Money and Tithing (Roughly 30 mins)
Outline
Challenge: we ask people to give money to the church arbitrarily
Solution: consider the tithe a payment for good works
Projection: if we are doing the work and reporting honestly, we will be supported.
“Give money to the church”…why?
What work are we doing?
Can we be doing more?
Are people seeing positive effects from us in their own lives
2. Money isn’t a gift, but trust is
People are trusting us to do Good
We are trusted not to spend money arbitrarily
We should earn that every day
3. Giving up self serving ministry for lent
Transitioning to smaller, evangelical and house ministry (personal experience)
Worrying less about “will it pay the bills?” And more about “will it serve the people”
Trust is earned, and Christians are trustworthy.
Scripture:
Leviticus 27:30-34
And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord. And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth part which he has given, let him give a fifth more. And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord. He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or make any changes in it; and if he makes exchange of it for another, the two will be holy; he will not get them back again. These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29
At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls: And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Luke 6: 48-49
They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
Sermon:
I had an interesting question the other day, from a professed atheist who was angry at me for preaching. I mean really angry. I think he would have attacked me if I were a man. His face was red, and he was breathing like this. *huff* *puff*. It wasn’t really a question, I guess. It was an assertion. Christians are the worst people out there, he said, all they do is take money from stupid people and give it to themselves.
My first instinct was to rebuke him. When someone is angry and shouting it’s hard not to respond. It’s hard to avoid yelling back or defending yourself because it’s scary. When we’re scared we get defensive. But Jesus says “turn the other cheek. Turn the other cheek my brother. Turn the other cheek sister” and Christians say, “okay”. We say “Yes, Lord.”
So I’m going to serve the Lord. I’m not going to talk about all the wonderful works Christian charities are doing in my community. And they are. They’re housing the homeless, feeding the hungry, giving money and time and equipment to hospitals, caring for families. Churches are charities and most are completely open about how, when, and where they’re spending money. But someone had hurt this man. He clearly blamed the church…in general…for some sort of wrongdoing.
Somewhere beyond that instinct for anger, there was a feeling of communion. Of connection with this human being, and his anger and bravado which much have risen out of such deep hurt. And so I managed somehow. Only by the Grace of God, to find a way through all of this supercharged anger and fear and rage …. on both sides… to get through all of this emotion and just talk to this man
And well….he had a point.
He talked about all of these priests embezzling money from churches. A catholic priest who took half a million dollars meant for Syrian refugees. A Manitoba priest who used a church credit card to settle gambling debts. A Methodist priest who trafficked undocumented workers through the church he worked for. Another catholic priest who funded trips to Europe and Disneyland out of church funds.
What more would we find, if we looked?
Even if we move the focus away from these heinous crimes against the church, the people, and also the state, ARE we using the money freely given to us by the people of the church responsibly? Are we using it the way we should?
Can we do more? Should we?
The tithe is an important part of Christianity. It is one of the founding principles of our faith: sharing what we have as it helps others. We’re not prone, or not supposed to be prone, to massive displays of excessive wealth, lavish trips, expensive cars and clothes, or any other … really…distraction. We’re tempted like anyone else, but we know we aren’t more deserving than anyone else.
I remember my daughter’s first day of school. And she was stronger than me honestly. I was the one crying. I was the one in tears. She was just like, I’m going to school mum byeeeee!
But another kid, I’ll never forget what she said. This mum had 4 young children, all under 4, and here’s the oldest one, the five year old oldest, going off to kindergarten, as you do. Like she’s marching off to war. And she hugs and kisses her mom, and her little brother and sister, and the baby. And she just completely breaks down. Of course I’m watching this while I’m breaking down, my daughter is already halfway across the playground making a bunch of new friends. I feel for this kid. We’re being abandoned. We’re sad. I get her.
And she says this. She says, “I don’t want to go if you’re not coming with me.”
That’s how I feel. When someone offers me a really big trip. An expensive gift. A friendship, even a friendship, that means I can’t be friends with someone else. If anyone is left behind, I don’t want to go.
My kids could care less. See you later mom, I’m going off to my future!
I don’t want to go if you’re not coming with me.
Leviticus 27:30-34
And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord. And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth part which he has given, let him give a fifth more. And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord. He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or make any changes in it; and if he makes exchange of it for another, the two will be holy; he will not get them back again. These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.
10% of everything we earn, and of everything we have, land, food, yes. Livestock, yes. What else do we have? Help and support? Knowledge and caring? Kindness? What are our resources? 10% belongs to the Lord.
People, and often churches, work with limited resources, and should be careful about how we spend them.
It’s easy to calculate 10%. It is. It’s easy. For every $100 I make, $10 goes to the church, or a church, or to charity. *dusts off hands* done. As my grandmother used to say, over-done with-gone. Right? I’ve got my house, so if I use 1 room as an office to support breakthrough ministries, I’m good. 10%. I’ve done it! I’m doing it right! I’m tithing! Good for me!
Many churches and charities give much, much more than 10%. We have open reporting here in Canada so you can look it up. There are a number of churches collecting hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. It’s not coming from the government. Or from businesses. Or from selling anything. It’s tithing from their large congregations. And sometimes 50, 70, 80% is going to charitable operations and organizations. I think we can take an example from those churches and organizations that are doing this. They’re not saying okay, here’s my 10%. Done. They’re saying what can I actually do here? What impact can I make? What are the resources I have to effect positive change? How much of what I have is really extra?
And what am I supposed to be using this money for?
I would venture that, at the very least, the church can always hold off on buying another golden candle stick and use that money to serve the people of the church and to serve the Lord. Or if we’re going to buy another golden candle stick how can we further that money to serve the lord.
When I was still working as a church minister, that is when I worked inside the building, we discovered we needed something for Bible study to snuff out candles. It was really bothering people that we were lighting candles with a drug store lighter and Mike was snuffing them out with another candle or with his fingers. We didn’t mind. We sort of liked the holy bic, the holy bic lighter and it was a pretty popular topic of conversation. It was fun for us, but you know. It wasn’t very reverent. So we ended up buying a long fancy lighter and then we needed a beautiful candle snuffer to match so…on a whim, we went to the Salvation Army. I still have this snuffer. Look at this snuffer. It’s beautiful. It’s ornate. You know what I paid for it? $3. Do you know what the Salvation Army does with that money?
Deuteronomy 14:28-29
At the end of every three years take a tenth part of all your increase for that year, and put it in store inside your walls: And the Levite, because he has no part or heritage in the land, and the man from a strange country, and the child who has no father, and the widow, who are living among you, will come and take food and have enough; and so the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.
The Salvation Army operates over 50 emergency shelters for men, women, and children in Canada. 5500 emergency shelter beds keeping people off the streets. They operate food banks, employment programs, addiction programs, and family resources.
So they took a buck or so from originally, probably very expensive, candle snuffer, which honestly feels very special when I use it. And I still use it. They took my dollar and they fed somebody. They gave somebody a home.
How are we spending our money? Who are we giving it to? Where is it going? I think that’s a valid question. It’s a valid question to ask your church and as church leadership it’s a valid question to ask ourselves.
I’ve talked before about giving money to secular charities that are already affluent and spending predominantly on operating costs and whether it’s helping and the answer is usually…no. We shouldn’t be giving just because it’s popular, but because people are in need, and we can’t turn away from the Christians in our communities who need us.
I don’t want to go if nobody is coming with me.
2. Money isn’t important to Christians. People are. We know that. And we often feel called, we ARE called, to give away our wealth. My friend with the red face really made me think about that, and my friends, we the church, we had me thinking about it even more. When we have resources, we feel guilty. Of course we feel guilty, because we feel empathy. How can you come back from your Florida vacation, and see people dying in the streets and not care? How can you lounge at a resort in Cuba and not wonder about the people starving on the other side of those walls? You can’t. You’re a Christian. You have empathy. You love too much.
Matthew 19:21 A young man walks up to Jesus and says, what must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus says, “keep the commandments” the young man says *dusts hands off* done. I don’t kill, I don’t steal, I don’t adultery, heaven time! I’m awesome. He says “is there anything else I have to do to get into the Kingdom of God? Jesus says, okay.
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
We all know this story. We don’t want to be someone with great wealth and a lot of stuff and a yay me attitude. We take no pleasure in it. Of course we don’t.
I don’t want to go if nobody is coming with me.
So we’re quick to help. We’re quick to throw our money away and maybe…maybe we’re too quick to throw it away without considering who or what we are throwing it at.
Money isn’t a gift. Stuff isn’t a gift. Trust is. When people put their trust in a charity, or a church, that’s amazing. That’s important. It’s beautiful.
When you’ve been abundantly blessed by an outpouring of wealth, like the young man who approached Jesus, as a Christian, you want to share it
But we don’t always want to get our hands dirty. Or find out much about where it’s going.
As Christians, we are trusted to handle money fairly. Churches are trusted by their congregations. Individuals in the congregation are trusted by their communities. Even people who profess to hate Christianity and who profess cruel words and call Christians names will seek out businesses run by Christians when they are looking for fair services at a fair price.
We’re not known, most of us aren’t known for throwing money away on frivolities.
My paternal grandmother was a lifelong Methodist who attended Stewart Memorial Church in Hamilton Ontario beginning in the 1920’s. A time most of us can’t remember. Along with prominent Niagara community members she also attended Salem chapel, she grew up right around the corner.
In the early 1950’s my grandmother told my father he was going to watch her turn ten grand into a million dollars. By the early 1990’s, she came very close to that goal. By the time I was just 12-years-old, my grandma Toni had a beautiful home built on over an acre of land…I mean that’s how much land was under the house, I don’t know how much was outside of it…amazing clothes, beautiful furniture. You might have thought she was an incredibly glamorous woman. You might have thought that’s a huge display of wealth. I did.
So why am I telling you this?
When my grandmother became ill, as we all eventually do, and needed home care, the family rallied to help her. My cousin Antoinette worked herself to exhaustion helping my grandmother to eat, and shower, and go to the toilet and get into bed. She couldn’t be there all the time, and for weeks I also stayed at my grandmother’s house, with my husband, caring for her. I helped my aunt and father with her finances. I helped everyone with their taxes back then, since I’m weird and I like paperwork. Try not to be that family member if you can avoid it. That’s not biblical advice. It’s just what I learned from doing 27 sets of annual taxes!
When I did my grandmother’s taxes, I found out that what she spent on the house, her glamourous clothes and jewellery, maintenance on that beautiful yard we used to run across for hours….represented less than 30% of her income. The rest of it went to her family or to the church. She was loaning money to anyone who asked it of her, and never expecting to be paid back. She was tracking down and acquiring books and artefacts relevant to our history, to the history of families who came to Canada on the Underground Railroad, and donating it to the church. Our local BME church was the recipient of huge gifts from my grandmother and from others like her. Who had wealth. Who gave it to the church.
But what did it do?
Well that depends.
The money my grandmother gave to people who were living in sin didn’t do very much. It didn’t go very far. They told her they needed money for food, and they gambled it away or spent it on drugs. They came back for more money, and they gambled it away or spent it on drugs. As we saw in the examples I gave earlier, someone can spend hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars on sin. If you keep giving it to them, they just keep spending it.
The money my grandmother gave to the church went to the people, and you can see those works even now. And that money grew.
Jesus calls us to give to the needy and the poor.
Matthew 25:35-40
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
Matthew 25:30-40 doesn’t say “for I needed drugs and you bought them for me”
Matthew 25:30 doesn’t say “for I wanted to gamble, and you bought me poker chips”
Matthew 25:30 doesn’t say “for I abused my wife, and you supported me because I didn’t want to pay alimony.”
Jesus calls us to look for His people, Godly people who are in need. Elderly people who need care or who have lost their spouses and need our support. Families who are working constantly and barely making ends meet. Construction workers who are homeless three months a year. Shift workers who never sleep just to make the house payment.
My grandmother used quite a bit of seed money to start the Afro Canadian Carribean Association, which still exists. Over the years they have done amazing things for a lot of people. The organization was started on just this side of Jim Crow, when young black children had a lot less access than people who looked “white”. ACCA, as the Afro can cab assn is called for short, provided access to teaching, to education, to resources, and to mentorship for these young people. The organization can be credited with raising up educators and leaders, with supporting the dreams and aspirations of generations of black youth. And those works bore fruit. They planted the seeds of self worth and of God’s almighty gifts and of freedom to get an education and to make a difference in the lives of others, and it bore fruit.
I used to sit at the ACCA office colouring in my colouring book. Nothing special. Just a kid being a kid. But ACCA? That’s where I met Matthew Green, NDP MP for Hamilton Center. Matthew Green, who has lived by and spread these principles, these seeds of raising oppressed people out of poverty. Who stood up in parliament and said “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” Yes you can. Yes. He did.
ACCA is where I met Leo Nupolu Johnson. Leo was able to secure funding to bring in computers and learning software to fund a tutoring and mentorship program for young black children. This is while we were still in University, taking the same program. And I heard my grandmother Antoinette speaking when I heard Leo.
Leo spent his teenaged years in refugee camps after fleeing his native Liberia. He was raised out of interment and brought to Canada where he founded Empowerment Squared, a charity with the goal of raising marginalized and refugee youth out of poverty and need, empowering them to use the tools of education and mentorship to create for themselves a better life, to create a better world.
All my grandmother and two of her friends did was buy a building. Set up some office equipment. Gather a few black business owners and hard workers to act as mentors for youth who were being told, wrongly, that their only options for success were on the streets.
Where you plant a seed, that’s where it blooms. Where you plant a seed, that’s where it blooms.
Proverbs 22:2-3 The man of wealth and the poor man come face to face. The Lord is maker of them all. The sharp man sees the evil and takes cover. The simple go straight on and get into trouble.
We are trusted. And we need to earn that trust.
We are given that trust. We’re given trust because the principles of our faith dictate that we earn it. Because we care. We care about people. We care about unity. We care about peace and love.
We don’t want to go to heaven…or to success…or even to the dinner table… if nobody else is coming.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
I spoke to an older woman who thought the church owed her something
She went to church every week as a young woman. As a young woman, she was very beautiful and was able to secure an amazing position at a pharmaceuticals company. She was making enough commissions on top of her salary to earn over a hundred thousand dollars a year. She did really well, financially, and she gave a lot of money to what is now a multi million dollar, evangelist church. But she was there at the beginning, when it was nothing but a tiny chapel on the worst street in town, falling apart. Her money put a roof on the church. Her money fixed two of the pews. She almost entirely funded the youth program. She gave nearly all her money to the church except what she barely needed to survive.
Then she lost her job. She fell on hard times. Lost her house. Ironically, she ended up moving into a much cheaper house on the same street as the small, now abandoned chapel. After it became a mega-church. After it moved into a much larger building.
She found herself in a position of need. Unable to find a new job, and unable to support herself any longer on her savings, she finally broke down and went to the church where she had been so loved, to ask THEM for help.
She was loved by God and by the church. Her NAME was on a little golden plaque on one of the pews, which she had donated the money to purchase. The church was her home. It was her family.
And she wasn’t asking for much. The church had a grocery hamper program that gave food and gift cards to anyone who came in. She had personally volunteered for the program, and donated to it. Thousands of dollars. Thousands of hours. Time and money she didn’t have to give, but she gave it.
She asked the church to sign her up for a hamper, that year, and they said no. They said she wasn’t a member of the church, and couldn’t access their programs.
Well that’s how she ended up at our church.
Luke 6:38
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Are we doing that? Are we as God’s representatives on earth not just telling but SHOWING our brothers and sisters in Christ that what they give, we as leaders in the Christian community will double and pay forward? Are we teaching our congregation, our church, our family, the body of Christ, that they, God’s people, can trust us?
Or are we turning them away?
3. What if we give up self serving ministry for lent?
What do I mean by self-serving ministry? I mean ministry that makes us feel good, as people, but bears no solid fruit. When we give money to people and organizations who take it, waste it, or spend it promoting sinful acts, it plants the seeds of evil. It does. By doing that, we reward that behaviour. We can unintentionally reward it, and that can encourage people to keep doing it.
But Jesus tells us to forgive others their sins. Right? How many times should we forgive a sinner? Every time. It’s in the Lord’s Prayer, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. That’s what we believe. As Christians, that’s what we believe.
Jesus tells us to forgive sinners. He doesn’t tell us to fund their enterprises.
Matthew 6:1-3
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Self serving charity makes you feel good, and makes you look good, in the moment. And it’s hard to define. How do you know the difference between someone who is asking for money they don’t need, and someone with a genuine loving heart who is in a real bind? How do you know who will put your money, or your gift, to good use, and who will waste it?
You can just trust people. You can just throw away every resource and hope the neediest people show up at your door. I can tell you from experience…they won’t.
If you have unlimited resources, you can do that.
No-one has unlimited resources. Seriously. Not even Elon Musk. Elon Musk has an estimated net worth of 181 billion dollars. More money, you would think, than any one human being or family…or city can spend on a lifetime. An inconceivable amount.
But choose just one social service for Elon Musk to fund. Just one. Methadone clinics. Gregory Zaric et al studied the cost of maintaining methadone clinics, just in Ontario, Canada, and found the cost of all treatment related services. In one province. For just over 9 thousand patients. Was $99,491,000. A hundred million dollars. That’s just one social service. Just one ask. In just one province.
My purpose here isn’t to pick on methadone clinics. Or claim that they are an unworthy charity. My purpose isn’t to speculate on whether Elon Musk can afford to save the entire world.
So what AM I trying to say?
That we can make a difference. We can have impact. But only with the help and support of others. Only by planting the seeds of charity that bear the fruit of goodwill. Only by being trustworthy and treating the people in our congregation like family.
And I think it starts by being smaller. By actually interacting with the people we support on a daily basis.
Being a family in the church….what does that mean? And when it comes to charity, what does that mean?
Does it mean helping the people most like ourselves? Or the people most in need? Does it mean trusting blindly? Or trusting those closest to us? Does it mean giving money directly to panhandlers who may use our kindness to violently attack us? Or giving money to charitable corporations who might spend 80 cents to the dollar on operating costs?
It’s scary. We’re living in a fallen world. There’s so much corruption. We have limited resources. How do we know who to help? What to spend? Where our money will have the most impact?
There are two ways of knowing: by getting to know people, and by examining the fruit of the trees we plant.
We can’t predict the thoughts of other people, or their intentions. But we can get to know them, and through their works, we can grow to understand them and whether they will use our money to create positive good in the world.
Matthew 21:28-32
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.
For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
The people living on the streets know which one of them will rob you, and which one will hurt you. They know which one has mental health issues and who is in need. They know who is sick or injured, who actually lives in a huge house and does this for fun, who is trafficking women and children. They know this because they share space with eachother.
The people working for charitable organizations know which ones will misuse resources and which ones spend most of their income on charity. The banks know who is making millions but seems poor, and who is poor but seems rich. They know, because they are close to eachother. They know, because they share space.
Parents know when their children are lying. They know when their kids make mistakes. We know when our loved ones aren’t on the up and up, or the straight and narrow, because we are close to them.
The easiest way to know people is…getting to know them. Spending time with them. Learning how they behave and what their approach is. To life.
Getting to know the people inside our doors, in our membership, is sometimes hindered by the noise outside, by requests for support and just by the sheer number of people who are hoping to be supported by ministry staff. There is a vast importance to forming small groups with lay leaders, strong members of our church family who can get to know and understand them, so that we aren’t leaving anyone behind. Or expecting them to come begging to us, so we can feel big and powerful. The Lord calls us to help not one group or the other but everyone who crosses our path, as we are able.
If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. Leviticus 25:35-36
It’s not about what you can do by yourself. It’s about what Christians can do together.
What work should we be doing? Where should we focus our efforts? It’s right here. Okay, it’s in the Bible.
Luke 6: 48-49
They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
If we want to maintain our house, God’s house, the body of the church and home of our Christian family, we have to base our actions on the principles taught in the Bible.
That way, our works will be built on a foundation of solid rock.
Then people say, what if we can’t pay the bills? Let the building go.
What if we can’t afford bibles?
People can share. We can speak memorized passages.
What if we can’t keep the lights on?
We’ll preach outside, then.
The body of the church is the people. The importance of the church is as a place of safety, as a storehouse for charity, and as a place of worship for Christians. We can’t treat our churches like businesses and become so caught up in the paperwork that we forget about the people.
We can, if we choose, worry less about what will pay the bills and more about what will save the people.
Instead of considering the tithe an entitlement that pays for the expenses and salaries of the church, we might better consider it like a payment into our trust.
Ministers in salaried positions, board members, and people working in the church are called to elevate that trust by ensuring that funds are allocated in a way that pleases God and bears fruit. If we are employed by a church, our responsibility to the people of the church is that much greater.
They are not walking into our house when they come to a service. We are walking into theirs.
We are not above them, but accountable to them.
But I think we are also accountable to them not to elevate one situation over another. We’re also accountable to understand that a believer in a socially “lower” position should be praised over a non-believer who claims to be a member of our church.
Matthew 21:28-32
“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
“Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.
For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
If you know someone who works for your church is stealing, and you know of someone honest in your congregation who needs a job, why reward your employee for continuing to sin while letting an honest person go hungry?
Matthew 5:30 The church is the body of Christ
Matthew 5:30
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and
cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not
that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
We, ministers, we like to use that verse.
Especially the old school ministers love to just take that verse and stare at someone in the congregation.
Somebody who asks too many questions. Or somebody who doesn’t fit in. Someone who can’t afford the right clothes. With holes in his shoes. Maybe someone who criticized the way we do things. Maybe the woman who donated a pew, who paid to fix the roof, who volunteered in the kitchen, but criticized us when we turned her away. When SHE needed help.
Matthew 5:30 maybe churches need to take some advice from surgeons. When you go in for surgery, surgeons take out a marker and draw on the area to be operated on. They do that to make sure they get the right part. They do that to make sure they remove the actual disease. And not healthy tissue.
Matthew 5:30 asks us to remove the diseased tissue.
Matthew 5:30 doesn’t ask us to cut off the wrong hand.
The one that still works.
And leave ourselves with no working hands. It’s better to leave them both. It’s better to stretch out our resources to nothing. It’s better to get to know and learn about and understand every single one of our members individually….than to stand in church and quote Matthew 5:30 blindly….and hope the diseased tissue just takes itself home.
From my experience, that’s not the way it happens.
So what do we do?
We get to know people. Why not?
Trust is earned, and it is earned by giving it.
It’s hard to be trusted by others while telling them we don’t have trust FOR them.
Matthew 21:28-32 Jesus talks about a man with two sons. He has a job that needs doing. He needs someone to help in his vineyard.
Do you have jobs that need doing within your church? A roof that needs fixing? Walls that need painting?
He needs someone to help in his vineyard, and he asks both sons. At first, they both say no.
Why does he ask both sons? He doesn’t have to do that. Right? He could have gotten one of them to do the work right away, I bet.
Imagine if he’d said to the one child “I know that you will do this and your brother won’t. That’s why I’m asking you and not your brother, who is too lazy to help me.” What would happen?
What if he had said to one of his sons, “You don’t have to work in the vineyard. You have a problem with drinking too much wine, and honestly, you’ll probably just steal the grapes.”
Or what if the father deliberately chose the son he KNEW would steal the grapes, because he wanted to be a good Christian. Because he misinterpreted “blessed are those who suffer” as “make sure you suffer enough” and decided to heap suffering upon his own head?
He didn’t. The father asked both sons. To see what they would do. At first, they both said no. But then one, reluctantly, decided to do the work.
Trust is earned, and everyone in our congregation and in our community deserves that trust. Do they deserve to abuse that trust? No. But they deserve a chance.
Welcoming anyone who offers support through our doors is the first step toward putting our supports in the right places.
We can also work toward removing judgement and stigma in our churches that create division lines between volunteers and the people using our programs, those donating resources and those receiving them, members and non members
We can break down barriers that keep our members from following their calling and from loving eachother
We can preach the gospel in a way that includes everyone and excludes no one, and respect the contributions of all our members
Why do this?
Because we truly are Christians. We have empathy and love. We want to support those who need it, and disciple those who only need a word of advice or direction to help and support themselves.
There’s a prayer they say in 12 step programs, and when you wonder which direction to take maybe you can use it too.
It’s short, simple to memorize. It’s one of those verses, like the Lords Prayer, throughout my life, I’ve never forgotten.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage, to change the things I can
And the wisdom,
To know the difference.
In Jesus Name we Pray
