Didache 1:5-6
The Didache is a training manual for people who want to become followers of Jesus. Most of us have considered us followers for a very long time, but reading this manual gives us a chance to go back to the basics and check out how we’re doing. It’s kind of like reading the instructions for a game you’ve been playing for decades – you might discover something you missed long ago.
We began last week with the most important training: love God and love your neighbor. Don’t do to someone else what you wouldn’t like done to you. Don’t resist Roman soldiers’ unreasonable requests and so endanger your life.
It’s interesting to me that the very next thing learners are to do is to be generous. Instructions on giving appear twice in this short manual. Here at the beginning is the level one requirement. Later on the possibilities are expanded for those who have completed the mentor course. The basics: give when you’re asked and don’t ask for stuff back. I can imagine a student thinking this was going to be a very good deal. They were joining a community where everyone had to give you what you asked for. So right away the manual says: don’t ask if you don’t need or your punishment will be severe.
We remember that the earliest Christians lived under Roman rule and had very little influence on how society worked. But within their own community, they could set norms that they wished everyone would live by. This early norm implies everyone has what they need – if you are truly in need of something, you can ask, and others who are able will share with you. I wonder what it would be like if those who follow Jesus today lived by this rule. We DO have influence over our society and we have some neighbors with significant needs. What if being generous was as important for us as saving for retirement or leaving a nest egg for our heirs? What if we didn’t keep score of who asked for what? It would help if we trusted others to follow the second part of this rule – don’t ask for what you don’t need. There’s a general assumption among many folks today that those in need aren’t deserving – just lazy or opportunistic. Poverty or need is seen as a negative judgement, rather than the result of a distorted economic system. The Didache sets a very different framework for sharing than protecting our own assets first, and watches out for abuse by discouraging taking more than what’s needed.
Here’s the best line of all in today’s reading: Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you might give it. Be generous but not foolhardy!
I think talking about generosity with this group is really preaching to the choir! You go well beyond what’s asked time after time. I suspect that when we hear, “give when you are asked” we understand the benefit that brings to us. Instead of giving until it hurts, we’ve learned to give until it feels great – which is usually a larger amount.
We also know that it’s possible to give too much. I was raised by a family that tithed 10% of gross income and expected each generation to continue that tradition. As a parent of young children in an expensive city, I found that I could tithe, or I could pay for piano lessons and other kids’ expenses, but not both. That reality made me beyond crabby and resentful. The solution was to give less. A tithe was too much for that moment in my life.
The admonition to let our alms sweat in our hands a bit reminds us that giving involves choices. Even though we’re to give when we’re asked, it’s still ok to say no when we should – when we don’t have the funds to share or the need isn’t as great as the asker wants us to believe. That makes me think of the Community Fund.
You have entrusted the privilege of giving away a lot of money to me, and it is indeed a privilege. I thought you might like to know what “sweat in our hands” means with relationship to community funds…
As a general rule, someone asking is expected to be working with a case manager, someone who helps them budget, screens that needs are real, and connects them to other options for assistance before calling us. We like to be the last resort, rather than the first. Sometimes we say “yes” to direct requests, but more often I ask people to check with someone official who can help them and then get back to me.
I try to ask case managers to find partners to share part of each request, especially if it’s large. Back rent or medical expenses are often large amounts. When possible, I offer $200 as our share of a big bill, although that’s a guideline more than a rule. Occasionally the person who plays my role with Grace Baptist’s funds will pay all of one person’s need and we’ll pay another, rather than dividing each in half.
Sometimes I say no. When we’ve helped someone recently, they have to go somewhere else. When they keep coming back for more, our well runs dry. For the most part, we’re able to do an amazing amount of good in our community – not only with our funds but with other projects we support. I hope you find that a positive aspect of our life together. We are living like the Didache suggests to the extent that we can. I find it a joy I hope you do too.