Luke 14:25–33
On Sunday morning I taught a class on some crazy saints known as the Dessert Fathers and Mothers. They were people who—when Christianity became mainstream in the 4th and 5th centuries—decided that they wanted to live outside of the comfortable spot that society was now offering Christians. Previously being a Christian required someone to risk life and limb, as the members of the Early Church cared for the plague-ridden masses, adopted abandoned babies, and were often martyred for their beliefs. Desert Fathers and Mothers thought it only right to keep up the intensity of their Christian forebears.
During this Sunday school class I focused in on several saints including Antony of Egypt. After hearing Jesus’ words on not being anxious about tomorrow, Antony sold his family’s sizeable estate, put his sister in a home for young maidens, and went outside the walls of society to live and pray. He spent twenty years alone. After hearing all of this I asked the class what they thought of Antony. Almost uniformly everyone thought he was crazy.
Their comments varied, but all seemed to have a theme of thinking him out of his right mind. They said things like, “He lived alone for twenty years.” “Why did he leave his sister all alone?” and “He gave up all that he had!” As we continued our conversation in class I found myself thinking that Antony had taken seriously the command that we heard in today’s Gospel account, “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Often we hear words like this coming out of Jesus’ mouth. A rich young man comes up to him seeking eternal life and even though the man has lived a good life Jesus tells him he lacks one thing. That one thing? Selling all that he has and following Jesus. Jesus challenges those who listen to him to understand that it is very hard for a rich person to make it into heaven. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich person to make it Jesus assures us. We also hear Jesus saying that we cannot serve two masters and where our treasure is there our heart will be also. But every time I hear this crazy message I have almost the exact opposite response as Antony. Instead of letting go of all that I have I find myself fumbling for excuses.
“Well,” I say to myself, “Jesus only means these things figuratively. He doesn’t really want us to give everything away.” The truth is that while the Church often talks about sacrificial, proportional, first-fruits giving God is not interested in that. Or, perhaps better said, God is not only interested in that. Jesus makes it clear that it is not about 10% of our lives, 15% of our lives, or even half our lives—it is about all of our lives. God wants everything. Our whole hearts, our minds, our possessions, our skills, our gifts, our passions, our energy, and everything else. Heck! God will even take our sins, faults, and fears. On the one hand this seems impossibly hard, and yet on the other hand this is completely freeing.
Surprisingly, the first reading from Romans helps me to comprehend of this a little bit more easily. In Paul’s Letter to the Romans we hear several commandments summed up in the way that Jesus synthesized them, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Contained within that statement is the entirety of the laws of God’s people. Now, if you told me that I was going to have to memorize all of those laws, several hundred statues, and follow them like my life depended upon it. Well, I would have a very hard time. But, if you told me what I need to focus on is loving my neighbor as myself I think could do it. It feels much easier. In the same way I think we have this possession thing backwards.
We live in a world that puts our values into a monetary system. The work we do gets symbolized in money. The dollars spent on school, groceries, or utilities are in competition with the ones we want to spend on trips, entertainment, or nice dinner. And we grow up hearing from this world that working hard is enough to earn a living and that is what good, decent people do. And yet, all of this is built upon a false set of beliefs. In truth, we do not own anything and even what we earn is not ours. We come in with only the gift of life and we leave that behind when we die. So what is real? What is true? The truth is that everything—every dollar we earn, every gift we have, every problem we face—everything is a gift from God.
For us to give all of it away is what we will do one day whether we want to do it or not. Jesus in the meantime challenges us to practice giving it all away right now. For us to follow Jesus we must let go. To possess the gift that is life in Christ we must relinquish everything else. In this season of stewardship we are called to practice this giving away as we give to God’s work in the world, but make no mistake… God is not interested in 10% of you, but your entire self!
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