Beyond Rivalry

Nancy Hitt again, at Preaching Peace, writing about gifts, money, punitive damages, the culture of transaction, in the context of paying a craftsman for repair of a church organ.

What particularly interests me:

"It has become clearer to me of late why it's such an uphill climb to help people release transactional and penal understandings of what Jesus was doing on that cross.  It's not only that we need to relearn our atonement theology. It's the warp and woof of culture in which we struggle to embrace something other than the party line that hampers us.  When I was confronted with the anger of the church toward our craftsman, I was disillusioned. How could we, as a church, make a logical case for our punitive response being 'right'? Considering Jesus teachings seemed like the thing to do, but I was told in no uncertain terms, 'Don't ask what Jesus would do. I'm sure he's just as fed up as I am!'  Clearly, the dissonance between the Truth and our desires was not even apparent to us. The idea that a gift is freely given, without strings, without a desire for a return on the investment, is almost impossible for us to consider. It's much easier to work out a system of exchange wherein we know the score and can control our destiny -- and that of others."

She speaks also of the cultural expectations of gift-giving: "There is a host of unwritten expectations that are attached to money. Apparently, if I purchase a gift, I have a reasonable cultural expectation of a return on that gift. At the very least, I should receive a thank-you note of some sort. I may also expect it to be used in a particular way, and to be recognized as the beneficent provider."