Exodus 35: 4-9
Mark 12: 38-44
Robert Schnase in his book Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations tells of two members of his church: Matt and Keri. They grew up in the church and after marriage and children got heavily involved in the church again. They are both professionals with moderately high incomes. They have a familiar suburban lifestyle, paying for a home mortgage, two cars and preschool for their children. At church they participated in Bible study, helped with children’s ministries, mission projects and countless fellowship events.
Five years before, they were asked to write a devotional for the newsletter about an upcoming stewardship Sunday. They felt good about their giving and believed that they were giving a much higher proportion of their income away then other couples their age. When they sat down and crunched the numbers, they realized that they were only giving about 2% of their income. After studying the Biblical roots of tithing, they challenged themselves to increase their giving by half for the following year, pushing them toward three percent of their income.
They read with interest the story that we have read today from Mark’s gospel about the widow who put two coins in the treasury, giving more than others because she gave out of her poverty. As they prepared their newsletter article, they wrote about how they and their fellow church members gave out of their abundance rather than their poverty, and challenged others to join them in raising the proportion of their giving.
Matt and Kari increased their giving every year until they were able to practice tithing. As much as they had prayed, talked and committed themselves to the tithe, nothing prepared them for the first time they actually wrote the check for 10 percent of their income and gave it to the church at the beginning of the month. Kari remembers it as a “gut check moment” in their faith journey. It seemed crazy and extravagant. They enjoyed an incredible sense of accomplishment.
For Matt and Kari, deciding to tithe deepened their understanding and practice of faith. People talk about putting God first and having God at the center of their lives, but in actual practice most of a person’s major decisions are made without reference to God’s will or priorities and God is really peripheral instead of central. Instead of giving God the leftovers at the end of the month, tithing is a spiritual discipline that puts God first. It is a practical way of saying, “God is in charge of my life, and I do not give into society’s expectations, or possessions or my appetites.” Tithing takes enormous trust in God. Tithing strengthens faith.
Tithing forces is to think about our use of money, and how everything we have has been entrusted to us by God. Tithing makes us spend money more wisely, with less waste and fewer impulse purchases. Tithing causes us to save more diligently and makes us consider the impact of our investments on society. Tithing helps us to look at every dollar as if each dollar we hold has a mission.
The Biblical understanding of our wealth and possessions is that everything actually comes from God and everything belongs to God. Psalm 24 states this clearly: “The earth is the Lords, and everything in it: the world and all who live in it.” Everything and everyone belongs to God. It is really hard to hold on to this concept, isn’t it? I think the reason for that is that most of the time; we all have pretty good days. We all work very hard, we save, and we invest wisely. So it is easy to pat ourselves on the backs and say that we made our good fortune happen. But everyone here knows at least someone who through no fault of their own has lost their fortune. They were laid off their job, or they got an extended illness that bankrupted their funds. The farmers in the Midwest have lost their lifesavings this summer because of drought. You get the idea. Every one of us could be a breath away from financial disaster; no matter how hard we work. Further, we came into the world with nothing and we will leave this world with nothing. We may live 70, 85 or even 100 years, but when we die, everything we have accumulated will pass on to someone else. Before us, these possessions belonged to someone else, or to the earth and after we are gone, they will pass to someone else or back to the earth.
The air that we breath, the water we drink, the beauty that surrounds us, the planet we live on, all of these things we did not bring into being. All of these are gifts that we enjoy. The love that God pours upon us, the grace of Christ, the fellowship of one another…these are gifts we enjoy.
Scripture is jam packed with examples and teachings that focus on possessions, wealth, giving, gifts, generosity, offerings, charity, sacrifice and sharing with those in need. Giving is central to Jewish and Christian practice because people perceive God as extravagantly generous, the giver of every good gift, the sources of life and love. Someone has noted that the word Believe appears in the Bible 273 times pray appears 371 times and love appears 714 times. Give appears 2,172 times. In Exodus, we are called to give the “first fruits” of our labor. Jesus’ teaching abounds with the tales of rich and poor, generous and shrewd, faithful and fearful. He commends the widow in this gospel passage for putting her two coins in the treasury. The story upsets expectations by pointing to proportion rather than “amount” as a measure of extravagance.
Extravagant generosity describes the practices of sharing and giving that exceed all expectations. Congregations that practice extravagant generosity explicitly talk about the place of money in the Christian’s walk of faith. We as Americans live in a culture that feeds the desire to acquire more and more. Our culture fosters the myth that self worth is found in possessions. Most people think that they would be happy if they only had 20% more income than they currently have. Forty percent of the American people spend 110% of their annual income every year. People sustain their lifestyles though ever-increasing auto loans, credit card debt and mortgages.
I truly believe we can stop this craziness with generosity and sharing. You see, feeling like you never have enough, feeling dissatisfied is a spiritual problem. When we decide to give, when we start increasing our giving to a tithe we are forced to look at our earning, saving and spending through God’s eyes. We, who have received so many gifts from God, have the opportunity to generously share with others.
I believe that increasing your giving will not only change your personal sense of satisfaction, but it will change the life and ministry of this church. One of the things that I have observed serving you as pastor during this Interim Period is that for many of you there is a lack of connection to the church and the fellowship here. I have thought about this, and haven’t figured it all out. But, I can tell you, that if you all put more of your money here, you will feel more invested and you will feel like this church, and its mission are your responsibility.
I was telling someone this week that I think many of us think of giving at church like we think of gym dues. I know there are wide ranging gym dues in this town. My gym is pretty cheap, I know the Valley Athletic Club is a larger financial commitment. Perhaps if we have cheap gym dues like mine, we don’t feel so bad when we skip say…8 weeks of going to the gym. When we pay the dues at the Valley, or at our Country Club, we have more financial incentive to participate. I know this is a silly example. This is your church. This is your ministry. How invested are you? The interim period is not a time to sit back and wait to see what will happen. The interim period is the time to make the ministry that you dream about happen. You are calling a new pastor to help you carry out YOUR vision. This church and its ministry are your responsibility.
Finally, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t afford to be more generous. Our parents and our grandparents in the faith all tithed. I know if your grandparents were like mine, they never worried about having a new car, or a big house, or the latest anything. They just shared.
Being generous is just fun. When you set aside a portion of your monthly income for giving, you can sit back and decide where to give it. Naturally we at church would like it all, but seriously, all of us give to other efforts as well. When you have an amount set aside to do so, giving is fun and empowering.
The practice of Extravagant Generosity is the fruit of our spiritual maturity, and the result of the growth of God’s grace in us. Have fun in your giving.
Schnase, Robert Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. Abingdon Press. Nashville, TN 2007. Page 105
AUG
