10 Sermons in 1 on Giving – Exodus 35:4-5a, 20-29, 2 Cor 9:6-14
This is not an official event in the liturgical calendar, but today is the last Sunday of the 2022/2023 financial year and in our bulletin there is a note, from the treasurer (I am speaking of Ian Joyce, Treasurer – not The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP, Treasurer – though it is easy to get them confused) reminding us that at the last church meeting we accepted the 23/24 church budget, a budget which incorporated an increase in expenditure, and encouraging us all to think about increasing our giving.
Now ministers are in a slightly awkward position when it comes to encouraging people to increase their giving. We have something of a vested interest!
I read a joke this week about a church meeting where they discussed the pastor’s salary package for the coming year. After the meeting the church secretary told the pastor: “We are very sorry, but we decided we cannot give you a raise next year.”
“But you must give me a raise,” the pastor said. “I’m just a poor preacher!”
“We know,” the secretary said. “We hear you every Sunday.”
Now, I’m thankful this church has a higher opinion of my preaching that that – but you are welcome to change your minds after this morning because I am revisiting a sermon I preached four years ago – a sermon that well and truly makes up for not preaching very often about giving – because it incorporates ’ten sermons in one’ on the subject.
But perhaps ten sermons on the one topic is a good idea because it reminds us that this Bible that we read, that shapes and directs our lives, is complex and multifaceted! It has many things to say on many subjects – particularly many things to say about money – which is also a multifaceted part of our lives; both a necessity and a necessary evil, something that can rob people of life, and something that can be used for the wonderful, life-giving work that God is doing among us.
So, sermon one is: Everything belongs to God anyway
This was the basis of the Old Testament teaching on tithing. Setting aside a tithe, a tenth, of all that they produced every year was to help the Israelites remember, the majority of whom were subsistence farmers, that what the land produced was – in addition to their hard work – a gift from God. As Psalm 24:1 says: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.”
As we have moved away from a basic subsistence lifestyle, has it become harder to acknowledge that everything belongs to God? Are we tempted to say, it might be God’s money, but it feels like mine! I worked for it. I saved it, and I’ll decide how to spend it.
But are we then better off than those who confess their reliance on God and on others? The Bible and our own experience tell us, no.
Soren Kierkegaard writes, “…riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep’s clothing pretending to be security against anxieties and they become then the object of anxiety…they secure a man against anxieties just as well as the wolf which is put to tending the sheep secures them… against the wolf!”
Receiving all that we have as a gift, sharing this gift with others, is, the Bible tells us, the path to experiencing freedom from anxiety. It is what allows us to live in the freedom of the kingdom of God.
Sermon two: The business case
There might be times where it is necessary to lay out the business case.
In other words, this church is offering you some services – church services, pastoral care, programmes for youth and young adults and families and other groups, opportunities to engage in justice and in outreach together etc. etc. – and to do all these things – you need to pay! There are also practical things, like keeping the lights and especially the heaters on!
American author, Garrison Keillor, wrote fictional stories about a Minnesota town, Lake Wobegon, in which he wrote that none of the Lutherans there ever wanted to talk about money. “Some Sunday,” he said, “Somebody ought to stand up and say, ‘Listen, you know we’ve got expenses around here. Think about what you gave last year. Give a little more this year and add ten percent on top of that because you’re a bunch of tight-fisted Norwegians.”
My apologies to any Norwegians here, but perhaps we can all identify a little.
Sermon three: You must give in order to receive.
This is the notion that the more we give to God, the more God blesses us in return There is certainly biblical backing for this. Speaking through the prophet Malachi, God says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this…and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)
Somehow in some people’s thinking, this has been turned into a spiritual formula. Give God ten dollars and God will send you fifteen. But I don’t think that’s how it works. I think it works much more like the story Ella Whately told me years ago about a friend whose response to every disappointment in life is to give; whose advice to Ella when life is difficult is, “Give.” And the incredible character this friend has developed as a result; character that reflects God’s character, who, “provides us with every blessing in abundance,” as Corinthians says, who pours out on us, “surpassing grace”.
Sermon four: Money is dangerous—so use it wisely!
Jesus spoke more about the spiritual dangers of wealth than any other issue and yet – strangely enough – our Association is not attempting to remove churches because of lack of generosity to the poor. Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Baptist Church, wrote this in his New York Times best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life, about realising he had ‘missed’ the biblical emphasis on giving to others, especially the poor.
“…I went back, and I began to read scripture, and it was like blinders came off. Now, I’ve got three advanced degrees. I’ve had four years in Greek and Hebrew, and I’ve got doctorates. And how did I miss 2,000 verses in the Bible where it talks about the poor? How did I miss that? I mean, I went to two different seminaries and a Bible school; how did I miss the 2,000 verses on the poor?”
(You might be interested to know Rick Warren has been causing a stir recently –because his church has been expelled from the Southern Baptists for having women in leadership.)
Wealth, however, can blind us to seeing other people’s needs and tempt us to put our needs (perhaps just our wants!) ahead of everything. Giving faithfully – and sometimes sacrificially – to God is a good way to master our money so it does not master us!
Sermon five: It is more blessed to give than to receive
I have a clear memory of being taught this verse. I was four and standing in front of a Christmas tree and I was told this by my uncle. As you can imagine – it didn’t go down well!
And I find that that’s the way it is every time. It is an internal wrestle to part with things or with money, even though I know when I do; it will feel wonderful, and freeing, and it will give delight to others which in turn will create delight in me. It will be a blessing.
Because the best giving is an act of love. That is part of the challenge for translators working with our passage from Corinthians this morning because Paul uses the words ‘money’, ‘grace’ and ‘fellowship’ here almost interchangeably. For Paul, they are interchangeable! God’s grace and generosity to us become our grace and generosity to others.
Sermon six: Give your fair share.
The 2023/2024 budget that we have approved requires an increase of 9% to meet our estimated expenditure. Some of that money will be raised from interest and hire of the community centre, but 6.3% needs to come through our offerings.
Now we could add up all the working adults who attend the church, divide the annual budget by that figure, and ask everyone to pay their fair share. The problem is that fair is not always fair, that this amount would create difficulties for some and be well below the giving of others.
There is one version of percentage giving that has stood the test of time, however….
Sermon seven: Tithing – giving God a tenth of our income
As I mentioned earlier, tithing is part of the Old Testament laws for the people of Israel. According to Deuteronomy 14 they were to: Set apart a tithe of all the yield of your seed that is brought in yearly from the field. In the presence of the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose as a dwelling for his name, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, as well as the firstlings of your herd and flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if… the distance is so great that you are unable to transport it…turn it into money. …go to the place that the Lord Your God will choose; spend the money for whatever you wish—oxen, sheep, wine, strong drink, or whatever you desire. And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household rejoicing together.
This is a very different picture of tithing to the one I grew up with! For one week every year the people of Israel were to go to Jerusalem and party! And every three years they shared their tithe with the priests, with widows, orphans and resident aliens.
Jesus also spoke about tithing and about God’s call to share our resources. This was the practice of the early church and why Paul writes here to the Corinthians, “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver…. for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God.”
Tithing might still be a useful practice for you, but, as Paul says, each of us must decide what we will give. Rick Warren has said that, having sold over 30 million copies of The Purpose Driven Life, he has adopted a ‘reverse tithe’; living comfortably on 10% of his income and giving away the other 90. The overwhelming principle is that living out the good news of Jesus flows naturally into generous, thankful and cheerful giving to others.
Sermon eight: Give to make a difference
Giving makes a huge difference.
Over the last few decades poverty has been declining around the world. Between 1990 and 2022 the number of people living in extreme poverty (defined as people living less than $2.15 a day) had plummeted from more than 1 in 3 (35.9%) to less than 1 in 10 (8.5%). In the last year those numbers have drifted upwards again with the flow on effects of Covid and global conflict, but they indicate we can make a positive difference.
This might sound more like our Thank Offering talk or our Christmas Offering talk than our operational budget, but you get the point. Giving makes a huge difference.
Sermon nine: God is holding your IOU—and it’s a big one!
“What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?” asks the psalmist. (Psalm 116:12)
This can be a pretty good stewardship motivator or a pretty bad one. Trying to repay God for all God’s goodness towards us doesn’t fit very well with our understanding of grace. We can’t possibly pay God back, and I don’t believe God wants us to attempt to do so.
Finally, sermon ten: Barn raising
Last time I looked at Exodus 35 I was reminded of images of Amish barn raising – specifically the scene from the 1985 Peter Weir film Witness. Because as they did there, here in Exodus we have everyone participating, we have everyone offering their unique gifts and giftings –“skilful women… [bringing] what they had spun”, “women whose hearts moved them to use their skill”, leaders, men, I’m guessing children and young people, too, “everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing” – and we have everyone giving in abundance. Such abundance that if you read on into chapter 36, the artisans in charge come to Moses and say, “Make them stop. It’s too much!” And Moses sends the message through the camp, “No man or woman can make any more offerings.”
Make them stop! I have not heard Ian say this in a while! And what’s more. This offering was not even one of required offerings. We are told eight times in this passage that these were offerings that sprang from the free will of the people. They gave out of thankfulness. And they gave because it was a way of giving themselves to this wonderful, life-giving work that God is doing among them.
Giving is never just giving. It is always about giving ourselves – investing ourselves. It is God giving us an opportunity to contribute – our energy, our gifts, our time, our prayers, our grace, our love, our money – to the wonderful, life-giving work that God is doing among us.
Our goals as a church are ‘to explore what it means to follow Jesus today, to build a caring inclusive community and to share God’s love in our words and actions.’ As we reflect on those goals, can I ask you – as your heart is stirred and as your spirit is willing – to dedicate yourself generously to the work that God is doing here among us.
Rev Belinda Groves, 23 June, 2019 (and revised for 25 June, 2023)
(With a huge debt to H. Michael Brewer’s sermon preached on 23 Sept, 2018
and Scott Higgin’s book, The Single Thing – that can change the world )