FUNDING OUR FUTURE - Sermon 1 - Sunday 10th October 2010 - P&J

Readings:   2 Corinthians 8:1-15     Mark 12:41-44

Sermon By Rev. Jennifer Sistig, 

Widow’s mite – I knew a widow like this – a short explanation of the ticket system that is still at work in South Africa – each Confirmed member of the congregation is given a ‘ticket’ – a little card on which each month’s giving is recorded by the priest or catechist. Crudely speaking, in many congregations, if the person has not kept up to date with their ticket payments they will not be buried by that church etc. Christine was an old grandmother who supported herself and thirteen grandchildren on a state pension of about R880 per month – roughly £85 per month. This paid for food, clothing and schooling. Despite her extreme poverty, she always paid her ticket money on the first Sunday of every month.

 

Stewardship – Funding our Future

 

For the next four weeks, leading up to our Patronal Festival, and as part of our ‘Funding the Future’ programme, we are going to concentrate our sermon teaching on various aspects of Christian giving. The main theme is:  “Jesus as God’s gift to us. In response, we give to God and his Church”. Week 1 - ‘ . . . . Generously’; Week 2 - ‘ . . . . Prayerfully’; Week 3 - ‘ . . . . Sacrificially’; Week 4 - ‘ . . . . Wholly’

As Roy will say at All Saints this morning:

An important element of Christian service is that of “giving” and by our giving we are following the New Testament pattern of taking up a collection in order to “provide for needy saints, and support the work of the church”.  And here, we find the answer to one of the most often asked questions about Christian giving - “If I give my money to the local Church, what is it used for?”  And the answer is pretty much the same as it was in the early Church at the time of the writing of the Acts of the Apostles - the money we give is primarily to support and resource the ministry of the local Church. This Parish is in a very privileged position - being able to pay for all the new facilities that we needed in order for us to function effectively and reach out into the community!  We’re able to do that because of the generosity of people in the past who have bequeathed money to support these projects that are now happening all around us, here at All Saints right now and at P&J soon.  But having done all this work, the ‘stored up’ money runs out.It costs over £200,000 a year (That’s pretty much £20,000 a month, £5,000 a week and £700 a day) - a frightening amount of money - to cover ministry and utility costs and to pay the staff which this Parish needs in order to be able to do all the things that God is calling it to do! And simply, the money we give through the planned giving scheme pays for that!  Or more to the point, it doesn’t anything like pay for it at present, which is why we need to have this ‘Funding our Future’ campaign now!In the New Testament reading this morning, and as we’re reminded in the little introduction, Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth - a large commercial centre renowned for its wealth, paganism and licentious living.  Doesn’t that sound alarmingly like the Fleet that we live in?  And Paul, seeking to inspire the Corinthians to abound in the grace of giving, used the example of the churches of Macedonia (that is the Churches in Philippi and Thessalonica) - they were not rich Churches like the Church in Corinth - rather they were poor and persecuted, and yet apparently they gave - and we hear that they gave Sacrificially, Joyfully, Voluntarily, Persistently and they gave ‘Themselves’!  Which undoubtedly adds up to the truth that they gave ‘generously’.  And they gave to support preachers in the spread of the gospel, to help needy Christians in a foreign land, and to help an old preacher in his time of need.

And there is a modern comparison which I am able to offer you here, and which is based on statistics provided by the Diocese, and it’s not about far off Churches in foreign lands 2,000 years ago, but about 21^st century Churches right here in Fleet and Farnborough. The Parish of Farnborough, which covers huge swathes of ‘estate housing’ and very few of the sorts of houses we see in Fleet, has a level of Giving to the local Church, per head on the electoral roll , which exceeds that in Fleet by almost 200%.  Yes, Anglican Christians in Farnborough give three times as much, per person, to resource ministry as do Anglican Christians in Fleet.

So what can you give or what should you give?

 

Bishop Rubin Phillip when Rector of St Elizabeth’s Anglican Church in Westville, Diocese of Natal, preached a sermon on planned giving. It was 1993. I remember it clearly because he asked everyone to “consider the claims of tithing” as asked by the South African Bishop’s Conference, and said that to go from giving nothing to giving 10% is quite a leap, so why not start at 3% and increase it by one percentage point each year.

 

“You should tithe” is usually the answer given to the question “how much should I give?”  and it’s taken directly form the Law laid down in the Old Testament. It is very important to clearly understand tithing as it is written about in context, because not everything can be translated from the OT context directly into our own.

 

In Genesis 14 we hear the story of Abraham rescuing his nephew Lot from captivity.  He and Lot had just separated from one another.  They had travelled together from Egypt, through the Niger desert into the centre of what is now called Israel and they wanted to settle there.  But the land couldn’t support both of them with all their people and livestock and the ‘staff’/herdsmen began to quarrel.  So Lot decided to move into ‘the plains of Jordan’ in the east which were green and luscious, and he settled near to the city of Sodom – before it got destroyed.,  Abram (whose name changed to Abraham in Genesis 17 as a sign of God’s covenant with him) moved further south to Hebron a mountainous area. Now, contrary to what we seem to imagine, Abram didn’t take over an entire countryside when he responded to God’s call (Gen 12:12) he moved into various areas and lived as a nomad (like the modern-day Bedouin) and the cities and towns continued to function as normal with their various kings and rulers.  In Genesis 14 the surrounding kings had organized themselves into 2 groups and had drawn up battle lines on the desert next to the Dead Sea.

 

It was basically as revolt against one king who had ruled over the other for 12 years.  King Kedorlaomer.   But he gathered allies from the surrounding areas and defeated everyone and went on the rampage against them.  Extending his power.  So Lot ended up getting seized together with all the possessions of the other rebel kings – about 11 kings in total with their armies covering a vast area.  When someone escaped and got word to Abram, it says in v14 that Abram got his 318 trained men born in his household and they chased the army of king Kedorlaomer.  It says that his army managed to chase them as far north as Hobah which was north of Damascus – which is about three times further north than they were originally.  It then says that he was also able to recover all goods, Lot and his possessions plus the women and other people.  I think you get the picture.  This was an extraordinary defeat, something like the David and Goliath story. When he returned, the defeated kings came to meet him – one of them was the king of Salem who was also a priest – Melchizedek – Melchizedek made a prayer/blessing over Abram with bread and wine in thanksgiving for Abrams victory and Abrams response was to give him 1/10 of everything.  Of all the booty this is the first reference to a tithe in scripture.

 

It is important to understand that this concept of a tithe was not unique to Abram or the people of Israel.  It was very common amongst all the people of Israel.  It was very common amongst many religions.  This tithe of Abram’s was given in thanksgiving of God’s help in battle and was given in the context of worship – a worship of gratitude.

 

It was these tithes, these gifts of thanksgiving that supported the religious leaders while everyone else supported themselves by working the land and caring for livestock, the priests only worked on worship – so they depended on the tithes to keep themselves fed and clothed etc.  also – acknowledgment of God’s ownership  of the land – so it went to God’s house.  As the practices evolved and developed, and as the law of the Israelites became clarified, three different tithes took shape:

1.       the ‘temple’  titheNum 18:21-32(NOT VOLUNTARY!)	1/10 of the produce of the land (grain, oil, fruits & animals) Supported the Levites – the tribe of priests As their inheritance in return for the work they do serving at the Tent of Meeting.
2.       the ‘celebration’ titheDeut 12:6-18	1/10 of the grain produced For celebration in thanksgiving Eaten there and then in a celebratory meal
3.       the ‘charity’ titheDeut 14:28-29	after 3 years 1/10 to Levite for the aliens, fatherless widows

In addition tothese three forms of tithe the people were also asked to give more than this on:  sabbatical years; jubilee years; the time of firstlings (Spring); and for pilgrim feasts. Development of the concept of the tithe in the OT is not absolutely clear.  So we don’t know if it began as the Celebration tithe, then became the Charity and then the Temple tithe, or if tithing meant all 3.  The Jewish tradition includes the 3 tithes.  Can you imagine if we all gave in that way? 

Deut 14:23 gives an answer to the question, “why tithe?” - so that you may learn to revere God always. We need to remember God’s reasoning behind the introduction of tithing as shown to us in the bodies of Numbers and Deuteronomy.Worship     1.   to enable worship and celebration (the support of the Temple)Ministry      2.  to support God’s called out servants (the support of the priestly tribe, the Levites)Mission      3.  to enable charitable work (the support of the needy) 

Why give? SO THAT WE MAY LEARN TO REVERE GOD ALWAYS  As Christians tithing offers us a way of remembering God’s blessing and work in our lives and a way of giving thanks, respect, reverence to God. AND tithing offers us a way of ensuring that worship, ministry and mission takes place. Tithing or giving is not an end in itself.  If we look at it that way we run the risk of giving out of a legalistic understanding of God – God says so I must. LIKE THE TICKET SYSTEM Giving is a means to an end, the end being the reverence of God by ourselves and everyone else in the world. 

The temple tithe was not voluntary it was obligatory.  There are still churches today who operate along that same principle.  If you’re not giving 10% you can’t belong and you certainly can’t be in leadership.  eg WCF and St Luke’s (as soon as the priest hears that you are working he arrives with a Planned Giving form)  To make those kind of rules of belonging often cloud the basic requirement of God eg– which is faith.  Absolute faith Matt 23:23-24.  in the Hebrews reading we heard a litany of the faithful, beginning with Abraham.  People who believe and trusted and risked, who place their faith in God alone.   This is a difficult thing to ask.  I think most people find it easier to follow a set of rules than to follow that basic way of living purely by faith.  Take the Gospel story of the rich young man wanted to know what he should do, what rules he should follow in order to enter the Kingdom of God and Jesus tells him the rules and he says I am doing all that already.  Jesus says ‘one thing you lack’ sell everything….and the poor rich young man can’t do it.  Sometimes we can’t let go of the security of earthly possessions (it’s as hard as threading a camel through the eye of a needle. 

But it’s also not about giving up as much as you can in order to earn holiness.  No amount of giving of earthly possessions can get you entry to the Kingdom of God.  Only faith can. So our giving should be – first and foremost an expression of faith.

 

So how much can you or should’ you give? Look a the booklet

 

Roy will say at All Saints today “that if every single person on our electoral roll did give £5 a week - the cost of a Gallon of petrol, a bottle of wine, a pack fags, a couple of boxes of breakfast cereal or a packet of mince, which, I venture to say is affordable to every single one of us, whatever our financial positions - if we did that, then we would have half of what we need to resource the ministry of the Parish in the future. And that wouldn’t be a problem, because as we are reminded in the Gospel reading, what is generous for some people is not at all generous for others!  £5 a week would be a bit like the Widows mite - and there will be huge numbers of us who can (and indeed many already do, surpass that figure 3, 5 or 10 times over!  Then will the ministry of this Parish be properly resourced!

In the little booklet which you have been given, there is a graph which [we] have found very helpful in understanding what is wrong with our parish Finances - would you like to turn to it for a moment.

·         You will see that each black vertical line represents a giver in the planned giving scheme, and you will see that the graph goes up to 201 - that is how many givers (accounting for husband and wife pairings) there would be if everyone on the electoral roll gave in this way.  Red lines represent those of you who have already reviewed your giving since we began this campaign earlier in the year.

·         The graph highlights 3 actual problems, and one potential problem:

1.       The first actual problem is that there are almost 60 potential givers on the electoral roll (down in the right hand corner) who have not yet joined the planned giving scheme at all.

2.       The second actual problem is that about 85% of those who are giving, are at a level which is below the average required to meet our costs

3.       And the third actual problem is that only about one in eight of us have so far reviewed our giving this year in the light of the present need.

4.       The potential problem is that if our top ten givers were all riding together in a minibus that happened to drive off the edge of a cliff (I trust you will realise that I’m using a metaphor?) then in one fell swoop the giving would fall by about 35%!

At the top of the graph it asks where you fit in?  A good question, as we also consider that God calls us all to be generous after the example of Jesus Christ himself “ . . . . that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty, you may become rich”.

 

Conclusion - So what can you give to Christ’s Church here in Fleet?

Only you can answer this question. When trying to work it out for yourself please consider what you now know about the parish’ financial situation, and what you know about the OT concept of tithing and the NT concept of giving. 

Above all, remember that our giving should be – first and foremost an expression of faith.‘God everything I possess, including my life and my family comes from you.  The least I can do is acknowledge your graciousness by giving to you.’ 

And it is done as an act of worship, within the context of celebration in front of God’s servants and God’s people and in the hope of meeting the needs of the poor. And we give to a particular place/church because it is the place in which we live out our faith.  Here is where I pray.  Here is where I worship God.  Here is where I find my Christian home and family.  Here is where I get fed.  Here is where I seek to feed others. 

It actually takes much more than 10% of your income.  It takes an offering of your self  -  a willingness to get involved, to make worship what it ought to be, to make ministry what it ought to be, and to make mission and charity what it ought to be.  It can’t be done without you.

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