SETTING THE CONTEXT

Chapter 5 in Deuteronomy begins with the words, “Moses convened all Israel, and said to them.” Today’s first reading is a part of this long section of teaching. This teaching is set at the very end of Moses’ long life and long journey with the people of God.

READ Deuteronomy 8:11-18

THE SERMON

Money is a tough subject to bring up in a sermon. I have heard the complaints that “all pastors ever talk about is money, the church is always asking for my money.” I am sensitive to people’s discomfort and would never want someone to feel like our only interest in them is to use them. However the use of money is a spiritual matter. One day I opened up my Word in Life Study Bible [i] and counted how many articles on specific Scriptures were listed under the theme wealth and poverty. There were 207 articles. Just the other day I was skimming another book called Faith & Money and I counted the Scripture citations in the last chapter of the book; [ii] I counted 226 passages. It amazes me how we have focused so much energy and argument on issues that are addressed in four to six Bible passages and how we have routinely ignored this issue.

We have been talking about the HABITS of a growing Christian and this discussion would not be complete without addressing the spiritual practice of stewardship. I’ll define that here in a minute but let’s review the HABITS we have discussed so far. By the way, this idea of using the word HABITS to remind us of spiritual disciplines came from Doug Fields, the youth minister of Saddleback Church. [iii] We modified his ideas slightly to reflect our Methodist character and came up with the HABITS you are learning. “H” means have a relationship with God. “A” means accountability with another Christian. “B” means be in service. “I” is involvement in the church body and today we are talking about “T” a tithing commitment. The tithing commitment has to do with giving.

Any discussion about giving must begin with a discussion about receiving. You see as Christians we understand that everything we have, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the bodies we depend upon, the talents and abilities that allow us to work, everything we have begins with a gift from God. It’s as basic as this, without the gift of life and time, which God gave to each one of us; we would not have anything else. Without God’s gifts, I wouldn’t have what I need to earn money or to have any of the other things that I have. The idea of stewardship is based on this understanding. As Dan Dick states in the best book on stewardship I’ve ever read, “Stewardship in the church is the process of appreciating and managing the resources and opportunities for ministry that God gives us. [iv]” We don’t have many stewards around today so let me explain what a steward did. A steward was a manager of a large household who oversaw the service at the master’s table, directed the household servants, and controlled the household expenses on behalf of the master [v]. In essence, the steward managed the assets and resources of the master. Since everything comes from God including each of us, we are stewards of God’s gifts charged to manage them to the best of our ability over the course of our lifetime. The basis of our giving and sharing is an attitude of gratitude as we recognize God’s generosity to us.

This is what Moses is telling the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land. When you are prosperous, when you have enough to eat and a nice place to live, don’t forget to have an attitude of gratitude. When we are comfortable and successful, it’s easy to want to take all the credit, but Moses warns, “Do not say to yourself, ‘my power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.” [vi] The spiritual discipline of giving is based on an attitude of gratitude.

Stewardship includes managing time, talents, contacts, money, material goods, and other resources. Today I’m going to focus on money with the promise that we’ll be discussing all the different forms of stewardship at other times. I’m going to focus on money for two reasons, one is because it is such a portable and powerful resource for supporting God’s work and two because it is a spiritual matter that I and I think many people struggle with. I am the cheapskate of the family, which is why I handle our finances.  If I was not challenged with a guideline, I know that my inclination would be to be stingy. If an offering plate comes by, my hand automatically goes for a $1.00 bill. I need to be challenged to truly live my attitude of gratitude; the tithe offers that minimum guideline. Tithing is a practice that helps us move from the abstract attitude of gratitude to the practical expression of that gratitude. The tithe is the practice of returning ten percent of your bounty or harvest to God.

Tithing has been a practice for thousands of years. The first reference to the tithe is found in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis (Genesis 14:20). The phrasing of the passage indicates that this is already a familiar practice at the very beginning of the salvation story! Military historian, William G. McGovern, traces the idea of the tithe back to ancient Egypt. In ancient Egypt, ten was a sacred and powerful number. It represented wholeness and completion. I wonder if the producers of that old Bo Derek movie “10” knew this? Anyway, soldiers were supposed to be perfect 10’s, models of physical, mental, and emotional perfection. It was believed that a soldier could continue to fight in battle until a tenth of his being had been injured. Once a soldier had been “tithed”, his life became dependent on another. He was no longer self-sufficient and would live or die based on the help of another. For the Hebrew people, the tithe was a supreme act of faith that put into concrete and material form their belief that God would provide for them in their time of need. They gave a tithe of the produce and herds that would feed them and clothe them. The tithe continues to be a Christian habit or practice helping us to acknowledge our dependence on God’s creative power in our lives and our mandate to manage the gifts God has entrusted to us.  We voluntarily tithe ourselves, giving up the façade of self-sufficiency. Some people think that the ten percent is an arbitrary and artificial number. For some ten percent may be more than what would make them aware of their dependence upon God. For others, ten percent doesn’t even crimp their style, doesn’t involve any dependence upon God. The Biblical tithe is a minimum. The more blessed we are the more is expected of us. However the number 10% came about, without a numerical guide, I know that I’d tend to be stingy. I need a target to help me express my attitude of gratitude and ten percent is a very ancient and Biblical minimum. It is a very ancient and Biblical way of demonstrating an attitude of gratitude.

Each of us must pray about and decide how we will manage the resources that God has entrusted to us. We divide our tithe up, giving most of our money gifts to the church, but we do send some of our tithe to other groups who are serving God’s purposes. We support two orphans in Ethiopia and every month we choose another group to send a donation to like a home for developmentally disabled adults or the American Bible Society, our seminaries, UMCOR, or another mission project that touches our hearts. It’s really kind of fun to look around each month and pick from the many requests we get. When we share generously as God has given to us so generously, we experience the joy of helping another, of knowing that we can make a difference in the life of another. George quoted John Wesley a couple of weeks ago and it bears repeating, “God does not call you to a devotional time, but to a devotional life.”  Tithing helps us to live that devotional life by living an attitude of gratitude.

Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew warns us about placing our faith in material things. We all know that material things can and will fail, stocks fall, jobs evaporate, even our health can fail us, but things like love, joy, generosity, and faithfulness can never be stolen, stripped from us, taken or destroyed against our will. God’s amazing generosity and saving grace can never be taken from us against our will. These are truly eternal treasures. Tithing helps us keep our perspective on material things; by tithing ourselves to God we are regularly reminded of our need of God and God’s generous response. How do you demonstrate your attitude of gratitude? I invite you to consider the habit of tithing. Amen.

Sermon delived by Rev. Nancy Cushman on August 28, 2005.