Alms from within


There's hardly one thing congregations want to hear about less than stewardship, the term used to refer to the giving of individual church members or families. Hearts shrink when the inevitable stewardship sermon series roll around or whenever "temple talks" intrude on the order or service. Few of us whose giving habits languish can be transformed by the imposition of guilt or even by hearing about those whose lives were changed by the church. 

As we approach Thanksgiving, it is a good time to step outside of the Revised Common Lectionary and plunge deep into Luke 11, where--starting in verse 37--we encounter Jesus as his saltiest. 

The Son of Man has just accepted a dinner invitation from a Pharisee. The host innocently wonders why his guest has failed to wash his hands before eating. He is doubtless taken aback by the barrage that ensues. Repeatedly pronouncing woe on the Pharisees and lawyers as well (after a lawyer dares to interrupt him), Jesus berates them for focusing on appearances instead of practicing justice and the love of God. His diatribe begins:

Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? So give for alms those things that are within; and seek everything will be clean for you.

What alms is Jesus talking about? He seems to refer not to tangible gifts, but to the impulse that drives our giving. If we examine this impulse, we will discover what is in our heart. Fruitful giving, he implies--that which cleanses us--wells up in us from deep within, out of our gratitude for God's grace and our humble acceptance that God's mercy and forgiveness comes to us in infinite measure, free of charge. Our giving flows out of the conviction that eternal life is ours, right here and right now, through the overwhelming gift of God's Son, given for us. Understanding that the church is the body of Christ in the world, how could we not give to support the work of the church?

As we emerge out of the most expensive political campaign in American history, it is a good time to remember that political contributions and giving to the church have two very different sources. Too often one hears of parishes in which giving has been appropriated by angry members as a political tool. Yes, the church is in the world and subject to its whirlwinds. But we can still cling to the words of Jesus' great prayer to his Father in John 17:16-18, prayed on behalf of his disciples but which applies to all Christ's servants in the world:

They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

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