Walking Around Money

A couple of good books: Christine Pohl’s Making Room, a study on hospitality in the Christian tradition, and Amy G.Oden’s And You Welcomed Me, a collection of writings from the early church on the issues of hospitality. “Hospitality” unfortunately is hampering the cause; that is once it becomes a defined field of study and God forbid there are conferences on the subject, no one will pay attention!

I came away from the books very refreshed. Oden’s book has a section on the practice of hospitality, and there’s one thing that comes out clearly, something that has long stirred me, and has special value at The Rock La Roca. Across space and time, one can summarize the early church’s view of the practice of hospitality in this simple command: “do not go to the poor empty-handed.”

Rarely have we ever thought out our response to their poor in our midst. Most often, we decide we need to do something, and then we do… something. But then we start to have all the reasonable worries: shouldn’t they get a job? Aren’t we just teaching them to be dependent? Are we enabling bad behaviors? And pretty soon we develop “policies” to define when and how we “help.” This usually involves things like stipulating an amount that we will give, how we will judge the need, what is the process for delivery, etc. I want to suggest that these policies are totally about us, about protecting us, not about actually helping.

Here’s what I mean. If you decide you won’t pay more than $50 on a gas bill, for example, what is that about? Is it really about making sure someone “doesn’t work the system?” By the time someone gets to asking for help on a bill, it is way past $50, so you’re not really helping.

Then we decide that to be responsible stewards, we need to make sure that the need is actually a worthy need. Our mania for organization takes over and we ask that the person in need come in for an interview. I am not sure what that’s about either, because it is most assuredly not to start an on-going relationship with the person in need.

We have paperwork to file before we can get the money. Again, this is to make things easier for us. I readily admit to the difficulties of cutting a check on the spot. And indeed, you have to really beware of someone asking for money “right now!” But on the other hand, many needs of the poor come up because 2 days before rent is due, they have to repair a car or by medicine. If they could just plan it so it could fit the day we cut checks…

None of these ways of handling “benevolences” fits the pattern laid down for us by the early Christians. The emperor Trajan, when he was considering persecuting Christians asked Pliny to investigate. After checking it out, Pliny wrote back and said that the Christians have a weird religion, but they’re not enemies of the state. They take care of the poor. If someone is sick, they take care of them. If someone is hungry, others will fast until there is enough to eat. The early Christians were in a word, extravagant.

If we take into account the way we generally do things as churches, we’ll see something that ought to shame us: our charity ends up as a burden. If someone owes $200 and has to go to 4 churches to get the help, has to go to 4 interviews of people determining if the need is valid (4 different churches for a single mother taking the bus—you get the picture) and then having to balance when the different checks come… not really very helpful.

Let’s get challenged by something: you are working the system. You had way more than a $200 gas bill. The Lord paid it all. He did not give you $50 worth of salvation and then tell you to try Buddha or Mohammed or help a little old lady cross the street, and maybe it would all work out! It’s called grace. You’re working the system. You said you’d repent and lead a new life, but it’s hard and the old life keeps cropping up, and you need His mercy anew! Thank God He did not say, “they’ll become dependent on me. I dare not offer them salvation! They’ll just work the system to their advantage. Why don’t they just straighten up?”

You won’t find anybody more interested in making sure someone’s life doesn’t change if the church helps them. And that’s the key—most times we don’t really care or try to see that their lives change. But that is what we are called to. What if we decided to be graceful? What if we sought to meet needs thoroughly? Now, we won’t do that most times because, well, it’s crazy talk. But it is only crazy talk if we are not willing to follow through. And it’s our long inability to follow through that keeps our charity as no charity at all.

I have long wanted to have what I call “walking around money,” that is, some funds that are available to always be ready so that if someone is in need, if I pass someone on the street, or I visit a poor house, that I won’t have to be there with some pious words and the hope that maybe things will work out. So I keep a stack of Wal-Mart gift cards with me, and if there is a need, we try to meet it as best we can.

But let’s go deep, and put forward a plan that can get us back to how we are supposed to live as God’s people. We have learned that the biggest problem facing the kids (and therefore the families) in our community is transience. That is, by November 1/3 of the students at the elementary school had not started there. What that means practically, is that the kids have to start all over each time they move. They fall behind, and if they have learning difficulties, it only gets worse. For the family, it’s not much better: they fall behind each time they move, too, in terms of money and reputation among people who might rent homes. The school principal says that if kids can stay in the school for three years, they can overcome most learning difficulties or being behind.

So, how do we address something like this? We came up with an idea, a Methodist idea, an early church idea: what if we meet the needs that cause people to move? That is, instead of waiting until the family is behind on rent, let’s figure out what the gap is and subsidize that gap. The practical result is that we keep the child in the school because we kept the family in the neighborhood. So. Are you willing to spend, say, $250 a month on a few families?

No, actually, most people would not be. For all the reasons we talked about above—it’s working the system, maybe they need to work harder, etc. But, those reasons were also exposed as shams because we talk ourselves out of generosity because we won’t take on the whole of the work of charity.

See, we have to be willing to go deep. That is, the Lord has blessed this already because the school has paired us with our first family, the family of a little girl I have been working with on school issues. Who knew it would be her family? And when I approached the family and said we would like to help, they were a bit shocked. Who does such a thing? They were still freaked out when I told them it’s because of Jesus ( thumbnail way of saying Luke 14 and Matthew 25…).

I also laid out that we would be asking them to be willing for me and Curtis Book (our missions pastor) to meet with them, to discuss where the money goes, how to budget, set priorities, learn life skills, and talk about new life in Jesus. Hey, if you take my rent, you gotta take my love.

The only way to actually be generous is to not give money, but rather to give the money it is going to take to get the job done, and then enter their lives in love. A little bit of money for a gas bill makes no difference. Pay more generously and enter into the real work of long-term transformation. This is why you came to Jesus. If He had forgiven only part of your sins and then left you to fend for yourself, what a mess you’d be in! But instead, He paid it all, and left you His continuing presence in the Holy Spirit and Holy Communion. He sticks with you through the hard times, not leaving when you are selfish, lazy, or ignorant. Lord, may we be willing to deal with others as you have dealt with us. Amen.

So how did all this happen? Well, it started on a small scale in Clark County. The missions person, Becky Taylor, was pretty generous with people in need. I learned a lot from that. And the need was everywhere. Pretty soon Frankie Moore and Cynthia Long were wanting to feed people. So wherever I went, I was not empty-handed, and quite simply, the Lord blesses that.

I am really just a country pastor in the heart of the town. I visit, like Wesley asked his pastors to, from house to house, to find the social needs and spiritual needs. Woe to me if I can preach the Gospel but cannot feed the hungry!! And though I don’t get to pray for sick calves or mean horses anymore, or help people load hay, it’s not that much different, the visiting from house to house. Maybe the needs are more stark, or maybe they are just more concentrated.

Somebody gave me $3,000 for my “discretionary” fund. I don’t know what all will happen with it, but I can guarantee you I will never be embarrassed again by saying I can’t help. Or won’t help.