11.09.03 - The Lectionary Made Me Do It

The Lectionary Made Me Do It
Rose McLean, Diaconal Minister
November 9, 2003

Well, I’m not any happier about preaching this sermon than you will be to hear it. Dave assigns me Sundays about every six weeks and I usually choose the lectionary as a text unless it is something special like Vacation Bible School or Children’s Sabbath. This time, however, Dave said that the stewardship committee really wanted a couple sermons just preceding commitment Sunday to be about tithing. You know, the Biblical guideline of giving a tenth of what we have back to God. Oh great. I have to preach about money. You know what people say who are disgruntled with a church. "Alls they ever talk about over there at that church is money!" So I was thinking, "I don’t want to preach about money; I’ll just be defiant and preach on the lectionary text." Well, wouldn’t you know it? The lectionary text is about the widow’s contribution. I should have stuck with preaching about giving 10%--now I have to preach on giving 100%! We should really hear some grumbling now!

I feel sort of like Jonah must have felt when God wanted him to go to Nineveh and preach to those people to repent. Jonah didn’t want to go and didn’t at first. But he discovered what we all discover sooner or later. You can’t run away from God and when you try as often as not you find yourself on a beach somewhere in a pile of whale vomit. So here I go. Doing what I perceive not only Dave and the stewardship committee, but also what God wants me to do: Preach about our stewardship.

You remember the mission statement of our denomination—to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Frankly, I find the mission statement of St. John to be a bit more attainable: somehow, it seems easier to me to be welcoming and to share God’s light than it is to make disciples. Especially when we consider what being a true disciple is. Jesus talks in terms of all or nothing at all—that is, total commitment.

Here at St. John we have many people who are actively involved in the life of the church who have never actually joined. We welcome you all. For those of us who are members, we have taken a vow to be loyal to the United Methodist Church and to support it with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. I would not suggest that those of you who have not taken that vow or any more or less loyal in these ways than those of you who have.

Back in the days when I led the Confirmation classes the youth practiced for the three months of the class those disciplines of prayer, presence, gifts, and service. We learned about different types of prayer such as thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession and kept a prayer journal. I required a specific number of times they had to attend Sunday School, youth group, and worship. Each of them had to serve the church as an acolyte, greeter, usher, or maybe sing the choir. And I required them to tithe. I nearly always had to explain what a tithe was. "It’s ten percent of your income", I would say. And they would say, "but I don’t have an income." Well, that may have been true of some of the ones in Ann Arbor when I served that church, but every one in Alaska has a dividend. They were usually able to recall that they had some income from allowance, a paper route, babysitting, or caring for the neighbor’s lawn or pets. Then I would have to explain about moving the decimal point one place to the left to figure out 10%. At the end of the Confirmation experience, we collected all the money and decided on a mission project to support. In this way, the kids learned that as a group we can do more than we can as an individual. And that we each gave according to our ability—some kids gave $5 for the entire time and some kids gave $100. We all have different incomes, but we all gave 10%--so we all gave the same.

In the scripture today, Jesus pointed out that the widow, who gave about a penny, gave more than the rich people who gave large sums from their wealth. It was not sacrificial giving on their part. They gave more actual money but didn’t come close to the 100% which she gave.

Back to the Confirmation class—After we had completed the class I talked with each youth to help them set goals for how they would live out the vow of prayers, presence, gifts, and service. I always challenged them to consider tithing as a regular practice and even asked them to discuss this possibility with their parents. One girl came back the next week and reported: "Rose, I talked to my parents about tithing and they said that we couldn’t tithe because we made WAY TOO MUCH MONEY to tithe. They said, that it was OK for you to tithe because you don’t make that much money, but that our family won’t be tithing." I thanked her for having the discussion. At least they talked about it. That was in Ann Arbor lest you start looking around and seeing which family that may have been.

Why 10%? Why has that been the biblical guideline from our earliest Jewish history and throughout the New Testament? I think that just as taking a Sabbath is part of God’s plan for us, so is giving back 10% of what we have been given. It’s good for us. It helps us remember that everything we have is a gift from God. It helps us remember that we can’t depend only on ourselves for our security and well being. We need to trust in God. We need to help those who are less fortunate than us. And we need to support the church as a place for spiritual growth and to make disciples not only for us and our families, but for others as well.

In Friday’s paper there was a headline that caught my attention. "Knowing how much to give gets tricky" it screamed in bold letters. Oh good, I thought, more sermon material. But then I noticed it was in the LOVETRACK column—you know, advice to the lovelorn and all that, so it wasn’t all that helpful for THIS sermon. But I did think the headline was apropos. How do you know how much to give? 10%, but 10% of what. Before taxes or after taxes? How about those PFDs or other money that isn’t part of our regular income? And should it be the combined salaries of all the wage earners in the household or just the primary income? What if I am working just to make a specific purchase—am I supposed to tithe that? I suspect that some of these questions are actually attempts to figure it out and others are less sincere. Let me share with you what others have shared with me and some of my own experience. Our family never discussed money except that we didn’t have enough and we certainly never discussed what we did or didn’t give to the church. Daddy gave me a dime to put in the offering every Sunday—unlike Patti Jon Foster whose father gave her a dollar bill—so even then, I realized that giving to the church was sort of a deal where some people gave more than others according to their ability.

My first real job—other than baby-sitting, was as a cashier at Joe’s Corner Grocery in Friona, TX.. I made $40 each week and every Sunday I put $4 in the offering. It was a summer job so I didn’t make a pledge. And from that time forward, I have tithed. My personal practice is to tithe before taxes, but I think a good rationale could be made for after tax tithing since some of our tax money goes to health and human services. Also, I don’t give the entire 10% to St. John. I have a little formula.

First I determine what my tithe would be—in round figures, $5,000. Then I determine what my fair share of the year’s operating budget would be by dividing the budget figure by the membership of the church.-- again in round figures, $1,000. I can afford to pay more than my fair share so I average those amounts and arrive at $3,000—I figure I am paying the difference that some youth or someone on a fixed income or someone with different priorities is paying. That gives me roughly $2,000 to give to other charities that I believe are doing the work of the kingdom, such as Birchwood Camp, scholarships at my seminary or college, additional mission opportunities such as the Parcel Post Party or CROP Walk. Some of you may give to Habitat for Humanity or United Way. Other than the dividend, I don’t tithe my windfalls. But I know people who do. One person I knew had a patent on those carbon filter pumps for hikers and she gave many dollars to the renovation of the youth room in Ann Arbor.

Perhaps you think this is too personal for me to share. No one is asking you to share on this level. What you give to the church is confidential. The financial secretary has access to all the pledges, but she can’t remember who gives what from year to year. It is simply between you and God. We are asking you to consider giving to the operating budget of St. John so that we can continue to be in the business of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Some of the statistics that we have learned about the giving pattern of many in this congregation have been discouraging to some. Not to me. I see those statistics as good news. We have lots of room to grow. If 60% of our families were giving at the 10% level instead of less than 2%, we would have little room to grow. But I believe if you hear the message and know the challenge, you will grow toward increasing your percentage of giving to the church and looking at your priorities. Not just because we need money to keep the church operating and make disciples for Jesus Christ.. But because it is part of God’s plan for you.

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