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Hard Texts:  Give God 10%?

Deuteronomy 12:1-9

November 12, 2006         (Click the date to see the bulletin)

1. This hard text was not on the list. Nobody submitted it. Probably because nobody wants to talk about tithing. Tithing smacks of money, and I’ve gotten in more trouble preaching about money than any other topic. But it’s in the Bible; and it’s a hard text. It fits right in with this series on hard texts. And it’s one that deserves our attention. As the old song goes, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," so here I go, "my heart above my head!"

2. Look at these words! These sound strange to our ears, don’t they? Why would God tell Moses to command the Israelites to commit such . . . such awful acts of violence? Completely demolish? Break down? Smash? Burn? Wow! That would create quite a mess, wouldn’t it? What was going on then that would make God make that command to Moses? The big clue is in verse 8, which says, "You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires." So that’s the answer to the "why" question – they were misbehaving. But what were they doing wrong? They were not paying attention to God, that’s what! They were acting like people who didn’t know God, like the Egyptians they had lived with for so long. God gave Moses the Commandments to make them happy, and the first thing they did was make God unhappy! They built an idol, a golden calf. God was furious, ready to destroy them and start all over with just Moses! But Moses prayed 40 days and 40 nights, asking God not to destroy either the people or Aaron, and sure enough, God did not destroy them. We find this part of the story back in the 9^th chapter of Deuteronomy, if any of you want to go home and read the whole thing.

3. So this 12^th chapter, and the two that follow it, we find instructions for how those freed and forgiven people were to relate to God. They were to get rid of everything that might distract them from God. Period. Get rid of it! Not just hide it in the closet or put it under the bed; God wanted them to actually destroy it. And once they had destroyed everything that would tempt them away from God, then they were to give back to God a tithe – 10% – of everything they had, because everything they had came from God in the first place. Those were God’s instructions to them, and because we are their descendants in faith, those instructions apply to us, also! That’s what makes it so hard.

4. We forget that it applies to us, too, don’t we? We want to think that everything we have was inherited from an ancestor who worked hard for it, or we earned it ourselves with our own hard work. And, because it’s OURS, we want to use our money and our stuff to support our own standard of living – because we live in a country where standards of living are important. We just celebrated the hard work of veterans who died so we could have a good life. We forget that God wants everyone to live a good life, and asks those of us who have surplus to share that surplus with those who don’t have enough.

5. So we give 10% of what we have, give it back to God, to make the church run smoothly. And then we give offerings, above and beyond our tithe, which share our surplus with others who don’t have enough. Tithes and offerings – it’s a bit like that old song, "I love you, a bushel and a peck." Bushels and pecks are dry measurements, like gallons and pints are liquid measurements, bushels and gallons being approximately four times pints and pecks. These baskets give you a good picture of the difference. So a tithe is the measurement of what we give back to God, and an offering is the measurement of what we give to others. You may wonder which is which, which is the larger and which is the smaller, which is the tithe and which is the offering. I’ve wondered that myself, but I’ve not been able to figure that one out – I don’t know if our tithe is supposed to be larger than our offering, or our offering larger than our tithe. And it probably doesn’t matter – as long as we give tithes for God to use, and offerings for other people to use.

6. Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? Simple, that is, until we get a letter reminding us that it’s time to declare how much our tithe will be, and a neat little card to write it down the amount. Even now, you’re probably beginning to stiffen up a bit, and maybe cross your arms. "Don’t mess with my bank account!" you might say! "We barely make it as it is!" Over the years, people have come to me very concerned because they say they simply cannot afford 10%, and worry that God will find a way to punish them. I really don’t believe that God punishes people who don’t tithe, and there is something to be said for making up the difference in time. But I do believe putting God first in our financial lives gives us a quality of life we don’t have when we put our own comfort and pleasure first. The first check I write every week is a check to God – made out to St. Andrew’s, of course! The head-stuff of figuring out which is which becomes a matter of the heart – giving out of gratitude to God, and giving out of concern for our neighbor.

7. The picture becomes even more complex when we also get a letter in the mail that updates us on conversations with the Little Light House. After thinking they surely must not want our building because we hadn’t heard from them in so long, low and behold they tell us they still need the space – they’re bursting at the seams. Their request jars us. We’re so happy and content and comfortable here. What does God want? Our money for his mission, and our building for the Little Light House, too? Is this like a tithe for God, and the offerings of our excess for those who don’t have enough? Do we give God and bushel AND a peck?

8. While I was working on this sermon Friday afternoon, the doorbell rang. You know about the doorbell, the chime that sounds when no one is at the door, the doorbell that I believe is God trying to get our attention. This one was the "ding-dong, ding-dong" that calls to prayer anyone who hears it. I was alone in the building. So I went out to the labyrinth by myself, to pay attention to God and listen for God. Now, if you recall, Thursday was beautiful and sunny and warm . . . a very comfortable day. The doorbell rang Thursday, also, and I delighted in a slow walk around the labyrinth. By Friday morning the clear skies had become cloudy, but it was still warm, so I had not brought a coat. After I came to work, the winds changed to the north. By the time the doorbell rang, the temperature had dropped from 73 to 55. It was COLD. Not freezing, mind you, just cold, no longer comfortable. And as I whizzed around the labyrinth, the message came loud and clear: Paying attention to God is not always comfortable! Giving 10% is not always comfortable; sharing our surplus is not always comfortable. That’s what these verses are about; that’s what these two letters are about. Our own comfort is not the issue – paying attention to God is the issue.

9. So if you’re tempted to give less because it’s not comfortable, if you don’t want to give at all because you’re not sure of our future on this corner, forget it! Just do it! It’s not an issue of our own comfort, it’s an issue of stewardship. Everything belongs to God, even this building, and we are merely stewards, caretakers. We are God’s own people who are asked to do the best we can with what God has given us.

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