Sermon: “Free to Give”

Texts: Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Malachi 3:6-12

2^nd Sunday in Lent (B)

March 8, 2009

Scripture introduction.  Our second reading this morning, from the third chapter of Malachi, is probably the single most often quoted passage in the Bible on the subject of tithing.  The book of Malachi is the last book of the Christian version of the Old Testament, and it concludes the collection of twelve books often referred to as the Twelve Minor Prophets—not minor because of their importance, but rather because of their short length when compared with Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel.  We really don’t even know whether there was a prophet named Malachi.  The name itself means, “my messenger,” so the name Malachi could be a reference to an unnamed messenger or prophet of God.  The passage we will be reading this morning is striking because it contains what may be the only instance in the Bible of God inviting—even daring—the people to put God to the test.  After accusing the people of failing to tithe and equating that failure with robbing God, the prophet speaks for the Lord: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test . . .; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”

Sermon.  Last week I told the story of the stewardship testimony I heard in my boyhood church, from the man who claimed that he had been materially blessed as soon as he started “tithing,” that is, giving to the church a tenth of his annual income.  I expressed to you my misgivings about any kind of stewardship theology that claims we will be rewarded materially for our righteous actions, including tithing.  The fact is, much of the Old Testament—not all of it by any stretch, but much of it—does seem to accept that if we do good, then God will bless us, and that if we do wrong, then God will punish us.  Much of this flows from the Book of Deuteronomy,[1] which provided a guiding theology for many of the Old Testament authors. 

But not all the Old Testament books accept this simple view of life.  Notably, the Book of Job shows us a man who is completely righteous yet who suffers the most unimaginably bad misfortune.  True, the book has a kind of “happy ending,” but scholars suggest it was added to the original text by later editors who tried to square its message with the reward and punishment theology of Deuteronomy.  We might also look at the Book of Ecclesiastes, which surveys all of human activity and concludes that there is no obvious system of reward and punishment.  Sometimes the evil prosper, and the good go hungry.  “All is vanity,” cries the writer of Ecclesiastes.  The Psalms, too, are very realistic about the suffering of the righteous, although generally they express the belief that God is faithful and can be trusted to care for us, even when outward circumstances seem to call God’s faithfulness into question.  But the passage from Malachi does seem to be influenced by the reward and punishment theology.  Its writer, in fact, takes things to a new level, even daring the people to repent and see if God will not bless them, pouring out from the heavens an overflow of good things.   I guess this is why the passage has been so popular in stewardship sermons.  It makes things sound so simple, insisting that the covenant between God and the people requires the giving of a tithe.  If the people do not tithe, then they are breaking the covenant and robbing God.  If they do tithe, then God will bless them materially.

However, when we review the entire biblical record, especially if we include the New Testament, it becomes more difficult, I think, to characterize tithing as a biblical “law,” currently binding on Christians.  The first mention of a tithe in the Bible is when Abraham, having just defeated his enemies, comes across the mysterious figure of the priest Melchizedek and gives him “one tenth of everything.”[2]  When the patriarch Jacob had his vision of the stairway to heaven, he promised God that, in exchange for God’s protection and blessing, he would give God one tenth of all that God gave him.[3]  In the various law codes of Leviticus,[4] Numbers,[5] and Deuteronomy[6] we find requirements that a tithe be given to the Levites.  In some of the texts the tithe is described as being given every three years, and others it seems to be required every year.  The practice of tithing continued after the Israelites returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon; the book of Nehemiah[7] describes how administrators and Levites were appointed to receive the tithes and other required offerings.  There was even something called a “tithe of a tithe,” which was to be kept by the Levites for their own support. 

Clearly, the tithe was a requirement of Old Testament law, but I find it difficult to determine from all these verses exactly what the requirement was.  On top of that, there’s the issue of how the tithe related to other offerings, such as the first fruits, the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the elevation offering.  I’m certain there are theories of how all these fit together, and Jewish tradition undoubtedly has much to offer.  Still, it all seems rather complicated to me and hard to apply in our current cultural context.

As Christians we should pay the most attention to what Jesus said about tithing.  The surprising thing is that he said very little about it.  Jesus taught repeatedly about money and about how it relates to our faith.  But if you narrow the topic of money down to tithing explicitly, I can find only one instance of Jesus addressing the subject.  Luke[8] and Matthew[9] both tell how Jesus confronted the Pharisees about how they complied with the most minute regulations about tithing—even to the point of giving a tenth of the herbs in their gardens—but, as he said, ignoring the “weightier matters of the law—justice and mercy and faith.”  Jesus did not condemn them for tithing, but instead for believing that tithing was all that is required.  In all the rest of the New Testament, there is hardly any mention of tithing or the tithe.[10]  As Dr. Albert Winn, former president of Louisville Seminary, once wrote,[11] you would expect someone like Paul the apostle, who frequently was collecting an offering, to mention the tithe.  But Paul himself probably understood the tithing requirement to be a part of the Jewish law—like circumcision or the food laws—that was no longer binding on Christians.

This leads us to our first text for today, the passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians that Joyce read earlier.  In that letter Paul was arguing to the Christians in Galatia that they were not subject to the Jewish law: as he wrote, “For freedom Christ has set us free!”[12]  And with freedom comes responsibility.  Our freedom is not for our own self-indulgence, but rather for service to others.[13]  If we use our freedom for self-indulgence, we are gratifying the desires of the flesh.  But if we use our freedom responsibly and for the benefit of others, we are, in Paul’s words, “living by the Spirit.”[14]  Those who live by the Spirit will produce the fruits of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”[15] 

So as Christians we do not live under a law of tithing.  Neither Jesus nor any of the New Testament writers require it.  Instead, our responsibility is much greater.  We are to live in the Spirit for the good of others and to practice generosity.  Then how is the concept of tithing is relevant to Christians?  Dr. Winn answered that question by extracting from the Old Testament law of a tithe four principles that can be used to guide our giving.  First, he said, a tithe is regular.  Whether we pay it weekly, or monthly, or annually, once we make the decision of how much we will give we don’t have to keep making the decision each week.  In a way, this is easier.  And it keeps us from deceiving ourselves: if we give nothing for weeks on end and then in a burst of generosity drop a large bill in the plate, we are not tithing.  Averaged over the entire year those kinds of gifts generally amount to very little.  Dr. Winn’s second principle is proportionality.  As he said, when we give in proportion to what we have received from God, our gift no longer is a transaction between us and the church treasurer, but rather the enactment of our covenant relationship with God.  The third principle is priority.  Tithing requires that our gift to God comes “off the top” of what we have, and not out of what is left over when we have satisfied our other needs and desires.  Finally, tithing always involves the principle of risk.  For most of us, giving ten percent of our income to the church is at least slightly risky.  We necessarily will be giving up some things that we have become accustomed to having.  It is also adventurous—exciting to see what God can do with us when we let go of things and reach for God.  Maybe that is how we should understand Malachi’s challenge and promise: make your gift to God a risky one, and see how God will bless you—if not with material things, then with spiritual blessings that are far more valuable.

Regularity, proportionality, priority, and risk—these are the principles “embedded” in the concept of tithing.  But for Christians there is no law that requires a tenth.  By the same token, Christians cannot conclude automatically that they are living in the Spirit—that they are producing the spiritual fruit of generosity—just because they are tithing.  Remember Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees, who completely satisfied the requirement of tithing but did nothing else.  For some of us, our economic circumstances will mean that a generous gift—one that is regular, proportional, first priority, and full of risk—will be less than a tenth of our income.  For others, a generous gift will be more than a tenth, even 20% or 30% or more. 

The same principles that apply to our annual giving also apply to our capital giving.  As we commenced the capital campaign some of you asked me, “What is my fair share?”  I never answer that question with a number, or even a percentage, because it’s not that simple.  Each saint of God, each Christian among us, has freedom . . . and the duty to exercise that freedom responsibly.  Today I invite you to open your conversation with God about the meaning of generosity for you.