A Test of our Love for God – 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

With a congregation facing a deficit as the end of the year approached, I was sent by the Board of Managers to visit members of the congregation who I was told would be able to give more money to help the church pay its bills.  Not the kind of situation you like to be put in and one that I never again allowed myself to be in. Asking for money is never an easy thing and while there are times when such an appeal as the one I had to make is necessary, there is ever the hope that the generosity of the members will overcome any potential deficit – especially if the budget process has been honest and the expectations of the Board made known to the congregation.

Making the budget is something that seems to be a challenge for most churches and sadly it is not a new thing.  Church giving has ever been a concern for Boards of Management, Elders and especially the Treasurer of the church.  On numerous occasions I was requested by Church Treasurers to preach on giving and tithing in particular as a way to encourage the members to step up and support their church and its ministry.  Now to be clear the present Church Treasurer has not requested that I preach on tithing or even encourage you to give more than you are giving.  The reading came up in the Common Lectionary for this Sunday and I thought it would be good to review not just the giving of money but our outlook on the subject of giving – generosity.

There was a time in the history of the people of Israel when there was no direction as to what was appropriate as offerings to God.  Although sacrifices have clearly been a part of the response of humans to God from the beginning, there were no actual rules established until the time of the Exodus and the giving of the Ten Commandments followed by a whole set of laws and regulations covering just about any possible situation that would require a sacrifice to be made.  One of the most famous regulations from that time that has been picked up by the Christian churches is the tithe – the giving of a tenth of all that a person has earned.

Rather than trying to cajole people into giving what was determined to be an amount that revealed their thankfulness to God for all their blessings, the regulation was established that each person was to give a tenth.  It was necessary to establish a base line for giving as the people were becoming more organized as tribes and special responsibilities for the spiritual life of the people had been given to the tribe of Levi.  This tribe would provide the priests who would not only receive the offerings of the people but who would be supported by these very offerings.  In order to ensure that the needs of the priests would be met, the tithe was established.  Of course, it was not presented to the people quite this way.  They were told that the tithe was required of them as a mark of their thankfulness to God – which of course it was.  No one would dare give less than what was asked of them for fear of being labelled ungrateful for the blessings they had received from God.

Now it is not clear in the New Testament times as to whether the tithe was still being upheld or whether it had been replaced by a broader system of offerings.  We do get evidence of what was expected of people when they came to the Temple in Jerusalem with the sacrifices becoming progressively more expensive according to a person’s wealth.  What began as a way of encouraging a method of giving that allowed each individual to keep 90% of what they produced or earned had changed into a system that required vendors of offerings and a table of what those offerings would cost and no doubt what level of mercy and forgiveness a person could expect from God.

With Jesus the whole system is called into question. For one thing there should never have been a belief that God’s mercy and forgiveness can be bought.  Forgiveness for sin is a gift of God given freely without price.  In fact when we read the prophets we find many of them speaking of God’s mercy and forgiveness as gifts from God that can be received by anyone regardless of their ability to pay.   The prophets came to realize that the tithe had been a good way to encourage the people to recognize their blessings and to express their thankfulness to God by giving it, but when it changed to something that caused people to believe that they could buy God’s mercy and forgiveness, then there was something very wrong.

When we consider those passages where Jesus speaks of a person’s wealth, it is clear that it is not the wealth in itself but our attachment to it that is the issue – the story of the young rich man.  There are also passages that speak of people giving more than they could really afford to give such as the poor widow with her few coins. It is the motivation behind the giving with which Jesus is most concerned.  When our giving is motivated by a desire to be recognized and praised for what we give, we have neglected to remember what is to be the real reason for our giving.

Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to see their abundance as an opportunity to support the ministry of the saints – that is, the missionaries being sent to them and other churches.  He gives the example of the Macedonians who even though they were suffering affliction, their desire to give not only was marked by a great generosity but they went beyond what Paul would have encouraged them to give. He saw their generosity as a sign of the genuineness of their love for God. He wanted them to add generosity to the other ways in which their faith had grown. But it is clear that Paul does not want the Corinthians to give to the point where relief for others means pressure for them. It is about achieving a fair balance between their abundance and the needs of others.

Our offerings for the ministry of this congregation and the wider church community are to be signs of the genuineness of our love for God and our desire to meet the needs both within and without the walls of this our church home.   We are to consider the ways in which Jesus gave of himself – not in money but in so many other ways and follow the example by responding as we are able to the needs we find in this community and in other parts of our country and the world.  Each of us cannot meet all the needs that may ever present themselves to us but we can certainly impact and change lives when we give out of our abundance not by prescription and not by rules but by a genuineness of spirit not seeking to be praised but grateful that we can make a difference.  There may come a time when the Board may ask for an increase in donations to our local church community but when it comes, know that it is for each of us to respond not out of guilt or from pressure but from a desire to be supportive of this our community of faith.

AMEN