10-15-20 - Why Give?

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Then Jesus said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Give to God the things that are God’s. What belongs to God? Isn’t everything God’s? Doesn’t the emperor also belong to God? And if everything belongs to God – why does God need our gifts? Our tithes? Our offerings? God doesn’t need anything from us, if God is all in all. Maybe we need to give, because things get squirrely when we don’t, and because we are transformed when we do.

It is easy to see the two kinds of “giving” that Jesus talks about here as similar, parallel tracks. We pay our taxes to fund the goods and services we need governments to render us - we're paying ourselves, essentially, paying into a common pot from which all might benefit. We give our church offerings to pay for… what? Clergy and church buildings? Charity?

If we equate giving of our money and resources to God’s mission to “taxes” or “dues,” it is an obligation, a contractual exchange. That is not what giving is intended to be for Christians. We give in grateful response to all that we’ve received. We give because it sets us free, opens us, changes our hearts. We give because we love seeing what happens for others when we do. If our giving is stunted, it may be that we are not all that grateful.

Where does giving give you the most joy? Where do you feel the least willing?
Both answers give us some ground for prayer – and action.
Maybe we are being invited to give additionally in both categories, where it’s joyful and where it feels obligatory. Maybe we want to strengthen our gratitude muscles.

We are to give as God has given us – and in Christ, we see God giving us everything. I'm reminded of the U2 song, “With or Without You,” and its refrain, “And you give, and you give, and you give yourself away.” The song is not about a human relationship, but the struggle to exist in faith and intimacy with the God you cannot see. “See the stone set in your eyes/ See the thorn twist in your side.” – big Jesus reference there. (The “she” in U2 songs often refers to the Holy Spirit or to grace…)

“I can’t live, with or without you,” Bono sings. That refrain applies to both God and us in relationship to the giving God: And you give, and you give, and you give yourself away. And you never run out.

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