Deuteronomy 8: 7, 11-18a
“[T]he Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills…. Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God….’”
Today, my message is about money. Hopefully that fact isn’t coming out of left field for anyone. We’ve tried to communicate with all the means at our disposal that today is the day we make our financial commitments to Cross of Grace’s building fund, one of the two primary funds this church uses to accomplish its day to day ministry operations.
Even if you knew money would be today’s topic, what you might not have known was WHY money is today’s topic. Maybe you assumed we would talk about money today simply because the church wants your money. Well, the answer is more nuanced than that. The primary reason money is today’s topic is because our relationship with money is a matter of discipleship. How we understand finances and what we do with them lays bear our true hearts and can lead us closer to, or further away from, God’s kingdom.
Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, the topic of ownership is constantly addressed in the words of the Lord, which Moses communicates to God’s chosen people. The Ten Commandments are bookended with warnings against ownership. The first three — prohibitions on worshiping other gods or physical idols, and not misusing the name of God — reinforce the idea that the divine is unable to be constrained, pinned down, boxed in, or manipulated. In other words, God cannot be owned. Rather, God, the creator and redeemer of all things, is the true and only owner of every good gift in our lives.
Also recall the commandment to observe Sabbath, in which God commands a day free from buying or selling. It is a reminder to enjoy God’s good gifts free from the fear of not having enough as well as the desire to accumulate more. The commandments end with prohibitions on stealing and coveting.
Clearly, the human drive to own things, people, or even God’s self, is a spiritual problem rooted in humanity’s fallen nature.
Today’s reading from Deuteronomy also addresses ownership. In it, Moses relays the Lord’s message to the Hebrew people that they are to remember the Lord’s provision when they enter the promised land, and not think they have earned their place there. The promised land was not to be divided up and owned; instead it was a gift from God to be enjoyed and stewarded. It was a lesson the chosen people were instructed in as they wandered the wilderness in anticipation of the promised land. Each day of wandering entailed relying on God’s daily provision of manna and quail. Moses makes it clear that pride in earning or ownership is incompatible with remembering God’s provision. When we say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me,” we forget the Lord. And when we forget the Lord, we begin to worship and form our lives around other things. The final verses of Deuteronomy 8 warn that this culminates in our destruction!
So, give your money to the church, lest you be destroyed! Amen.
Ok, just kidding there. Well, not really...
Our relationship with money is a discipleship issue because there are two opposite forces pulling on how we view and use money. One is sinful — that is avarice or greed; the other is virtuous — that is generosity. All vices or virtues are cultivated by everyday, seemingly insignificant actions that become ingrained as habits over the course of months and years. What we do with a single dollar each day is as important as the occasional “big” financial decisions we face in our lives.
The heart of greed is the fear of not having enough (i.e., not trusting in God’s promise of provision). Also, greed feeds on our tight-fisted grip on money as something that we have earned for ourselves and own with no responsibility for our neighbor.
The heart of generosity, on the other hand, is the ease and enjoyment in giving things away because they have so little to do with who we understand ourselves to be. We give freely of our finances because our identity is not wrapped up in our net worth or the accumulation of more for ourselves, particularly at the expense of others.
Greed results in enslavement to stuff that leads to worry, insecurity, and a desire for more.
Generosity results in freedom from anxiety as well as justice.
The practice of giving away a portion of your income off the top with intention (as opposed to giving away what, if anything, is left over) is called tithing and it is one of the most ancient and powerful tools in our discipleship toolbox.
Today you have the option to write down a number on a commitment card. That number will be some portion of the finances you will receive this year as compensation for your hard work. You might even refer to it as your “earnings.” It’s hard to part with something you earned. But when you understand that everything in your life is a gift rather than something you have earned or own, you are free to give it away as a gift. That number you write down, regardless of its amount, will be gratefully received and recognized by this church as an incredible and generous gift.
The first thing the church does with your gift is to designate a tithe of 10% as a gift for others. We spend 10% to support the work of our friends in Haiti as well as our friends at Roots of Life in Noblesville. It’s an off-the-top tithe that is done with joy and trust that our gift will continue to multiply exponentially. This is a practice that has been a part of the congregation from its beginning, which means it has become a holy habit of generosity.
And then there is the aspect that is most obvious and accessible to us — this building. This building is not the entirety of our ministry, but it is an important place. It is where my children have been raised in the faith...yours too, perhaps. It is where friendships are formed, beautiful music is shared, disputes are resolved, God’s word is wrestled with, and new ideas for humble service are explored. It is a place where laughter reverberates through the halls, tears are shed, and goodbyes are said. It is a place where all are welcome, where God’s grace is pronounced, the saving water of baptism is poured, and where we are aware of the divine presence in bread and wine. All of it made possible by your gifts, freely given, without condition or constraint, because of the faithful generosity of countless people over the last two decades.
I’ll end here with a clarifying comment. Our annual stewardship drives are not an exercise in accumulating more for this church. We do not seek more for this church out of fear that God could fail to deliver on God’s future promises for us and so we need to have money in the bank, just in case. We do not seek more for this church because we need to keep up with the other churches in our community that are constructing new bigger buildings. We do not seek more for this church because we think the next thing we will buy will make the church complete or whole.
The reason we encourage your spiritual practice of tithing because engaging in this practice is the best way to form generous hearts. And also, thinking back to Deuteronomy 8, we don’t want to see you destroyed!
Amen.
