October 28, 2012
The Grace of Giving - A Paradigm for Giving
- 1 Corinthians 16:1-4
- Rev. Jim Capps
Today, we are beginning a new 3-week series entitled, “The Grace of Giving.” Generally speaking, it is about Stewardship, which has the idea of being “caretakers” of everything in life which we have been given from God. God has been a most gracious giver and desires for the world around us to experience the grace of our giving.
Through the years, I have preached dozens of times on this subject. Most pastors don’t like to talk specifically about the stewardship of money and most people sitting where you are sitting don’t like hearing a sermon where the pastor is noticeably uncomfortable.
I have actually had people come to me after the same service where I have preached about the stewardship of our money with completely different responses. One man asked why I kept beating around the bush. I should make the “ask.” Another said, “I wish you would quit beating us over the head, trying to lay a guilt trip on us.”
In a culture which measures the worth of things by what they cost and of people by what they make, I have come to enjoy talking about money. Often our purse strings and our heart strings are closely intertwined.
My poor wife, Alice has had to listen to dozens of these sermons. So in her honor, I want to tell her favorite stewardship story which not only breaks the ice for the subject, but I’m also afraid has far too often characterized the way churches view money and giving.
It seems that a rather rough-hewn, crude man called the church and asked to speak to the Head Hog at the trough. The startled receptionist said, “Who?”
The man replied, “I want to speak to the Head Hog at the trough!”
Now sure that she heard him right, the receptionist replied, “Sir, if you mean our pastor, you will have to treat him with more respect—and ask for ‘The Senior Pastor.’ But certainly you cannot refer to him as the ‘Head Hog at the trough.’”
At this, the man came back with, “Oh, I see. Well, I have ten thousand dollars I was thinking about donating to the Building Fund.”
The receptionist quickly blurted out, “Hold the line—I think the Big Pig just walked in the door.”
I’m not sure why Alice likes that story so much.
Both today and next Sunday, we are going to be drawing on Paul’s two letters to the Church at Corinth to be our primary texts. Corinth was a large city and served as a center of commerce as a crossroads for both trade and travel. I have stood in the ruins of the huge marketplace and tried to imagine all of the business which must have been transacted from there. It also served as one of the great centers for religion, with no less than 12 temples, and Greek culture with its emphasis on philosophy and wisdom. As much as any city in that part of the world, Corinth was known as an extremely immoral city, with all kinds of sexual promiscuity very visible.
Paul has been straight forward and blunt in dealing with some of the problems found in the common life of the people there in that fledgling church. Now after devoting a long chapter on the Resurrection of Jesus in chapter 15, Paul brings this letter to a close. He reminds them of the offering he is taking for the Church in Jerusalem, where people have experienced a famine, poverty, and depravation. This “missional” offering causes them to look outside of themselves and their situations to the needs of others.
In talking about money, faith, and giving, Paul is in good company. Howard Drayton, Jr. writes:
“Jesus talked a great deal about money. Sixteen of the thirty-eight parables were concerned with how to handle money and possessions. In the Gospels, an amazing one out of 10 verses (288 in all) deal directly with the subject of money. The Bible offers 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but more than 2,000 verses on money and possessions.”
As Paul writes specifically about the grace of giving their financial offering to the Lord, he gives them a very helpful paradigm for giving which is applicable for us today. Please turn with me to I Corinthians 16:1-4 so that we can read and apply this paradigm for giving to our church and our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.
Read- I Corinthians 16:1-4
FIRST STATEMENT IN THE PARADIGM: THERE SHOULD BE A REGULAR ROUTINE TO THEIR GIVING.
Did you notice that Paul calls the Corinthians to bring their offerings on the “first day of every week?” You have to figure this is all new to them. He is helping them set up a routine which will enrich their lives and help them feel continually invested in the mission of not only in their church but the larger body of Christ. It must become a habit and not an empty ritual.
So it should be for us where we live in 21st Century America. We should be just as regular in our giving routine as we are in the other necessary happenings of our lives. Our giving to God should be as much a habit as brushing our teeth or eating three meals a day or getting the required number of hours of sleep.
After all, when we regularly bring our offering to the Lord we are giving to the One who has made everything else possible. God is the One who created us. We belong to Him. Our grateful offering to Him must be every bit as much a priority as anything in our lives.
How about you? Is your giving a priority and not an afterthought? Has giving to God become a really positive habit in which you experience the joy of being invested? Does your regular giving feel different than regularly paying the monthly credit card or utility bills? Does it feel like you’re giving to God or just another organization? Do you give off of the top or the leftovers?
THE SECOND STATEMENT IN THE PARADIGM: EVEN THOUGH THE AMOUNT WOULD VARY IT WAS IMPORTANT FOR EACH PERSON TO BE INVESTED IN WHAT GOD WAS DOING IN THEIR WORLD.
As compared to some other religions or philosophies, individuals are important in the Christian faith. Each individual has been given dignity and worth by our Great Creator God. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, but that forgiveness is experienced as, one by one, we as individuals, in repentance, ask for forgiveness.
So when it comes to demonstrating our joyful appreciation to God as we give back to Him from the blessings He has given us, we come with our offerings as individuals. It all starts with the individual. It is our commitment as individuals.
It’s like worship, every person is important. As we said in the last series, using Kierkegaard’s image of a drama, if we in the congregation are the actors and God is the “Audience of One,” than each one of us is important. If you are not there, the cast is incomplete. So it is with our giving. No matter what the amount may be, if you and I aren’t giving, the offering is incomplete.
I’m afraid that in our world, we bring a consumer mentality to almost everything we do. It’s what I get out of something rather that the contribution I can make that seems most important to us. If I don’t attend worship what difference does it make? If I am not invested financially through my financial gifts, it seems inconsequential.
Yet, as Followers of Jesus, the Son of God, the tables are turned upside down. It’s what we give and not what we get that counts. If I am not giving my worship as well as my financial resources, I am not following the example of Jesus, or, the Great Creator God who is the Giver of all good gifts. In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus, when he says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
When we give of ourselves in worship and in financial offerings, we are invested in what God is doing. This week in an exchange of e-mails with a friend in another city, he referred to having “skin in the game.” In essence, he was talking about investing in what is going on and not just sitting on the sideline as spectators. It‘s more than theory and more than observing from a safe distance. It’s being “in,” or committed.
When we think of God coming to our world in Jesus, He had “skin” in the game. Jesus is called the Word made flesh. God coming to our world in human form is called the Incarnation.
My dear friend, when we give to God from the reservoir of blessings He has given to us, it is making the statement, “I’m in! I’ve got skin the game.”
Just between you and God, are you “in” as you give to God your worship and your financial resources? Or, maybe you are waiting to see what happens here at ZPC. Who will be the next senior pastor? To what denomination will they belong?
I can’t speak for you, but I am grateful that God did put contingencies like senior pastor or denomination in expressing His love and commitment to us. In contrast to our fickle ways, Romans 5:8 gives us an idea about how God was fully “in,” in spite of us:
“But God demonstrates his own love to us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
THE THIRD STATEMENT IN THIS PARADIGM: THEIR GIVING SHOULD BE PROPORTIONATE TO THEIR INCOME.
From the very beginning of Israel’s history, giving proportionately from one’s income was expected. They were to bring the first fruits of the harvest to the Lord. They were to give a tithe or 10% of their income. Then, there were offerings which were made seasonally or at times when there were special needs which were over and above the tithe. Some scholars have conjectured that in Jesus’ time a faithful Jew would give about 23% of his income in one way or another to the Lord.
So as Paul writes to the Church of Corinth, he is probably not only thinking of the tithe or 10% when he speaks of each one setting aside “a sum of money in keeping with his income,” but also the offerings which were over and above the tithe.
Scholars say that there were about 250,000 free people and as many as 400,000 slaves in Corinth. Slaves were the “blue collar” and “service industry” workers as we view our world today. Certainly the slaves were not able to give as much as others who had greater incomes, but they could give proportionate to their income. It’s been my experience that often poorer people form the United States or other countries are proportionately more generous than those who have more.
Once there was a pastor speaking about giving to an important cause. When he was finished, a woman came up to him, handed him a check for $50 and asked if it were satisfactory. The pastor’s response was simply, “If it represents you.”
After a moment she asked for the check back. A day or two later she returned and brought the pastor a check for $5,000 and asked the same question. He responded again, “If it represents you.” After a few minutes of hesitation, she asked for it back.
Later that week she returned with another check for $50,000. As she placed it in the pastor’s hand, she said, “After earnest prayerful thought, I have come to the conclusion that this gift does represent me and I am happy to give it.” There was a look of peaceful joy etched on her face.
I really believe that this is what Paul had in mind when he spoke to the Corinthians about “laying aside of money in keeping with your income.”
FOURTH STATEMENT OF THE PARADIGM: THEIR GIVING SHOULD BE VOLUNTARY.
Paul says to the Church at Corinth, “so that when I come, no collections will have to be made.” In other words, voluntarily give so that no one has to ask you for the offering. If their lives were in tune with the Lord, then no one should have to make a plea or ask for their gifts. The funds should be there waiting to be taken to the Church of Jerusalem to meet their needs and the bridge the gap between Hebrew and Gentile Christians.
The sense of joy and satisfaction would be much greater if they were giving voluntarily and not from some kind of impassioned plea. Their response should not be from the motivation of guilt or because the one doing the “ask” was playing on their emotions. Their act of giving should be a joyful response out of thanksgiving to the One who has given them everything and entrusted them with being caretakers of all they have been given.
Today, churches and other non-profit organizations spend millions of dollars on intricate campaigns to raise funds for their mission. Larger organizations have directors of development who become very effective at motivating people to give to meet present needs as well as future needs through long range planned giving in wills, annuities, trust funds, etc. Wouldn’t it be great if that were not necessary because people saw the needs and were motivated by God’s Spirit to give before a plea is made?
The following story represents that kind of joyful attitude of voluntary giving. A missionary in Africa heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, there stood one of the young men in his village who had made a commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
The boy handed the large fish he was holding to the missionary and said, “You taught us what tithing is, so here—I have brought my tithe.” As the missionary gratefully took the fish, he questioned the young lad, “If this is your tithe, where are the other nine fish?
At this the boy beamed and said, “Oh, they’re still back in the river. I’m going back to catch them now.”
APPLICATION
As I conclude this sermon on Paul’s paradigm for giving in I Corinthians 16:1-4, does it match your pattern for giving?
- · Is your giving regular because it has become a part of a very positive routine?
- · Are you as an individual invested in what God is doing through your giving? Are you “all in?” Do you feel like you have “skin in the game?”
- · Is your giving to God proportionate to your income? Does your giving really represent you and the gifts God has entrusted to you?
- · Laced with gratitude and grace, is your giving voluntary?
This week in my own personal study and prayer time, I came across a statement in a book on the Old Testament Book of Joshua from a friend of mine, John Huffman, the retired pastor of the Newport Beach Presbyterian Church in Orange County in Southern California. It fits so well with Paul’s paradigm for giving:
“God sketches for us an economic lifestyle in which we are privileged to use the 90% He’s given us to meet our own personal needs. Then we are to return to Him a minimum of the first fruits—the 10% off the top before taxes. Tithing is the minimum standard. We are to do this not grudgingly or of necessity but cheerfully. Jesus reaffirmed this, alerting us that we should do this and more also. But we disobey and kid ourselves into thinking that 90% is not ‘enough.’ We nibble away at the tithes and offerings that are God’s.”
I pray that in the most positive and joyful manner, God would continue to speak to each one of us about the “grace of giving” as we worship Him here during these worship services and wherever we go in the weeks ahead.
If you brought some kind of issue or concern with you today, or, God has spoken to you in this service and you would like to speak and pray with someone, there will be people over at the alcove at the foot of the cross.