This week I am away again... Chautauqua Institute to meditate, reflect, learn a little from Jim Wallis about economics and faith, plan some sermons... anyway... here is a sermon I preached at a friends church on the topic of stewardship and tithing. If you do read this and are sick of money sermons... this is the last for a while anyway...
Today we have to talk about stewardship… we have to talk about the deep things of our faith, cruciform living and resurrection faith… we have to lift up some ideas that are meant not for the Peter’s who follow Jesus back in the shadows, but instead for the Martha’s and Mary’s who will stand with Christ no matter where he goes, even to the cross….
today is not meant for dabbling in faith… today is for full hearted devotion to the life of Christ…and full-throated testimony of our faith… specifically… this is a time for us to have a discussion about how our devotion to Christ seeps into our finances, influences our spending and saving habits, and directs the way we both acquire and then put to use our economic resources.
That is not a discussion for the curious or the faint of heart
I remember being challenged at my very first church to talk more about the tithe and stewardship… I didn’t teach and challenge enough about those topics (so they thought ) and the church largely lived on the principle of its endowment. So I started to do more sermons and bible studies on tithing and giving and stewardship and Christmas came. I always got an envelope on Christmas Eve with a little something extra. It wasn’t always a lot and that was fine, but usually a few extra dollars as a Christmas gift. But this Christmas nothing. Later the explanation… you are talking about money too much. So we don’t necessarily like to talk about these topics, we find them challenging and perhaps frightening.
Scene 1:
To talk about finances and money and investment and stewardship… we need to talk about resurrection. That is why I had us listen to a portion of an Easter Risen Christ story from Luke this morning… because we aren’t really talking about money… we are talking about resurrection here today…
But before we can talk resurrection we need to talk…
Crucifixion & the Cruciform Life:
The bewilderment and bafflement that we heard about in Luke this morning came after the crucifixion… a violent act of oppression and terrorism that the Roman Empire used to punish any of those occupied peoples who dared to assert their humanity or independence. The disciples are astonished and amazed because Peter saw Jesus arrested, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed hand and foot and hung high to slowly suffocate...
I was taught to see that act of Jesus… that selfless… giving act… sacrificial act… to see that as a response to the sins of the world.
On that Cross Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the sins of the world… perhaps you were taught the same thing? Yes?
But today I want to suggest another way of looking at this scene. I’m not saying that this previous understanding of the cross is wrong by the way… I like to think of this other way of viewing the cross as just another facet of it… on the cross, Jesus bore, carried, was wrapped in the poverty and suffering… first of his own people under Rome and then of all humanity. So that when we look to the cross we are not only meant to see our sins… but also to see poverty and suffering.
Just think for a moment about those whom Jesus came in contact with. Those with leprousy, those whose dignity was diminished to the point of begging, those with disease. There it is right in front of us when we open the gospels to read, Jesus spoke to the poor and suffering, walked among the poor and suffering, touched and was touched by the poor and diseased, yet we rarely consider closely the harsh realities of the crowds whom Jesus surrounded himself with and what their life was like, how different it was from our own.
For instance… why did the leper have leprousy? He got sick… why? Poor nutrition. Why? He couldn’t afford to buy food. Why? He was taxed heavily by Rome (and by the Temple). He was in so much debt he was thrown off his own farm and had no way to provide food for himself or his family. Jesus
The opening of the earth-shattering Sermon on the Mount in Matthew ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ sounds very similar in Luke’s version the Sermon on the Plain… ‘Blessed are the poor’
We are taught in the Lord’s prayer…give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts…We tend to pray right over these things…. But if you lived in 1st Cent Roman Palestine… getting a loaf of bread to eat and being somehow fortunate enough to have a creditor who would forgive your debt… well… these would be incontrovertible evidence of ‘Our Father in heaven… whose kingdom has come….
Jesus told parables about the poor and the wealthy… the rich man and Lazarus… do you remember that one? The story of a wealthy man who dressed in fine clothes and has so much food he just tosses out the left-overs ( I know that doesn’t sound all that egregious, but in a time and place when so many were dying of malnutrition, to throw away food was just an incredibly callous thing to do).
Anyway… both the wealthy man and Lazarus die…
Where does Lazarus go after he dies...? What about the wealthy man…? Why?
That is the shocking part of the story for there is no clear explanation of why he lands in hell accept that he was woefully ignorant of the plight of the poor right outside his own gate
And his conversations were often challenges to the wealthy… To the young man who came to seek eternal life, he said ‘go sell everything and give to the poor…’ and when he went to visit Zacchaeus…he hardly said a word, but his presence caused Zacchaeus to offer to give half his wealth to the poor.
It is for these reasons that when Jesus hangs on the cross…. I see poverty and oppression and hunger and disease hanging there…
Of course… it doesn’t just stop there…
Are Ye Able said the master… to be crucified with me… with me… have you ever sung that hymn… Have you ever stopped to think that maybe it isn’t just a metaphor? That we are meant to give up something in order to follow Christ?
The crucifixion wasn’t just an event in history but somehow it is meant to be a practice kept current by the disciples after Jesus death and resurrection down through the ages right up to today, a practice that you and I together observe.
Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Luke 14:27
And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Ro 6:3-4
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Crucifixion as in a violent act of oppression wasn’t meant to be practiced… but crucifixion as a loving act of sacrifice on behalf of others to incarnate… make flesh…make real… the love of God…. Well that was meant to become a regular practice for Christians…
Made in God's image, we are to grow into that reality by doing what God does: love the world (McFague; Life Abundant , pg. 13)
'Faith in god does not consist in asserting god's existence, but rather in acting on [God's] behalf.' Henri Nouwen quoted in McFague pg34 Life Abundant.
Those who call themselves Christians, Christ-followers then, are meant to show the sacrificial love of God to those who suffer…. Those who hang on the cross… we are not allowed to turn our heads… to avert our gaze from the suffering of the world around us. We can turn Sally Fields commercials off… change the channel… but those of us who are baptized are baptized into his suffering and death… and we cannot ignore the fact that…
According to UNICEF, between 26-30,000 children die each day due to poverty
Half the world – nearly three billion people – live on less than two dollars a day
Estimated cost of clean water and sanitation for the world 9 billion US dollars
Americans spend 8 billion on cosmetics
US and Europe spends 12 billion on perfume
17 billion on pet food
The world spends 780 billion dollars in military expenditures
I know you love statistics…
1 in 10 of our RI neighbors are living in poverty….
40, 468 children, live below poverty in RI
17, 805 children live in extreme poverty… extreme poverty would be me trying to provide for my wife and two children on 11,000 dollars a year. Almost 18, 000 kids in our own state are living in those circumstances.
Resurrection Faith
This is where our resurrection story, which is meant simply to remind you of all of those resurrection stories, comes in. In all of these stories we meet baffled, confused, doubting disciples. We meet Mary who looks and Jesus and thinks he is the gardener… and Cleopas who walks with Jesus to Emmaus and listens to him speak but still can’t recognize him. All of these stories… Mark’s original ending perhaps the most maddening of all… for it ends with Mary and the other women running away from the empty tomb so frightened of this empty tomb that Mark says ‘they say nothing to no one.’ I know that isn’t good grammar, but that is the greek. They say nothing… Resurrection staring them straight in the eye… a tomb empty and an angel telling them to go to Galilee to see Jesus and they scream and run!!!
How can it be!
But here we are brothers and sisters, just as baffled, just as confused…
Here we are… we have heard the words of Jesus, blessed are the poor, forgive us our debts as we forgive…. Here we are with the stories of the rich man and Lazarus and that odd saying about rich men getting into heaven and camels fitting through needle eyes… 9 billion dollars would buy clean water and sanitation for the world (don’t forget why the leper was a leper, malnutrition and lack of sanitation) and we are spending 17 billion on pet food.
Currently, American's spend $8 billion annually on cosmetics and Europeans $11 billion on ice cream, a total more than it would cost to provide basic education ($6 billion) or water and sanitation ($9 billion) to the more than two billion people worldwide who do not have schools or toilets. (New York Times 'Most Consuming More, and the Rich Much More,' Sept 13, 1998
I believe Christian discipleship for twenty-first century North American Christians means 'cruciform living,' an alternative notion of the abundant life, which will involve a philosopy of 'enoughness'… for us priviledged Christians a 'cross-shaped' life will not be primarily what Christ does for us, but what we can do for others. (McFague; Life Abundant, pg. 14)
Resurrection Faith is all about new life…and not just a new spiritual life, but a whole new life in all its fullness. After Jesus visits with Zachaeus and Zachaeus, makes this realization that his money is not his own… let me say that again, his money is not his own… it is a gift from God for the good of the community… he offers half his wealth to the community… and what do we read in Luke… what does Jesus say? Salvation has come to this house. Salvation… is it too much of a stretch for me to suggest that salvation and resurrection do not just apply to things of the spirit, but to physical things… even financial things… Zacchaeus is saved and it reaches into his wallet and then there is a resurrection of life…not just for him, but for his community… for the poor, for those he has wronged, for those he has defrauded, for those he has ignored because he thought that his money was his own.
Since we are talking about life here… resurrection life…
Juliet Schor wrote an excellent little book called the Overspent American. You can still find it in bookstores and I would recommend it highly. Anyway Prof. Schor cites a study in this book on how American’s define ‘The Good Life’ Listen to some of this. It compares 1975 to 1991 but even though the study is dated I think it still highlights trends that are relevant and perhaps frightening…
In 1975 14% of people surveyed said a swimming pool defined the good life; by 1991 29%
In 1975 10% said a second TV defined the good life in 1991 28% said a second tv said good life
In 1975 38% said that a lot of money would give them a good life; by 1991 55% said the same
You are hearing the trend here right… material wealth, possessions, things…. Define the goodness of our lives… more and moreso…
Would you like to know what things statistically were shown to be less important to Americans for a good life: A happy marriage, children, an interesting job…
My point is that Jesus has called us to live a new life, a resurrected life… and that there is meant to be an unrestrained generosity in that new life… a belief, beyond what our eyes see and our minds tells us… that we can have an impact upon such things as poverty in RI, or even world hunger… we are called by the risen Christ to believe that we should care about the education of a girl in oh, I don’t know, Costa Rica, or Nicaraugua…
Stewardship as Creation Care
Just after this whole economic downturn hit Barbara Kingsolver, a writer of a few books, you may have heard of the Poisonwood Bible? She wrote an editorial about the lending crisis. I found what she said to be particularly striking. She basically said that we have forgotten in our nation that there is a mutual relationship between those who make loans and those who are receive those loans. It is not just the creditors who make the good life possible for their debtors, but the creditors too depend upon the business of the debtors to provide for their families… we have forgotten the relationship…
which immediately reminded me of the words of John Donne
No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Which is what we read in our Acts text for today… that the early believers held all things in common and thought nothing of selling personal possessions to provide for the safety and security of their sisters and brothers in Christ.
My sisters and brothers… we live in an age… I believe I have shown in which the relationship between you and I… the relationship between one human being and another is less valuable than relationship between me and my money or me and my possessions… how else could this mortgage/banking/economic crisis have happened?
When my connection to money and possession is valued over my connection to another human I am less human, less the image that god created me to be and this is one reason why we as Christians practice the tithe and giving offerings… it reminds us of our humanity… of the reason why were created by God… which in Genesis ch2 says to keep and till creation, but you can translate those two words… to serve and protect. We were created to share ourselves… we were pleased, Paul says in 1 Thess… to share not only the gospel, but ourselves… so tithing… planning your giving… is the practice of sharing yourself with others… so that you maintain…. No you discover and utilize and perfect the image of God that is within you.
Let me say a word about practice.
It seems quite obvious to me that Acts 2, the disciples held all things in common… was not an anomaly… It was a common practice, a standard practice in the early church. In Acts 9:36 we are introduced to a woman named Dorcas who is noteworthy because she supported the poor…
In Acts 10:1-4 we meet Cornelius who is a Roman… but he is not hated… he is known as a God-fearer… How do they know that he is a God fearer? Acts 10 says it is because of his generosity to the poor. I could go on and on… Paul mentions collections taken for the poor in churches in Romans and in Galatians… it was a standard practice… an expected resurrection lifestyle… those who joined the church joined in the practice of giving to support those in need.
More than a standard practice… dare I say it was a sacrament?
I know, as Baptists we are uncomfortable with that word… but just for a minute consider…
We practice a tithe because Christ called us to take up a cross… to live a cruciform life of sacrificial service to others and the tithe is allows us to remember and rehearse that commitment
We practice tithe to reclaim our humanity… to proclaim that we are not defined (as so many in the world are) by the possessions we own, the size of our houses or cars, the breadth and depth of our portfolio’s… we are those created by God to serve and protect… and the tithe reminds us of that humanity.
We practice tithe as a sacrament… a means of communicating God’s love to the world (specifically in my mind the poor) but still the whole world…
Finally a tithe is witness to a watching world…
This is one… very important way that we show the world that the words that we pray every Sunday morning ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ are not empty words… we believe in these words… we believe enough to get some skin in the game… to lay our own resources down to construct that kingdom… tithe is our witness to the watching world…
Never for a second think that this is a private act… Tithing is the most important thing for the world to see, for when we tithe… when we give of our best to the master… we say to the watching world
this is what compassion looks life… this is what love is… this is what grace is… this is what humanity is meant to be…
Are ye able said the master… to be crucified with me? Sings the old song…
In our tithe… In our gift giving… in our service to the poor and rejected and forgotten our society, in our state… we answer… Lord, we are able… Lord, we are able…
Friday, July 17, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sermon July 12 2009 Tithing, the Witness of Giving
Note; this concept still needs work... so if this were an article I would be calling it 'TOWARD a theology of tithing... I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to say about Tithing as Witness...
Intro: It’s difficult to talk about money, in general. It is difficult to talk about ‘giving money’ right now for a variety of reasons I suppose; Times are tough economically and some people, even here among us are really struggling financially. Because financial matters can cause such anxiety and even shame, we often don’t talk about our financial struggles with each other. Besides it just isn’t considered polite.
Add to that the fact that it seems like every other phone-call seems to be a telemarketer offering us a ‘service’ of some sort which is just a polite way of saying that they want our money… some of them for their profit… some of these calls from worthy non-profits, like special Olympics for instance. Well, it just gets tough to talk about all of this in church.
When we do talk about it in church it is often connected to the budget of the church. So in effect we are talking about fundraising for electricity and oil and my salary and insurance and to support the ministries of the church… Some churches talk about tithing (the churchy word for giving money) purely in terms of obedience… God commanded that we tithe and so we should tithe. Or some churches will talk about the ‘spiritual benefits’ of giving as a connection to God.
No matter how we do talk about it… some will feel uncomfortable because they don’t have much if anything to give financially. Some will feel offended because they already give a lot.
So let me just say a few things.
Today’s sermon is about giving, tithing…. Whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the sermon is not to make those who are already struggling financially feel guilty that they don’t have something to put in the plate. Before I read today’s scripture I am going to read from Romans…Rom 12:6-8
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Notice that giving is a spiritual gift according to Paul, one among many… some of us have been given the resources to use this gift… perhaps your gift right now is not financial generosity… it just isn’t possible… so store what I’m going to say about giving away for the day when you do have the resources to be generous… Ok?
Second, I want to say to those of you who give faithfully and generously… who have writers- cramp from responding to every request for aid by whipping out your check-book… thank you… sincerely… American Baptist churches around the state are amazed at the amount of service we can provide to the community and you who have been given the gift of generosity, are doing so in an exemplary fashion… and that gift along with the gifts of others who have time and talent to put your generous gifts to good use all works together for our witness to the world. Today I want to talk about Giving and Tithing from a different perspective from those I mentioned earlier and my hope is that it will not feel like a pitch to those of you who already give generously to give more… or a guilt trip to those of who have not been given the gift of generosity.
So Lets read our Scripture for the day. 2 Cor 8:1-15
Pray
1 Tim 6:10 ‘for the love of money is the root of all kinds of money’
One church member... is fond of quoting this scripture whenever he discusses church endowments…the monies that churches accumulate and invest. Some people think that endowments are really good things and some think they are bad things… He likes to note… it doesn’t say money is evil… it says LOVE of money is the root of evil.
And this is a common theme actually, throughout the Bible.
In Deut 6:10-12 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build , 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Now the thing to remember is that the story of the Torah… the first five books of the Bible… is the story of God leading Israel from wanting to having… from scarcity to abundance… it starts with Abraham in the book of Genesis and it continues as a theme throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to live comfortably and safely… with all of their needs met… this, by the way is what the Bible means by abundance… not opulence… not a showing and conspicuous gathering and hoarding of wealth and property… but enough to live safely and happily.
This is explained in Ex 16:17-20 and if you do not know this story it is important because Paul has quoted it in today’s reading…. It takes place just after Israel has left Egypt… and the people are in the desert and they are hungry and they are afraid… so God provides Manna… bread from heaven to feed them… and there were rules. Each Israelite was to gather enough… ENOUGH to feed the family for the day… not too much… they weren’t allowed to try to stash it or save it… but to take enough and trust in God for tomorrow… and this is what happened…
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God will provide. That is the lesson of this story. Trust in God, not in money, accumulated wealth or material possession.
But there is another lesson that I think applies… When the manna becomes the ultimate concern… the main goal for some of the Israelites… more important that leaving some for others… more important than trusting in God… their manna goes bad… When our wealth or our money becomes the most important thing… the ultimate goal… it is dangerous…
If we look to Jesus own teaching… Money is a prevalent theme… Jesus is always talking about money.
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus… they both die and the rich man ends up in Hell… and we are never told that he had any grossly immoral marks on his soul… we are not told that he was evil or cruel… all we know is that he was wealthy, conspicuously wealthy and that Lazarus the beggar lived right outside his gate and the rich man did not know him or know about him and that IGNORANCE caused him to end up in hell… Notice that… His ignorance sent him to hell… his preoccupation with stuff… with things… with wealth… blinded him to the plight of the poor… and he ended up in Hell… Love of money is a dangerous thing.
And what may be most frightening about this… at least how I understand it, is that the rich man is blind to his own material preoccupation. Which is what I think is most threatening about the consumerism in our own country…we don’t even realize its influence over us. We spend an hour and maybe a bit longer in worship… some of us spend time in prayer and in devotion at home… but we are constantly surrounded, bombarded by the suggestion to buy, purchase, accumulate and collect…and we don’t even realize the influence this has over us… this is what the Deuteronomy story is warning us of… before we know it… we have replaced God with the stuff that we can buy.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus… we’ve talked about him often haven’t we… we really have to learn that ‘wee little man song’ sometime… anyway… he too is wealthy and his wealth, as a tax collector is gained from his in-ethical practice of overtaxing his own poor neighbors….
Do you see a pattern emerging. When the point of life is to gain wealth… when wealth and money become the end… the goal, the purpose… we end up disconnected from each other… like Zacchaeus and ultimately from God, like Lazarus.
So the bible offers us multiple warnings about the toxicity of loving money… of making it our god…
Before you dismiss the idea that you or I could possibly get that distracted… that we could be that influenced… remember the struggle I had to sell two of my four guitars. Seriously… why did I have to have four guitars anyway? Without stopping to think about it I accumulated four guitars and let me tell you that two of those purchases were just consumer therapy… I was feeling bad about something and getting guitars and seeing them sitting in the house gave me a little high…
William Cavanaugh suggests in a little book called Being Consumed that what is insidious about our consumer culture is that it is, in some sense, spiritual… we fill emotional and spiritual needs quickly and easily through the pursuit of some new product, gadget…
And even though we may pride ourselves on be bargain hunters… when we are filling spiritual emptiness with easily procured things… we are missing the chance to grow in faith… because the growing pain is assuaged by the good feeling of a new something.
Sum Up so Far:
While God wants us to live in security and happiness, also called abundance, what God means by abundance is not what our culture teaches us about abundance. When The Bible talks abundance, The Bible means abundance for the entire community, not for individuals here and there. So that abundance for all calls for generosity and simplicity as values for individuals.
Therefore, money is not evil, nor is wealth nor material gain… but they are dangerous. Material wealth can take the place of the God in our lives, creating a sense of comfort when we are feeling discouraged, giving us a joyful feeling… and so material wealth and gain slowly but surely can make themselves a god… can take the place of God in our lives without us even realizing it. And we live in a culture where we are bombarded daily, mostly via television, with the consumer gospel… the good news of the new and improved!
Now, what is going on with Paul in 2 Corinthians that we read together?
2 Cor 8:1-2 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about other Macedonian churches. Now, we have to pay specific attention to phrase Macedonian. So Paul is talking to churches who culture was pagan… not Jewish. And he is urging them to continue to take up a monetary collection for the churches in Jerusalem, churches that are largely Jewish in heritage. There was a sometimes contentious divide in these early church because the Jerusalem churches, mostly Jewish maintained many Jewish practices and traditions, while the new church Paul planted, were converted pagans who did not have the same heritage. So the question that these churches struggled with was… should pagans adopt Jewish practices in order to become Christian?
Now, Paul describes the Macedonian churches as having received grace from God…And then goes on to say2 Cor 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
So Paul sees giving, tithing, as something more than just taking care of the basic necessities of the church building (which they didn’t have anyway) and even more than personal piety, a spiritual practice for the good of the individual. Paul see’s giving as an act of participating in God’s grace.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul is talking about Jesus. Specifically he is talking about Jesus’ incarnation… that the word of God, the creative love of God became flesh, human, visible. Even more specifically, Paul is talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the grand scheme, Jesus gave up the wealth or riches of existence with God, to come and live with us. Specifically Jesus gave up the riches of his life and become poor… was tortured and crucified to show us the depth of God’s creative love… love that knows no bounds, love that Paul would in another place say, we cannot be separated from. That is what Grace is… the gift of Jesus that made God’s love available to us no matter what… a relationship with God is available because of Jesus own gift, his giving of his own wealth for our gain.
Paul does not want the Macedonian churches and the Jerusalem churches to remain in this state of tension, distrust and bickering because it taints the witness of the church to the wider world.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Why would people believe that Jesus’ generous gift reconciles humanity to God IF we can’t be reconciled to one another? So Paul is urging the Macedonian church and specifically the church in Corinth to finish the collection begun for Jerusalem, in spite of their own financial hardship, to bear witness to the watching world of the reconciliation that is possible through Christ.
You notice that for Paul money is not dangerous (first of all I suppose because he is asking people in poverty to give sacrificially to others).
This is perhaps one of the challenges that the Bible offers to the way we think about giving. While we often think about giving to the church from what we can easily afford… Paul is challenging these early churches to continue to make sacrifices of their own meager finances, for the good of others.
When we give sacrificially, money is not an evil… it is a good, a grace.
You also notice that for Paul, money is a grace when it is put in service of something truly ultimate. When money is sacrificially given for the good of others, it is transformed from a dangerous substance to grace, a sign of God’s love.
Which is perhaps the most important lesson that we are meant to teach the world through the practice of tithing and other offerings… the proper place of money in our lives…
For many in the culture around us… money is an ultimate.
The July 13th issue of TIME has a little interview with a man named Robert Kiyosaki who apparently is a financial guru. Now, I don’t know him and have never read his books and I’m not trying to judge the man… but one part of the interview popped out at me. ‘As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.’ Its so subtle we might miss it, and that is what the Bible has been trying to tell us. Wealth and money can become the ultimate concern for us very easily, without our even noticing.
I remember trying to educate myself about economics when the whole ‘financial crisis’ hit…
What I particularly remember about one explanation of the housing market crash was that it too illustrated how common the ultimacy of money is in the culture around us. Mortgages could be bundled and sold to larger corporations as an investment. So little mortgage companies started popping up all over the place offering mortgages to one and all. I particularly remember one interview with a man who dealt with these mortgages. He had no background in the mortgage business or in finance whatsoever, but he heard that mortgages were a quick way to make easy money. His ultimate concern was… profit, wealth. Many of these little companies folded up as soon as the profit was made. Their entire purpose was to make quick and easy money.
And I’ve wondered (perhaps a bit idealistically) what would have happened if the church (not this church, but American churches of every shape and size and denomination) had been more willing to talk about the purpose and the practice of tithing… if we had all (instead of avoiding the difficult topic of money and giving) had been showing the world the proper place and purpose of money? Would so many have been caught, some innocently, some not so innocently, in this view of money that it the ultimate, the end?
I think this is why tithing is such an important witness because it is a practice that constantly reminds us and shows the world the proper place and purpose and use of money. When our wealth is used for the glory of God, through being used for the good of others… money is not a dangerous thing, but a gift of grace… a sign of God’s deep deep love for all humanity. When our wealth is used, as Paul wanted it to be used in Corinth, as a sacrificial sign of unity and compassion, our wealth is a witness to the larger world showing it that we need not fear scarcity, but actually will find abundance of life, as Jesus promised, not by hoarding for ourselves, but by giving generously to others. For this is what pleases God and God cares and provides for those who care for others.
Matt 6:24-3424 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
What would others learn about your faith… by looking at your check book
Intro: It’s difficult to talk about money, in general. It is difficult to talk about ‘giving money’ right now for a variety of reasons I suppose; Times are tough economically and some people, even here among us are really struggling financially. Because financial matters can cause such anxiety and even shame, we often don’t talk about our financial struggles with each other. Besides it just isn’t considered polite.
Add to that the fact that it seems like every other phone-call seems to be a telemarketer offering us a ‘service’ of some sort which is just a polite way of saying that they want our money… some of them for their profit… some of these calls from worthy non-profits, like special Olympics for instance. Well, it just gets tough to talk about all of this in church.
When we do talk about it in church it is often connected to the budget of the church. So in effect we are talking about fundraising for electricity and oil and my salary and insurance and to support the ministries of the church… Some churches talk about tithing (the churchy word for giving money) purely in terms of obedience… God commanded that we tithe and so we should tithe. Or some churches will talk about the ‘spiritual benefits’ of giving as a connection to God.
No matter how we do talk about it… some will feel uncomfortable because they don’t have much if anything to give financially. Some will feel offended because they already give a lot.
So let me just say a few things.
Today’s sermon is about giving, tithing…. Whatever you want to call it. The purpose of the sermon is not to make those who are already struggling financially feel guilty that they don’t have something to put in the plate. Before I read today’s scripture I am going to read from Romans…Rom 12:6-8
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Notice that giving is a spiritual gift according to Paul, one among many… some of us have been given the resources to use this gift… perhaps your gift right now is not financial generosity… it just isn’t possible… so store what I’m going to say about giving away for the day when you do have the resources to be generous… Ok?
Second, I want to say to those of you who give faithfully and generously… who have writers- cramp from responding to every request for aid by whipping out your check-book… thank you… sincerely… American Baptist churches around the state are amazed at the amount of service we can provide to the community and you who have been given the gift of generosity, are doing so in an exemplary fashion… and that gift along with the gifts of others who have time and talent to put your generous gifts to good use all works together for our witness to the world. Today I want to talk about Giving and Tithing from a different perspective from those I mentioned earlier and my hope is that it will not feel like a pitch to those of you who already give generously to give more… or a guilt trip to those of who have not been given the gift of generosity.
So Lets read our Scripture for the day. 2 Cor 8:1-15
Pray
1 Tim 6:10 ‘for the love of money is the root of all kinds of money’
One church member... is fond of quoting this scripture whenever he discusses church endowments…the monies that churches accumulate and invest. Some people think that endowments are really good things and some think they are bad things… He likes to note… it doesn’t say money is evil… it says LOVE of money is the root of evil.
And this is a common theme actually, throughout the Bible.
In Deut 6:10-12 When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you — a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build , 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant — then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Now the thing to remember is that the story of the Torah… the first five books of the Bible… is the story of God leading Israel from wanting to having… from scarcity to abundance… it starts with Abraham in the book of Genesis and it continues as a theme throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. God wants the people of Israel to live comfortably and safely… with all of their needs met… this, by the way is what the Bible means by abundance… not opulence… not a showing and conspicuous gathering and hoarding of wealth and property… but enough to live safely and happily.
This is explained in Ex 16:17-20 and if you do not know this story it is important because Paul has quoted it in today’s reading…. It takes place just after Israel has left Egypt… and the people are in the desert and they are hungry and they are afraid… so God provides Manna… bread from heaven to feed them… and there were rules. Each Israelite was to gather enough… ENOUGH to feed the family for the day… not too much… they weren’t allowed to try to stash it or save it… but to take enough and trust in God for tomorrow… and this is what happened…
17 The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18 And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. 19 Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." 20 However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.
God will provide. That is the lesson of this story. Trust in God, not in money, accumulated wealth or material possession.
But there is another lesson that I think applies… When the manna becomes the ultimate concern… the main goal for some of the Israelites… more important that leaving some for others… more important than trusting in God… their manna goes bad… When our wealth or our money becomes the most important thing… the ultimate goal… it is dangerous…
If we look to Jesus own teaching… Money is a prevalent theme… Jesus is always talking about money.
In Luke 16 Jesus tells the story of a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus… they both die and the rich man ends up in Hell… and we are never told that he had any grossly immoral marks on his soul… we are not told that he was evil or cruel… all we know is that he was wealthy, conspicuously wealthy and that Lazarus the beggar lived right outside his gate and the rich man did not know him or know about him and that IGNORANCE caused him to end up in hell… Notice that… His ignorance sent him to hell… his preoccupation with stuff… with things… with wealth… blinded him to the plight of the poor… and he ended up in Hell… Love of money is a dangerous thing.
And what may be most frightening about this… at least how I understand it, is that the rich man is blind to his own material preoccupation. Which is what I think is most threatening about the consumerism in our own country…we don’t even realize its influence over us. We spend an hour and maybe a bit longer in worship… some of us spend time in prayer and in devotion at home… but we are constantly surrounded, bombarded by the suggestion to buy, purchase, accumulate and collect…and we don’t even realize the influence this has over us… this is what the Deuteronomy story is warning us of… before we know it… we have replaced God with the stuff that we can buy.
Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus… we’ve talked about him often haven’t we… we really have to learn that ‘wee little man song’ sometime… anyway… he too is wealthy and his wealth, as a tax collector is gained from his in-ethical practice of overtaxing his own poor neighbors….
Do you see a pattern emerging. When the point of life is to gain wealth… when wealth and money become the end… the goal, the purpose… we end up disconnected from each other… like Zacchaeus and ultimately from God, like Lazarus.
So the bible offers us multiple warnings about the toxicity of loving money… of making it our god…
Before you dismiss the idea that you or I could possibly get that distracted… that we could be that influenced… remember the struggle I had to sell two of my four guitars. Seriously… why did I have to have four guitars anyway? Without stopping to think about it I accumulated four guitars and let me tell you that two of those purchases were just consumer therapy… I was feeling bad about something and getting guitars and seeing them sitting in the house gave me a little high…
William Cavanaugh suggests in a little book called Being Consumed that what is insidious about our consumer culture is that it is, in some sense, spiritual… we fill emotional and spiritual needs quickly and easily through the pursuit of some new product, gadget…
And even though we may pride ourselves on be bargain hunters… when we are filling spiritual emptiness with easily procured things… we are missing the chance to grow in faith… because the growing pain is assuaged by the good feeling of a new something.
Sum Up so Far:
While God wants us to live in security and happiness, also called abundance, what God means by abundance is not what our culture teaches us about abundance. When The Bible talks abundance, The Bible means abundance for the entire community, not for individuals here and there. So that abundance for all calls for generosity and simplicity as values for individuals.
Therefore, money is not evil, nor is wealth nor material gain… but they are dangerous. Material wealth can take the place of the God in our lives, creating a sense of comfort when we are feeling discouraged, giving us a joyful feeling… and so material wealth and gain slowly but surely can make themselves a god… can take the place of God in our lives without us even realizing it. And we live in a culture where we are bombarded daily, mostly via television, with the consumer gospel… the good news of the new and improved!
Now, what is going on with Paul in 2 Corinthians that we read together?
2 Cor 8:1-2 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.
So Paul is writing to the church at Corinth about other Macedonian churches. Now, we have to pay specific attention to phrase Macedonian. So Paul is talking to churches who culture was pagan… not Jewish. And he is urging them to continue to take up a monetary collection for the churches in Jerusalem, churches that are largely Jewish in heritage. There was a sometimes contentious divide in these early church because the Jerusalem churches, mostly Jewish maintained many Jewish practices and traditions, while the new church Paul planted, were converted pagans who did not have the same heritage. So the question that these churches struggled with was… should pagans adopt Jewish practices in order to become Christian?
Now, Paul describes the Macedonian churches as having received grace from God…And then goes on to say2 Cor 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
So Paul sees giving, tithing, as something more than just taking care of the basic necessities of the church building (which they didn’t have anyway) and even more than personal piety, a spiritual practice for the good of the individual. Paul see’s giving as an act of participating in God’s grace.
2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Paul is talking about Jesus. Specifically he is talking about Jesus’ incarnation… that the word of God, the creative love of God became flesh, human, visible. Even more specifically, Paul is talking about Jesus’ crucifixion. In the grand scheme, Jesus gave up the wealth or riches of existence with God, to come and live with us. Specifically Jesus gave up the riches of his life and become poor… was tortured and crucified to show us the depth of God’s creative love… love that knows no bounds, love that Paul would in another place say, we cannot be separated from. That is what Grace is… the gift of Jesus that made God’s love available to us no matter what… a relationship with God is available because of Jesus own gift, his giving of his own wealth for our gain.
Paul does not want the Macedonian churches and the Jerusalem churches to remain in this state of tension, distrust and bickering because it taints the witness of the church to the wider world.
2 Cor 5:17-21
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Why would people believe that Jesus’ generous gift reconciles humanity to God IF we can’t be reconciled to one another? So Paul is urging the Macedonian church and specifically the church in Corinth to finish the collection begun for Jerusalem, in spite of their own financial hardship, to bear witness to the watching world of the reconciliation that is possible through Christ.
You notice that for Paul money is not dangerous (first of all I suppose because he is asking people in poverty to give sacrificially to others).
This is perhaps one of the challenges that the Bible offers to the way we think about giving. While we often think about giving to the church from what we can easily afford… Paul is challenging these early churches to continue to make sacrifices of their own meager finances, for the good of others.
When we give sacrificially, money is not an evil… it is a good, a grace.
You also notice that for Paul, money is a grace when it is put in service of something truly ultimate. When money is sacrificially given for the good of others, it is transformed from a dangerous substance to grace, a sign of God’s love.
Which is perhaps the most important lesson that we are meant to teach the world through the practice of tithing and other offerings… the proper place of money in our lives…
For many in the culture around us… money is an ultimate.
The July 13th issue of TIME has a little interview with a man named Robert Kiyosaki who apparently is a financial guru. Now, I don’t know him and have never read his books and I’m not trying to judge the man… but one part of the interview popped out at me. ‘As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.’ Its so subtle we might miss it, and that is what the Bible has been trying to tell us. Wealth and money can become the ultimate concern for us very easily, without our even noticing.
I remember trying to educate myself about economics when the whole ‘financial crisis’ hit…
What I particularly remember about one explanation of the housing market crash was that it too illustrated how common the ultimacy of money is in the culture around us. Mortgages could be bundled and sold to larger corporations as an investment. So little mortgage companies started popping up all over the place offering mortgages to one and all. I particularly remember one interview with a man who dealt with these mortgages. He had no background in the mortgage business or in finance whatsoever, but he heard that mortgages were a quick way to make easy money. His ultimate concern was… profit, wealth. Many of these little companies folded up as soon as the profit was made. Their entire purpose was to make quick and easy money.
And I’ve wondered (perhaps a bit idealistically) what would have happened if the church (not this church, but American churches of every shape and size and denomination) had been more willing to talk about the purpose and the practice of tithing… if we had all (instead of avoiding the difficult topic of money and giving) had been showing the world the proper place and purpose of money? Would so many have been caught, some innocently, some not so innocently, in this view of money that it the ultimate, the end?
I think this is why tithing is such an important witness because it is a practice that constantly reminds us and shows the world the proper place and purpose and use of money. When our wealth is used for the glory of God, through being used for the good of others… money is not a dangerous thing, but a gift of grace… a sign of God’s deep deep love for all humanity. When our wealth is used, as Paul wanted it to be used in Corinth, as a sacrificial sign of unity and compassion, our wealth is a witness to the larger world showing it that we need not fear scarcity, but actually will find abundance of life, as Jesus promised, not by hoarding for ourselves, but by giving generously to others. For this is what pleases God and God cares and provides for those who care for others.
Matt 6:24-3424 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry , saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
What would others learn about your faith… by looking at your check book
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