The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, November 14, 2010
25th Sunday after Pentecost; 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion
“The Sermon on the Amount”
Malachi 3:6-12; 2 Corinthians 9:6-15; Luke 21:1-6
Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus, though you were rich, yet for our sakes you became poor, so that through your poverty we might become rich; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, to see how we can give back of the riches you have entrusted to us, and so fulfill our calling as stewards of our Father in heaven. Amen.
Introduction
Every year at this time, we have sermons about financial stewardship and one of them usually focuses on how much we are to give – “The Sermon on the Amount.” This is that sermon and it is all about tithing – the Biblical pattern of giving back to God at least ten percent of what he gives to you – the Tithe. There is a lot of confusion about tithing and I remember one person, a dear friend, telling me that it was an easier thing for a person earning $20,000 to tithe – after all, they would only have to give $2,000 – but for a person earning $100,000 it was much more difficult as that would mean giving $10,000! Last time I looked, it was much easier to live on $90,000 a year than $18,000! But the Tithe is far more than calculation – it has deep spiritual implications for us which we will examine in these two weeks of stewardship sermons. Next week Pastor Ken will look at “First Fruits” and today we will focus on the principle of the Tithe and its practical implications for us in this, our annual “Sermon on the Amount.”[1]
The Tithe Principle
1. The issue of control: Now, did you notice that our Gospel reading was all about a person who didn’t tithe? That’s right, the woman in the story didn’t tithe – “This poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on” (Luke 21:3-4). She didn’t give 10% to God – she gave 100%! She was not a calculator! Jesus commends her because she gave from the heart – she trusted God. She didn’t know where her next meal was to come from, but she trusted God would provide. By putting in those two copper coins, she was giving over control of her life to God. Now, you can breathe a sigh of relief that God doesn’t normally expect us to give 100% of our money to him! But he does expect us to give over the control of our money to him. The Tithe is a principle that deals with control – namely, how we control our money. God asks you to give up all your control – but not necessarily all your money! What God does ask is that you to give up a portion of your money – the Tithe. We release control of 10% of our money so that it can be turned over to God’s work through our worshipping community.
2. Stewardship: The Tithe Principle is based on the foundational concept of stewardship. Stewardship speaks about how we take care of all God has provided for us; it is managing God’s property according to God’s wishes. It is found right from the beginning of the Bible – God gave Adam and Eve the responsibility of being stewards of the Garden of Eden to take care of it. Then, all through the Old Testament, stewardship of possessions is shown to be a fundamental biblical principle. In the Gospels, especially in Luke, Jesus often told parables with a financial theme as illustrations of our stewardship before our God. The apostle Paul, referring to the financial offering of the Christians at Corinth explains: “The service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people, but also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God” (2 Corinthians 9:12). Stewardship of our money is at the heart of Biblical faith.
3. God is sovereign: Why is this? Because the Bible tells us that God is our Sovereign Lord. God is owner of the whole of the creation: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1); “Every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). King David affirms to God in prayer: “Everything in the heaven and earth is yours” (1 Chronicles 29:11). He continues with the natural consequence of that by saying: “Everything comes from you and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (verse 14). (Or, in the version some of us are more familiar with: All that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine. All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.[2]) Thus, when we speak of stewardship it is a reminder that all we are and all we have belongs to God, not to us.
4. We are accountable: God’s sovereignty and our stewardship means we are accountable to God for how we handle his goods and how we direct our lives. This accountability is enshrined in the Biblical principle of “firstfruits”: “Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops” (Proverbs 3:9). Three times a year, the Israelites were to bring an offering of the first production of their vineyard, grain, animals, etc. to the Lord. Giving to God “from the top” demonstrates in a tangible way that we acknowledge all we are and have is a trust from God. Now, in our society, since most of the results of our production is money, we will inevitably have to express our stewardship in financial terms. Other things, too, will be our responsibility, but money will often be the first and most frequent place where we really show our stewardship decisions. One important way of doing this is to give a proportion of our income as “firstfruits” back to God. The Bible is very clear about what proportion is to be returned to God – it is the Tithe. Tithing is turning over to God a tenth of our produce.
5. Only Jewish law? Now, some might argue that the ten percent Tithe comes from the Jewish Law of the Old Testament. Should that apply to the Christian? After all, we are not part of the Old Covenant of Sinai, so we don’t observe the temple ritual, the sacrifices, the Jewish Holy Days, etc. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus rails against the religious leaders, saying “Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.” Was Jesus against tithing? No, because he goes on to say, “You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.” So, along with justice and the love of God, the Tithe should not be neglected.
What’s more, the Tithe is an eternal principle – it existed long before the Law was revealed at Mount Sinai. Hundreds of years before Moses, Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils of war to the priest-king of Salem, Mechizedek, who is seen as a type or pattern of Christ who was to come (Genesis 14:18-20; Hebrews 7:1-10). His grandson Jacob practiced tithing when he promised to God, “of all that you give me I will give you a tenth” (Genesis 28:22). He knew of the foundational principal of stewardship that he was only returning to God what was God’s in the first place. Thus the Tithe is an eternal principle in the same category as marriage. It has existed from the beginning of creation and was not just an element of Jewish Law. The principle was later enshrined in the Law: “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30; see also Numbers 18:21, 24; Deuteronomy 12:5-18; 14:22-29; 26:12-14) and upheld by the prophets and in the life of Israel (e.g. Malachi 3:8-12; Nehemiah 12:44).
6. Avoiding legalism: So if Christians are supposed to tithe, how can we best go about it without being harsh and legalistic? Under the Mosaic Law, the 10 percent could become cold and calculating; we see that in the way the Pharisees observed it. But for Christians the Jewish Law has a different purpose. We are to be guided by the principles and spirit of that Law. What God is concerned about is our motives, rather than merely our actions. Our actions only reflect the motives behind them. God is not an accountant or Income Tax auditor. If our motive is to become a tither, then the true intent of our heart is what God looks at, not our bank account. So, when we accept the tithing principle, Jesus may not require us to turn over the full ten percent the very first day. Money is too complicated for that. He knows that we may have got ourselves into debt and that it will take time to get us out of it. So all he asks is that we accept the tithe principle, and begin to work towards that ten percent.
So, in our tithing, God does not ask us to be legalistic, measured and calculating – but to respond to the grace of the Gospel with gratitude and a sacrificial heart.
The Practical Implications of Tithing for Us
What are the practical implications of all this for us? Allow God to use tithing as a challenge to you to live fully for him. The prophet Malachi challenged the lukewarm believers of his day to return to God and focussed on tithing as a means to do so:
You ask, “How are we to return?” Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, “How do we rob you?” In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” (Malachi 3:8-10)
When we do not take tithing seriously we are not rising to the challenge spiritually or practically. I have made up a pamphlet (see appendix) which lists profiles of Christians who are robbing God. It outlines seven excuses we make about the practical implications of tithing and the spiritual challenges behind them that are being missed.[3] The pamphlet is quite hard-hitting – but then, so was Malachi! To whet your appetite to read the pamphlet, here are the excuses it addresses:
- 1. We have nothing left over.
- 2. My income is too small.
- 3. We need to put family first.
- 4. I have too many expenditures.
- 5. We are not under law.
- 6. Isn’t stewardship is more than money?
- 7. What if I can’t give cheerfully?
If any of these profiles fit, don’t remain angry or guilty – work it out between God and you. He wants his best for you and he will take care of you as you step out in faith financially.
The Practical Implications of Tithing for the Church
I quoted earlier Paul’s concluding challenge to the Corinthians: “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God” (2 Corinthians 9:12). In that statement he refers very briefly to “the needs of the Lord’s people.” Now, in our tithing sermons we are very reluctant to talk about needs because tithing has to do primarily with trust and obedience; we do not say you should give because there is a need! But it is important to be accountable to those who give for what is done with the Lord’s money. It is also important, when there are so many worthy causes, to show that the needs of the local church must be met. Therefore, I am going to highlight what is done with your tithe money here at St. Aidan’s, what more could be done and the present challenge before us.
St. Aidan’s costs just over $1000 a day to operate. This sounds a lot until you realize what that provides. To meet the needs of the congregation, we employ ten people – full or part-time. It seems a large number for a congregation of 200 plus households but when the hours are factored in, it represents three full-time positions for people in pastoral work, just over one for administrative, and half each for caretaking and music – which is a total of five full-time equivalents. The salaries and benefits for these positions represent 70% of our budget. Insurance, utilities, maintenance and related costs take another 14%; 5% goes to program costs; and 11% goes to ministries outside the parish such as our school, missionaries, and the wider church. We operate within our budget but it is pretty bare-bones. There were virtually no salary increases even for inflation this past year.
What we would like to do is to expand our vision beyond “making do.” In past years, in order not to cut back on staff we cut back on mission giving. We would like to do more, such as more fully support our school. God has called us to minister to children who are overwhelmed by the challenges of the inner city but we pay our teachers at 70% of what their colleagues in the regular school system receive. When it comes to the wider Church, our commitment is half of what has been requested and a significant proportion of that goes to support our brothers and sisters in the north or overseas who share our spiritual and theological commitments. This coming year, we need to give our staff at least a cost-of-living increase. We would also like to provide them opportunities for continuing education for refreshment and renewal. We have volunteers for our growing nursery but need a paid person who worships other than on a Sunday to be in charge and thus prevent the present situation where some parents of children are down there three Sundays out of four. This is a sample of the “what more” we could do if our income increased.
However, the present challenge before us at the moment is that we are some $18,000 behind where we thought we would be at this time. This is an even greater test of faith than we faced at this time last year. We are trusting God to provide through his people! Receiving funds in the next few weeks and having pledges for next year will help us as we set the budget for 2011 over the next two months. We want to avoid continual appeals and also to adequately meet the opportunities God has put before us.
Conclusion
Many of you tithe and give beyond the tithe. A number of you are working towards the tithe. Some of you have been unaware or unwilling to take the step of faith and move to tithing. The tithe is not only God’s way of providing for the work of his kingdom but also his way of allowing you to grow in faith and trust in him. Next week is Commitment Sunday. Please take a fresh look at your finances, pray about it, and agree with Jesus what financial commitment fits your personal situation. Bring your pledge card or pick one up then and, like the woman in the temple, make it a special act of worship to offer your Lord and Saviour your own sincere stewardship. Give control of your life to Jesus – be a Christian Tither.
Appendix: The Practical Implications of Tithing
The following are profiles of Christians who are robbing God by not rising to the challenge spiritually or practically. They are taken from a great book, Money, Possessions and Eternity,[4] by Randy Alcorn.
- 1. Nothing left over?
The Situation: Bill and Donna are in their mid-thirties. Bill has steady work, but there’s always too much month left at the end of their money. Bill and Donna sincerely intend to put in the offering box whatever’s left at the end of that month. But between house payments, bills, and sticking a little into savings, there’s never anything left. They feel bad, but what can they do when they’re out of money?
The Problem: Bill and Donna don’t understand “firstfruits.” They should give the Lord off the top, not out of what’s left – or not left. They don’t realize that the tithe belongs to God, and that there’s a word for taking money that doesn’t belong to them – stealing.
- 2. Income too small?
The Situation: Joan’s a twenty-two-year-old, just finishing college. Her thirty-hour-a-week job pays just over minimum wage. She earns $800 a month. Joan’s parents still provide room and board, but she has to take care of her tuition, books, and other expenses. “I can’t afford to give,” says Joan. “I’m barely making it now. If I gave a tithe, it would be $80 a month, and I’d probably have to drop out of school. I’d love to give, but I just can’t.”
The Problem: Joan is not only robbing God, she’s robbing herself of the opportunity to grow in faith. Right now she doesn’t believe God’s promise in Malachi 3 (confirmed in Matthew 6:33 and Luke 6:38) that he’ll take care of her if she puts God first by giving him what’s his. If God is capable of helping her get by on $800 a month, isn’t he capable of helping her get by on $720 a month? Joan’s God doesn’t seem very big – he can’t even compensate for an $80 shortfall.
- 3. Family first?
The Situation: Bob and Elaine are in their early fifties. Elaine says, “For years we frittered away our income on all kinds of luxuries. Now we’re twelve years from retirement and we don’t have anything saved. On top of that, we’ve still got two kids in college.” “We’d like to give to the church,” Bob explains, “but Scripture says we’ve got to provide for our family first. After we get our kids through school and get a nest egg started, then we’ll start giving.”
The Problem: Bob and Elaine are keeping what belongs to God in order to compensate for their poor planning and lack of discipline. Their first debt is not to their children’s college education. Their first debt is to God. If it wasn’t tuition costs, it would be something else. Since they have no standard of giving, they’ll always find reasons not to give.
- 4. Too many expenditures?
The Situation: Phil and Pam enjoy giving. With their little Santa’s helper (credit card) they just gave each other a DVD player and a large-screen television. The kids got a new computer to keep them busy while their parents enjoy the city’s finer restaurants. They’re tired of their three-year-old Chevy, so they just bought a new model. “Next year I’ve got a big promotion coming,” says Phil. “Then we’ll start giving. Right now the budget’s tight. It’s not that we don’t ever give to God’s work,” Phil adds, “Why, when we were in Hawaii last month we attended a church service on the beach and I dropped $20 in the offering.”
The Problem: Phil and Pam are blind. They say there’s no money left to give – and they do their best to make sure of it! No matter what they say, their lifestyle proves that toys, trips, and cars are more important to them than God and others. They say they’ll give when they earn more, but they won’t. If Phil and Pam have been unfaithful with a little (more than a little), they’ll be unfaithful with a lot. Their expenditures will always rise to meet their income. Making more money will only make them guilty of robbing God more. Phil and Pam don’t understand that the tithe belongs to God, not them, and they should return to him the “firstfruits,” not “last fruits” or “no fruits.”
- 5. Not under law?
The Situation: Don and Sue believe that they aren’t under law but grace, and that tithing lends itself to a pharisaical “letter of the law” approach. They believe that God’s law is written in our hearts and we should give freely without compulsion. They are proud of their mature and liberating belief in “grace giving.”
The Problem: Last year Don and Sue’s “grace giving” amounted to $30 per month – about one-half of one percent of their income. While they laud grace and deplore the law, their actions suggest that grace is one-twentieth as effective as the law. If grace is as ineffective in motivating their sexual purity as it is their giving, they won’t be married much longer. (The problem isn’t grace, of course, but their belief that grace means God has lowered his standards and doesn’t care how we live.)
- 6. Stewardship is more than money?
The Situation: “There’s a lot more to stewardship than money,” says Gill “We can’t all give – but we can teach Sunday school, clean the building, and open our homes to guests. I consider that to be my giving.”
The Problem: Gill rightly believes that stewardship involves more than money – but she wrongly believes that stewardship ever fails to include money. Her argument is just as faulty as saying, “I can’t give the church any of my time or my gifts and talents, so I’ll just give my money instead.” God expects all of these, not just some of them. We all can and should give, just as we all can and should pray. Gill is attempting to justify robbing God by “making up for it” with things she should be doing anyway.
- 7. Can’t give cheerfully?
The Situation: Ron believes in giving but thinks that Scripture says giving should be voluntary. After all, “God loves a cheerful giver.” However, Ron is not yet to the point that he really wants to give. “Given my financial obligations, right now I just can’t give cheerfully,” Ron says. “And if you can’t give cheerfully, you shouldn’t give at all.”
The Problem: Ron is right that God wants us to give cheerfully. But he is wrong in thinking that he should only give if he feels like it. The tithe belongs to God. It is not Ron’s to withhold, regardless of how he feels about it. Ron’s point about cheerfulness may be relevant to freewill offerings (those beyond the tithe), but not to the tithe itself, since it doesn’t belong to him in the first place. After becoming obedient, Ron will perhaps become more cheerful in giving. But whether he does or not, he should still be obedient.
If any of these profiles fit, don’t remain angry or guilty – work it out between God and you. He wants his best for you and he will take care of you as you step out in faith financially.
[1] I am grateful to Canon Charlie Greene and his insights for much of the material in the first half of this sermon.
[2] Book of Common Prayer, pg. 74.
[3] Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity. (Carol Stream, Il: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003), pgs. 190-193).
[4] Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions and Eternity. (Carol Stream, Il: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003), pgs. 190-193).
