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A couple was leaving worship,
talking to the minister. They were husband and wife. The wife
was holding a small child. The mother said to the minister,
“I’m very sorry my baby was crying so much during church
today; he’s just beginning to teethe.
The minister replied, “I
certainly understand about that. What I don’t understand is
why your husband was crying.”
“Oh,” said the woman, “he’s just
beginning to tithe.”
I began to tithe when I was 10
years old. I was a Post-Gazette paperboy. My parents had
modeled tithing for me. My father taught it to me at age 10. I
never looked back.
I’ve preached tithing on
occasion here. I have titles like, “Fit to be Tithed,” or “In
God We Trust,” or (perhaps the congregation’s all time
favorite) “Sermon on the Amount.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge
I’ve faced in recent years was a spiritual life weekend at a
church here in the Pittsburgh area. They asked me to give 5
different talks (including the Sunday morning sermon) on
tithing. The best part of the invitation was the reason that I
agreed. They said tithing is about the spiritual life—it’s
about spiritual growth.
Too often tithing is about only
underwriting the budget of the church. It is so much more. It
is a spiritual discipline. It’s a way to grow. It’s a holy
habit.
Today’s text is from the Old
Testament book of Malachi: “Bring your full tithe to the
storehouse. Put me to the test. And see if I will not open the
windows of heaven for you and pour down upon you an
overflowing blessing.” I have preached this text once before,
but it’s been 17 years. It’s time to walk through this text
again. It is time to look at it piece by piece.
BRING
The prophet first says bring
your full tithes. Bring them to the place of worship.
Elsewhere the psalmist writes, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory
due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts.”
(Psalm 96:8) Today many people send their offerings to the
church. Some of you do that. I have done it at times. Some may
use the automatic transfer from a personal checking account to
the church’s account. Some may use a computer programmed to
automatically send the check to the church. Others use the
mailing envelopes we provide each month. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with this, but why does Malachi say “bring” your
offering?
There is something about making
your giving an act of worship. It’s important to put something
into the plate as you worship. When I was a child my mother
and father, my two sisters and I would sit together in church.
When it came time for the offering my father would always give
each of us something to put into the plate—a quarter, a dime,
a nickel, some coin. Even though he and Mother had already
made their envelope pledge, they always put something in as
well. The implication by illustration was that you always give
something in worship.
There is some data to support
the tact that some people feel that if they send their money,
they’ve already been to church. It’s easy to be deceived or
confused about this. Scripture says that God wants your
worship and your offerings. God wants you to bring
yourself and your gifts.
Some churches have come up with
a plan to help illustrate this. If you happen to be someone
who gives automatically in these churches, you will receive a
weekly token. You drop that token into the plate when the
offering plate is passed. It may not have any financial value
but it symbolizes the fact that you are giving.
I am reminded of the story of a
Roman Catholic Church in the Las Vegas area. Almost every week
some gambling chips would show up in the plate during the
offering. About once a month the priest from that church would
go down to the local casino and redeem the chips for
additional offering to the church. He became affectionately
known in the Las Vegas area as the “Chip Monk.” Bring your
full tithes to the storehouse.
FULL TITHES
Then the prophet says, “Bring
your full tithes.” The emphasis is on the full 10%. I
came across a cartoon that shows a minister standing in the
pulpit on Sunday morning. Underneath the cartoon the caption
says, “Dr. Sheldon takes advantage of his congregation’s lack
of knowledge of the Greek language.” The cartoon shows him
saying in the pulpit, “Actually, the Greek word for ‘tithe’
means ‘25%.’”
In our faith tradition a
tithe—or 10 percent—is the minimum spiritual goal. It is not a
law; it is a spiritual guideline. As soon as I begin talking
about tithing, the questions begin. “Do you mean gross or
net?” “Is it the adjusted gross income?” “Does the tithe come
before or after taxes?” “I’m on a pension. Haven’t I already
paid my tithe on the money that accumulated in that pension?”
“I’m on Social Security. Same question.” All I know is, I
can’t tell you the answer to those questions. What the Old
Testament says several times is that you bring a tithe of
everything. You and I have to decide what that means for us.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the
“Lite church?” In grocery stores today we have lite butter and
lite syrup and lite yogurt. Now there is the lite church. The
lite church has a 45-minute worship service, a 7% tithe, and
only 8 of the 10 Commandments—and you get to choose which 8.
Bring your full tithe, says the
prophet. John Dodson tells of moving his elderly aunt into an
assisted living facility. She had a total monthly income of
$1550. The monthly cost of the home into which she was moving
was $1150. John was working out her budget—which really meant
what to do with the $400 residue. He worked hard and long to
try to get it so it would work for her. When he was finished
she said, “John, did you put my $155 to the church in that
budget?”
“No way,” he replied. “There’s
no way you can do that, my dear aunt. You don’t have enough to
give $155 to the church.”
She put her hands on her hips
and looked John straight in the eye. She said, “John, I don’t
care how you do it. You make sure that I get my tithe to the
church out of that check.”
Tithing is not a law. Tithing is
not a legal goal. Tithing is a spiritual tool for soul
growth.
There was a church out in the
Midwest in grain country that always had trouble meeting its
budget and paying its conference apportionment’s. Year after
year they would end up with unpaid bills and conference
apportionment’s only partially paid. Finally the treasurer of
many years decided he couldn’t take it any more. He had to
resign. The church wondered how they would find another person
to be treasurer. Someone thought of the man who owned the
local granary, so they decided to ask him.
A delegation of people went and
talked to him about being the treasurer of the church. They
told him it was not an easy job. He thought for a moment and
then said, “Okay, I’ll do it. But there are two conditions.
First, you ask me no questions; and second, you ask for no
report until the end of the year.” The group was a little
apprehensive about such an agreement, but they decided they
had no place else to turn, so they would try it.
When the end of the year came,
the treasurer turned in his report. All the bills were paid in
full. All the conference apportionments were paid 100%. And
there was $33,000 in the bank. The people were stunned. “How
in the world did you do it?” He said, “Well, it really wasn’t
all that hard. Most of you bring your grain to my facility to
be weighed and shipped. I simply took 10% of the grain you
brought, gave the proceeds for that back to the church, and
then sent you your check. You never even missed it.”
“Bring your full tithes,”
says the prophet.
The Bible also recognizes that
for some people, a tithe is an insufficient goal. Some people
can and want to go beyond the tithe. Most of these persons
have what I call the “spiritual gift of giving.” There are 25
or 30 spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible. One of those
gifts is the gift of giving.
Some of you here have that
gift—recognized or not. Some of you have used that gift for a
while. Some are just beginning to use it. Maybe God is opening
up for you right now the beautiful gift of giving. Living that
gift means that tithing is not quite as important as the
spirit of generosity.
A while ago one of our member
said to me, “For some reason, God has given me the ability to
make money right now. I need you to help me use the fruits of
that wisely.” I heard this as a request for spiritual growth
through giving.
TO THE STOREHOUSE
Next, the prophet says,
“Bring the full tithe to the storehouse.” This may be the
most controversial part of tithing today. The text suggests
that the tithe belongs to God. The tithe belongs to the
church, to Kingdom work.
Inevitably I will get the
question, “Does my whole tithe belong only to the church, or
can I spread it around a bit?” My experience is that my tithe
belongs to God. My experience is also that there will be
enough for some other good causes as well.
My tithe is my planned weekly or
monthly gift that goes to the general budget of Christ Church.
I also have in my personal budget something called an “extra
tithe.” That money goes to the hunger offering, Thanksgiving,
or the Christmas offering, or the One Great Hour of Sharing
offering, or the Easter offering. And then there are a few
others as well. We give a little bit to the Alzheimer’s Fund,
because my mother-in-law died of Alzheimer’s disease. We give
a little bit to Mothers against Drunk Driving, because of
Elaine’s accident with a drunk driver 10 years ago. We give a
little bit to my college and to my seminary. And there is
always enough to go around. Which leads to the last part
of the text.
PUT ME TO THE TEST
The last thing the prophet says
is this: “Put me to the test. See if I will not open the
windows of heaven for you and pour down upon you an
overflowing blessing.” Notice that it is not just a blessing,
nor is it just an ordinary blessing. It is an overflowing
blessing.
Certainly we must be careful
here. The prophet is not saying that generous tithing brings
immediate wealth. He is not saying that generous tithing is
your ticket to heaven. He is not saying that generous tithing
gives you room to boast. He is not saying that generous
tithing is your induction into sainthood. Rather, he says, you
will be blessed to overflowing.
In her little book A Gift
from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes,
Purposeful giving is not apt
to deplete one’s resources; it belongs to the natural order of
giving that it seems to renew itself even in the act of
depletion. The more one gives, the more one has to give…
I have to tell you this today:
every time Elaine and I have raised our tithe here it has been
a blessing to us. The blessing has come without exception. We
are not wealthier; nor are we even healthier. But we are
blessed.
I have a degree in mathematics
from Lehigh University. A few years ago I received a letter
from the head of the math department at Lehigh. The letter
said in effect, “We are trying to find out how those who are
perhaps close to finishing their work career have used their
math degree from Lehigh.” I set the letter aside for a while.
I didn’t think more about it until it showed up on the pile of
mail on my desk again one day. I finally decided to write a
letter. The letter said briefly, “Dear Dr. ________: I have
learned that I can live better on 85-90% of my income than I
can on 100% of my income. Sincerely, Brian Bauknight, Class of
1961.” I never heard back from the math department.
I have been so blessed by
tithing and beyond that I cannot stop! I was reading in my
devotional time this week from Paul’s letter to the
Philippians. This is probably my favorite letter of Paul in
the New Testament. Paul says in 4:17, “I want you to
experience the blessing that issues from generosity.” Elaine
and I know that blessing. That has happened to us. Elaine has
taught me a lot about this. God has taught me the rest.
Again, Paul says, “I want you
to experience the blessing that issues from generosity.”
That’s what I want for you today, and into the new year.
The Scripture almost says, “No
one will go into debt because of tithing.” You won’t find that
in the Bible. But that word is inherent in the promise of God.
It’s sort of like e-mail from God with an embedded message. Do
you ever get e-mail with an embedded message that you can’t
open? You know the message is there. You even know what it
says. But you can’t get it open. This is a little bit like
that. “You will be blessed in your generosity. No one will go
into debt because of tithing.
I call you to a fair and
faithful adventure with tithing. Take a bold leap of faith.
You will be blessed. This church’s ministry will be deeper and
broader than ever.
In one of the Broadway musicals
there is a song that says something like this: “This is my
moment… I’m going to do great things.”
This is a defining moment on the
faith journey for you and me. This is a defining moment for
Christ Church. Let us do some great things together right now. |