Stewardship I: The Tithe – tax, tribute, or testimony?
September 18, 2011
BMC- Genesis 14:17-24 & Matt. 23:23-28, John 12:1-8
Introduction: Why Now?
This week and next, we will be spending some time together reflecting on stewardship and more specifically financial stewardship. You’ll remember that in May during the Confession of Faith series, we reflected on stewardship holistically as it affects all aspects of our life. So you may wonder, “Why take time now to focus more specifically on the financial piece of stewardship?”
Thankfully, it is not because of our financial woes as a congregation. Our church budget year wraps up at the end of the month so we still have this week and next to consider; but from what I hear we are doing well and should finish the year in good shape if we stay the course so to speak and keep up the good work.
It is also not because I am aware of any particularly misguided perceptions about financial stewardship among us that are in need of correcting. Those that talk to me about financial stewardship sound like they have a good handle on these realities overall.
Rather it seems timely as we end one budget year and prepare to enter another one to pause and reflect on the role of finances in our faith. Moreover, it seems good to me to talk about matters of stewardship while things are going well rather than only doing so when there is a crisis looming over us. Keeping good financial stewardship principles before us can be a helpful aid to avoiding more difficult times. Or at the very least it is an important foundation for weathering such realities should they come up at some point.
Additionally, I have received requests from some of you in the congregation and also from the Ministry of Stewardship to spend focused time on considering matters of stewardship. Even if we are doing well personally or as a congregation, there is always room for growth and there is a continual need to counter our cultural influences about money. While I have inserted a stewardship illustration or two into my messages over the last year when it seemed to fit well, it also seemed appropriate to devote a more extended time to considering this topic.
I must admit, however, that as a 34 year old husband and father of three almost 4 children now, I still have a lot to learn in this area and am still growing. So as I share today and next week, I do not stand before you as an expert in financial stewardship but rather as a fellow traveler along the journey of faith. As such I certainly do invite your responses and thoughts about what I suggest today and next week.
Gen. 14
Well having said that, as I considered what to talk about this morning, it seemed important that we spend some time considering the tithe. When we talk about financial stewardship, the tithe is probably the first thing that comes to many of our minds. And yet it seems like we lack understanding at times and tend to be caught up in misperceptions. In its simplest terms, the tithe is giving 10% of what you have to God. And that idea began with our Genesis passage for this morning.
Chapter 14 begins by telling about a war that was taking place between two alliances of kings. At the end of that, the winning kings took the loser’s provisions. They also took Abram’s nephew, Lot. Abram decided to go after him. He took his own army and defeated Lot’s captors. Abram brought Lot home as well as all of the goods that he recovered.
That’s where we come into the story in verse 17. Abram returned home and the King of Sodom who had been among the losers of the battle, came out to meet him. Melchizedek King of Sodom and priest of the most high God blessed Abram. Then Abram gave Melchizedek one tenth of everything, a tithe.
The king of Sodom then offered to give Abram all of the goods that he recovered. Abram refused saying that he promised God that he would not do that. And the reason is so that the king of Sodom cannot have the claim of being the one who made Abram rich.
From this passage then, we see the precursor of the Israelite practice of giving a tithe of what they receive. The temple is not in place yet and the Levite priests are not in place yet, but Abram gives a tithe to this king/priest, Melchizedek, who is priest of the most high God. (whom, by the way, the book of Hebrews names Jesus as being in the order of)
We also see Abram refuse the goods from the King of Sodom. Why is that? We have said before that ultimately everything is God’s. So what if it comes through the King of Sodom? It’s really God’s in the end, right? But the concern is that Abram will become indebted to the king of Sodom rather than to God for his wealth. Instead, God wants to be the one receiving sole credit for the wealth that Abram builds.
The Tithe as testimony
So it is here that we see the beginning of what is referred to as the tithe. Certainly it is found elsewhere throughout the Old Testament. A simple search for the word tithe will bring up at least 15 references directly and I am sure that there are many more references that would be a bit more indirect.
But we won’t go into all those this morning and we won’t delve into the debate of whether or not there were three separate tithes as some claim or just one tithe that was used for multiple purposes. Instead, we will simply note that regardless of your personal thoughts on the tithe or your experiences with it, it is a Biblical concept with a long history.
We also won’t take time this morning to go into the various questions related to details of application such as does the tithe come from the pretax or post tax amount? Does it all need to go to the church or can I divide it up among various causes? These are all important questions but what concerns me more this morning are the questions of purpose and motivation related to the tithe. I believe that when we answer these questions, they shape the answers to these other detail questions.
What is the purpose of the tithe? Is it a tax, an obligation, something that we owe God for all that God does for us? Is it a tribute, an expected contribution as a member that we provide in order to do our part? Or is it really a testimony, a declaration of God’s faithfulness to us and our joy in serving God?
There may be aspects of truth in the idea of the tithe being a tax or a tribute because scripture is clear that we are expected to give and in doing so we honor God. I would like to suggest this morning, however, that the tithe is really more of a testimony. When given as I believe it should be, it is primarily a testimony of God’s faithfulness to us and of our joy in serving God. It is also a declaration of where our heart truly is.
I would suggest to you this morning that the tithe serves as a testimony in at least three ways. First, “One of the tithe’s main purposes was to support the Old Testament priestly ministry”[1] As such, the tithe testifies to God’s work through the local congregation. When we share those resources with our body of faith and when we support the ministry that we most directly participate in and with, we testify to God’s work through us.
Second, “the tithe provided for giving to others in need. It helped meet the needs of “the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows.”[2] In this way, the tithe testifies to God’s concern for those who are in need in our midst. God cares for people’s spiritual well being, but also their physical needs. The tithe testifies to this as believers share of the resources God has allocated to us and as we carry out that work with these resources.
“Now, a third purpose for the tithe might sound really strange to us: it financed celebrations of God’s grace as we find in Deut. 14:22-26. In other words, this use of the tithe gave people the financial means to celebrate a festival before the Lord at the place where God was worshiped.”[3] Now we may struggle with this idea, especially as self proclaimed simple and frugal people but we should keep in mind that Judas did too.
Remember that in John 12:1-8 we learn that Jesus went to the home of Lazarus in Bethany. While there Mary anointed Jesus feet with pure nard and wiped his feet with her hair. It was a costly act of praise and honor. Perhaps in some ways it was a celebration of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
Judas expresses his frustration in saying, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and given to the poor?” And based on the second purpose of the tithe which was providing for those in need, this probably seems like a very worthy question to us. Yet Jesus rebukes Judas and declares that you will always have the poor but you will not always have me. Judas missed it and perhaps this is what we often miss as well. The tithe is not about the law.
As Robert Heerspink notes in his book Firstfruits, “Remember: the tithe is set in the context of grace. Having received so much, God’s people are called to give freely in return. Israel did not give to God in order to get. For Israel, as for us, giving is a sign of gratitude. That’s why the tithe has more to teach New Testament believers than we sometimes think.”[4]
Matt 23
Perhaps when we think about the tithe, we can become misguided and legalistic like the Pharisees of Matthew 23. We don’t see any direct reference to the tithe in the New Testament, but we read of those who were missing the point. Here we read Jesus declaring woe to those who take the tithe to such extremes that they give 10% of their spices but neglect justice mercy, and faithfulness.
Now please note that Jesus is not teaching against the tithe. He is putting it into perspective. He says to those who are taking things to the extreme that “you should have practiced the former (the tithe) without neglecting the later (justice, mercy and faithfulness).
This seems significant to me because there are those who would say that not tithing is like stealing from God. There are others who would say that not tithing is like taking a pie that someone brings to a party and serving it to everyone except the one who brought. They suggest that if everything is God’s, if He brings the pie so to speak, we should give Him his share as well.
Now I don’t disagree with the logic behind those arguments but I do disagree with the motivation. To accuse someone who doesn’t tithe of stealing from God is to use fear as a motivation. To accuse someone who doesn’t tithe of not sharing of God’s bounty with God is to use shame or guilt as a motivation.
It’s not that the premise is necessarily wrong, it’s that the motivation is wrong. We should not tithe out of fear or guilt. We should not tithe as a tax or a tribute. We should tithe as a testimony. We should tithe as a testimony of our faith in God and it should come out of the joy of our hearts because God loves a cheerful giver. We should tithe to honor who God is.
So what do we do?
OK, Pastor Dave then what should we do? What does this mean for our use of the tithe? Well, Andy Stanley suggests that in making all financial decisions and decisions that have anything to do with our stuff, “Our objective should be to honor God with everything.” To illustrate this Andy shares about when he got married.
He says that when he got married, he was standing at the altar with his bride Sandra and that her father Bob was right there. He goes on to say that when he said his vows, it was like saying them to Bob and God. Because obviously he was making these vows to God, but he hoped Bob was listening too cause he was right there.
In his vows, Andy remembers saying “I promise to honor and cherish her all the days of my life.” Then Andy shares that he doubts that Bob was standing there wondering what percentage of Sandra, Andy intended to honor. Bob probably wasn’t thinking you know as long as he feeds her, we’re good. No, he’s thinking if you’re taking my daughter, you better honor 100% of her, boy.
Likewise, we do not find in scripture that God thinks about honoring Him with a percentage. God says, “Look I own all of what you manage in this life, I have allowed you to manage it. I distribute as I see fit. Therefore, everything we do with money should be to honor God with everything. [5]
We’ll get into the “everything” more next week, but the concept of honoring God with all that we have raises the question, “What part of what I have should I give to God?” Traditionally, we have given a simple answer, tithe or 10%. And this is a good answer, but I’m not sure it is the best answer. For instance, does the tithe have to be a one size fits all 10%?
Now what I am about to suggest may offend some of you and for that I want to apologize in advance. But I also want to say that it’s okay if you are offended by what I am about to say because I am too. I may be wrong, but I believe that God planted this image in my mind and I personally was offended by it, so it’s okay to be offended but please hear me out and let’s consider this together to see if there is any truth in this image.
I think that the traditional tithe is good if we are able to approach it primarily as a testimony rather than a tax or a tribute. But I also believe that really the tithe is primarily a set of training wheels for the financial bikes that we are riding through life.
What do I mean by this? It seems to me that as training wheels serve as a tangible guide to learning how to balance when riding a bike, for getting the feel of riding the bike, that the tithe serves as a tangible guide to learning how to give to God in the midst of managing all of our financial resources.
If this is true, it means that if you do not yet tithe; I am inviting you this morning to make tithing a spiritual goal in your life. And I don’t necessarily mean that you start right away at 10% next week. I mean that you start giving something if you give nothing and that if you give something; you try to increase it gradually over time with 10% as a goal.
If this is true, it also mean that if you do currently tithe; I am inviting you to prayerfully consider how God might be calling you to move beyond the tithe. 10% serves as a good starting benchmark, but ultimately it’s all God’s and I believe that God calls us to give more freely and with more of a discerning heart than a flat tax rate. In other words, don’t let the tithe become a spiritual wall that prevents you from giving more when God calls you to. And don’t let your tithe become a focus of your faith that distracts you from other aspects of faith as it did the Pharisees. If you tithe now, then I believe 10% should probably be your minimum not your maximum.
Now perhaps setting up different standards like this seems unfair to you. And it may be, but we should keep in mind that
1. In the Parable of the Talents: God gives different amounts and is happy with the return of the first.
2. In the Parable of the Generous landowner: We see that fair is different for God. The owner pays all the same regardless of hours worked.
Conclusion:
Now having said all of this, I need step back to give a little more context. And I’m not going to go very far with this because it’s really the heart of next week’s sermon; but I don’t feel like I can wait a whole week before I introduce it.
After hearing me suggest that God may be calling you to give more of your money to Him whether by working up to the tithe or by giving beyond the tithe, some of you are thinking, “I knew it! I knew that the whole point of talking about stewardship was to try to get more of my money.” To which I want to say, “No it’s not. It’s about giving your heart to God.”
Don’t get me wrong, we are deeply thankful for your faithful giving and we would not be able to live out our vision as a congregation without the sharing of your resources. But that’s not what this is about. As Andy Stanley shares, God doesn’t want your money, He wants your heart.
In Matthew 6:21, Jesus says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Now we’ve talked about this before and we’ll talk more about it next week, but I mention it again now to put the rest of the sermon in context and to invite you to chew on this between now and next Sunday.
As Andy shares, “It’s as if God is saying through Jesus, ‘Look I know that your heart is going to follow your stuff and honestly I don’t want to compete with your stuff. I want your heart and because I want your heart and your heart … follows your stuff, then I want you to surrender all your stuff to me. Because once you surrender all of your stuff and all your money and all of your savings, and all, all, all… once you surrender all that to me, I have your heart. I don’t want your money, I don’t want your stuff. I’m God. What would I [want with that stuff?], I can’t wear that. And you ought to see my house. I don’t need your stuff. I want your heart. And it is just a fact of life that your heart is going to follow your stuff. So I want you to surrender your personal finances to me. Why? Because that is where your heart is.”[6]
Which I believe also means that the tithe serves as a spiritual discipline for training ourselves to give our stuff to God because in so doing, we also train ourselves to give our heart to God. In that sense, tithing is more than spiritual training wheels for our personal finances. Tithing also serves as spiritual training wheels for giving our whole heart to God and don’t we believe that ultimately our whole heart should be with God?
May God speak into our lives in the coming week and beyond. May God train us in God’s ways. And may we grow in our understanding of financial stewardship and in our understanding of its impact on the whole of our faith. Amen.
[1] Firstfruits: a stewardship guide for church leaders Robert C. Heerspink pg. 39
[2] Firstfruits: a stewardship guide for church leaders Robert C. Heerspink pg. 39
[3] Firstfruits: a stewardship guide for church leaders Robert C. Heerspink pg. 40
[4] Firstfruits: a stewardship guide for church leaders Robert C. Heerspink pg. 38
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