An Economy of Gift

Homily for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

At several places in the gospels we hear Jesus say something akin to: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you hold bound are held bound.” Now we often reduce that biblical injunction to something that the priest alone does in the confessional. It does refer to the role of the priest in a particular way, but that injunction from Jesus is also addressed to all of us. The scripture scholar, Sandra Schneiders reminds us, in John’s gospel specifically, where this injunction also appears, there is no distinction made between Apostles and Disciples… everyone is a disciple and so Jesus is addressing this to the entire faith community. So as followers of Christ we each have been given the power to forgive, to let go, to set free or to hold bound, to retain, and to imprison. We each have it in us to break the logic of exchange and build an economy of gift.

In our gospel today from Matthew we are given what I would venture to call the hermeneutical key for unlocking the very heart of God. Jesus says: “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” We are reminded that counting the cost or divvying up who owes what, is not now nor has it ever been a Divine attribute, but rather it remains a very human stumbling block.

I remember that first time I saw the classic 1960’s film, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” The basic storyline of the film is about how a young, internationally respected African-American doctor, John Prentice, meets and falls in love with a young woman, Joey Drayton, who just happens to be white. They quickly determine to get married, so Joey invites John to meet her rather liberal parents, Matt and Christina, and along the way, against John’s wishes, she also invites his parents up to San Francisco for dinner. And in the midst of “all hell breaking loose,” according to the Drayton’s maid, Tillie, there is a confrontation between Dr. Prentice and his father who is not pleased with his son’s plans to marry. In the course of their encounter the father says to his son: “I carried a mail bag for thirty years so you could have a better life. So you could become a doctor.” And his son’s surprising response is: “I don’t owe you anything! You are my father. You did what you were supposed to do!”

When I first saw that scene I remember feeling offended. It’s a bit shocking and jarring. But over the many times I’ve rewatched that film there is something fundamentally true and liberating in the young doctor’s response to his father. Perhaps it is a bit too overlaid with 1960’s youth rebellion bravado, but his words, “I don’t owe you anything” are the very words that break down the logic of exchange that holds us all bound and opens the way for an economy of gift.

Scripture tells us that in the beginning God made humans in his image and likeness… and, I would add, ever since we have all been working like mad to remake God in our image and likeness. We live daily by counting the costs and divvying up who owes me what. And, in turn, we project that same way of thinking onto God. If we would only let God make us in his image rather than us trying to remake him in ours we might realize God, is not now nor has ever been interested in counting the costs and reckoning who owes what. God’s movement of the heart (like we see in Jesus in today’s gospel) is always a movement to unbind and set free. And according to Jesus’ injunction, something of that same power rests in each one of us.

Exercising that power though may feel as jarring and startling as young John Prentice’s confrontation with his father, but by exercising that power within the sphere of our own lives, among the people we interact with daily, we contribute to the demise of the never-ending logic of exchange that seeks to bind, retain and imprison (both us and the other) and we break open the possibility for an economy of gift where what is received without cost is given without cost.

Thomas Merton states it beautifully when he describes God as “mercy within mercy within mercy,” over against the human tendency to create “prisons within prisons within prisons.” In our Eucharist today, let us renew our commitment to stop trying to make God into someone he is not so God might make us into who we were always meant to be… a people unbound who strive to daily unbind others.