Today’s Gospel lesson is one of the most debated in all of Christianity, and I bet you can guess the most question: Does Jesus ask us to give up all our wealth? All our possessions? My answer for you today: probably not?
It is possible. At least a few times in Christian history, God seems to have called a follower of Jesus to give up all their wealth. Last week we celebrated St. Francis and the Rev. Dr. Paul Hanneman preached a fine sermon. Francis is perhaps one of the most famous Christians who God called to give up all of his possessions. It has happened.
But it seems rare. Now whether the call to give up all your wealth is rare because the call from God is rare, or because human beings aren’t good at responding to this particular call, I’ll let you be the judge. If you want to test it, there are pledge cards available.
Jokes aside, if today’s Gospel isn’t a call for all of us to give up all of our wealth, what is it about?
Money Stories
There’s a term that has become popular in the last decade or so that I think names well the teaching in this Gospel. That term is “money story.” The idea of a “money story” is pretty simple: we all have narratives when it comes to money. We all have stories we have been told, and we tell ourselves around money.
Your parents or grandparents may have lived through the Great Depression, and their dominate money story was always a story of scarcity. Many folks who lived through the Great Depression hardly ever spent money on themselves. They wore shoes until the soles fell off. They shopped exclusively at thrift stores. For many, the habits and feelings around money remained the same, regardless of what income looked like after the Depression. That’s one money story.
Another money story many of us know well has been called “keeping up with the Joneses.” We use our wealth to demonstrate our worthiness in society. Money becomes about having the latest car, or laptop, or vacation home, depending on your social set, not because we need these possessions but because we want others to see what we are capable of owning.
My spiritual director, Russell, lives in the mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. This week, Russell can tell you, it isn’t what you have that will save you. It is your relationships. Russell sent a note out last week, assuring his friends and spiritual directees that he is okay, and saying that he spent most of the past few days with his neighbors, sharing what food they had, taking turns in the house with the one working shower. He said he spent most of the week loading up rocks from the river into one neighbor’s truck, so they could fill in the deepest holes in the road to their homes. That way emergency services could access the neighborhood, and hopefully, eventually, the power company could bring back electricity. In a disaster, it’s not your stuff, its your neighbors who matter.
If your money story is about competition, if you spend your time and money competing with your neighbors, you might not be building the relationships you need when the storm comes.
The money story of the young man in the Gospel might well be what is at issue for Jesus. Mark tells us that the rich young man asked to sell all he has, he goes away “gloomy.” The Greek word here is the same you use for a cloudy sky. He is gloomy because he had many possessions. Jesus in this Gospel is inviting us to be careful, to know that what we own can end up owning us. If we’re too attached to what we have, if we’re clinging to our stuff, we’ll never make it through the eye of the needle. This young man has sunk his story about himself into his story about wealth. He only knows his value because of his possessions.
The invitation in this Gospel then is the same for all of us: we need to learn to practice another story about money. Gods story about money is about our capacity to make a difference for others. Granted, I don’t believe God wants all of us to give up all of our possessions. But the practice of generosity still matters, because it helps us to tell another story about money.
Three Practices of Generosity
Today I want to encourage you to consider three Christian practices around generosity, three practices that can help you shift your stories around money. They are pretty simple: 1) give away some of your money. 2) Give enough that you can feel it. 3) Give in a way that makes a difference.
The first practice is the most basic: give away some of your money. I once heard a preacher say, “money is a very powerful tool. If you can give away some of your money, you have power over the tool. If you can’t give away any of your money, it has power over you.” There’s some realness in that measure, the Gen-Z folks would tell us.
One of the biggest surprises I have had in ministry has been the generosity of people who live in poverty. I can’t tell you how many times folks who are waiting in line at our food pantry have asked me if they can make a donation. I have learned to always accept the generosity, to let them hand me a dollar or two and to say thank you. Because giving back gives the person in line a sense of dignity. I’ve only ever been handed a donation from someone at the food pantry with a big smile, and a word of thanks. “Thank you, and thank you for letting me give back” they say. Giving back can help to shift a money story away from “recipient of charity” to “working to give more.” Money is a powerful tool. If you’re feeling powerless, give a little money away.
The second practice asks us to step up our generosity: give so that you feel it. The folks who give a dollar or two away in line at the food pantry, they feel it. They’ve given up a few miles worth of gasoline, a few hours worth of an electricity. They feel it.
For centuries the church invited people to give a tithe, to give back to God ten percent. Honestly, very few Episcopalians practice the tithe today, but if you haven’t considered it, I would say there is still wisdom in the percentage gift. The tithe is Ellis and my guidepost for giving. We practice what has sometimes been called the “modern tithe” because we aim to give ten percent across the various charities and causes we support, counting 10 percent of our income as God’s money. Our largest gift goes to the church. We also give a human rights organization in Central America, to PBS and NPR and lately to fun-runs and other PTO fundraisers as well.
Whether you can practice giving away ten percent, or you need to start the percentage a little lower, or maybe you have more disposable income and can give away an even higher percentage, I would encourage you to practice generosity in a way that you feel it. If your giving is a meaningful part of your budget, it can make a difference in the story you tell yourself about money overall. Money isn’t just about me, it is about my neighbor and my relationship to God. Giving a percentage helps me remember, all I have is from God, and God asks me to use what I have to make a difference.
The final practice I’d encourage you to consider is perhaps the most counter-cultural: give in a way that makes a real difference. A few years ago, in Stewardship Season, The Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson, who is now Marian Wright Edelman’s successor as the leader of the Children’s Defense Fund, preached at my old church about giving.
In his sermon, Starsky Wilson challenged our congregation to look closely at where we give our money. He said, “if you want to see real change in society, you’re not going to get there by giving large donations to the institutions which already have the largest endowments, and the biggest staffs for alumni giving.” The charitable giving industrial complex can be a powerful motivator, but if you give a large gift to a University with a multi-billion dollar endowment, you’re not likely to make much social change. Starsky encouraged us instead to look for smaller non-profits, for churches, even for entrepreneurs and artists who are making a real difference in their neighborhoods. If we’re intentional and creative, we might give in ways that change our whole society’s story about money.
I hope, when you consider places to give, you consider St. Michael’s. I hope when you see our ministry, that you see us making a real difference, that you want to join in the work for change here generously. And I hope your giving is not exhausted by St. Michael’s. My hope as your pastor is that 1) you are giving away your money, that 2) you are giving in a way that you feel, and 3) that you are giving in a way that makes a real difference for your neighbors. Because our world needs more than our loose change. Our world needs real change.
A final word about money stories.
I honestly don’t think today’s Gospel asks all of us to give up all of our wealth, but I do think Jesus is asking us to give something up. Jesus asks give up our old stories about money. Jesus invites us to lay down the stories that we don’t have enough, worse that we aren’t enough. Jesus invites us to stop looking for our sense of worth through what we can accumulate, through our possessions. Jesus invites us to lay down the story that counts worth through wealth.
This week you might take some time to think about money. Think about the stories you heard in your family growing up, and ask whether those narratives are still true for you. You might take some time to look at how you are spending your money. If you are shopping for meaning, or if you find yourself always worried about whether you have enough, take some time to breathe. Ask if your spending reflects your values. If your money story leaves you anxious, or angry, or gloomy, pray about how you can let that money story go.
Whatever the story you inherited, you can write a new story. God invites all of us, all of us, to generosity. The dollar figures may be different for each, but the practice is the same. God’s radical generosity teaches us that our best investment is in being a good neighbor, that we can make a difference. Practicing generosity helps us to write a new story, because the practice itself teaches us in God’s eyes, we are always, always, more than enough. Amen
Mike Angell 