There was once a man who loved to go hunting. One year he bought a new shot gun to go duck hunting. When he was out hunting with his new gun he fell out of his boat. He didn’t want the gun to get wet so he kept trying to hold it over his head and he drowned.
Its one of those sad and funny stories. The disturbing thing is that I could see myself doing the same thing or something much like it. Probably most of us are like that if you think about it.
Our possessions posses us. They encumber us. They build walls. They distract us. They kill us. We kill for them.
Possessions are not evil. They are not evil. They are rather dangerous, they are dynamite, they are a gun with the safety turned off. They are a millstone that can pull us under and drown us if we hold on to them too tightly.
Our possessions posses us. It is so easy for our lives to become all about acquiring, consuming, maintaining and protecting our things, so much so that there is little time, energy, attention, wealth left over to give to anything else.
They crowd out relationships, they crowed out the weak and the suffering, they crowd out the poor, they crowd out God.
Possessions are not evil, they are dangerous, be careful with them.
Jesus looked at the rich man and loved him. He is the only person that Jesus is said to love.
Then he shakes things up.
“You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, then come, follow me. When he heard this, he was shocked, “his countenance fell” and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.”
The call to follow Jesus demands exclusive loyalty, it requires giving up the quest for power, prestige and possessions. Only then are we free to follow and serve, free to be quickly and joyously generous.
And there is no way we can do that by ourselves, no way.
We might as well try to thread a needle with a camel as try to belong only to God. But with God, all things are possible.
We are all drowning as we try to hold on to so many things. We have all been possessed by a dead thing that drags us under.
God doesn’t just stand there and say I’ll pull you up but only if you let go of all that stuff.
God rather looks at us, loves us and then dives into the depths with us and drowns for us.
That is who Jesus is, God dying for us, so that we can be free from all the things that are killing us.
The appropriate response is of course a life of surprised thanksgiving.
That is where we begin.
Not by trying harder, not by feeling guilty, not by feeling like we are better than other people, but rather we begin with a thankful heart and we go on from there with a life of extravagant praise and thankfulness.
Tithing and giving alms are traditional spiritual disciplines that are a way for us to keep testing and stretching our hearts. They are not about guilt. They are not about buying our way into heaven. They are valuable and ancient tools to help us belong more deeply to God.
Tithing is about giving a literal tenth of our income away. The idea is to always stretch in finding new ways to give more away. It is for most of us a gradual thing with some back and forth.
What it does is it changes how we live, it changes how we set priorities, it trains us to hold on loosely to our possessions, it trains us to be aware of excuses, it trains us to be honest about where our hearts really are, and most people who reach the literal tithe rarely stop there but go on and give even more.
It is biblical and commended by the Church.
Giving alms is similar, but it connects generosity and thanksgiving to the poor. Giving to the poor, that is what alms giving is about. There are lots of reasons for this, the same reasons as tithing, the fact that if we have something then someone else does not, but mostly it is about obedience to our Lord who commands us to give to the poor.
I suppose that is because the poor are always left out and forgotten, and God has been persistently revealed to not leave anyone out. Alms giving is consistent with the character and habits of God.
So the good news comes with a stern warning.
Our possessions posses us, they are not evil, they are dangerous, and we must always take the initiative with our possessions lest they own us and drag us under.
The Good news is that God is for us and God is committed to freeing us from the power of death that is drowning us.
We have been set free, our countenance has been lifted.
May our lips, may our lives say thank you.