I don’t know if everyone dreams about winning the lottery from time to time, but I do. I occasionally buy a ticket and I don’t win. I believe that I don’t win for two reasons. I believe that I don’t win because of the incredibly poor odds that everyone has when they buy a ticket. More importantly I think God keeps the money out of my hands because I couldn’t handle it.
In reading McLaren’s book the Secret Message of Jesus, it strikes me that there is at least two (probably more that I can’t see) reasons why Jesus tells us to do things. I should give to the poor. That verse is that straightforward. 1. I should give to the poor because giving to the poor is a good kingdom thing. We can see the kingdom beauty when worried parents are able to feed their children and pay the monthly mortgage because they were given money. That is the literal and obvious beauty. 2. I should give to the poor because it heals me. McLaren writes, “Money, it turns out, is a cruel taskmaster; when you serve money, soon you will resent God for interfering with your humming, expanding economic kingdom.” We (I) need to be delivered from love of money.
Let me brag though. I’ve gotten better. I used to dream about buying lake houses and owning a Jaguar. I’ve heard enough Gideon Tsang to let some of those things go. If I won the lottery…at least I think I would give most of it away. I’d be like Jesus, and invest my money in all kinds of good kingdom things…as my friend Lanny says, “do some Bono shit.” I’d only keep $1,000,000. Who could blame me? After all there are plenty of passages that talk about being a good steward. I could put the last $1,000,000 in a high return account and always have money so that I could use my time for good kingdom activities.
And yet there are those passages that are altogether too costly. At the end of Mark 12, Jesus is observing people throwing their money into the money jar. This type of jar was extra loud when the rich people dropped their large sums of money. Everyone could hear the clanking. Then the poor widow comes up to the jar to drop her money. Her coins are so few and so light that they are barely noticeable. And yet Jesus sums his disciples and tells us, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”(43-44)
Dr. Gloer tells me that this is one case where the English doesn’t do the text justice. It should read something like, “has put in her whole life.” Which is interesting because in one of Jesus’ last comments in the public setting we see the metaphor…the coming sacrifice that will require his whole life.
What this text tells me is that the last $1,000,000 I’d keep to be a good steward is precisely the million that would destroy me. It would teach me never to trust, and it would render me like the ones dropping in the large sums of money to hear it clank. Giving her two small coins the lady probably helped someone in some small way, but what she really did was demonstrate that she pledged her entire existence to the kingdom and that money had no power over her.
This is a hard word.
4 comments:
Josh,
Permit to add a reason to give to the poor. It is the "only" thing a person can do when they truly understand who Jesus Christ is for them. When we understand in faith, we know that we are free for Christ, which means we are free for others, and there is really nothing else we could do. As Hauerwas puts it, to live in this way is the live "with the grain of the universe." That is, as you say, beautiful, though of course one would not need the condition of poverty in order to live free for others. Insofar as we give of ourselves to anyone, we live "with the grain of the universe."
Thanks for that post Josh. This is such a hard one and I struggle a lot with it. That common dichotomy of wanting to allow myself to trust God with little, but with this hope that maybe I'll be trusted with more some other day. Somebody has to pay for the electricity and I think that I just hope that is me because then I would probably get to live in a bit more luxury then those that merely come and enjoy the light. But then I know myself well enought to think that I would get prideful of "what I have created." Damn tower of Babel.
I always feel like stuff I give away is never enough. I could always trust God more and give more. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be. I'm guessing we shouldn't ever be satisfied with ourselves for our giving. That leaves me feeling guilty as hell all the time, but that's another deal.
Also, I'm David's pal in Denver. He pointed me here and I dig. Hard.
I'd really like it if I won. I think that line about God keeping the money away from you becuase you can't handle it is a bunch of crap. I don't really buy that one. I think it's just because your odds stink that you never win the lottery. If I won, I might float you some cash.
Anyways, yes give some to the poor, but I also think it is okay to enjoy what money can buy at times. I think God is happy when people who have money can do fun enjoyable things with it. The wedding at Canna for example, Jesus wasn't out living in a cardboard box in the street because he had given all his money to the poor, he was at a party, drinking some wine, wishing the happy couple a happy life together. I bet he even bought them a nice present. Maybe carved them a chair or something. That'd be pretty sweet. Sitting down in a chair and bragging to your friends, "It's a Jesus original. Only one like it. He came to our wedding you know." Back to my point, give your money away, but it's also not a sin to enjoy it, even if it means buying a lake house in Minocqua.
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