Spiritual Cents
Written by: Paul Lickteig
I am thinking of the story in the gospel about the woman and the two gold coins (Lk 21:1-4). On the face of it, it is a story about an act of selflessness and faith. Every time we place money in a box, we do so with the hope that whoever takes it will put it to good use. For the woman in the story, though, it is an act of faith with very serious physical repercussions that left her completely at the mercy of others. We have to hope that she had a community that would support her. We hope that there were others who were there to ease her struggle. Or, maybe we just find ourselves shaking our heads thinking “I could never give away all of my money like that. How is she going to eat? How will she take care of her needs?”
The thing is, if we are giving ourselves to the Gospel, we all are that woman with the two coins. I mean, I don’t know about you, but my pockets just are not that deep, and our Church sets a high standard. We believe that Jesus came for the salvation of all people, not just for some, and that we have a role to play in this. We recognize that there are rights we all have, and responsibilities that we all share, and that our salvation is tied to the salvation of others. So, we profess commitment to things like loving our neighbor and sharing our surplus with those in need. Our hope is that we will reveal the love that we have come to know through Christ, and that we will somehow allow salvation to be worked out in us, here and now. The question is, how far are we willing to go?
Sometimes, when we are in a good place, when we have a good sense of community, solid relationships, a respected position, and a good sense of satisfaction in our own work, the giving can be easy. It is another thing, though, when we find ourselves in a place of spiritual weakness and poverty. At these times, when we realize that we are broke, it is harder to act on this mission that we share. The difficulty here is that sometimes it hurts and we want to stop caring for others. Sometimes, we give so much that we feel like we cannot give more. Then there are times when we think of all kinds of reasons not to continue giving to others and we just desire to keep our time and resources for ourselves because we need all that we can get. These are the moments when we are down to the last of our spiritual cents. It is at these moments that the Gospel takes on a new meaning. Why? This is when we find out what the blessing of Christ is all about.
Part of our choice as Christians is to find ways to continue giving to others. We seek to continue learning how to love and to be loved by the people that we share our lives with. When we reach those moments where we become aware of our own spiritual poverty – when we feel broken, neglected, and weary – the hope is that we will be able to open ourselves to receiving the love that is offered to us in Christ. The way we experience this is through prayer, of course, but it is also through our communities – the body of Christ. Part of giving ourselves to the Gospel is that we are committed to sharing periods of brokenness, neglect, and weariness along with times of wholeness, gratitude and invigoration. When we are open to giving and receiving, we start to realize that we are making deposits in other people’s spiritual bank accounts, and they are making deposits in ours. As Christians, while we may always be asked to give everything, since we are committed to sharing our lives with the people in our communities we also become the recipients of the wealth of others who are giving the same.
This is community, this is care, this is the Gospel. This whole deal, what we call life, it is about you, me, and Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ. It is about relationship, union and communion. Christ yesterday, Christ today, Christ forever; this is the one whom we profess, and the one that we have given our lives to. It is His love that we attempt to embody, and His love that we receive from others. Truth be told, I cannot do this alone and neither can you. The best part is, we do not have to.
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