In the early themes of the Old Testament and the experience of the New Testament church, it is clear that to be the people of God means to have certain forms of economic responsibility for each other and for the poor.
The Old Testament law and prophets give substantial attention to economic responsibility within the people of God and toward the sojourners and aliens with whom the people of God become "neighbors." Social injustice is seen as springing from economic injustice.
Judges were to give the poor full protection: "You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor" (Exodus 23:6). Interest was not to be exacted from the poor: "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor, and you shall not exact interest from him" (Exodus 22:25). The poor were to be allowed to glean in the fields and vineyards: "You shall not reap your field to its very border, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger" (Leviticus 23:22). Every three years the yearly tithe was to be turned over to the poor and needy (Deuteronomy 14:28-29ff). Every 50 years debts were to be canceled, land was to be redistributed according to the original family holdings, and slaves were to be freed (Leviticus 25:8-12).
In essence, major reshufflings of the economy were to occur regularly so that all people had a new opportunity for economic security. Between such reshufflings, several ameliorative measures were instituted to soften the hardship of the poor.
The prophets proclaimed the many ways the economic powers-that-be abused legal and moral requirements: They trampled the head of the poor into the dust; robbed the poor of their wheat and rights; deprived the hungry and thirsty of food and drink; stole land inheritances; used crooked scales; got evil gain from their houses; made their neighbors serve them for nothing, denying them their wages; refused to declare the year of liberty; enjoyed prosperous ease without aiding the poor and needy; and engaged in abundant but unrighteous trade. The prophets saw the very existence of separate economic classes and poverty as proof of great decadence and unrighteousness.
The New Testament contains at least four themes which people should take seriously in evaluating their faithfulness in economic discipleship. These themes suggest ways that a congregation might structure its economic life together: "renounce all"; "meet all needs"; "equality"; and "simplicity/poverty."
"So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). When we become a disciple of Christ we are given a whole new relationship with our property, our life, and with other persons. We come to see our possessions as belonging to God, lent to us to be shared. We see we have no rights to private property. We respond in praise for what we are given, rather than in greed for what we possess, or what we lack. This gives us the freedom to "give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again" (Luke 6:30). As Peter said to Jesus, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you" (Mark 10:28).
"Renounce all that you have" is the process of giving away any and all to God, God's family the church, and God's world. When you commit yourself to God, you place everything you own and are at God's disposal. God hands back to you what God wants you to have. When you then commit yourself to God's family, you commit your total possessions to whomever in the church has need, and through the church to the needs outside.
The key point is the renunciation--the actual commitment that your property and wealth is shared with the church and its ministry to the poor. This commitment of your wealth to the needs of others is an absolute commandment by Jesus. It needs to be there in any gathering that claims to be the church ("whoever of you does not renounce all that you have cannot be my disciple"). The forms through which we may pledge our wealth are relative and may change through circumstances--just as some married couples have separate bank accounts, while others have joint accounts. But a commitment that finds no form for enactment ceases to be a commitment. Renunciation entails an actual giving up and sharing.
"And they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. There was not a needy person among them....distribution was made to each as any had need" (Acts 2:45; 4:34-35).
There are many passages in which Jesus tells us to meet the needs of others.
He relates a parable of a king who cancels a huge debt because of the debtor's needs; and another of a rich man in hell because he hoarded his wealth instead of meeting the needs of a beggar. Jesus declares that those who give food, drink, shelter, clothing, and care to the "least of these my brethren" give it to him, and those who ignore the needs of the lowly ignore Jesus. His first sermon recorded by Luke talks about "preaching good news to the poor" and is based on the "year of Jubilee" passage in Isaiah in which Israel was instructed to redistribute property and food to meet everyone's needs.
The Shepherd of Hermas (150 A.D.) wrote to the church:
Be concerned each for the other. Do not use for yourselves alone what God has created, but share it with the poor.... Acquire no more here (on this earth) than what is absolutely necessary, the bare necessities of life....Whoever is hungry and suffers want, lacking even the barest necessities of life, endures great anguish and need. Whoever knows of such a man's misery and does not come to his rescue commits a grave sin; he is guilty of that man's blood.
Jesus calls us to a dependency on God that is as total as the "manna existence" of the Israelites:
When the people of Israel saw [the manna], they said to one another, "What is it?"...And Moses said to them, "It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat." (Exodus 16:15)
Jesus tells us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11). It is significant that Matthew arranges the Lord's prayer, with its request for daily bread, shortly before the key section on economic subsistence:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal... You cannot serve God and mammon [ property]. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on....But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. (Matthew 6:19-33)
All of his followers are told to live with the faith and the freedom from accumulating wealth that the manna generation of Israelites experienced, an equality of lifestyle suggested by the Sermon on the Mount.
The picture of Jesus and the 12 disciples that we have in the gospels is of them holding a common purse. They lived in equality. In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul not only told the Corinthians to "supply the want" of the Jerusalem church but also to give "that there may be equality."
This passage is significant. The Jerusalem church was continually impoverished. On top of that, there were many dependent widows and flocks of visitors who needed to be cared for by the Christians there. Individuals in the Jerusalem church responded to this massive need by selling off their fields and houses and distributing the money to meet the needs of each member. Despite this internal effort, the extensive famine that hit Jerusalem and its surroundings meant that local economic sharing was not enough.
The Jerusalem church put out a plea to all the other churches to send it money so that the widows, orphans, imprisoned, and unemployed people within and near their church could be cared for.
In appealing to the church in Corinth to complete a collection he had asked for in his earlier letter, Paul pointed to the churches of Macedonia (Philippians, Thessalonians, and Bereans) which were a lot poorer than the church in Corinth. In the midst of their own poverty and persecution the Macedonian churches were "begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints" in Jerusalem. The Macedonians evidently felt that the other churches gave them grace and favor by allowing them to contribute out of their poverty. By joining with the other churches to give relief to Jerusalem, the Macedonians joined a fellowship of deacons. Indeed, the deacon's role within a congregation in those days was to give goods, clothing, and shelter to the poor, widows, and orphans. The Macedonians wanted to be deacons between congregations.
Paul stressed to the Corinthians that they should consider the profound example of the Macedonians and contribute in order that as a "matter of equality, your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality" (verse 14). He sets up economic equality as a guide for the relations between Christians and between churches. Those who have more than others should contribute. At a later time these same people may have less, and others will need to contribute to them. Paul said earlier in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 that the Corinthians were not wealthy. But they did have relative abundance compared to the other churches. Paul then quotes from the manna passage: "They who gathered much had nothing over, and they who gathered little had no lack" (verse 15).
The eagerness of the Macedonians not to be left out of the "grace of the fellowship of deacons," and Paul's urgent appeal to the Corinthians, point to the true significance of the collection being organized for Jerusalem. These churches, most of whose members were of another race (Gentiles instead of Jews), were sending money to their impoverished brothers and sisters in Christ. Their response to Jerusalem made clear that Christ had knocked down the dividing walls of hostility between races and classes and sexes.
Paul felt that he himself needed to carry the money to Jerusalem as a clear symbol of the fellowship and unity of the Christian church. He took this so seriously that he insisted on completing the trip, even though the Spirit made clear to him and others that "turning toward Jerusalem" would mean his imprisonment and probable death (Acts 20:22-23).
The collection "as a matter of equality" was to symbolize the organic unity of the universal Christian church. The existence of wide income gaps within the Christian church, like the existence of separate economic classes and poverty in the people of Israel, was considered proof of great decadence and unrighteousness. Conversely, the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost brought equity and economic reconciliation: "None said that any of the things which they possessed were their own, but they had everything in common" (Acts 4:32).
In the women around Jesus, in the Jerusalem church, and in Paul's word to the Corinthians, the concept of meeting others' needs is clearly outlined. In Jesus' inner circle and in Paul's word the concept of equality is put forward. Now an additional concept of "becoming poor," or giving out of one's very subsistence to build another one up, is established.
Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God....But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. (Luke 6:20, 24)
Sell your possessions and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Luke 12:33-34).
While Paul urged the Corinthians to give "to supply their want...that there may be equality," he also praised the Macedonian churches who had already given "beyond their means, of their own free will." Paul goes on to tell of the example of Jesus who "though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich."
This is a matter of voluntarily becoming poor so that by one's own poverty, others might become richer. Jesus lived the life of a beggar and vagabond, as one of the poor of the land who had to rely on the grain in the fields. He had nowhere to lay his head. It was a deliberate emptying of himself of privilege, even to the point of taking the form of a slave. This self-emptying was not just symbolic or spiritual, it was profoundly economic.
"Becoming poor so that others may become rich" is not a concept of poverty as righteous self-abuse or self-abasing works-righteousness. Ultimately it is a becoming poor in order to seek out a deeper and wider form of equality than equality merely within a comfortable congregation. If a congregation is rich, it might have all its needs met and enjoy total equality, and yet still remain on an upper-middle-class level.
Becoming poor is an attempt to seek equality with the poor. It is a witness to a kingdom goal that all needs be met, outside as well as inside the church. It is true that when a person who could choose comfort instead chooses voluntary poverty, that person is not as poor or deprived as the involuntarily poor. Nonetheless, an identification with the poor that springs authentically from life in Christ does have profound meaning and impact.
As we are faithful to the social patterns of the kingdom, in which all needs are met, we will be so identified with the oppressed, poor, and starving of the world that all who hear us will hear their voice.
Virtually all Christians and congregations participate in some form of economic sharing such as the traditional 10 per cent tithe. For most congregations, that sharing is restricted to an area defined as church programs. The non-tithe 90 per cent of members' income generally is not shared within the church, nor is it seen as subject to the church's discernment. At least there is a "renounce some" in this setup. But a congregation that wishes to meet needs would find it necessary to experience real openness in sharing the 90 per cent. This might be through giving the pastors or elders the authority to ask for such need sharing from anyone with surplus to anyone with need. The congregation could move toward incorporating equality by agreeing that those who have more surplus income should tithe a higher percentage of their money. Fuller equality could be reached if a per capita standard of living were decided upon and all money above that amount was pooled together in the church. If that common standard of living were set to correspond with the welfare standards of one's area, a life of simplicity and poverty together would be possible.
[In 1980] several hundred Christian communities practice[d] various forms of economic sharing. The church in which I [was] an elder, Reba Place Fellowship, is a Christian communitarian congregation that has had full economic sharing on a simple lifestyle budget [since 1957].
Other congregations covenant to pool everyone's income, and some pool initial assets and deficits as well. Some of these communal congregations corporately own all the houses and automobiles of the members. In such a common purse setup, money can be paid out on an equal basis for food, expenses, and personal allowance. Some of these congregations have a common purse which all members may participate fully in, while others make that particular feature optional.
Our economic choices are central, not peripheral, to discipleship. The ways our congregations make these choices will show the extent to which we have understood and accepted the message of Jesus.
Bill Faw was one of the coordinating elders at Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, Illinois, when this article appeared.
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