Photo used with permission: www.yvanmarn.com
At least, we should stop if we are paying tithes for the wrong reasons.
For example, we should not pay tithes to maintain the church or meet the building campaign budget. Tithes are between us and God.
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for god loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
And we should not pay tithes to fulfill the law. We live by grace.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
And we should not tithe to earn a financial blessing. Some people claim that when they tithe, God miraculously makes what’s left go further. That is good for them, but it isn’t the point:
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19-20)
“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...” It was an old command even in Jesus’ day:
Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if, when the Lord your God has blessed you, the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it, because the place where the Lord your God will choose to set his name is too far away from you, then you may turn it into money. With the money secure in hand, go to the place that the Lord your God will choose; spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together.” (Deuteronomy 14:22-26)
This is different. Maybe we have been taught to tithe out of a sense of duty. Maybe we have been taught to tithe because the church needs our money for that next big thing. Maybe we need a tax break. Maybe we tithe because we like the feeling of being holier than thou. But when was the last time we heard a sermon explaining that God’s word demands that we set aside a portion of our income…not for the church, not for the poor, but for a great big party?
It sounds sinful…certainly not decent nor orderly…but I don’t think a brood of bellicose believers is what Jesus had in mind. It certainly isn’t how Jesus lived in the face of an occupying foreign government, sacrilege in God’s temple, corruption of the priests, entrenched poverty, and rampant racism. It is enough bad news to justify a surly savior, but Jesus was thought by His peers to drink a little too much wine and eat a little too much food. (Matthew 11:18-19) The savior of the world, it seems, liked to let His hair down.
Jesus comes to those worn out by religion and down and out by life and reminds us all what the kingdom of God is like. It is a party! The gathering of God’s people is a foretaste of a heavenly banquet full of colorful riff-raff. (Luke 14:15-24)
Baptists beware! There’s bound to be dancing. Presbyterians, unbutton your ties. Nazarenes, uncork the wine! Seventh-Day Adventists, there is going to be meat. This is a raucous affair!
To enjoy the life God has given to us and to enjoy the world He has created is just as much a part of glorifying God as dressing in our Sunday best. So, what if Christians took as seriously the commandment to party as we do to sing ancient hymns or use electric guitar? That is what part of our tithe is to be used for. I believe that the celebration itself be an invitation to the huddled masses striving to make car payments and house payments and credit card payments and restore life to a proper perspective.
I know that life is as tough for you as it is for me. We are all in the same boat. Sometimes it seems to be sinking. Our kitchen is a wreck. We aren’t sure how to stretch a nickel into a dime every month for the essentials…so how can we talk about a party at a time like this? It’s because of Jesus. Read the story again. Jesus loved life. We wonder what sort of harbinger is this first miracle in John’s gospel:
Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew) the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guest have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. (John 2:6-11)
I think that it is safe to say, in light of this very first miracle, that Jesus is serious about placing the world’s problems in the right perspective. So the church is a bit antiquated and in need of updating and a bit short on funds…get ready. So there is a chronic problem of homelessness in our city…fill up those stone jars with wine. So we hear rumors of child trafficking…taste and see Lord is still good. Rejoice…not in the fallenness, but that God has come for all people to experience joy.
It is worth noting that this miracle took place in Cana in Galilee. Galilee was home for Jesus. He was among friends and neighbors and he is well-liked. He’s no ascetic, after all Jesus receives an invite to the party. The only problem here that Jesus is concerned with is that the bridegroom has run out of wine. Perhaps the prudent thing to do would be to place the revelers on their donkeys and point them to home. Perhaps the wise thing to do would be to go home and get a good night’s sleep so some real ministry might take place in the morning.
But that isn’t what happened. If the guests weren’t tipsy already, they soon would be drunk. Some would drink too much. In the face of Roman occupation, binding custom, and abject poverty, Jesus doesn’t just turn water into wine, he recreates a land of abundance where everybody has more than enough: a land flowing with milk and honey and dripping with mirth. Heaven kisses the earth.
It is a joyful act worthy of our serious consideration. In the face of decreased membership and the gritty and seedy reality that is our community, what would Jesus do? My guess is that he probably would not have a membership drive or conduct a capital campaign or launch a program to assist the homeless. He’d probably throw a party.
Even in those churches that are a glowing success and growing in membership and doing great things in the community, there is this insatiable quest to look around at the dark corners of our world and feel guilty. We don’t pay much attention to this miracle in Cana because it poses a huge threat to the monuments of human achievement we baptize in the name of Christ. We place a golden cross on the roof and we call it a church as if the Kingdom of God depends on us. But we have forgotten the order of the covenant? We aren’t required to do a darn thing. We aren’t needed either for the covenant has been written and it has been written in blood.
The only thing left for us to do is enter into that agreement participate in what God is doing. And he is throwing a party.
I don’t know if our churches would have a better bottom line if we took seriously the party tithe, but there would be more bottoms in our churches if we were a bit more festal. We see that in church. People show up where there is a party. “But people are losing their jobs!” we protest. “People are sick. There are wars and there are rumors of wars. There’s bad weather and corrupt politicians and somebody cut me off in traffic.” I know. I know. I live here, too.
And people die and we all are dying. That’s the worst. All of this striving comes to an end and our loved ones go to heaven…how sad for us. We weep not for those that have gone to glory, but for those of us that are left to slog it out without them. Jesus wept, and He knew best of all the glory that awaits. We don’t grieve as those without hope. And sometimes hope is rekindled by a party. I remember conducting a funeral for a matriarch of a small village in Alaska. It lasted for several days. There was grieving. But there was also food and singing and gift-giving. And in the end, there was laughter.
Laughter is good. Our God rejoices with us. But it is expensive to throw a party. It cost those villagers two vacation days and a lot of money to get to the happy point of the funeral.
Maybe the cost is what is holding us back, not the theology. Perhaps, it is not the guilt of rejoicing in the face of tragedy that keeps us from celebrating the goodness of God. It is just too damn expensive. And it is. We need to be prepared for it. We need to be prepared to blow some serious dough and break some expensive alabaster jars of perfume to live correctly in the fat and happy kingdom.
Let’s do an experiment this week. Let’s look at our budget. What percentage of our income do we devote to just living? Food. Housing. Transportation. Student Loans. Insurance. Medicine. The emergency room. Heating and cooling. Debt payments. Ninety percent? Fifty percent? The results might be surprising. Who knew groceries cost so much…and gasoline ferrying the kids around? Whew. But its the percent that is “left over” that we are interested in. This is our discretionary income. Mad money.
It may be a lot or it might be a little but it is what we have. Now, let’s divide that number in three. One third of our discretionary income is the, “Party Tithe.” This is Cana-wedding-first-miracle-water-to-wine money. Use that money to rejoice in the Lord. You love to garden. Use that third to make your garden magnificent. And don’t feel guilty. You are doing God’s work and the world needs this beauty more than the church needs our money.
And I know that you love to read. In a world of tablets and gadgets, use part of that third and buy that book; in hardcover; first edition. Hold it and smell it. Or, buy that electronic reader and download your whole library and go read in Tahiti! For me, maybe it’s a kayaking expedition. I could save the party tithe for three years and then go wherever I wanted in a three-hundred mile radius.
“Wait a second,” the good Pharisee in all of us is not silenced yet, “This doesn’t sound Biblical enough.” Well, we certainly haven’t heard much of this before from Biblical teachers. It all sounds so radical. We like to gloss over the radical parts. We know the great commandment “To love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind…and to love others as yourself.” We just balk at actually doing that with all of our heart and soul and strength and mind. Too radical.
Start with a third.
A great big bash in the name of Jesus; a Party Tithe. Don’t worry. We haven’t forgotten the church. That comes next. That is the second third of our “tithe.” Hang in there…but first, remember the part of the command. It is sad, isn’t it, that Christians are so reluctant to celebrate extravagantly the extravagant God in whose image that they are created that they must be commanded to celebrate?
“Rejoice in the Lord always!” (Philippians 4:4)
“Yes, Lord,” we protest, “but surely that doesn’t mean wine…at least that doesn’t mean safaris and fine silver when there are people starving down the road.” We have some wealthy friends who have just installed a climate-controlled wine-cellar in their basement. It is full of priceless wines and they are good Christian people. Is a 1000 dollar bottle of wine justifiable in the Kingdom of God? Yes. I believe it is. If you really love wine. I beg you to consider the life of our Lord and Savior. If that doesn’t remind you, than consider his words:
“I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10b)
But the word abundant, used here by Jesus, sometimes translated, “full” means something more. The word is perisson and it means excessive, extreme, excessive. Perisson is not just a float trip, it’s whitewater. It’s not just a breeze. It is a tornado. It isn’t a fast car. It’s nitrous oxide. It isn’t a combo meal at the burger joint, it is Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings…or ham. Our son, Samuel, would choose ham every time.
We all have a certain income. It consists of salary; retirement; investments; the sale of corn or the land that grows the corn. And we all have a certain amount of expenses. Mortgages. Student Loans. Food. Food. Water. Food. With three boys, food is a big deal in our home. Talk to us in seven years. And there is nothing biblical about this…unless you consider the fact that Jesus became a human being just like the rest of us. He had to work for a living. He helped his father when he could. Paul was a tent-maker. This is real life. There is income and there is outgo. It doesn’t sound very “perisson”, but it’s human.
And we want to increase the amount we have left over. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denomination, once said, “First, gain all you can, and, secondly save all you can, then give all you can.” Not only is that good advice for the church…that is good advice for your life and good advice for the people starving down the road.
The Party Tithe reminds us of the abundant life that Jesus promised with his extravagant love. The Party Tithe also represents approximately one third of our discretionary income…why one third? There are three tithes mentioned in the Bible. The Party Tithe is what you spend on gifts and gold and gardening and golf and going to the movies.
Have fun. It’s a commandment.
Congregational Sabbath. Less Doing. More Being.
Photo from www.sxc.hu 1401915
The second tithe is what we give to the church. This is the “Parish Tithe” and also is one third of our discretionary income:
The second tithe is what we give to the church. This is the “Parish Tithe” and also is one third of our discretionary income:
“I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the Tent of Meeting. From now on the Israelites must not go near the Tent of Meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die. 23 It is the Levites who are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting and bear the responsibility for offenses against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites.” (Numbers 18:21-23)
We need to see the difference between this command to support the worship space in Israel (Parish Tithe) and the tithe used to support the worshipper. (Party Tithe)
You may have heard the story of the wealthy parishioner who was very old and very sick. He called his friend, the Reverend, to come visit him as he tried to put his affairs in order as his life came to its grand culmination. “You know, Reverend, I haven’t been too faithful in my giving to the church.” “Yes, friend, I know.” “I want to make things right. Do you think that if I gave everything I owned to the church, that God would forgive me for being so selfish?” His wise old friend, the Reverend, scratched his grey beard for a minute as his eyes sparkled. He leaned over to his wealthy friend and said, “It couldn’t hurt.”
Don’t forget the first rule of giving; there are no rules. There are no minimum percentages. There are no maximum percentages and there is no special seating for those who give more. “We are slaves of Christ,” Paul says. (eg, Romans 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1) Not the church. We are not bound to keep rules about what day we worship on or what kind of fabric we wear or what kind of food we eat or how much money we give to the church. So what’s the right amount to give to the church?
Some very grace-filled Christians suddenly become very legalistic on this issue. “Ten percent.” They say. To which I say, “Which ten percent?” The word “tithe” does mean ten percent, but we have seen it used to describe two very different things. There was a tithe to travel to the temple, the party ten percent, and then there was the tithe to support the space and those leading worship in that space, the priestly ten percent.
All priests were Levites but not all Levites were priests. Some were musicians and some were artisans and gatekeepers and teachers…and they received 10 percent of the people’s income…this is what I am calling the “Parish Tithe” because it directly supported the staff and the ministry of the house of God…which for Christians, is the church or parish. Whether we like the church or not, it is God’s plan to have this place where our faith is purified and solidified and testified as we go out into the world.
What we see in these two tithes is that the command to celebrate our life (the Party Tithe) and the Author of life (the Parish Tithe) are intimately bound. We can’t have one without the other. The church points us to God and God guides us into being the church. The important part isn’t the percentage of your overall income that you give... the important part is the balance.
I remember when God first really started to work with me about my giving to the church. The first thing I did was start giving regularly. Now I was just out of school and had just bought a new pickup. I still have that pickup. Not only did I have a new truck, but within thirty days I had the opportunity to go down to the Department of Motor Vehicles. That’s when the party really begins. That’s where you have the joy of paying your taxes and registration. This is when buying a new car is the greatest.
And at the time I was giving about twenty bucks a week to the church. And I was proud of it. I had a new house and a new truck a new dog and a new friend named Sallie. Sallie Mae. And I was looking at boats. I had one picked out. Big. Powerful. Chick magnet. About 100 dollars a month for 360 months. And I could afford a boat and continue to give to the church. I didn’t miss the twenty bucks…80 bucks a month. And I didn’t see too many other people putting in twenty bucks…let me see that plate…oh, Mrs. Robinson, you forgot your envelope today? George, five bucks…really? But God wasn’t done with me yet.
There is a danger, a perisson, of regular giving. It becomes a way that God can speak to us and mold our hearts. God spoke to me about my pride. I didn’t need to be concerned about what I gave compared to someone else. It was between me and God and God spoke to me about my gift. Twenty bucks wasn’t enough. Soon, I was giving 260 dollars a month to the church and my big, beautiful, chick magnet of a boat became a pipe dream. But I still had Sallie.
As our discretionary income goes up, and as Christians we pray that it does, we may spend more on vacations and clothes but we should also be spending more on our church giving. The Party tithe and Parish tithe should be about equal. If we spend thirty thousand dollars on a boat over five years, we should be spending thirty thousand dollars in the church over five years. If we are spending 1500 dollars a year on or cable bill…that’s part of our Party Tithe…we should be spending 1500 dollars a year in the church…you see how they are connected?
Some good church members have told me that they don’t spend anything on entertainment. They brag that their lives are entirely dull. And I believe them. I know them. And it is this group of party-poopers who especially need to spend a little more on the party tithe and a little less on the church. For most of us, however, we probably spend way more on dining out every year than we do in the church. We may need to take some channels off our television or pack a lunch to work to get the balance right. It helps us, as we pray about what God would have us give, to see those figures side by side.
So how much is left after you pay for our essentials? And how much do we pay on the fun stuff…cruises, cars, cabins, crochet, kayaks, and coffee at Starbucks? How much to we give to the Lord? It isn’t a matter of percentage. It is a matter of balance. Our hearts will follow our money. Jesus says it better:
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
Church Stopping. Less doing. More being.
Picture from www.sxc.hu #85824 (*this is not my boat)
The Party Tithe was that part of our discretionary income devoted to gardening, golf, gift-giving, and going on vacation. The Parish Tithe was that part of our discretionary income devoted to God’s work in the church. Still, our discretionary income is not used up. There was...in ancient Israel...still another part of the tithe system. This, I am calling the Pentecost Tithe. This was the ten percent paid once every three years to support the widow and the orphan:
The Party Tithe was that part of our discretionary income devoted to gardening, golf, gift-giving, and going on vacation. The Parish Tithe was that part of our discretionary income devoted to God’s work in the church. Still, our discretionary income is not used up. There was...in ancient Israel...still another part of the tithe system. This, I am calling the Pentecost Tithe. This was the ten percent paid once every three years to support the widow and the orphan:
Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your produce for that year, and store it within your towns; the Levites, because they have no allotment or inheritance with you, as well as the resident aliens, the orphans, and the widows in your town, may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work that you undertake. (Deuteronomy 14:28-29)
Even today, there are those special needs that sometimes come up in life. This is what we see the early church doing after that first Pentecost when the Holy Spirit moved through the disciples…they shared, directly, with anyone who had need.
All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. (Acts 2:44-45)
For the ancient Israelite, this tithe was 3.3% every year; or 10% every third year. (The word for tithe is derived from the Hebrew number for ten.) For us, as Christians, this tithe suggests that we need to set aside a certain something for ministries outside the church.
It is fun to give in this way. We want to buy popcorn from the scouts. We want to buy cookies for our neighbor’s elementary school fundraiser. We want to sponsor a child with Children’s Christian Fund. Family Camp. Salvation Army. Operation Rescue. Meals on Wheels. I heard of a local businessman who bought a friend a car after his was totaled in a fender bender. Sometimes it is big, sometimes it is a little something extra in our budget for the neighbor kids' lemonade stand. This is the Pentecost Tithe.
But remember, there is no formula here. These percentages still don’t add up. Ten plus ten plus 3.3 doesn’t add up to 33 percent, but it does give us a picture to a whole new way of living life—where we take seriously the command to live for God and celebrate life and live for others. After all, isn’t that why Jesus said He came? “I have come that you might have life and have it to the perisson; abundant, extreme, excessive, and beautiful.” Are our lives like that? This is what the tithe is about. And this is what Jesus is about.
Tithing is not commanded in the Bible in the way that it is often taught in our churches. It is not suggested anywhere in the New Testament that we must give a certain percentage of our income. We often don’t. The commandment is to love the Lord our God with all of our Heart and with all our soul and with all of our strength and then to love others as ourselves.
While there is no minimum requirement to enter the kingdom, there is a minimum that qualifies our gift as beneficial. The average percentage of giving among Christians is two percent and that probably isn’t enough to live where heaven kisses the earth. When our giving is based on what is left over rather than a whole new way of life, we remain in bondage to the tyranny of not having enough. A proper understanding of the Biblical tithe, what it is and what it isn’t, gives us the freedom to give creatively and realize the joy of living in the covenant that God established for us.
Church Stopping. Less Doing. More Being.
Photo from www.sxc.hu #719369
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