MONKEY'S HAND: A SERMON1, THE

The next time you need a monkey, call me. I have excellent information about catching monkeys. Variously attributed to India, Africa, and Indonesia, here are the instructions for catching one:

1) Slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand to pass through.

2) Place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell.

3) Secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the jungle, and wait.

Sooner or later, a monkey will swing by, smell the fruit, reach into the coconut, and try to pull out the orange. Of course, the orange won't come out; it's too big for the hole. But it appears not to be in monkey DNA to let go of something once it's in his grasp. So he hangs there, grasping the orange with his hand, and he's as good as caught.2

Like the monkey, people want to hang on to things. It seems so natural. From the time our tiny fingers first curl around the thumb of a parent, we like to hold on. But holding on can become grasping, and that can lead us astray. Like the monkey, we don't always know when to let go...even when letting go might mean preserving our freedom.

I've been thinking about this monkey's hand a lot lately. I think about the fact that the monkey's greed prevents him from being free. I wonder how often I do that. It's appropriate, I guess, for a monkey to act that way, but it's not exactly appropriate for human beings, especially those human beings who claim Christ as Lord.

Holding on to the wrong thing is what the author of Colossians-let's call him Paul-wants us to avoid. In his letter to the young church at Colossae, Paul spends the first two chapters telling them what not to do, and, especially, what not to believe. The church, founded not by Paul but by the missionary Epaphras, had been threatened by false teaching. The community had been tempted to hold on to the wrong things, not the gospel.

Paul implores them to become a new creation in Christ, to put off past enslavements and put on the clothing of faithfulness. Addressed to those who have been "raised with Christ," the message assumes that the hearers are already in the process of being renewed. The instruction calls them-and now us-to live in new ways, to embody our baptism through our relationships with others.3

"As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved...," the people are called to compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. No one thinks this is a complete list, but it does seem to me to be a good antidote to "monkeyfistedness." For indeed, those who are compassionate and kind are also, very likely, generous.

Generosity is an interesting thing to consider in this world. As I started to think about this sermon, I did what many people evidently also do: I googled the words "sermon" and "generosity." And I have to tell you: the results were grim. I found plenty of material, but it was pretty scary. One thing I learned is that sermons about generosity usually...aren't.

They may be about guilt. Or they may purport to be about blessings-as in "you have lots of blessings, so give us some." Or they are about an immediate need for funds to fix the roof or accomplish this or that.

Denominational organizations, as they struggle to support themselves, also talk a lot about this sort of thing. Mark Chaves, writing as a part of the Lilly Endowment's research on stewardship, says that the current handwringing about poor support for denominational causes is a result of misunderstanding the history of giving. He believes that the period of the 1950s and '60s, when denominations were flush with cash, was the anomaly.

Unfortunately, that time of being flush with cash caused the denominations to create large, cumbersome organizational structures which they have since not been able to afford to sustain.4 I guess it's sort of like building a mansion that you now can't afford to heat. The unmaking of those mansions is causing no end of concern among denominational folks, and therefore no end of talk about the lack of stewardship. But that seems, at least so far, not to have given rise to much reflection on generosity.

So let's reflect on generosity, not stewardship theory. Robert Wood Lynn believes that we need to begin asking people to reflect on why they give instead of how much they give.5 Reflecting on why we give leads to thoughts about the core of our faith...and about generosity. I believe that thinking about generosity is critical for an institution like Christian Theological Seminary. At its core, this institution stands on the shoulders of generosity, which, combined with vision, is how we came to exist.

If it had not been for the incredible generosity and vision of faithful families, individuals, and congregations, we would not have this seminary. If it were not for the ongoing generosity of faithful people, organizations, and congregations, we would not have the support to do what we have been called to do here. So generosity needs to be our constant, and conscious, companion-a generosity not only of dollars, but of spirit.