Givers & Takers

“Takers will have more, but givers will sleep better.”

This sign outside the church brought me up short. It made me angry and it took awhile for me to discover just what the source of that anger was. After all the sign itself seems perfectly innocuous

I finally realized that what this sign expresses is the gospel proclaimed by our culture today. Since the industrial revolution, when industrial capitalism was introduced by David Hume and Adam Smith and capitalism became the dominant global economic system, it has become the encompassing system worldwide. The sign is referring to this system with the ‘takers’ referred to being those at the top of the economic pile who have gained that spot by acquiring wealth, and the ‘givers’ are those who give some of that wealth away. It is not talking about the takers as those globally who are in need, nor is it talking about givers as those who give their last dollar to provide for those in need. And that is why it bothered me!

The sign is going to have an impact on those who arrive at that church needing clothing from their clothing depot or food from their food bank. They are takers, and that sign says are looked down upon by this community. Their self-esteem is probably already be low and getting the needed food and clothing should in fact be boosting their confidence in their ability to survive. But that isn’t the message they will be getting.

However the majority of those who sit in their 'comfortable pew' on Sunday morning will feel satisfaction that they are givers. They will feel free to go home and forget about the inequality there is in the community, the country and the world, forgetting as well about the stocks and bonds, the healthy bank balances, the property owned, that really sets them aside as ‘takers’ of the country's wealth.

Far from encouraging increased stewardship on the part of the congregation, it encourages them to feel good about being ‘givers’, no matter how small a percentage of their actual worth, they are giving away. It makes one wonder if they have ever really heard the passage from the New Testament where in two of the Gospels [Matthew and Mark], Jesus tell the rich young ruler to sell all that he owns and give everything to the poor, or the story in Luke of the Rich Fool, who builds extra granaries to store his surplus grain so he will have plenty of grain laid up and can take life easy, eat, drink and be merry. In both instances, the rich young man and the rich fool were told that by hanging on to things and not letting them go, they were not part of the kingdom of God.

No where does it say in the Bible that it is only necessary to give what is comfortable, what isn’t needed for one’s current and future needs. Instead the message is giving all that you have, giving until it makes a difference in how you live is the challenge Christianity gives to us. How much that means to each of us depends on our resources. Do you give until it changes the way you live?

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