Two Cheeky Chimps - a cautionary tale

I miss so much about my kids being small. I miss them finding my jokes funny and I miss snuggling up for stories. I miss the questions and the wide-eyed wonder. I miss the fun of shared projects and having to explain why wellies don’t grow with your feet. I miss the excitement of occasionally buying Pringles rather than cheap crisps and sharing them like they were fit for a king. I miss sheltering under bandstands and passing round a carton of fruit juice that was all we could find to drink… and then sharing hankies to mop orange-stained faces. I miss the inter-dependency and the sharing…

… and I miss them asking me to tell them about the cheeky chimpanzees when they didn’t want to share.

“What? The one about the two cheeky chimpanzees wandering through the jungle and finding a Mars Bar on the ground?”

The Bible is clear that God has given us all that we have, and often more than we need. Indeed, he names us stewards of his creation. Care-takers, sharers, developers, partners, guardians of all that he has made… that’s the invitation.

“Yes, that one, dad… where they start arguing…”

We are taught about the responsibility and the joy of sharing. God, we are told, loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9.7). He blesses us both by giving us what we need, but with the dignity of sharing it with others.

… well hold on, you cheeky charlies… surely the chimps were delighted to find a Mars Bar?

(No…)

Surely they giggled, and danced, and sat down to enjoy it?

(NO!)

Surely they said ‘Thank you Jesus for our Mars Bar’ like good little monkeys and then gobbled it up?

(Daaaa-aaad – no….. Tell us the proper story!)

Oddly, our shared human story is littered with the exact opposite of God’s plan. ‘Look after number one’ replaces ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength’. Charity begins at home however often we hear Jesus talking of Samaritans and neighbours.

Did they argue?

Yes dad – one said that he found the mars bar, the other said that she did… like this…

I might be romanticising this memory, but one child shouts,

‘it’s mine’

and the other replies

‘no you smelly armpit it is mine…’

as they play-act. I miss the exaggerated facial expressions and the eager playfulness as they look at me knowing what is coming.

And I wonder how God feels about our generosity. I am supposed to be writing you a serious bishoppy piece about the theology of money and the call to generosity. But that’s not the point: Chester is God’s diocese, his mission and plan for the 1.5 million. He doesn’t beat us up when we fail to give, although maybe he weeps a little when we miss out on the joy of sharing in his generosity.

I wonder how he longs for our eager eyes to turn in his direction? I wonder about his yearning to see us freed again as we discover the liberty of living like he intended us to. I wonder about the story he would tell, and I search for my own wide-eyed response.

‘Would you like me to help?’ came the voice of the wise old BABOON… (how we loved to shout the word ‘BABOON’).

“Yes please” came the chorus of imagined and real cheeky monkeys.

You see, God is not distant from need. He is not poor and he is not disengaged. There is no wealth problem in the church, although the money is not always where it is needed.

How about I break the Mars Bar in half? And so he did… but the Baboon was far cleverer than the chimpanzees realised. As he gave the slightly bigger half one chimpanzee was delighted, but the one who received less shouted…

“IT’S NOT FAIR!” (my ears still ring)

I am not going to pretend that life is fair. I don’t understand why wealth is not distributed evenly or why God can’t just provide directly to pay the clergy or fund the roof and the youth work… except that he seems to long for us to share the work of giving and they joy of participating.

‘Oh, silly me’, says the cunning old baboon, ‘let me put that right’, as he takes just too big a bite out of the bigger half.

“IT’S NOT FAIR!!!”

And you know the story. The cunning baboon who eats the whole Mars Bar and the chimpanzees who agree that is, at least, fair. The strictures of individualism stealing joy.

And you can imagine the family story. Children caught up in a familiar cautionary tale rediscovering the freedom of sharing. Sometimes joyful. Sometimes begrudging. Always real.

And I wonder what cautionary tales of playful grace God would be speaking over our Diocese right now, as we huddle in the adventure of today’s rainstorm and pass round his Pringly gifts.

The stories are his, but all that we do costs money. Buildings need maintenance, clergy need paying, heating costs, and foodbanks are not free to run. God gives all that we need, and we get to play… and Christ values the widow’s mite far more than any preening generosity.

Thank you for your part in God’s great story in our age and this place; for your part in reaching 1.5 million people who need the love of Christ at the heart of their lives. Thank you as you enable new expressions of Christian Community to embrace anyone who will gather. Thank you for all that you give to enable new generations of Christian service in every place. Thank you for sharing my Mars Bar and letting me share yours. Thank you for your kindness in the challenges we face together. Thank you for relishing the gifts you can be to others.

May God bless us in generosity, and like kids dancing in puddles with orange-stained faces may we know the joy and peace of playing our part in his bigger story.

Or as the Prophet Malachi records it

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the

floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (3.10)