9-5-13 - Give it ALL Away?

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." Yikes… 
I had a conversation with a friend this week about the discomfort we feel in opulent surroundings – a very fancy restaurant, a deluxe resort in an impoverished nation. He said, “Well, Jesus didn’t say we couldn’t be rich, did he?”

“We-e-e-l-l-l,” I said, “He kind of did, more than once, talk about giving it all away and following him. But I’m hoping he’ll accept the gradual approach…”

Yes, I’m on the slow road to giving it all away. So are most of the people I know. Do we count as wealthy? You bet. We like to compare ourselves to people with more money; looks like we’re just getting by. But even the poor in America are richer than 85% of people in the world, many of whom try to live on less than $1 a day. Put it that way...you do the math.

In the Gospels, we see Jesus interact with prosperous people. To some he says, “Give it all.” To others, he doesn’t. Zaccheus in the flush of conversion offers to give half his net worth to the poor; Jesus doesn’t say, “What about the other half?” When Jesus talks about how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, he may be saying it’s impossible – or simply noting the fact that people of means often put their security in their accumulated wealth rather than in God. If you can walk the fine line of having a lot of resources and not relying on them, then you might have the freedom needed to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

God wants us to trust in God’s provision, not in our own resources or strategies. The expression, “God helps those who help themselves” is not in the Bible. It is contrary to the spirit of the Good News Jesus preached of radical openness to the grace of God and radical generosity to the poor in wallet and the poor in spirit. If everyone viewed every child as a precious gift of God, there might not be so many living on garbage heaps. We’re not there yet, most of us...

So, how do we respond?
Today, maybe we begin with gratitude for the resources we have. Name a few, write them down.

If you feel a tug of remorse, offer repentance, not because of your resources, but for clinging to them. Have you felt called to share what you have, and didn’t? Name it.

How about we ask Jesus what he wants us to do with our money? That’d be scary… I don’t think I’ve ever prayed that prayer. But he’s not going to reach into our bank accounts – he just might inspire us to be freer with them.

Jesus’ invitation is to follow him, to start consciously walking the road with Him every day. If we do that, He’s going to start pointing out sights we may not have noticed before. He may introduce us to people who live closer to the edge; might nudge us to give to this organization or that ministry. We might find ourselves wanting to volunteer in parts of town we never saw before, or make new friends.

It starts with “Yes, Jesus. I want to follow you. This is what I can give today.” If you truly walk with Him, the “what I can give today” is going to grow and grow. So will you.