Yesterday the curate at my church ripped up a £5 note.
I don't know if you have ever seen anybody rip up money before, but it reminded me of that episode of Friends where they all buy lottery tickets. Squabbling ensues over how many tickets each person should get and in a bid to stop the arguments Phoebe holds the bowl of tickets over the balcony. The look on the gang's faces says it all, but unfortunately before the tickets are returned to a safe place a pigeon swoops down and knocks the bowl to the floor. Tickets everywhere, blowing around in the wind. You can almost feel the horror. The discomfort. The incredulous looks on faces.
Well, it was sort of like that when said curate ripped up the money. Bearing in mind that this is five pounds we are talking about here, the kind of money that one might just as easily leave in a pair of jeans which get thrown in the washer. A noticeable prize when found in the pockets afterwards (a little damp but otherwise no worse for wear) but in all fairness...you didn't realise it was gone in the first place!
You should have heard the gasp that omitted from round the room though, including, I hasten to say, the one which escaped my own lips. She was illustrating a point, and, frankly, it was a point well made.
I never realised before how much emphasis I seem to place on money, but when I realised she was actually going to destroy the currency of this country I somehow felt the need to put a stop to such an atrocity.
But it's five pounds. And what is five pounds? A number on a computer screen? A piece of paper in your hand?
To some people five pounds means an awful lot. And I don't dispute that. But other than basic necessities, it holds no other meaning. It is not love, it is not awe, it is not beauty, it is not truth. It is not God.
So I guess my perception of money has often betrayed this truth, because quite often having that five pounds in my purse becomes a pursuit in itself. It is not what I can do with the money, it is what that money represents.
I suppose for me it is not about status or power, it is more a symbol of a safety net. Money to fall back on. But if you have the arms of God to fall back into, what more do you need? If I were to make a net out of five pound notes, and I fell into it from a height...well the net would probably break, or be in danger of breaking. It is too flimsy. The five pound notes might not be there one day. And then what will catch me? My family will all be there, but that strength to hold me up is founded in, is modelled by, the Ultimate Safety Net.
I suppose what I'm saying is... if we link our arms together, then we make the net ourselves. And isn't that sort of what Jesus was telling us all those years ago?
