focused on finding ways to get people to give to us. Both are ditches in between which lies the road.

Recently after preaching at Calvary in Alexandria, a gentleman thrust a hundred-dollar bill in my hand. “Put it where it’s needed,” he said. Then, this week, a friend from Mississippi sent me a check for the same amount. Friday, when one of our pastors came by to discuss a problem he is going through, I presented him with two hundred dollars. Gifts from the Lord.

One of our Mission Service Corp couples received some money from our Katrina relief funds the other day. We knew they were having a financial struggle and put in a request for some assistance for them. Friday, the wife sent an e-mail asking whom to thank. I said, “God. I’ll tell Him.”

Someone once said, “No one unwilling to be eternally in debt can ever become a disciple of Jesus Christ.”


My illustrious seminary professor, Ray Frank Robbins, used to point out that when Jesus called us to become as little children to enter the Kingdom, He meant that we should learn to receive as a child. “Children excel at receiving,” he said. “And they don’t feel they have to earn the gift or pay you back. They just accept it. That’s how one enters the kingdom.”

A sermon in trees.

Driving down almost any street in the New Orleans flood zone, one spots rows of dead trees. These are leafless, blackened as dark as anything Chef Emeril ever called cajun, stark and gaunt against the sky. However, up and down those same medians close to the dead trees, you notice living trees–green, lush, thriving. The dead trees have been that way ever since the storm last year. Through the winter, the dead and living trees all looked the same. Springtime revealed which was dead and which had survived.

Call that a metaphor for life. The Holy Spirit sweeps into a congregation and those who are alive respond to His presence. They look fresh, they begin to grow, they bear fruit. However, the dead wood stands unmoved, resisting, deaf to His call. If they think anything, it’s to wonder what the excitement is all about.

The Lord Jesus would walk into a town and begin to speak and everyone would choose up sides. No one was neutral. He once said, “The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they who hear shall live.” (John 5:24) Some hear, some do not. Some begin to live; some continue in death.

The nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation took a poll–yes, another poll–in which they asked 1217 adults across this country their attitude toward this part of the world these days. Among the questions was this one: “Now, thinking specifically about New Orleans, which do you think best describes the situation in New Orleans today?” 52 percent agreed that “there is still major work to be done to get the city up and running again.” 30 percent said, “The city is still in crisis and not functioning well.” 11 percent said, “There is still some work to be done, but most people are back to their normal lives.” Thankfully, only 2 percent said things are back to normal here, and 5 percent had no answer.

All in all, we’re fairly pleased to find that some 80 percent of Americans are aware of the critical situation which we still find ourselves in. This assumes the poll to be representative of the country. If you perceive that I am skeptical of polls–all polls–and feel they are basically meaningless, you’d be correct.

The group hired by the state to oversee the dispensing of rebuilding money to homeowners in our area has only started and become embroiled in controversy. A company called ICF International interviews homeowners to determine what kind of rebuilding or buyout grants they should receive. In order to keep down the possibility for fraud, the company is taking photographs and fingerprints of every applicant. And that, says rights-advocates, violates something or other. The ACLU is “concerned.”

“None of the applicants has complained,” says a spokesperson. Mayor Nagin says he has heard complaints. “They said it made them feel like a criminal.” I don’t doubt it. It’s reminiscent of the security you pass through on your way into a concourse at the airport. Drop all liquids into this trash container, take off your shoes, no nail files, empty out your pockets.

You do not have to submit yourself to these humiliating requirements, of course. Unless you want to fly. And you do not have to be fingerprinted and photgraphed. You have a right to get up and walk out. Unless you would like them to write you a check for, oh, say, $150,000, in which case, you will want to stay in the line.

The carping might be considered reasonable if we had not had reports of thousands of people defrauding FEMA out of zillions of dollars in the months following Katrina. So, these strictures have good sense behind them.

To our disappointment and shame, not all “men in blue” conducted themselves as heroes in the days following Katrina’s devastation. Most police officers did, by all reports, and deserve our lasting honors. This week a former NOPD cop pleaded guilty to driving a pickup truck stolen from Sewell Cadillac in the CBD. One of 200 vehicles looted from this and another dealership when the city was in a panic, the officer took the pickup to Texas. No tag, no registration, nothing. The former officer faces up to 10 years in prison. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten says, “By no means is this case over. There are other cars that were stolen.”

The residents of New Orleans proper–not the metro area–are having trouble with their electric company. Entergy New Orleans, a subsidiary of Entergy Corp., has to shoulder its own money problems without help from its mama. So, following the massive costs to the company as a result of Katrina, the monthly bills sent to customers–those with power in the first place–are being hiked by $45 a month. Meanwhile, the parent company has just shown a huge profit for the first half of 2006 and CEO Wayne Leonard was given a bonus of $7.7 million. What’s wrong with this picture? Citizens are hollering to high heaven over the inequity of it all.

The Corps of Engineers has started demolishing a row of houses alongside the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. The breeched levee last August/September caused great structural damage to these 14 homes, making them irreparable. The corps wants the land these houses sit on for enlarged levees. All of this is just a block or two south of our Pontchartrain Baptist Church, and on the east side of the levee from Metairie’s Bucktown, to give you your bearing.

People are dreading August 29, the one year anniversary of Katrina’s arrival. The festivities have been toned down (no parties, comedy shows, fireworks), and most of the events seem to take place in religious settings. The churches of our Baptist association are working with an interdenominational Pastors Coalition in the Prayer Rally for that Tuesday evening at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans. Present plans call for a number of speakers, including Fred Luter of Franklin Avenue Church, and George Huff of American Idol singing.

Thursday, the newspaper gave half a page to listing non-profits that will clean out and gut damaged homes free and giving contact information. Immediately after the names and phone numbers, several have added notations such as: “Three to five months,” “Three months,” “Not accepting new applications,” and “Wait varies.” Our organization read: “Southern Baptist Disaster Relief/Operation Noah; (504) 362-4604; free; Orleans Parish; indefinite wait.”

Saint Bernard Parish is opening a door for homeowners who pay attention to the news and will act quickly. After September 1, owners of homes with more than 50 percent damage will be required to rebuild on higher elevations, which in most cases is at least three feet, in order to qualify for the LRA grants of as much as $150,000. This week parish officials announced that if a homeowner secures a rebuilding permit before September 1, that will be considered as meeting the deadline. By getting the permit, you are “proving” that you started rebuilding before the deadline.

Speaking of St. Bernard Parish, Junior Rodriguez is in the news. The president of the parish council is defending plans to erect a giant cross somewhere in the Chalmette area to commemmorate lives lost after Katrina. A cross? Heavens, the ACLU cries. You can’t do that. “Watch us,” says Mr. Junior.

Friday on the Rush Limbaugh radio show, guest host Roger Haithcock (?) devoted 15 minutes to this issue, telling about the large cross at LaJolla that honors the dead from the San Diego area in the various wars. Eventually, the only way they could get the ACLU and “annoying atheists” off their back, he said, was for the federal government to take over the property. We’ll see.

Congressman William Jefferson, who has yet to be indicted in the embezzlement case where some of his assistants have pleaded guilty and accused him of being the mastermind, is drawing an even dozen opponents in his run for re-election. Friday was the final day to qualify. Several candidates are unknowns and the rest mid-level politicians. I live in Jefferson Parish and Bobby Jindal represents us in Congress, but all Americans should keep an eye on this New Orleans election.

This week our wonderful governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, proposed that tolls be charged motorists on several segments of Interstates 10 and 12 through South Louisiana. You should have heard the protests. One wonders if she’s been associating with Mayor Nagin too much, the way she shoots from the hip and then has to retract her statements. “It’s not going to happen,” the governor announced Friday.

I’m preaching Sunday morning at the Vieux Carre’ Baptist Church on Dauphine Street, a block north of Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. (Open house at 10:30; church at 11:00, if you can come.) Friday, I asked Pastor Greg Hand, “Who will be there?” He described a congregation made up of some residents in the quarter, some street people, and some church volunteers staying at the church facility to witness in the quarter.

In his e-mail newsletter this week, Pastor Greg tells of the work of teams of volunteers from Victory Temple in Lanett, Alabama, Recovery Church in Birmingham, Southside in Nashville, Seneca in South Carolina, and Brazos Meadows Church in Texas. Greg writes, “We are believing God that the seeds you have sown will not only reap a harvest here, but that the Lord will watch over the seeds to produce abundance in your lives and ministries.”

God is good. Serving Him is wonderful. Serving Him alongside you makes it infinitely more special.