Last week we looked at more excuses the sinful human nature will throw in front of us to tempt us to give less to the Lord through our offerings to his church. It boiled down to one thing—giving to a need. That was the prime motivator for Christian giving, need based giving. If there’s a demonstrable need, I’ll give. If there isn’t a demonstrable need, I won’t give.
Ouch! We are setting ourselves up for some real cat-and-mouse games with that one. Unscrupulous people can always create needs. The one who screams the loudest and whines the longest gets his yearly January sabbaticals in Rio to study the effects of longer days on the ratio of Law/Gospel applications in preaching on the Epiphany texts. Selfishness can and does cross the boundary into squabbles over church turf and funding.
And that brings us to this week’s theme: selfishness!
Time is money, isn’t it? Why not give our time instead of our money, to God?
There are different scenarios to this thinking. What strikes you as odd with each of them?
Ø “Pastor, we on fixed incomes can’t give to the church like we used to, so we’ll make cakes and crafts for sale at the church fund-raiser bazaar instead.”
They still have some money coming in from their fixed incomes. They could give a portion of that income. If they are ruling that out, they are really shifting their offering responsibilities onto someone else’s shoulders. Maybe they could make their crafts or cakes and sell them at a store off-site of the church and donate the money to the church. A lot of times (especially with quilters) you will get a lot more money for your goods on the market “out there” than selling it in the church.
Ø The pastor works out a deal with the church treasurer that his church offering is deducted from his monthly pay. He doesn’t even have an offering envelope anymore! And it puts him in a lower tax bracket!
The example of not putting anything in the plate week after week will have to be explained and it is hard to imagine that anyone wants to reveal their personal finances to that extent to everybody in the congregation. And one wonders how much the lower tax bracket is playing a part. Is the pastor doing well by doing good?
Ø I run my own lawn business so I’ll do the church property and the parsonage, too, in lieu of my offering.
Maybe there is somebody else who is volunteering to do the lawn and is doing a good job! What if the guy with the lawn business is blessed so much he could give a lot more than what he would charge for mowing the church lawn? What if he does a bad job? Can you fire him—after all, he’s doing it for free, umm, I mean, it’s his donation to the Lord!
What does God say about our money?
Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops. Proverbs 3.9
What is the crop we produce with our efforts at work?
A salary.
How do we honor God with that money?
We give a portion of it to him.
In the Old Testament God required the tithe from his people, a tenth of what they produced. Certainly these were non-monetary offerings. But never did he specify that the people were to give him time in lieu of these offerings. Other religions did. Egyptian temples had slaves who were devoted to the cult of this or that false god. The same in Babylon. But not in Israel. They were free men, tending to their own affairs, and rendering their God a portion of the wealth they had created. If they would withhold the offerings of their crops, God would act in kind and withhold the plenty of harvests (Malachi 3.6ff).
As the nation of Israel moved from a farming (barter) economy to a money economy, monetary offerings became the norm. But even before that transition, money, gold, silver and precious metals, were often specially ear-marked for the Lord.
Look at Joshua’s instruction for the attack on Jericho.
On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.
What were the Hebrews to do with the inhabitants of Jericho?
Destroy them completely.
Who was the exception and why?
They were to spare Rahab the prostitute and all her family because she had received and helped the spies.
What were the Hebrews to do with the possessions of the inhabitants of Jericho?
Destroy it all completely.
What was the exception and why?
The gold, silver and other precious metals (bronze and iron) were to go towards the Lord’s treasury. God, evidently in his earlier commands to Joshua, had demanded it.
In the later monarchy, the transition to a money economy had been made. Look how Joash financed the restoration of Jerusalem’s temple.
Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord—the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, and let it be used to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.” 1 Kings 12.4-5
Discuss the shortfalls of a barter system in handling this type of work.
If people gave foodstuffs, a bureaucracy would have to sell it, turning it into money. It would be cumbersome and duplicate what the people could have done to begin with. If time were given, another bureaucracy would have to be established to coordinate task and skills. This way, with money being given, contracts could be let and workers hired for the specific jobs at hand and paid with the money the people had earned from their efforts.
This giving of money is so obviously understood as the currency of offering that the New Testament treats it as a given.
Consider these incidents and show how giving of your time instead of your money is not proper.
Ø Temple officials come to Peter and ask him if Jesus pays the Temple tax. Peter is troubled by it, goes and asks Jesus about it, and is given the task of fishing. In the fish’s mouth is a coin worth enough for both Jesus and Peter to pay the Temple tax.
Imagine what Jesus could have done with just a few hours of volunteer labor in the Temple!
Ø Temple officials come to Jesus and ask him whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not. He asks for a coin. “Whose inscription is this? Who’s image?” Caesar’s, they replied. “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
What is to be given to God by us Christians?
Our hearts, our devotion, our efforts and our money.
Still not convinced? Let Paul come right out and say it.
On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 1 Corinthians 16.2
What words of Paul prove we should give our money to the Lord?
Each one. Sum of money. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
Can you think of a better way that guy who is in the lawn business can donate to the church? And then what happens if he is doing a rotten job?
Better to be paid by the church to mow the lawn, if no one else is interested in doing it for free. And then he can take the money and give it to the church as part of his offering. And, if he gets lazy or doesn’t do the job he should be doing—fire him! It’s a contract, just like the service we get from the phone company, internet provider or copy repair company.
Certainly
one of the benefits we enjoy living in America is that our government extends
generous tax benefits to churches, really any house of faith, and those who
support those houses of faith. Religious property that is used for religious
purposes is exempt from property taxes in almost every locale, for we believe
that the power to tax is the power to control and/or destroy! And the donations
we give towards our churches are deductible from our taxes.I’m not real good at tax issues. I usually get a letter back from the IRS telling me there’s an addition mistake on my return and I’ve paid them a little more than I owe. But there’s some real sharp cookies out there when it comes to charitable donations and tax law.
Here’s the question:
Should tax law determine how much I should give to my church or should tax law guide how I should give what I have determined to give to my church?
Scenario One:
A self-employed guy is doing his taxes ahead of time! December 27. He discovers he did not send in enough money to cover his tax bill. He is way short and is going to receive a fine. But wait! If he gives $1000 to church, that will put him in, no, wait, if he gives $949.51 to church, that will put him in a lower tax bracket that will shove him just below the threshold of paying a fine! So he cuts a check to his church for $949.51 and drops it off at the pastor’s house, because he has to get ready for a party later on New Year’s Eve and won’t be a the 7 pm church service that night.
Scenario Two:
A member has held on to some stock for a while. It has gone bonkers. Time to cash in his chips. When he bought the stock he had the idea to give 10% of it to the church. But if he sells the stock and gives the church the money, he’ll have to pay 10% more in capital gains and he figures that should be included in what he gives the church, so instead, he simply gifts 10% of his stock to the church and tells them he is selling his shares and they might be wise to unload their shares after the big run-up in price.
What is the motivation in each case?
The first guy is doing it just to keep more money for himself. It shows because he’s not even going to the worship service to drop his offering off!
The second guy gives what he has intended to give, 10%, but does it in such a way that the church actually receives more than the amount it would have gotten. His advice to the church shows this is an offering and not a chance for the church to dabble in the casinos, um, stock market.
How does this passage play a role in your thinking?
I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10.16
We should make the most of the opportunities we have to fund the Lord’s work with the wise gifts we give, but we are to be innocent. Others may bend laws or do things that “technically aren’t illegal,” but as Christians, showing God our honor, love and respect, we are going to hold ourselves to a much higher standard.
Now
let’s go back to the question:
Should tax law determine how much I should give to my church or should tax law guide how I should give what I have determined to give to my church?
What if the big selling point for that big estate endowment gift is the tax money you will be saving?
The motivation is bad and the gift may backfire on the church. Certainly the pitch will, for when the tax laws change the gifts sucked in by that pitch will dry up, too. After all, we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. The government spends good time and money making sure your heirs are going to actually get your estate and the government also protected you while you were acquiring that wealth. Even worse are gifts to the church that will reduce the status of the giver to an indigent becoming a ward of the state in a nursing home.
Ah! Here we have it! This is exactly the point I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to make all along. Our monetary offerings to the Lord through his church are a sign of our faith, not a response from our doubt and uncertainty.
Once in a while we say this prayer as we place the offering upon the altar.
Heavenly Father, trusting in your continued blessings of faith, of health, and of employment, we bring our offering to you.1 Grant us your Spirit that whatever we receive as income, as a gift, as an inheritance, we shall regard as your blessing and be moved to give you your share.2 May we never forget that as your redeemed children we are your stewards.3 May we resolve never to fail you. We ask all of this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
I think this is a great prayer. It makes three very important points (I’ve marked them).
What do these points say to you.
1. Nobody can know what the future brings. Everything we do is done in trust and faith that God will care for us. So, too, our offerings reflect that trust. We literally give away our money to God, trusting that he will give more to us tomorrow.
Can you think of something in the Lord’s prayer that shows this trust in God is not presumptuous?
Give us this day our daily bread.
2. God shares our daily life with us. He is there for the bad times, he is there for the good times. He carries our worries and cares. He shares in our wealth as well when we return to him a portion of our earnings as offerings.
3. We are stewards, simply entrusted by God with what we have. We are to use our possessions as he has directed us to.
We are called to live selfless lives. That will also include how we use our money. Part of the use of our money is for everyone to give back to the Lord a thank offering from a free and willing heart full of love for what the Lord has done for us and given to us, both in the spiritual and in the material realms.
If we still think we can be great Christians and be selfish with our money, only giving to God at the expense of the government, short-changing the Lord by giving him our “worthless” time or a scant amount of our over-valued time, then we should consider Jesus’ words.
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. Mark 8.34-38.
What words does Jesus use that make us think about how we use our money?
Gain the whole world
Forfeit
Give in exchange for his soul
How might Christians deny themselves for the sake of showing their love to Jesus through their offerings?
One less meal out, another year on the car before trading it in, putting off that dream vacation—indefinitely, watching how we are throwing our money away on things that really don’t matter, like the twice-daily Starbucks Frappaccino or the Slurpies at the 7-Eleven or even on how often we get in the car to run a single errand.
Jesus
certainly is not saying what monetary offerings we give to him will earn heaven
or help keep us in the faith. That is solely the role of God working through
his Gospel. But what does a heart that puts money ahead of Jesus show about
itself?
It loves money more than Jesus, so it is ashamed of Jesus. It has no faith in Jesus and this will be revealed in the judgment on the Last Day
Conversely, what does a heart that isn’t ashamed to give money to Jesus show about itself?
That it has a living and active faith in Jesus which extends also to the money it gives Jesus.