Wealth Money and all that Jazz,

A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday morning one of our Pastors spoke about giving. I enjoyed it, (the communication was very good). The whole area of wealth is a bit of a minefield and I thought the brother who spoke very wisely avoided making comments about riches and rich people. Funny though how we always look at things according to our own viewpoint (and that must be the only way we can look at them) some in the meeting had a different viewpoint than me and interpreted the message differently. Rather than criticising those people I should first take a walk in their shoes.

I have never had any money to speak of but I have never been in poverty. My parents were poor but very generous. They taught me that money and posessions are to be held lightly. As a result of my upbringing and my choices as an adult I see money as a means to an end. I never wanted to be rich. I remember how I left my first job (in a Bank, no less). I was called for some kind of reveiw at head office. I hadn't started doing my Bankers diploma. The reason for this was basically that I was still a kid at seventeen, afraid of everyone and everybody and the thought of study after a dozen perplexing years at school didn't do it for me. I didn't know how to learn and wonder how I ever got any O levels. The Bank wanted people who wanted to advance. I told the person (or it may have been a couple of people) that I wasn't really interested in money and they suggested I resign, which I did.

At the age of 23 I moved into common purse community. Our vision was relative poverty so we got by. I have sometimes gone weeks without spending any money. I have never lacked, have never had to wonder where the next meal was coming from.

There are positive and negative spin offs from this lifestyle. I perhaps, freed from the responsibility of making ends meet taken a lot longer to grow up than I would otherwise have done, on the other hand I have learned to hold loosely the things that I can't carry with me into eternity of which money is one. I want to emulate my parents. They gave generously and in turn they received bountifully.

I have no Bank account and as far as I can only spend what I need to. What then do I think of riches? Jesus says make friends for yourself with money and he also says that if we do not act honourably with money who will give us the true riches. It also says that God will provide all my need according to his riches in Christ Jesus. I am happy with that. My antecedents have established my viewpoint.

What of another person with a different history? How can I walk in their shoes? Maybe they grew up in poverty desperate just to have enough. To escape poverty and live free from the gnawing anxieties generated by lack has driven them to seek financila stability and abundance. Should I label them as a heretic, someone who embraces prosperity teaching and therefore have nothing to do with them or should I try to understand? There is such a problem when we make it our life's work to attack what other people are doing, to label everyone who does not accord perfectly with how we do things as somehow under God's judgement. No. We may of course be unable to agree, we may not find ourselves able to inhabit the same space churchwise because of our differences. We have got to look for agreement, what can we encourage in each other; what can we DO together to establish God's kingdom on earth?

From that sermon a couple of Sundays ago I remember one main thing: What we give financially to the work of the Church has to be what we have decided in our own hearts.