Generosity

Detachment is a practice of the mystics of Christianity as well as at the heart of the teachings of the Buddha.  It’s the antithesis of our consumer culture in which we’re bombarded with the messaging that we are what we can purchase, we define ourselves by what we have, and that newer and bigger is always better.  It’s challenging to practice generosity – to be other-focused – to be Christ-centered – when we’re so attached to things, status, comfort, the ways things have been…whatever it may be.  It’s all too easy to react out of self-preservation, or cupidity, or fear when we’re overly attached to an idol: something not worthy of our worship and attention.

 

Jesus talks about detachment and how it can lead to generosity and grace-full living in his well known sermon on the mount found in Matthew 5-7.

 

Jesus said:  “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin,  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’  For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Matthew 6:24-34 (NRSV Translation)

Questions for meditative reflection, journaling or personal prayer:

  1. What is Jesus saying about letting go of worries and anxieties?
  2. How is that a detachment practice that could free you from stinginess or avarice with your time, energy and resources?
  3. What worries and anxieties do you need to let go of today?; in this season?