God Bless the Amish and the Mennonites (and Modern Day Minimalists)

I sincerely hope that my Christian friends do not get upset with me for thinking, writing and sharing the following. With all my heart, I want to understand God’s Word, to be able to apply it to my life and to share it with those around me. Writing and sharing the following critique is an essential step in clarifying my own understanding of the Gospel, as I seek to use it as the primary guide in my life.

I am essentially nobody. I have no authority to speak on any topic, probably least of all the Bible and Christianity. I have only been able to call myself a Christian for just a very short time. That being the case, maybe I just don't 'get it' yet. Maybe more mature Christians have a much deeper and more enlightened understanding of the Gospel than I have? Maybe I’m a heretic? I don’t know the right answer to these questions, but I do know that I was rather disturbed by a recent sermon given at a church that I have come to love dearly.

I reviewed the same sermon again once it was made available for online viewing, thankful I was able to do so. I wanted to give the sermon a second chance to speak to me in a way that it had failed to do the first time around. I quickly realized that the uploaded sermon was from second service (not the one I heard in person) and indeed, it wasn’t near as painful as the one I witnessed earlier that morning. I am thankful that the best choice was made regarding which version of the sermon to upload for public viewing.

Of course, I am only human and it is entirely possible that I perceived the whole thing inaccurately but the sermon I heard in person was one whose message was best summed up in the speaker’s own verbatim words, “Write bigger checks.” Yes, he actually said that. Those words made my skin crawl and left a stain on the entire sermon that I have been trying to mentally ‘clean up’ since I heard it.  

I started to wonder, “Can a church be too big? Does God’s Kindgom really require such impressive buildings, parking lots, high-tech features and ‘apps’ just to get people in the door? To keep people coming back? Surely the building of God’s Kingdom on earth does not depend on ‘writing bigger checks’ to the church.” But this was precisely the message I received yesterday morning.

We were referred to this parable in the Gospel of Luke.

“The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” — Luke 12:16-21
 
Here, we have a parable illustrating the often poisonous relationship between acquiring earthly wealth and human folly. I believe the point of this parable is to teach us how important it is not to succumb to the erroneous belief that material things are the measure of our worth (in this life or the next). And further, that if we measure our richness in worldly things we will never have enough, as these have no value at all in the afterlife.

In the Gospels, Jesus teaches us to have a proper perspective and understanding of the real value of worldly riches in contrast to that of spiritual riches. He also makes it clear that in being generous with our worldly riches, we experience liberation from the false sense of security we derive from material possessions, thereby learning to depend more on God as the source of our richness while simultaneously blessing those around us with our resources. And so we rightly should pray that Jesus might transform our hearts and our 'giving' to be a closer reflection of His teaching. So should we be generous with our worldly resources and not be so stingy with them that we elevate their worth in our minds and hearts above that of the riches we have in Christ. But I do not believe that this very profound lesson of the Gospel can or should ever be summed up with the words, "Write bigger checks." To anyone. Even the church. This is just my opinion, for whatever it's worth to those who are reading.

I believe we are called first and foremost to give of ourselves; to give of our time, our attention and yes, our resources. Does this mean that the Gospel prescribes us to “write bigger checks?” Does this mean we must throw money at whatever we perceive to be ‘God’s Kingdom’ on earth? I think the correct answer to these questions is: Emphatically, no. If money and worldly goods should not define our richness, nor should they define the richness of our giving.

Of course, the Gospel does not rule-out money as an option for giving. Maybe I just got too distracted by those words, “Write bigger checks” to see the complete picture. But I know with certainty that I heard those words. And I heard them amongst stories of Christ’s generosity and analogies drawn between the giving of money and Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, all delivered in a formulaic cadence that quite honestly made my stomach turn.

The way I see it, we are in gravest danger of coming to 'worship money' as it were, when we believe that “bigger checks” will go further in accomplishing God’s work on earth than modest donations, volunteered time, attention and direct, intimate caring for our brothers and sisters in Christ.