Jesus doesn’t want ten percent. Jesus wants it all: our whole selves dedicated to God. This is the invitation that comes with Christian freedom, and it is a joy, not a burden. The traditional way of saying this is in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done.” Not the pastor’s will, or some list of rules, but an ongoing invitation to bring our lives into alignment with the values Jesus taught, and to collaborate fully with the creative Spirit of God in our daily lives… however that looks like for you. Being faithful means accepting the challenge to give more and more of our lives to God, to accept those invitations God is giving us every day. The details will look different to each of us. But we who follow Jesus can look for things like this:
· Trusting that at the root of the universe and in the heart of each person is good, and beauty and truth, and acting accordingly.
· Learning: engaging sacred scripture and the world, discovering meaning and wisdom for living. Not needing to be right, instead being teachable.
· Mourning injustice, and speaking up for what’s right.
· Going out of our way to show care and respect for the people around us, and not just the likeable ones.
· Forgiving and being forgiven, being freed from the failures and hurts of the past.
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Brea Congregational United Church of Christ
June 16, 2019
The Amount
Isaiah 55:1-3 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Mark 12:13-17 Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? 15 Should we pay them, or should we not?” But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.” 16 And they brought one. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were utterly amazed at him.
Money is a loaded topic in our culture. We can experience such anxiety and guilt over money, or lack of money. And we are embarrassed to talk about it. At the same time we get judged by the size our income and how we display our wealth. I hope this church is a safe space where it really doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have. I hope our spending decisions, should we have more than the basics for survival, are shaped by the teachings of Jesus at least as much as by our culture. That could be disorienting, because what Jesus taught about money and what our culture tells us are polar opposites. Try quoting him in public and see what response you get. “Sell all you have and follow me.” “Blessed are the poor.” That kind of thing.
You’ve heard of the Sermon on the Mount. This is the Sermon on the Amount. Not the amount of money the church needs. I don’t know the amount of money the church needs. People are coming and going, and your money is coming and going. None of us knows exactly what salary and benefit package your next pastor will need. We have an uncertain situation. We have a situation requiring faith, and that’s a good thing. The amount I want you to think about is the amount you are ready to give to God, through the work of this church.
No guilt please. If you are struggling over money, please know that you are in good company. You are not failing; that is a lie our sick economic system uses to blame its victims. Our economic system is failing many of us. If you’re struggling over money, you may need to file this invitation away for another time. But if you’re holding your own financially, I have some things to say to you.
So many good causes are asking for our money. We cannot possibly support all the good causes that are out there. Can we all just take a big breath and let out a collective sigh over all the times we have to say “no” to people and causes that tug at our heartstrings? It hurts, being limited in our ability to help. Among all the worthy causes, I truly believe that church is special. We need to be empowered by the Source, the Source of our to compassion and generosity and call for justice. That is the purpose of the church. That’s why it comes first for me. For you? God meets you where you are. I will warn you: if you keep coming here, you might not stay where you are.
Jesus gave lots of “sermons on the amount:” on money. Today’s reading from the gospel of Mark is one of them. It is during one of those “word wars” Jesus had with people who were trying to discredit him, or worse. Right away we know something strange is going on here because Pharisees and Herod’s men are working together. Pharisees are the ones who are determined to follow every law to the n-th degree. They think following all their rules is going to get them right with God, and they look down on those who don’t follow all their rules. Herod Antipas is Rome’s puppet ruler in Galilee. He’s Jewish by birth; he barely observes his religion. Herod disgusts the Pharisees.
Why are the Pharisees and Herod’s men working together? They are both after Jesus. They are after Jesus because he is teaching things that undermine their authority, and the crowds love him. Jesus has been teasing the Pharisees about some of the silly laws they observe. He teaches that the spirit of the law is more important than the letter. Herod’s men are after Jesus because people are saying he might be the Messiah, the new Jewish king– a direct threat to Herod’s rule.
So these unlikely partners band together and ask Jesus a question. a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t kind of question. “Should we pay our taxes to the Roman emperor?” If Jesus says yes, pay the Roman tax, he is betraying the hopes of the Jewish people for freedom from Roman occupation. If he says no, Herod can throw him in jail, because Herod is a puppet of the Roman overlords.
In response, Jesus throws them a curve ball. Show me a coin, he says. It has the Roman emperor’s head on it (and probably also the words, “Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus.”) Right away the Pharisees know they have lost this challenge. Pharisees understood the second commandment to mean: don’t display any pictures of people or even animals, just in case you might start worshipping them as gods. Jewish coins, temple money, had palm trees on them. People did worship the Roman emperors as gods. A truly observant Pharisee shouldn’t even touch that Roman coin with Tiberius’ portrait carved on it. And then Jesus hits it home: Give to the emperor the things that are his, and give to God the things that are God’s.
Which begs the question, which things belong to God? What should we be giving to God? Herod’s men didn’t care. They didn’t care about God, only political power. But the Pharisees did care. They were really trying to serve God. What belongs to God? Here was their understanding. God’s covenant people belong to God. Everything they possess is a gift from God. According to Jewish law, God requires in return a tenth of their earnings, know as the tithe. There, I said it. The tithe. Ten percent of all we make. That is the amount, according to Jewish law.
Fortunately, we are not Pharisees. That rule about tithing is not binding on us. We are Christians, free from the old Jewish laws, as the apostle Paul likes to remind us. Paul also says, “All things are lawful, but not all things are good for us. All things are lawful, but not all things build community.” (1 Cor. 10:23) How did Jesus deal with tithing? The only mention of tithe in the gospels is when he made fun of the Pharisees, for giving a tenth of their parsley crop, but not giving their whole lives to God, by practicing compassion and justice. (Matt. 23:23, Luke 11:42).
Jesus doesn’t want ten percent. Jesus wants it all: our whole selves dedicated to God. This is the invitation that comes with Christian freedom, and it is a joy, not a burden. The traditional way of saying this is in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done.” Not the pastor’s will, or some list of rules, but an ongoing invitation to bring our lives into alignment with the values Jesus taught, and to collaborate fully with the creative Spirit of God in our daily lives… however that looks like for you. Being faithful means accepting the challenge to give more and more of our lives to God, to accept those invitations God is giving us every day. The details will look different to each of us. But we who follow Jesus can look for things like this:
· Trusting that at the root of the universe and in the heart of each person is good, and beauty and truth, and acting accordingly.
· Learning: engaging sacred scripture and the world, discovering meaning and wisdom for living. Not needing to be right, instead being teachable.
· Mourning injustice, and speaking up for what’s right.
· Going out of our way to show care and respect for the people around us, and not just the likeable ones.
· Forgiving and being forgiven, being freed from the failures and hurts of the past.
Compared to these kinds of daily challenges, tithing is easy, if you are not in financial crisis. I really mean that. Once you start writing that check first every month (or set up that online transfer) it becomes a habit. It’s much easier than remembering to open yourself every morning to God’s wisdom and guidance. Every person I’ve talked to who has made the decision freelyto tithe (not the ones who were coerced or guilted into it) has found it an enriching experience. Commitments to God usually are!
I have a friend, the person who guided me to my faith as an adult. Her family was below the poverty line. I remember worrying about the fact that she tithed. But for her it was just part of her commitment to God. Her commitment to God really meant something, because her tithe wasn’t extra. Yet she was empowered to be able to give in a meaningful way despite her ongoing struggle to make ends meet.
Another friend of mine is a stay-at-home mom whose husband is rather hostile to the church. She was always bugging him for money to donate the church, but one day she realized: she had a little money that she could call her own, from birthday checks, a modest investment, some odd jobs. She could tithe from that! When you commit to tithe, you never need to feel guilty about what you can or can’t afford to give. If your creative partnership with God brings you a larger paycheck, then you can give more.
OK, I’ve given my pitch for tithing. If it sounds lovely to you in theory and impossible in practice, here’s what you can do. Compute the current percentage of your income you are giving and increase it a noticeable amount. Do that for a few years, and you’ll be tithing.
When I started giving money to the church as a young adult, I did not tithe right away. And I was very aware of the fact that my gift did not go in an airmail envelope to the Heavenly Throne. It went to the church budget. Were they spending my money wisely, I wondered. Then I got recruited onto the finance committee of my church, and I had to rephrase that question. Are wespending God’s money wisely? The answer was, certainly more wisely than my home budget. I think the basic issue is not about budget items, but about trust. Do we trust our church? We could keep control, dole out money piecemeal to the projects we approve, or we can give generously to the church’s budget, no strings attached, and then all do our part to make our church effective. I treasure the special calling of this church, to welcome the excluded, to speak for the voiceless. I have not served a church with a clearer mission, a clearer calling that ours. It is our sacred privilege to support that work, and I get teary-eyed thinking about it.
We also support the mission of this church in ways other than money. Thank you for showing up on Sunday morning. For singing and marching and studying and bringing food, and giving rides and lobbying and making art and showing care to one another. And thank God for the generosity and commitment of all the faithful people who have come before us: built this church, and left us the legacy of their gifts. Thank God for the witness this church gives for hurting people, and a hurting earth. In this year’s stewardship drive we are setting a precedent of giving for the future ministry of this church. We will celebrate your generosity next week. Many of you know the joy of giving. Amen.
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