Malachi 3:6-12
Matthew 23:23-24
How much do we really, truly, honestly, earnestly trust
our Lord? It is not an abstract question
that forces us to try and remember some favorite passage of Scripture that
speaks to that writer's trust and faith.
Rather it is a challenge to look more deeply at our lives and how we
worship, live, love, work, and play. It
is a challenge to get to the heart of how our faith is defined - and perfected.
Msgr. Charles Pope of the Catholic Archdiocese of
Washington tells the story of a time in a parish that was facing financial
difficulties. They were neck-deep in
debt, they were receiving cut-off notices from local utilities, and the money
just to survive was not there. As with
many churches that face this same situation - and there are many of all
denominations! - the administrative council thought up all kinds of fundraising
ideas to bring new money into the parish: carnivals, raffles, bingo, picnics,
you name it.
Finally the music director spoke up after all these
ideas had been tossed about. "God has a plan, a financial plan, for
His Church. It doesn't involve games of
chance and other glitz; it involves tithing.
And until you faithfully preach that plan, I doubt this parish will ever
be out of debt for more than 20 minutes.
Preach the Word, Father; preach the Word."
The parish priests did exactly that; and within two
years the parish was out of debt and never returned - AND - was truly
"freed" to serve the Lord and the community. "God knows that where our treasure is, our heart will be.
And whether we like to admit it or not, our money and possessions are important
to us. So the Lord, in order to reach
our hearts, has to discuss these things. Money isn’t
just about money; it's about what we value, and we have to allow the Lord to
help us think properly about, and deal with, money if He is going to mend our
hearts. A conversion that does not reach
the wallet is far from complete. While the
Lord does not need our money, He IS interested in our hearts. How we deal
with finances is an important indicator of our hearts and our priorities. Thus
in teaching the tithe, the Lord is not after our money, as much as [He is
after] our hearts." Msgr. Charles Pope
Before I go much further, it should be noted we are
not facing financial straits and we have no debt to answer to. We are not awash with cash, but we're paying
the bills and are able to carefully take care of some much-needed repairs on a
40-year-old building. But this is not
the point or purpose of tithing to the Church.
Something has been haunting me since late 2011 when
we were planning the 2012 budget. We
tried the radio spots that got a lot of positive reviews and feedback but did
not translate into much beyond our desire to be in ministry to the community
though we had hoped for something more tangible like increased worship
attendance and new guests.
However, because the budget was still tight due to a
coming increase in some obligations and giving had dropped, it was decided that
perhaps we need to be careful in our spending to ensure we can stay on top of
our obligations as well as repairs and maintenance for the foreseeable
future. Responsible financial planning,
right? Of course. Still, something was missing from the 2012
budget - and still is. Even with
responsible planning in the absence of the bondage of debt, we are still
substantially constrained - maybe even a little fearful. And
this constraint, this fear has nothing to do with money.
The faithful respond to the Truth (not everyone
will). Msgr. Pope discovered this truth
as he took the reins of a parish in one of the poorest areas of the city. The money was tight, and the building was in
dire need of repairs. As fearful as
Msgr. Pope was about what he faced, he nevertheless was reminded of the Lord's
plan and the Lord's message through the prophet Malachi: "Trust Me ...
and you will never want for anything." In seven years of serving that parish,
replacing roofs and boilers, renovating the entire church, and installing a
brand new heating system, they never saw red ink - no debt - all because the
pastor preached the Word, the Truth. And
the faithful responded. More
importantly, so did the faithful and true God respond ... just as He has always
promised.
Now I know many are put off by money and tithing
sermons, and I myself have heard many dubious claims from the pulpit about what
Scripture teaches about money. I am
confident some are faithfully tithing, and I am equally confident some are
giving all they are going to give with the argument that "God understands
my situation". Well, He does; of
this there must be no doubt. What I
would suggest He does not understand is why we cannot - or will not - turn
lose of the trappings of this world and fully trust Him in every facet
of our lives. How can we say our Lord
"understands" that we find it necessary, perhaps even noble, to
withhold anything from Him without admitting something has gotten hold of us
and is holding us back from Him?? That
we have much more respect for that "thing" than we have of the Lord??
Now in giving faithfully and making a commitment to
the Lord and His Church, I will not tell you money is going to fall from the
sky for you. I cannot believe it works
that way, so I will not ask you to believe it!
I remember one of those TV "plant a seed" testimonies of a
woman who claimed she gave that "ministry" $1000 she did not have and
claimed to have suddenly received a $3000 check in the mail from someone she
did not know funded from something she had never heard of or invested in. Magic Money!
Whether or not the Lord will match us
dollar-for-dollar, however, is not the point of tithing. I don't think it is the Lord's point in Malachi, and I don't think it is the
Lord's point in Matthew's
gospel. Jesus affirms to the scribes and
the Pharisees the principle of tithing as something not to be "neglected"
even as we are also called to attend to the "weightier matters of
justice, mercy, and faith" - all according to the Law;
so we cannot also try and claim an excuse from "Old Testament law" to
which we think we are no longer bound as Christians - especially when Jesus
Himself tells us in no uncertain terms that He did not come to abolish the
Law. We are "excused" from
nothing except by our own dubious, debatable, and unbiblical claims.
And did you ever notice that "legalism"
applies only to those point of Torah we do not happen to agree with? That "legalism" applies only if our
personal lives will somehow be disrupted?
Is it strictly about money? Of course not. It never was.
I have said before that each of us must make our own decisions - but without
the unbiblical excuses, without the "bumper sticker" slogans. We must also look much deeper into what is being
stated by Malachi and by Jesus and
what is accomplished by tithing - and it has nothing to do with the church's
electric bill - but it has everything to do with the mission of the Church. It is purely about whether or not we trust
the Lord - AND - whether or not we are truly "free" to worship Him
completely and unreservedly. Now Jesus
does teach that even the faith of a "mustard seed" can produce more
spiritual fruit than we can possibly imagine, but I would suggest
"trust" is one of those either/or propositions; either we
trust the Lord completely - or - we do not. And this is the question before us.
There is nothing "magical" about tithing
blindly, but there is an intense spiritual connection when we tithe
purposefully, gratefully, and joyfully.
Many, including Msgr. Pope, have testified to the reality that when they
sat down to plan their personal budgets and make allowance for the faithful
tithe, when they made a conscious choice to fully trust our Lord, they
discovered as much about themselves as they did about our Lord! They discovered frivolous and mindless
spending habits, more debt (bondage) than they had realized, and ultimately
more fear, doubt, and uncertainty in their lives; and that,
dear friends, is no life at all! That is
a life in bondage to someone - or something - else. That is being hopelessly bound by someone
else's life or desire! They could not
honestly say they "belonged" to the Lord.
Once that prayerful commitment was made, however,
new blessings began to manifest themselves.
Some have attested to unexpected pay increases or bonuses at work,
but all discovered that by Divine Blessing their careless desire to
spend (seeking worldly comfort through consumerism, buying stuff that will
never last!) had been curbed, and a radical transformation of the heart had
begun from within - a heart soon GLAD for however much or little they had to
offer in the tithe. By "returning"
to the Lord in giving themselves completely and unreservedly to the Holy
Father, they finally found True Liberation ... salvation from fear, from doubt,
from uncertainty, from virtual bondage!
And this is completely the point of withholding nothing
from our Lord and tithing faithfully. If
we withhold because we are afraid of not having enough money, there is no faith
- only fear. If we withhold because we
have determined other things are more important to us than the Holy Church, we
have placed ourselves above the Holy God and beyond the Eternal Word
which is Christ our Lord, the Head of the Church. If we withhold because someone or something else
has a greater claim on our lives, we do not belong to the Lord - we belong to
the world; we are children of perdition.
Surely we can see through Malachi and through Jesus' own words that the tithe serves a much
greater purpose than what we can see with our eyes - and it is NOT
about "money"!
Surely we can see there does not seem to be an apparent
"curse" if we do not tithe - but surely we can also see there are
blessings in abundance if we do trust the Lord fully; blessings not only for
ourselves but also for the communities Christ's Church is called to serve. Surely we can see that our Lord is not waiting
to see if we will - He is rather waiting to "open the windows of
Heaven" upon His faithful!
"Abraham Commenced
it,
Jacob Continued it,
Moses Commanded it,
Jesus Commended it,
So who are we to cancel it?"
Jacob Continued it,
Moses Commanded it,
Jesus Commended it,
So who are we to cancel it?"
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