Giving

Good morning to the Tribe!

I hope you haven't blown away this morning! Penny and I have been working on the service of worship with the Cantata coming up on December 19th. I am excited about that day! Though, to be honest, I am excited every Sunday we get together to worship. Today, I have also been thinking about the time of the offering. So, this is a two part thought. Stay tuned tomorrow to find out why the offering is placed in the service where it is….

Tithing is one of those tricky subjects in church. I found this section of a sermon by Victor D. Pentz, which I found thought provoking…

In my years in the church I have noticed two prevailing schools of thought about the offering. The first is what I call the old realist approach. The old realist is usually some no nonsense businessperson who says, "Look, you have to pay the bills. You have to keep the ministers fed, the lights on and the building maintained. The missionaries have to be supported. And nobody's ever come up with a better way of getting it done than to call a 'time out' after the sermon and have the organist play something pretty while you pass the hat and ask everybody to dig down deep in their pockets and pitch in their fair share." The old realist sees the offering as a necessary evil.


Across the aisle from the old realist sits the young idealist. He or she sees the offering as an unnecessary evil: "Why don't we live like the lilies of the field in this church? Why don't we just have faith and trust God to make ends meet? Why don't we pray instead of having stewardship campaigns and pledge cards and fund appeals?


…In my observation in the last decade, we don’t do either of these approaches and have come up with a third approach. In the church, we try our best to avoid talking about money at all and just hope for the best. We provide a time to collect it, but we don’t do a good job of explaining why we do. That is certainly the case with some of the pastors I have known. In divinity school, they don’t officially tell you to never talk about money and tithing, but it seems to be one of those unwritten rules. Some people say that it come across to people that the pastor is a money-grubber and just wants a raise. As a result, we don’t organize a pledge drive. We avoid stewardship campaigns. Other than asking the ushers to come forward to collect it and praying over it as it sits on the Lord's table, we don't speak much about the offering at all.



In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “Regarding the relief offering for poor Christians that is being collected, you get the same instructions I gave the churches in Galatia. Every Sunday each of you make an offering and put it in safekeeping. Be as generous as you can. When I get there you'll have it ready, and I won't have to make a special appeal. Then after I arrive, I'll write letters authorizing whomever you delegate, and send them off to Jerusalem to deliver your gift.” He sounds pretty point-blank about the whole subject to me.



So, why do we take an offering? First, it is a way we participate in God’s work in the world. From having a place to gather as God’s people to worship to feeding people in our kitchen to the laughter that comes out of classrooms on Scout night…all these things are ways we participate in God’s plan. God is our creator therefore being able to participate in God’s plan for the world is a privilege we shouldn’t take lightly.



Secondly, we worship rightly when we bring something to God. In Exodus 20, God says, "Every firstborn from the womb is mine, all the males of your herds, your firstborn oxen and sheep. … No one is to show up in my presence empty-handed.” The Israelites brought pigeons and doves, calves and sheep. In today's world, we bring our financial bounty as well as bringing our acts of service or the loaf of bread for communion. We don’t have to have the priest sacrifice our firstborn goat on the altar of the Lord. When Christ came, we all became priests. Therefore, we worship by bringing generously of what we have and offering it to God.

Next, we give of ourselves to God as a means of thanking God for what we have and reminding ourselves that it wasn’t really ours. God has given us our lives and our breath. Giving God the money that we might spend at O’Charley’s or at the mall helps us remember to be grateful. It is a way to say to God, “I know that you gave me this breath that I breath…the good things in life that I enjoy from peppermint sticks to sunshine…that you have a plan for me…” Giving what we have in this life helps us remember that the almighty dollar isn’t all there is. There is heavenly treasure that has way more value than a checkbook.



I invite us all to prayerfully consider how we tithe. Are we willing to give what God asks of us? Do we lay up our treasure in heaven or at Bank of America?

Have a great day!