Using the Gifts We Have Been Given

            I have a number of times gone to downtown Pittsburgh, walked from the parking garage to Trinity Cathedral.  On the way, I have been approached by people who looked as though they were homeless; or at least in need and they have asked me for money.  That probably happens because I have a clerical collar on and look like a preacher.  I always try to give them some money, sometimes whatever I have in my wallet.  I have been criticized for this because people say, “they will only go and buy booze with it”.  I suppose that is true sometimes.  But the truth of the matter is this: when I give my money to somebody, it is no longer mine.  What they decide to do with it is up to them.  Yes, they can go and buy booze with it.  They can also go and buy food, or something else that they need, and I think that this also happens much of the time.  The problem is, I don’t know one time from another.

            Once I was driving in Washington, D.C. in a clerical collar.  I was stopped at an intersection on 14^th street.  I was in front of a liquor store and a man hammered on my car window and yelled, “Preacher, give me ten dollars so that I can go into this liquor store and get me a bottle!”  I didn’t give him anything.  I was too terrorized.  As the light changed, I turned the corner and hurried across the bridge to my safe home in Alexandria.  That was probably the most honest request for money that I have ever received.

            In the First Letter of John is a jarring statement:  How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses help? That certainly gets my attention.  Mostly, we are blessed people.  We have enough to feed our families, drive our cars and provide a modest amount of entertainment.  If we are wanting, it is usually in the nature of our emotional needs.  We all grieve from time to time.  Loss is never an easy thing.  When we suffer loss, it is necessary for us to understand the wonder of community. Out parish churches generally turn out to take care of one another’s needs and provide help. It is a beautiful thing to see when we watch people take care of one another. 

            Rosie and I watched Foxcatcher the other night.  It is the story of John DuPont, an egotistical rich man who tried to assemble a wrestling team to win a world championship.  At the end, John kills a man, the wrestling team dissolves and John dies in prison.  It isn’t an easy movie to watch.  I was struck by the callousness of the movie; its lack of respect for humanity and the way that this one rich man managed to spread his insidious lack of morality to a whole group of people who wanted only to win, but to win in honest ways.  I saw the lack of love in this movie as the driving force that brought the story at last to a tragic end. 

            We are all subject to this kind of self-centered approach to life.  When we let our own needs determine our life goals, we leave our community and enter a place where we don’t have enough means to achieve our goals.  That is certainly what happened to John DuPont.  It wasn’t only his material wealth that determined his fate; it was also his lack of emotional depth.  He was a poor man in every sense of the word, except for his enormous treasure of money. 

             Scripture tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil.  That is certainly true.  It isn’t the money itself; it is our worship of it that gets us off the track.  I would love to have enough money to pay off our kids student loans and make sure that they have everything that they need.  That would be wonderful.  But more wonderful it would be if they were able to take care of their own needs, and to be respectful of the needs of those around them.  This they have done in their lives, and we are proud of them for it.  It isn’t necessary for us to take charge of them and to dictate how they use their means.  Thank God, it is up to them, and we know that they understand that.

                That is ultimately our mission in this world.  To use what we have been graciously given not only for ourselves, but also to take care of the need that we see around us.  That is what our Lord asked us to do: to be a source of hope for those who are without.  This includes not only those who lack wealth, but also those who suffer emotional need.  That is what it means to be a community.