Perspective: Four Practical Reasons to Tithe

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Four Practical Reasons to Tithe

Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?" or "What will we drink?" or "What will we wear?"  But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:31,33 (NRSV)

I wanna love because You loved

I wanna give because You gave

I wanna reach my hand out to the lost

'Cause I know Your hand can save

From "Only You Can Save" by Chris Sligh

Many of the Hebrew prophets were sent by God to call the people of Israel and Judah to repentance and to warn them of the disaster that would befall them if they did not change their ways.  Others were sent to minister to the Jewish after they returned to their homeland after years of exile in a foreign land.  Their purpose was to encourage the people as they rebuilt their lives and to exhort the people to not return to the path of decay that led to their exile.  One such prophet was known as Malachi, meaning "messenger of the Lord."¹  One day, Malachi brought the people a message from God, saying, "Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!  But you say, 'How are we robbing You?'  In your tithes and offerings!"²

Tithing is the discipline of regularly dedicating ten percent of one's income to God.  The practice originated with the patriarchs of the Hebrew people.  When Abraham met the priest and king of Salem, he gave him a tenth of all he had.  Years later, his grandson Jacob promised God a tenth of everything God gave him, in return for God's providence.  Eventually, the practice would be incorporated into the Jewish Law.³  So often when the subject of tithing comes up, we think to ourselves, "Uggh...  Do I really have to do this?"  That said, I thought I would offer you four practical reasons to tithe.

First of all, tithing reminds us that everything good is a gift from God.

King David once took up an offering to help fund the temple his son Solomon would someday build.  After the offering was collected, David prayed to God, saying, "Who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly?  Since everything comes from You, we have given You that which comes from Your own hand."⁴

The ancient Israelites lived in an agricultural society, and they made it a practice to bring the first of their harvest to the center of worship as an offering to God.  This firstfruits offering was both an act of gratitude for God's provision thus far and an act of faith that God would continue to provide.

Second, tithing reminds us that our trust is in God.

Through Malachi, God said to the people,
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and thus put Me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.⁵
This message is often misused by proponents of prosperity theology who claim that if a person is obedient to God, then God will make him or her wealthy.  I think that maybe this message is meant for people who think that their survival depends on hoarding and stretching every penny.  I wonder if maybe God is saying, "Trust in My providence enough to give Me ten percent of your income, and see if I don't come through for you."

As people of faith, our trust is in God and not in our income, our careers, or our ability to make money.  Jesus encourages His followers not to worry about basic needs like food, water, and clothing, but rather to trust in the God who already knows our needs.  If God provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, then God will surely provide for us human beings as well.⁶

Third, tithing helps us to become good stewards of what God has given us.

The fourth of the Ten Commandments calls us to set aside a single day for rest.  We typically focus on the part of the commandment that states, "Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy," while glossing over the part that states, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work."⁷  If we are serious about dedicating an entire day to rest, then we must be intentional about how we use the other six days.  We must budget our time wisely to get all of our work done in six days, so that we may rest on the seventh.

The same principle can be applied to money.  If we dedicate ten percent of our income to God, then we must be intentional about how we use the other ninety percent.  When we budget our income, we have to evaluate all of our wants and needs, taking into consideration the funds at hand.  Creating a budget and sticking to it forces us to make better use of our money.  I have heard it said, "One hundred percent is never enough, but ninety percent is more than enough."

Lastly, tithing helps people in need.

Through Malachi, God called the people to tithe "so that there may be food in [God's] house."  Typically we view tithing as an obligation, but, in ancient Israel, tithing was a cause for celebration.  Every year, Jewish families presented a tenth of their harvest, livestock, or income to God at the temple.  They would then then use what they've presented to throw a banquet for their family, their friends, and even the poor.⁸  I wonder if it was such a feast Jesus had in mind when He said,
When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.  And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.⁹

When we support missions, we help to meet people's physical needs, and when we support the local church, we help to meet people's spiritual needs.  A congregation that has it's priorities straight will be concerned about both physical needs and spiritual needs.  Churches do not exist for their own self-preservation, but rather to do the work of Christ in a world of hungry and thirsty people.

If you don't already make it a practice to dedicate at least a tenth of your income to God, then I encourage you to give it a shot.  I will not tell you how to tithe: that's for you to figure out.  Remember that God is the Giver of all good gifts and that we are blessed that we may be a blessing to others.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: Malachi
2. Malachi 3:8 (NRSV)
3. Wikipedia: Tithe (Section: Hebrew Bible)
4. 1 Chronicles 29:14 (CEB)
5. Malachi 3:10 (NRSV)
6. Matthew 6:25-30
7. Exodus 20:8-11 (NRSV)
8. Glen Carpenter.  Sacrifices and Offerings: A Study Guide in Bible Symbolism.  2012.
9. Luke 14:12-14 (NRSV)

The photograph featured in this perspective was taken by Bill Nicholls and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Introspection: The Winter of My Discontent

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Winter of My Discontent

Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8 (NRSV)

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

From "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" by Thomas O. Chisholm

It was a Thursday evening in mid November, and I was in a hotel room at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, waiting for a phone call.  I was attending a conference with some of my coworkers, and a few of us were planning to go to a party which was hosted at the House of Blues that year.  When I turned on the television, I was very surprised to see that one of my favorite movies was on.  Based on a short story by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, The Adjustment Bureau tells the story of two lovers who are essentially wrestling with God's will for their lives.

Two years earlier, while I was attending the same conference, I sat in my hotel room on a Thursday evening, watching the same movie before the same party, waiting for a coworker to call me.  At that time, like the two protagonists in the film, I was wrestling with God's will for my life, for I thought that God wanted for me something I did not want for myself.  I found it comforting to watch a movie about two people who were going through the same conflict.  I hoped that, like the two protagonists of the movie, I would be granted a new path to follow.

It's funny how the journey of life has a way of taking us past the same landmark multiple times.

---

Sunday, December 28, 2014 was a very special day for me: it was the sixth anniversary of the day I delivered my very first sermon at my home church.  When I originally wrote that sermon, I was going through a difficult time in my life.  I was stuck in a bad job situation, and, seeking a new direction in life, I began to wonder if I had it in me to preach.  Wondering if I could write a sermon for any given Sunday, I decided not to choose my own Scripture passage, but rather to allow the Revised Common Lectionary choose a passage for me.  I ended up writing a sermon about the story of two elderly prophets named Simeon and Anna who had the privilege to see their long-awaited Messiah as a baby.¹

Because my pastor also frequently used the Lectionary to prepare her sermons, and because the Lectionary is a three-year cycle of readings, I suspected she might deliver a sermon on the same passage.  I was feeling a bit under the weather that day, but I had absolutely no intention of missing church.  The evening before, I had reread my first sermon to see if I would write anything different if I were to preach on the same passage six years later.  After all, lot had changed in that time.

Both my writing and my preparation have improved over the years, so, if I were to rewrite my first sermon, I would rework a lot of the wording and do some additional research so that I could replace a lot of unnecessary filler.  Those changes aside, I figured I would probably retain the basic structure and overall message of the sermon.  I would probably retell the biblical story, weaving in observations and cultural details, and explain how Simeon's prophecy would be realized in the life of Jesus, just as I did before.  I would probably do more work to reinforce the main point of the sermon: like Simeon and Anna, we Christians are also waiting for our Messiah to set things right.

A couple of days later, on the day before New Year's Eve, I tried to write an introspection about my anniversary - one last blog post before the end of the year.  I realized that I probably wrote a sermon about waiting and longing because, six years ago, I was personally in a season of waiting and longing.  I also realized that, if I rewrote my sermon, I probably wouldn't change much of it because I was in yet another season of waiting and longing.  In my previous blog post, I had written that the season of Advent was like "the darkness before the dawn."  It was now the sixth day of Christmastide, and I felt like I was still waiting for the dawn.  Unfortunately, life does not always follow the Church calendar.

As I wrote, I began to realize I was angry.  In the years after I wrote my first sermon, a lot happened to me.  I lost my job and was led to something better; I was led to a new community of faith with my own peers; and I became more and more involved in the Church.  Life was on the upswing: I hoped that my life was finally going somewhere.  And then, 2013 happened.  I began to break beneath the weight of what I believed to be people's expectations of me.  I gave up trying to please people, and then I began to feel like I was failing people left and right.  I think that, by mid 2014, I was so tired of pain, I began to avoid any potentially painful situations.  I ended up quitting a lot of things.

I've never really been satisfied with how my adult life has turned out.  At one point, I thought my life was going somewhere, but it didn't.  The last couple of years left me feeling like there was somehow less of me than there was before.  I didn't finish that blog post.²  What the hell was I supposed to write?  I was stopped in my tracks.  I lost my motivation to write, and I ended up taking a hiatus from blogging and teaching Sunday school.

It was winter.

---

Sometimes we just need to take a break - to take some time to let the dust settle so that we can begin to see clearly once again.  I didn't really quit writing: for the most part, I only quit writing stuff meant for other people to read.  Eventually the pain and frustration dulled.  I got my writing mojo back when a book study with my friends inspired me to write a new series of blog posts for Lent, and, during those six weeks, I blogged more frequently than ever before.  After Easter, I began teaching Sunday school and blogging regularly once again.  When my pastor for the last six years was transferred to another church, her last piece of advice for me was to keep writing, and that is what I intend to do.

During the spring and the summer I had to revisit a couple of lessons I had learned a long time ago, back when I was still stuck at a job I hated.

In June, I attended my denomination's Annual Conference in my state, and I had a lot more fun than in recent years.  I made it a point to seize the day.  I sought out certain people my friends told me I needed to meet, and I made a lot of new friends.  I even became a bit of an activist.  I spoke up for the first time at the conference, encouraging people to consider electing young adults to the General Conference, the decision-making body for the denomination.  I was reminded how important it is to live intentionally, as opposed to simply letting life happen to me.

After a couple of difficult years, life was beginning to look up once again, but every now and then the disconnect between what my life is and what I want my life to be starts to get to me.  I was reminded how important it is not only to send my prayers "upward" to be heard by God, but also to send my prayers "outward" to be heard by others.  Sometimes God answers our prayers through the people in our midst, but we have to be vulnerable enough to open up to them.  One night a few weeks ago, when my Bible study group shared joys and concerns, I asked my friends to pray for me because I felt like I was "stuck in a rut."  It was a poor choice of words: I sounded like I was just bored.  What I really meant to say was that I felt like my life was going nowhere.

I reached out to my friends by asking them to pray for me, and immediately they reached back to me.  In the last few weeks, God has blessed me greatly through them.  I've had some important conversations which have given me some much needed perspective on my life, and I've gotten some things off my chest, helping me to continue healing.

On the journey of life, we all experience mountaintops and valleys, highs and lows, summer and winter.  We don't have to live at the mercy of the rise and fall of our circumstances, for we can find peace and freedom in the midst of it all.  We don't have to walk through the valleys by ourselves, for God walks with us - as do God's other children, if we let them.


Notes:

1. See Luke 2:22-38.
2. Actually, the blog post I didn't finish became this blog post.

The photograph featured in this introspection was taken by me from my front porch after a winter storm.

Perspective: Is Your Church a Den of Robbers?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Is Your Church a Den of Robbers?

But to those acting against Him, God says,

"Who do you think you are?

Listing off My laws,

acting as if your life is in alignment with My ways?

For it's clear that you despise My guidance;

you throw My wise words over your shoulder.

You play with thieves,

spend your time with adulterers."

Psalm 50:16-18 (The Voice)

I focused on the score

But I could never win

Trying to ignore

A life of hiding my sin

From "Undo" by Rush of Fools

When is a place of worship, like a church or a temple, no longer a place of worship?

The prophets were tragic characters in the Biblical story.  They were all sent by God to call the people of Israel and Judah to repentance and to warn them that they would suffer the consequences of their actions if they didn't change their ways.  Their message was generally not well received, and they faced many hardships at the hands of those who thought they had something to lose.  Perhaps what is most tragic is the fact that, despite their best efforts, ultimately all they could do was to watch helplessly as Israel and Judah spiraled into chaos.  All of this is especially true of the prophet Jeremiah, who came to be known as the "weeping prophet."

One day, Jeremiah was instructed by God to make a protest at the Temple of the Lord, the center of religious life in Judah.  Like a modern-day street preacher, Jeremiah stood near the gate of the temple and told the people on the way into the temple not to fool themselves into thinking that they were actually entering the house of God.  He went on to break the news that God had already left the building, so to speak.  He told them that, only when they repented of their injustice, violence, and idolatry, would God return to dwell with them in the temple once again.  Jeremiah said that, by living lives of iniquity and then waltzing right into the temple as if they've done nothing wrong, the people have effectively turned the temple into a "den of robbers."¹

Does any of this give you a feeling of déjà vu?  If you're familiar with the story of Jesus, then you know of a similar episode in Jesus' ministry.

Six hundred years or so after Jeremiah preached outside the temple, Jesus made his own protest that seems to be at least partially inspired by what God instructed Jeremiah to do.  Of course, Jesus did not merely preach outside the temple: He actually went into the temple and started a ruckus.  He flipped over the tables of the people exchanging currency, turned over the benches of the people selling animals for sacrifice, and then drove everyone out of the temple.  Like Jeremiah, He claimed that the people had turned the temple into a "den of robbers."²

A place of worship is no longer a place of worship when it has become a den of robbers.

But what exactly is a den of robbers?

Normally I would think that, when Jesus compared the temple to a den of robbers, He was implying that the merchants in the temple were cheating people.  It is worth noting that both the animal sellers and the moneychangers actually had a legitimate purpose in the temple.  People traveled long distances to make sacrifices at the temple, so, if they tried to bring their own animal from home, it would not be fit for sacrifice by the time they arrived.  Also, it would not be right to buy an animal for sacrifice using coins with an image of the Caesar, so people needed to exchange their Roman currency for Jewish currency.³  It would not be a stretch of the imagination to think that maybe the merchants were overcharging people to make a profit for themselves.  Religion has always been good business.

In The Last Week, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan point out that a den of robbers is not a place where robbery takes place, but rather a place to which robbers flee after they have committed their crimes.⁴  By saying that the temple had become a den of robbers, both Jesus and Jeremiah were saying that the worshipers were living lives of injustice and then hiding behind their religion.  Such hypocrisy is simply unacceptable to God.  According to Borg and Crossan,
There was an ancient prophetic tradition in which God insisted not just on justice and worship, but on justice over worship.  God had repeatedly said, "I reject your worship because of your lack of justice," but never, ever, ever, "I reject your justice because of your lack of worship."⁵

Religious practices should inspire justice, but religious practices can never replace justice.⁶  To put the message of the prophets into a modern Christian context, if we are not treating people right, God does not care how much we read our Bibles, how often we go to church, or how much money we put in the offering plate.

Jeremiah warned the people that, if they did not change their ways, the city of Jerusalem would suffer the same fate as Shiloh.  Shiloh was located in the Northern Kingdom of Israel which, by that time, had already been conquered by foreign powers.⁷  This prophecy might have brought to mind an episode in Israel's history when Shiloh was the center of worship and when Israel was in conflict with the Philistines.  At that time, there were two corrupt priests named Hophni and Phineas, and, though the high priest Eli was aware of his sons' corruption, he did nothing about it.  One day, when the Israelites went into battle with the Philistines, they brought the Ark of the Covenant into the battle with them, hoping that the presence of God which the Ark represented would bless them in their battle.  The Israelites were defeated; the Ark was captured by the Philistines; and Hophni and Phineas were killed.  When Eli heard the news, he fell over and died.⁸

Soon after Jesus disturbed the peace at the temple, one of His disciples made a comment about how large and impressive the temple and the surrounding buildings were.  Jesus said, "Not one stone will be left here upon another."⁹

When Jeremiah and Jesus made acts of protest at the temple, they both predicted that the temple would soon be destroyed.  In 586 BC, not long after Jeremiah's protest, the temple was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire.  In AD 70, a few decades after Jesus' protest, the temple was destroyed again by the Roman Empire.

People often try to hide behind their religion, but hiding places have a way of being destroyed.

Please realize that I am not trying to say that a place of worship is not a place for sinners.  If sinners weren't allowed into such places, then there would never be anyone present to worship God.  Jesus himself said, "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."¹⁰  What I am trying to say is that a place of worship is no place for hypocrisy.

I think that a lot of the Church's problem nowadays is the widespread perception that Christians are a bunch of judgmental hypocrites.  I believe that this reputation is at least partially deserved, for so often we fail to practice what we preach.  We sing about love and grace, yet people don't feel as though they're getting any love and grace from us.  We stress the importance of humility, yet our rhetoric reeks of arrogance.  A lot of people are worried about the current state of Christianity.  Some are concerned about the decline in church attendance and religious affiliation, while others are worried that Christianity is losing its place of influence in society.  Some even fear the erosion of religious liberties.  Taking into consideration the words of the prophets, I cannot help but wonder if what's really happening is that our hiding place is being dismantled.

To paraphrase Jesus, the Church is not meant to be a den of robbers, but rather a house of prayer for everyone.¹¹  The Church is not a place for us to hide, but a place for us to be met just as we are.  We must stop acting like we're better than everyone else because we call ourselves Christians.  We must practice humility, and we must be honest about our faults.  We must extend to others the love and grace that has been shown to us.


Notes:

1. Jeremiah 7:1-11
2. Mark 11:15-17
3. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  p.48
4. Borg and Crossan, p.49
5. Borg and Crossan, p.44
6. Borg and Crossan, p.45
7. Jeremiah 7:12-15
8. 1 Samuel 3-4
9. Mark 13:1-2 (NRSV)
10. Matthew 9:13 (NRSV)
11. Mark 11:17

Christ Driving the Traders from the Temple was painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the 16th century.