“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7
Way back in the day at Christ Lutheran in Lincoln, NE, once a year Pastor Reimnitz would have a member of the Finance Board give the ‘money sermon’ to our congregation. I was on the Elder board and thankful that wasn’t something our board would have to give to the congregation. And then I went to live in Haiti in March 2001. After a few months, my Haitian supervisor, Pastor Thomas Bernard from Bon Berger Lutheran Church in Caredeux, asked if I would give a message on tithing to his congregation on Sunday. Money Sunday.
The congregation in Lincoln had wallets with folding money and credit cards and shiny cars in the parking lot. The congregation in Caredeux had literally nothing by the way we in North America viewed them. If they had but one Haitian dollar of Haitian coins in their pocket they should tithe. Ten Gourdes to God, ten into a savings jar and the remaining eight were theirs to spend. Tithing in my mind is the personal act of gracious giving.
I read once that there are four qualities to tithing. First, grace is so attractive and it individualizes the gift. When you give by grace, you give individually. You give proportionately to your own income. Doesn’t matter if your pocket contains ten dollars or ten Gourdes which at the time was less than a dollar. You have needs and you have an income to meet those needs. That combination is not unlike anyone else's on this side of Paradise. You are an individual; a child of God. When you give on that basis, your gift is an individual kind of gift. We are not all placed into a tank, blended together and then "required" to give exactly 10 percent. Though if everyone gave 10 percent, we would have such an enormous surplus in God's work we would not know what to do with the extra funds.
Second, grace is so attractive; grace makes the action joyfully spontaneous. I never have been able to understand why most everyone in the church looks so serious when the plate is passed during the offering. Wouldn't it be great if when the offering plates are passed in church next Sunday that instead of grim looks, stoic silence, and soft organ music you heard laughter? We should be thankful for being able to give back to the Giver; the word ‘cheerful’ is literally a Greek term from which we get the word "hilarious." "God loves a hilarious giver."
Third reason grace is so attractive is that it enables us to link up with God's supply line. When we possess an attitude of grace, we give. We give ourselves. We give from what we earn. And our Heavenly Father, the Giver of everything, in turn, gives back in various ways, not matching gift for gift, but in an abundance of ways, He goes beyond. And lastly, fourth; grace leads to incomparable results. You can’t outgive the Giver. There it is, my money message. The next time you place your offering into His Hands; please smile.
Dear Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay