Robbing God
March 3, 2008
8Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings! 9You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! 10Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. 11I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. 12Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 3:8-12
The symptoms begin in the usual way: At first, it’s just a mild headache. Then, one day you wake up and you notice a rapid heartbeat, or a flushed face, or eyes that water. And pretty soon, you’re sick to your stomach and you can barely breathe. Every year, the symptoms I am describing are seen at the beginning of a new season. But this morning, I’m not talking about the beginning of Spring. I’m talking about the tax season.
Sure enough, it is that time of year. And like many of you, I exhibited all the symptoms of tax anxiety. Just this past week, I went to see Mr. Beachem who does my taxes, and he confirmed what I already suspected…I owe the federal government money. I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who once said that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Now, old Ben was a smart guy. But if it had been up to me, I would have included one more certainty in that piece of advice--Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and…sermons about money.
Yes, dear friends, it is time for a sermon about money. My hope is that out of those three certainties I mentioned, the sermon is the only one you have to deal with today. But we all know that preaching about money never goes over very well. Most pastors I know feel obligated to occasionally bring up the topic, but it’s just not a pleasant experience. The tendency is for us preachers to come across either like we’re begging or like we’re in a business, neither of which is true. So, a lot of pastors I know just never bring up money at all. And believe or not, their congregations don’t seem to mind.
But when we turn to the Bible, we find something odd. We find that the Bible brings up money a lot. In fact, the Bible seems to be almost preoccupied with money. There are Scriptures about how to spend our money, when to spend our money, why to spend our money. One out of every six stories that Jesus told was about money. So, if we take the Bible seriously, one thing we can deduce is that what we do with our money is important.
That emphasis on money is also one of the overriding themes of the prophets. Amos, Micah, and other prophets took Israel to task for neglecting the poor and misusing their wealth. And in our passage today from the book of Malachi, we find another accusation. Malachi alleges that the Israelites have been withholding their tithes and offerings. And Malachi says it’s time to pay up. By holding out on their offerings, Malachi claims that the people are actually robbing God.
Robbing God. Those are pretty strong words. In fact, they’re so strong that they seem a little bit silly. How is it possible for us as humans to rob a God who already owns everything? It doesn’t make sense. So, this morning, I want us to spend a little time thinking about if it’s even possible to rob God and if so, what it might look like.
In this passage, Malachi mentions the tithe. Probably most of you in here are familiar with that word tithe, because it’s a word church people like to use all the time. In particular, that word is popular with a certain brand of old man who comes to finance committee meetings and gripes about how “nobody tithes anymore.” Quite frequently, these types come up to me and say, “Pastor, I don’t understand why these young whipper-snappers don’t tithe. In my day and age, we were taught the importance of tithing.”
Well, in their day and age, dinosaurs also roamed the Earth. But in one sense, the old men are right. According to statistics from the Barna Research Group, only 3-5% of people who give to the church today tithe. In 2008, most Christians give less than 3% of their income to the church. Them's the facts. So, when I hear all those old men grumble, I think it’s great that they still hold to the tithe as an ideal when so many others have given it up. But I also think that the concept of the tithe has been so used and abused over the years that most of us in church no longer have any idea what the tithe really means.
You see, originally, in the law, the tithe was an agricultural gift of grain or produce. It was 10% of whatever particular crops a person raised. And that 10% was not just for show; it went to help feed the priests and in some cases, the widows, the orphans, and the poor. So, originally, the tithe wasn’t about money at all. It was a practical provision, kind of an early welfare system. But it didn’t take long before people did what people always do, which is to take a good concept and twist it. And by the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and others had twisted the tithe so much that Jesus condemned them for it. Jesus told the Pharisees they’d become too legalistic. They’d become too narrowly focused on that figure of 10% without considering what it really represented.
You know what I think? I think we do the same thing today. I think a lot of church people cling to the tithe with a kind of legalistic fervor. We don’t think about why we’re giving or how we’re giving. We just focus on that 10% and as long as we give 10%, we think we’re covered. But I wonder. I wonder if maybe somewhere along the way the tithe hasn’t become more of a curse than a blessing.
So, this morning, I want to suggest an alternative. I think that the time has come to reassess the tithe. Bet you never thought you’d hear a preacher say that! But before you go getting yourself too scandalized, just give me a minute to explain. I’m not suggesting we completely give up the idea of tithing. I think we just need to broaden our idea of what a tithe really is. Because I think what happens is that we get so hung up on that 10% figure that we begin to define our giving within very narrow parameters. We think that all we’re required to give to God is 10%.
One of the things that made Jesus special was his gift for taking the law and reinterpreting it. Jesus didn’t do away with the law. He said, “I have not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them.” So, Jesus would teach things like, “You’ve heard it was said, ‘Do not commit murder,’ but I tell you that anyone who is angry at their brother and sister is liable to judgment.” And Jesus taught, “You’ve heard it said, “You shall not commit adultery,’ but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already done so.”
You see how Jesus did that? He took the old familiar concepts and then he expanded them. And I think that if Jesus could reinterpret the tithe for us today, he’d say something like, “You’ve heard that it was said that you should give 10% to the Lord. But I tell you, 10% isn’t going to cut it. The Lord requires everything you have.”
You see, I don’t think Malachi was upset in this passage because the Israelites were only giving 9.9% instead of a full 10%. I don’t think Malachi was that legalistic. I think Malachi was upset because the people of God were trying to get by with the least amount they could possibly could. They were cutting corners. They were giving whatever they had left over instead of giving to God first.
The Israelites were guilty of robbing God. Not because they took something that God had. I already told you that’s impossible. Everything in the world already belongs to God. No, the Israelites were guilty of robbing God because they had turned the tithe into a minimum monthly payment. They had taken the concept of tithe and they had twisted it until it became just one more legalistic religious ritual to show off and win God’s approval.
But that’s not what God wants. God isn’t satisfied with our leftovers. God isn’t even satisfied with 10%, despite what some of us would like to believe. God wants every part of our lives. And that means every part, not just our money. God wants our families, and our jobs, and our friendships, and our cars, and our rental property, and our thimble collection. God wants our time, and our energy, and our ideas, and our passion. And God even wants the parts of us that nobody else wants like our failures and our burdens.
Some of these old hymns we sing are a good reminder of what God wants. We don’t sing “One-tenth on the Altar.” We sing “All on the Altar.” We don’t sing “I Surrender one-tenth.” We sing “I Surrender All.” We don’t sing “Take one-tenth and let it be.” We sing “Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord to thee.”
I’m afraid that all too often, we fall into the same trap as the Israelites. We think that we can buy God off with one-tenth of what we have, and then keep the rest for ourselves. And as long as we only have to give a part to God, we’re fine. We feel like we can do whatever we want with that other 90%. ‘Cause as long as we give 10%, we’ve met our religious obligation.
This morning, I am here to tell you that God wants more from us than our religious obligation. God has given us everything we have and God wants us to live out of that abundance. That’s what tithing is. It’s about living in a way that celebrates the abundance of God.
Last Saturday night, I had the great pleasure to perform the wedding of Rachel Hoover and P.J. Matteson. And afterwards, Molly and I attended the wedding reception along with the rest of the guests. There was singing, dancing, eating, drinking. It was a wonderful party. And I couldn’t help thinking myself…this is what God wants of us. God wants us to party. God wants us to gather here on Sunday mornings and celebrate together.
That is why we give our money and our time and our efforts here at Park View Baptist Church. We give, not out of guilt or out of obligation, but because our lives are so full that we just can’t help sharing it. It overflows. It cannot be confined to just 10%. A true tithe is not about figuring out some legalistic formula in order to get by with the least amount possible. A true tithe is not a burden or a curse. It's a blessing. It’s an opportunity to give ourselves to God, so completely and so joyfully, that we cannot measure it. Malachi knew full well that it’s impossible to rob God. And he also knew that when we try to rob God, all we do is wind up robbing ourselves. As long as we keep clinging to the tithe as a legalistic measuring rod, we’re never going to understand the intention behind it. So, this morning, I say let’s get rid of that 10% figure. Let's start giving 100% of ourselves to God. It’s time to get this party started. AMEN