October
27th, 2013
“Tough Talk about Tithing” Rev. Heather Jepsen
2
Chronicles 31:1-10
As you know, it is Stewardship season
here at First Pres. Small group meetings
begin today and if you have neglected to sign up than you had better get
moving. I know it can be boring, but these
meetings are a great chance to get together and talk about the work of the
church. Plus, ideas generated in these
meetings make a big impact on the next year’s campaign, like these time and
talent pledge cards.
Today
we are going to have some tough talk about tithing. While I fully believe in the words of this
sermon, most of this material is not mine.
Rather, I am borrowing this material from a sermon titled “The Top Five
Reasons Why I Don’t Tithe Yet” written
by William Carter in this book Speaking
of Stewardship. Being a good
preacher I know my limits, and good stewardship sermons are one of them, so
look for me to be regularly borrowing materials this time of year.
So,
today we are talking about real tithing.
To tell you the truth, members of our congregation have yet to complain
to me that I have never preached a sermon on tithing. Most people around here, myself included,
would hear a sermon on tithing as a sermon on torment. We don’t want anybody to tell us what to do
with our money. It troubles us. Maybe that is why I have never preached on
tithing yet here. Perhaps that is why I
do not tithe.
We cannot avoid the topic in the
Bible. Tithing is a practice that
appears throughout the pages of scripture.
It is in the Old Testament where we find most of the stories about
tithing, and it is often brought up as a teaching or a rule. For instance, Moses lays down the Law in Leviticus
27:30: “All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit
from the tree, are the Lord’s’. They are
holy (i.e. set apart) for the Lord.”
Other times the practice occurs in a
story, like our first reading about Jacob in Genesis or our second passage for
today from 2 Chronicles. The Chronicles
passage is a snapshot from Israel’s family album. Israel was cleaning its own house, and this
story describes the preparation of the people to rededicate the Jerusalem
temple by rededicating themselves to the One whom they worshiped: they
celebrated the Passover and remembered how God brought them out of slavery.
Next they reaffirmed what they would not worship. They pulled down the sacred poles, which were
shrines dedicated to the idols in their surrounding culture. God’s people have a different story from
those around them. They follow a
different script. So the people cleared
their heads and hearts.
Then they appointed servants to remind
them that they worship God alone. The
people of God do not belong to the idols who make empty promises that cannot be
fulfilled. So they selected clergy to
remind them of God’s claim on their lives.
Finally they tithed their
possessions. That is, they gave
one-tenth of what they owned to support the temple, for the temple is the place
where they heard, and responded to, the God they worshiped. We do not know if the temple had a budget,
even though somebody in the institution must have managed its income and
expenses. But we know they went to the
temple to find life’s deepest meaning.
Affirming how they belonged to God, the people of Israel gave to the
temple a share of everything they had: grain, wine, honey, oil . . . and money.
There is no shortage of Bible stories
about tithing. Yet to tell you the
truth, I do not tithe. I need to do a
little spiritual house cleaning of my own.
In that spirit, and with the hope that others will have a chance to work
through their own excuses, let me list the top five reasons why I don’t tithe
yet.
Number
five: I don’t tithe yet because the church has not talked about tithing
very much.
I realize I blame the church rather
than myself. That can be a cop-out but
when was the last time any of us heard a sermon about tithing? When was the last time you walked in here and
heard a Presbyterian talking about making a tithe? Usually we talk about giving in general and
never say anything specific. Or we talk
about supporting a church budget, as if that were the only thing that
mattered. That is not the case in other
churches. Go to an Assembly of God
church or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, for instance, and
you will hear that tithing is the standard expectation of every church member.
The practice of tithing can become
legalistic and lifeless, as we know.
Nevertheless the expectation is clear in other communities, and
everybody knows it. Presbyterians don’t talk
about tithing very much. Perhaps the
topic strikes a little too close to home.
Statistics reveal the average Presbyterian makes more money than the
average member of any other denomination (except Episcopalians). Yet, on the average we give only two or three
percent of our income to the church. In
our affluence, we have softened the historic demands of our faith. Whether we talk about tithing or not, the
scriptural demand is still present.
Number
four: I do not tithe yet because I am stuck on the idea that giving ought
to be useful.
Did you notice what the people gave in
that story from 2 Chronicles? Grain,
wine, honey, oil and money. Also, the
produce of the field, cattle, and sheep.
When they gave these possessions, they piled them up in heaps! For four months, says the writer, they piled
up everything. Just imagine the smell of
the sheep alone! That doesn’t seem
useful; if anything, it sounds downright wasteful. What will the temple do with all that
stuff? As Judas Iscariot said, “Couldn’t
we sell these things and give the money to the poor?” At least that would be useful.
I heard a story once about a group of
ministers from various denominations who gathered to talk about
stewardship. While they met, something
unforgettable happened. A conference
speaker was talking about generosity. To
prove his point, he pulled a one-hundred-dollar bill out of his wallet and
said, “Lord, I love you more than anything else. To prove it, I’m going to offer this money to
you.” He then put the one-hundred-dollar
bill in an ashtray and set it on fire. A
number of underpaid ministers sat in stunned silence, their hands gripping
their chairs as that little green piece of paper burned up. I am certain a few of them were thinking, “If
he has a hundred bucks to waste as a burnt sacrifice, why doesn’t he give it to
me?” Then the glimmer of understanding
began to dawn on the group: the speaker really was giving his money to God.
Some of those present found it
disturbing because it was not useful, much in the same way that singing a hymn
is not useful. We expend a lot of breath
when we sing, and we do it because we love the One we are singing about. And we are likewise called to give our money
because we love the One to whom we offer it.
True generosity cannot be reduced to a matter of being useful.
Number
three: I do not tithe yet because I keep forgetting that my entire life is
a gift from God.
I don’t know if you have ever gotten
forgetful like this, but it can happen.
If I am honest, I admit that I think some things in my life come from
God, and everything else is earned by my own efforts. The story from 2 Chronicles pushes us
farther. It will not let us think merely
about money. It pushes us to reflect on
our entire lives. The people brought
their crops and gave a tenth. They
herded their farm animals, picked the best looking ones, and offered the first
10 percent. They offered food, and not
merely the bruised apples or the dented cans of creamed corn. They offered the first fruits, the best food
the land could produce. They gave these
things, not because they had cash value (which they did), but because they were
an essential part of everyday life.
If you wish to give a tenth of your
zucchini crop or your tomatoes to the church, we may not know what to do with
them, but we will honor it as a gift to God.
God wants us to give something of ourselves. God wants tangible evidence to show that we
belong to God. When we give the first
piece of what we have, we affirm that everything comes from God. What we do with our money matters deeply to
God, because it exposes our values, our commitments – in some sense, it exposes
our very lives!
Number
two: I do not tithe yet because giving is not always a first priority or a
regular discipline.
There is little I can say to defend
myself. It reflects my own lack of
discipline. The people of Israel
A friend of mine who tithes says,
“There are a lot of creditors who want a piece of me and my paycheck. There are all sorts of other concerns that
compete for my attention and my money.
But I write out my check to the church first, before I pay anything
else. It is my way of saying that I
belong to God before anybody else can get a piece of me.”
That comment moves tithing from being
an obligation to a statement of faith, a declaration of allegiance, a response
to the care and protection of the Lord of your life. When we give our money to the church, we
participate in the Lord’s work, whether we contribute to the overhead costs for
the religious establishment, or extend what the Lord is doing in the world, or
underwrite those things that our Lord values and honors.
Most of all it is a way of saying, “I
belong to God before I belong to anybody else.”
And I believe that; at least I think I do. Of course, I don’t tithe. At least, not yet. Do you know why I feel that way? It has to do with the number one reason why I
don’t tithe yet.
Are you ready? Get a pencil and write this down. Here is the number one reason why I don’t tithe yet: because I do not trust God
enough. Or to put it another way:
because I am afraid.
Fear is the issue, isn’t it! If I tithe, will God catch me? Or will I face financial
self-destruction? It is easy for me to
add up all my financial commitments and put God last. I have to have a place to live; that’s rent
and bills on the Warrensburg house, plus we still have a mortgage and upkeep
costs on our old house in Washington. There
are car payments to make, plus insurance.
Then there are the credit card bills, the student loans, groceries,
gasoline, and we still have a kid in diapers.
Where does God fit into my budget?
So what are we going to do? One response is to give God a proportion of
what we earn. Then we can make a
commitment to grow in our giving until we attain a tithe.
OK, now is the tough part, real
numbers. You all know what I make, a
tithe, before taxes and bills would be almost $400. I don’t give that much each month. I probably give about 3% of what I make, not
10%. Now do the numbers for
yourself. Think of how much you make
each month, how much is 10%, how close are you to giving that? Can you do better? I know I can.
Once we make a commitment, we can grow into the fullness of
generosity. What’s to stop us? Only fear.
So, as you consider your pledge for
the next year, your time your talent and yes your money. Think about how much you are really willing
to give to God. Are you giving God the
first and best of what you have, or are you giving God the leftovers? How big is your commitment? You might be like me and truly cannot afford
a tithe, but my guess is, that like me, you can afford to give more. Even if we all aimed for a ½ tithe, giving
only 5%, that would make a big difference, not only in the life of the church
but in our personal lives as well.
OK, that’s enough tough talk about
tithing for today. But as you go home, I
challenge you to really think about it.
Don’t just brush tithing aside, it is a goal we should all aspire to. Amen.
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