Introduction
Last week we looked at the idea that God has given the Church all the gifts and skills it needs to do its ministry. We discussed the idea of every member of the Church being a priest and being gifted to perform concrete types of ministry and I invited you to engage in a process of self discovery about your spiritual gifts to see what gifts and skills God has given you, and to see how they could be used within the ministry of the Church. I hope you enjoyed completing the questionnaire and asking your friends and loved ones which skills they see in you!
Today we are going to think about giving in the context of the gifts we have been given.
Jesus and Money
We are all comfortable to say and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. We understand that by saying this we mean that Jesus is in charge of our life. We get a little more reluctant to think about this when it slowly dawns on us that being Lord of our life also means being Lord of our bank balance! We don’t like it when the Church talks about money, and we think it buys into the stereotype that all the Church wants us for is our money. For this reason in this congregation we always make it clear to our guests that they are not expected to give. However, today we are going to look at some of what Jesus said about money – its not always comfortable reading!
Jesus says more about money than almost anything else! There are at least 42 different passages, not verses, dealing with money, giving, material poccessions, or our attitudes to them in the Gospels.
We are going to hear some of them now:
From St Matthew’s Gospel:
“Give to the one who asks you.” (5:42)
“Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father who is in Heaven…….when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know what your right is doing so that your giving may be in secret” (6:1-4)
“You cannot serve both God and money” (6:24)
“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what youw ill eat or drink, or about yoru body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes Look at the birds of the air they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” (6: 25-27)
“the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (13:22)
“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” 19:21
“Give
to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s and God’s what is God’s” 22:21
from St Mark
“Jesus sat down opposite the palce where the offerings wer put and watched
the crowd putting their money into the Temple treasury. Many rich people threw
in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,
worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said,
“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury
than all the others. They all gave out of their wealthl but she, out of her
poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.” 12:41-44
from St Luke
“Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other
a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God,
I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers
or even like a tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth on all
I get.” But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even
look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God have mercy on me
a sinner.” I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home
justified before God.” 18:12
“Jesus
said: “How hard it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!
Indeed it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for
a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” 18:24,25
I could go on! Of the 26 books in the New Testament, only 8 have nothing to
say directly about money. All the major contributors to the New Testament,
except Peter, teach on money.
So What's the practical application of all this?
If Jesus talked about this subject so much then it must be very important to Him and in the over all scheme of things. If it's that important to Him, then we need to take it seriously too. Our attitudes about money and poccesions, and our actions with our money and poccesions are directly connected to our current level of discipleship. As Christians we give our hearts, habits, time and talents to the Lord. But it seems like the last thing we're willing to trust Him with is our money and material possesions.
So What Does the New Testament Teach About Money?
There are three main areas mentioned in the NT where we are to place our money.
1: Our family/paying our bills
"But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." 1 Tim 5:8
We have a responsibility to pay our way in the world to the best of our ability and to provide for those who depend on us.
2: Investment in the Ministry or Church.
In the Old Testament giving went to Temple up-keep, the priests, and the poor . In the New Testament giving when to the ministers and the poor – who were supported through the Church.
In the modern world we don’t have a Temple in Jerusalem to keep up but we are still obligated to give to support the work of our Church, to pay for our clergy and also to provide for the needs of the poor. This last need is different than in New Testament times as we now have a welfare state which provides a minimum amount of assistance to the poor. But this is not enough and so we encourage people to give out of their abundance to those who have nothing. One way we do this is through our support of the Booth Centre.
Now the problem, of course, is that mis-management of the first obligation, to look after our bills and depdants makes the second more difficult or impossible. Obviously if you are in dept or over-extended financially, you will find it difficult or impossible to think about investing in the Church's ministry or helping the poor.
The only way to deal with this type of problem is to rethink our financial priorities. Sometimes the sins of covetousness, discontent and impatience eat up our financial resources and leave nothing left for what is really important.
OK So How Much Should We Give?
Jesus constantly taught his followers to give, and give, and give again, to be generous, to share. We obey this command for two reasons.
Firstly, and most important, its good for us! Giving is part of the crazy logic of the upside down world of the Kingdom of God. If we give we have more. Giving is the only antitode to the poison in our souls that comes from the love of money. Money is a dangerous substance and needs to be diluted, through giving, if it is not to harden our hearts and our souls.
Secondly, its practical! It takes money to run a church, to pay a pastor, to give to the needy. Yesterday we adopted a new budget for 2004 at our Annual General Meeting. At that meeting we agreed with an income projection which said we would get in, at least, £22,000 next year and we agreed how we wanted to spend it. This level of income is the highest we have ever had as a church and there is no reason to presume that we will get this much, and more, in the coming year. But we will only increase our ability to minister effectively in our community if we all share the responsibility of giving to the work of our church.
When we ask how much we should give, we must be careful that we don’t mean “how little can we get away with giving?”! The founder of the Methodist church famously said "Earn all you can, save all you can, and give away all you can."
We are told in the New Testament to give sacrificially and in proportion to how you believe God has blessed you. The only amount mentioned in the Bible is the figure of 10%, called in old fashioned English a tithe.
The origins of giving 10% of one’s income come from the earliest part of the Bible in the Book of Genesis. In this account Melchizedek a mysterious priest King of the Jerusalem came and greeted Abram and blessed him. In return Abram, who was to become Abraham, gave him a tenth of his possessions.
This pattern of giving became the norm for the Jewish people and often a bone of contention. By the time we get to the prophet Malachi we read:
“I the Lord do not change. ….Ever since the time of your forebears you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you says the Lord. But you ask, “How are we to return?” “Will someone rob God, yet you rob me” says God. But you ask “How do we rob you?” God says, “In tithes and offerings………Test me in this 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.” Mal 3:6ff
The people had turned away from what they knew to be required of them in giving and God says that this is robbing him. He pleads for them to return to him and promises such blessings as they could only dream of if they did so.
The idea of tithing is that God allows us to keep 90% of what is already His! We say each week when we receive the offering the words of Solomon “all things come from you O God and of your own do we give you”. This realisation is at the heart of our patterns of giving.
A Big Step
For many of us who have been through evangelical churches we have been taught about this way of giving for many years. For those of us from Catholic or Anglican backgrounds it is rather new and strange and rather scary. Yet we say that we wish Jesus to be Lord of our life, and that means asking him to be Lord of our bank balance. Some of you are probably thinking, well I can’t afford to tithe; my personal response is that I can’t afford not to. My finances are reasonably precarious at the best of times, but they are only ever stable if I tithe. If I don’t then the figures just don’t add up, if I do then I have enough for my needs. Some of us grumble when we are challenged to give realistically but think nothing of buying alcohol or cigarettes or some trendy clothes. Giving is a discipline, and like most disciplines is difficult and takes time to master. Ultimately it is good for us and good for our church.
Tithing is what is taught by our denomination but we don’t seek to teach it in a legalistic way. Instead we seek to get people to change their attitude to giving so that it is is: joyful, without complaint, without boasting, not to score points, done with liberality, without covetousness, despite difficult times, regularly, and planned.
Conclusion
We have been given many gifts. Last week we were invited to consider the spiritual gifts and skills we have been given. This week we are asked to consider the financial resources we have and what is required of us if we are to truly believe that Jesus is Lord of our lives, and Lord of our bank accounts.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.