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Female Rich Young Ruler, circa 1940s
By daniel | November 7, 2005
A bit of background here is appropriate. Clarence Jordan founded Koinonia, an "experiment in communal Christian living." This was in the early 40s, so the money figures here you'll have to multiply by like 10 or something to make it similar to today, but hey.
Clarence Jordan speaking:
"We had this lady one time come and visit us at Koinonia. She was a very lonely lady. I'd say she was in her early forties. She came up in her old jalopy and she was rather shabbily dressed and we talked to her for several days. She said, "You know, I like it here. I believe I'd like to just live here."
We said, "That's fine. We'd be glad to have ya."
And she said, "What do I have to do to join up."
"Well, just come and join with us. I presume you don't have much. You can just stay on."
She said, "Oh, well, I have a good bit of property down in New Orleans."
"How much do you have?"
"Oh, I guess I own maybe $90,000 worth."
"Well, the first thing you'll have to do is get rid of that."
She said, "What do you mean? I can't do that!"
"But then you can't come here."
"But I can't give away my possessions. Suppose this thing were to fold up and I had given away everything I own. Then where would I be?"
"You'd be in the same place as the rest of us would be."
"But can't I bring my money and put it in here?"
"No, ma'am, this is the one place you can"t put it."
"Why? Don't you all need it?"
"Yes, ma'am, we sure do."
"How come I can't put it in here?"
"Well, "I said, one reason is you got more than all the rest of us put together, and if you want to put all your money in here, the first thing we'd do is sit under a pecan tree and discuss theology. We need to work. We don't need that kinda money. It'll make us lazy and make theologians out of us, and we don't want that to happen to us. And," I said, "in the next place you'll be, in your mind, sort of our guardian angel, and you'll expect us to tip our hats to you and thank you for what marvelous things you've done for us. We don't tip our hats to nobody and we don't want you coming in here with a lot of money. And, in the last place, the reason you can't bring it here's because you look like a very lonely person, and unless I miss my guess, the only friends you've ever had have been those who wanted to help you spend your money."
She said, "You're right. I don"t believe I've ever had a real friend who loved me for what I am. They've always loved my money."
"And if you bring that money here, you'll always have a sneaking suspicion that the reason we wanted you here was not for what you are, but because of your money. And the only way you can get a clear answer to that is for you to sell your possessions and give the money to the poor and come here without a dime, and then you'll know whether we love you for what you are or for what you have. You'll get your answer."
She said, "I , I just can't do it." And she got in her old jalopy and drove off.
As she did, I turned to my wife and we almost said in unison, "There goes the female rich young ruler." She wanted a scat-hole [escape hatch]. She wanted an escape. She wanted to trust her little $90,000 when she needed to learn to trust in God, whose riches are untold."
I found this at Thoughts on the Way to the Abbey. He's also got a good overview of Clarence Jordan here. Thanks to Bill Millar for the original post here.
Topics: Church Life |
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