Thirty years or more ago, 24 members of my church set out on a “Great Experiment”, a commitment to practice five disciplines for just 30 days. The five disciplines were:
- We met each week to pray together, and to share our thoughts.
- We were committed to giving two hours of our time each week to God. This was a form of self-surrender and was not defined except that we let God lead in how that time was spent.
- We were committed to giving one/tenth of our monthly income to God.
- We were committed to spending the morning period, 5:30-6:00 a.m., in prayer, meditation and study of scripture. Many in our group started journaling.
- The fifth discipline involved a form of witnessing to God by reaching out to others anonymously, an act of kindness, an unexpected gift, an expression of support.
By the end of the 30 days, the 24 found that they were changed, in subtle ways, and each one was excited to continue the Great Experiment into the next month. There was something contagious about the practice of those five disciplines. What started out as a kind of obligation gradually became a true commitment. We could feel God leading us.
We continued the Great Experiment, month after month, for eight years! Along the way, we lost some of our members, so that at the time we made the decision to end the program, there remained six of our original 24. Also along the way, another group of Great Experimenters began, a gathering of approximately 15, and continued for an extended period.
What we found, at its heart, was as form of pure giving. Whether it was our time, or our outreach, or our study, it was turning God’s gift around and passing it on.
Pure giving. In Rachel Remen’s book My Grandfathers Blessings, she tells of a lesson she learned from her grandfather. The lesson involved the eight levels of “charity” as outlined in the Talmud:
- The eighth and most basic level, has a person grudgingly buying a coat for a shivering person who has asked for help. Gives it to him in the presence of witnesses, and waits to be thanked.
- At the seventh level, a person does the same grudging thing without waiting to be asked for help.
- At the sixth level, a person does this same thing, willingly, without waiting to be asked for help.
- At the fifth level, a person gives a coat that he has bought to another, but does so in private, and with an open heart.
- At the fourth level, a person openheartedly and privately gives his own coat to another.
- At the third level, a person openheartedly gives his own coat to another who does not know who has given him this gift. But the man himself knows the person who is indebted to him.
- At the second level, a person openheartedly gives his own coat to another and has no idea who has received it. But the man who receives it knows to whom he is indebted.
- At the first, and the purest level of giving, a man openheartedly gives his own coat away without knowing who will receive it, and he who receives it does not know who has given it to him.
How do we approach our giving? Here at Zion we make pledges and a record is kept of our progress in meeting that pledge. There are practical reasons our giving is handled this way. But as I consider the eight levels of giving, I wonder where does our tithe fit in? We say our giving to Zion is giving to God’s service, but where does our giving sto Zion touch the needs of people in our community?
I think about the Great Experiment and that fifth discipline. As a group we struggled with this act of kindness each day, and many of our weekly meetings were spent seeking ways to carry out that discipline… anonymously! And I wonder if we were being too literal, with too little spontaneity, with too much particularity.
Rachel Reimen ends her story with two statements that have such meaning: “Some things have so much goodness in them that they are worth doing any way that you can.” I think the five disciplines of the Great Experiment has that quality of goodness that is worth doing. The Great Experiment prepared many of us for what came next – Via Di Cristo!
The second statement is a simple one, loaded with meaning. It says that “it is better to bless life badly than not to bless it at all.”
Giving. Think about it and let God bless you, and you in turn, pass it on!
Have a generous, Christian, Christmas season.
For What It’s Worth.
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[NOTE – This article originally ran in our church newsletter, The Teller.]
