10/17/04

God's Arithmetic

Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Luke 12:13-21

My sermon title today - God's Arithmetic - is quite ironic, considering that math was always my worst subject. Right from the beginning of grade school I had trouble with arithmetic. I must have been in 2nd or 3rd grade and I remember my grandfather asking me if I'd learned "gosintas" yet. "Gosintas?" I had no idea what he was talking about. "You know," he said, "three goes into six two times." Math was always my worst subject.

When I finished high school and went to college, guess what was the only subject I ever flunked? - freshman math. Had to take it again. Couple of years later I almost flunked statistics. In spite of these mathematical stumbling blocks, I managed to graduate and went to work ... in a bank! Arithmetic again! After a few years I finally saw the light, went to seminary, and entered the ordained ministry. And what are some of the things I've done at my two churches? - worked with stewardship and trustee committees; analyzed church attendance figures; helped the Conference with its budgets; and been chair of the finance committee or auditor of the books for two interfaith organizations - lots of arithmetic! Fortunately, I've gotten a tad more able as the years have gone on. But for someone who struggled with arithmetic as a kid, I must be a glutton for punishment!

Thank heaven, God's arithmetic is different from other kinds. And God's arithmetic is full of surprises, like the kind Rev. Russell gets one day. One of his parishioners, Bill Jones, is out walking, part of his therapy as he recovers from a serious heart attack, and while he's out, his wife, Edith, gets a phone call: Bill has won $500,000 in the Readers Digest Sweepstakes. Fearful of over-exciting him and causing further problems, and not knowing quite what to do, she calls Rev. Russell and asks him to come over to help her break the news.

By the time Rev. Russell has arrived, Bill has returned from his walk, and the three of them have a nice chat. Turning the conversation in another direction, he good Reverend says to Bill that he has a problem he's been working on and needs some advice, a theoretical situation concerning Christian stewardship. Bill readily agrees. So the Reverend asks, "What would a person - take you for example - do, if all of a sudden he found out he'd won, oh let's say, $500,000? What do you think you'd do with the money?" "That's easy," Bill replies, "I'd begin by giving half of the money to our church." Before you know it, a phone call has to be made to 911 - for Rev. Russell! (i)

The best place to start looking seriously at God's arithmetic is in the category of percentages. How about the famous ten percent - the tithe? The tithe, ten percent of one's harvest or herd to be given to the priests of the temple as an offering to the Lord, goes back to almost the beginning of the Hebrew Bible. Interestingly, Jesus hardly mentions the tithe, and as a stewardship discipline it really didn't catch on in the church until the Middle Ages. Many folks misunderstand the tithe today. They assume it's too legalistic; it's like an obligation, like paying a bill that one owes. Yet the tithe, when based on a spiritual understanding of the Bible, is not a legalism, but rather a testimony to our connectedness to God. It's a living witness to God, (ii) and a standard that helps us better comprehend proportionate giving, giving back to God in proportion to what we've received, a kind of giving that is done not because we have to, but because we want to.

Another problem some folks have with tithing is how some - falsely, I believe - have interpreted the tithe. "If you just tithe," say these folks, "give 10% of your income to our ministry, you will get that amount back, plus substantial interest, every time." Don't you believe it! Yes, it may happen to some people, but tithing is not some gilt-edged investment with a 100% guarantee. Yet, when one gives away 10%, 15%, or more, this is when one begins to live on trust - and that is exciting. (iii) Of course, we do get a substantial return on our investment, but often this return is other than monetary.

Another part of God's arithmetic is negative numbers, minus situations. God's standard for success is often quite different from the world's standards. When Christians work to bring about justice and peace in the world, the results are often disappointing and not always "successful." Yet we are called by God to enter into minus situations, to work with those who might be considered "negative numbers," those who bring in little financial return on our investment, frowned upon in our upwardly mobile, affluent society. (iv)

Jack Nelson in his book, "Hunger for Justice," describes walking through the streets of Calcutta, where the poverty so enraged him that he wanted to scream at God, until he painfully realized that in the suffering of the poor, God was screaming at him and at all of us and our institutions and social systems that perpetuate hunger, poverty, and inequality. God screams at us through the cries of the hungry and the oppressed and transformation begins with our listening and responding to these cries ... and to God's screams! (v)

Multiplication is another important part of God's arithmetic. You and I are called to give as God has given to us, and God gives with extravagant multiplication. One of the best known multiplication stories in the Bible is the feeding of the 5,000, the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. Jesus takes only five loaves of bread and two fish, but by God's miraculous power, a huge crowd of people are fed, and their hunger is satisfied. When they're finished eating, Jesus' disciples, being good stewards, clean up after the crowd, and fill twelve baskets full of the leftovers! Maybe the leftovers were for the disciples to munch on - late night snacks or whatever - but the 5,000 people fed did not get the leftovers, they got the first and the best. This brings us to yet another arithmetical biblical concept, "first fruits." Not only was God to get 10%, but this 10% was to be from the first crop of the harvest, the first fruits, the first born of the litter. In other words, God was to be given the very best, from the top of the barrel - and so also our gifts to God should be our best, our first priority. Following this principle, paying our pledge to the church, weekly or monthly or whatever, should be done first, before meeting our other financial obligations. More than money, God expects us to give the very best we have, whether this be our first fruits, efforts, waking moments, wages, talents, whatever - they belong to God. (vi) God does not give us leftovers, and we're not supposed to give our leftovers to God either. The true measure of Christian stewardship is giving from what we have rather than from what we have left over.

Addition and subtraction are also part of God's arithmetic. Today's parable of the rich man is a good example. He had abundant possessions - lots of pluses - and he kept adding to them. But his priorities were all mixed up. His motto was: "Take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry." Doesn't that sound familiar? But at the end of the parable all he had was subtracted, for as we say, "you can't take it with you." He laid up treasure only for himself, he was self-centered, and there was nothing for God. As Jesus said, "One's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

Our lesson from Paul's 2nd Letter to the Corinthians in a way summarizes what we've been saying. God is an equal opportunity provider, but it's up to us to use our resources in the best ways possible, so that others will be able to share in our harvest. We also can grow spiritually through our giving. God will always give us what we need, more than enough, not necessarily all that we want, but all that we need. We are blessed for one reason only - not because we deserve it, not because of anything we've done, not even as a reward for tithing. We are blessed so that we may be a blessing to others, and "so that many will thank God for the gifts which they receive from us." (vii)

Some people ask, "How much should I pledge to the church?" In our stewardship pamphlet this year we've suggested three categories of giving - a basic pledge, participatory pledge, or leadership pledge. And yet, if Jesus were here today, would he say, "Give a tithe?" I don't know. He might say: "A tithe is too easy; it's no more than a charitable deduction, a 10% token of your abundance. Not only that, but a tithe talks only about money. I, Jesus, want more from you, my friends. If you are to be my followers, I want all of you - not necessarily all of your money, but all of you." Jesus does not want partial commitment from us. He wants total commitment. In God's arithmetic, what we are to give of ourselves is a whole number, not a fraction. What Jesus wants is for us to give our whole lives to him. There's another story we probably remember about Jesus watching people put money into the temple treasury, and the rich people are dumping in large sums. Then along comes a poor widow who puts in two coins, worth about a penny. Jesus says she is to be commended, because she put in everything she had, her whole living - not a fraction, not a percentage, not the leftovers, but her whole life. She shared her faith through commitment, total commitment. We are to go and do likewise.

Christians are persons who make a decision to follow Jesus, a life-changing decision that gives them a new set of goals and images on which to model their lives, a decision that requires a commitment to follow a path of discipleship and life-giving service to others. Such a decision requires that we trust God to lead us and support us during hard times as well as times of joy. It requires that we give of ourselves wholeheartedly. It's a life pattern of commitment, and it's serious business.

In our stewardship slogan this year, "Sharing Faith Through Commitment," for me the operative word is commitment. Committing our lives to Christ is not easy because there is always a cost as well as a joy to discipleship. Many people just play around at being committed, but a decision to follow Jesus means we've stopped playing around and are working at trying to live in God's image. (viii) Making the decision is relatively easy - as easy as one plus one equals two. But living in such a committed way is hard - as hard as "gosintas" were for some of us in third grade. But is such a decision and such commitment worth it? You'd better believe it. ... May each of us share our faith through our commitment to the ministries and missions of Pilgrim Church in the pledges we make this morning. Amen.

The Pilgrim Church of Duxbury
Rev. Kenneth C. Landall

i Pastor's Story File, 1.2.
ii Douglas W. Johnson, The Tithe, Challenge or Legalism?, p. 22.
iii Albert C. Wimm, "Tithing is More Than the Number Ten," Teaching & Preaching Stewardship, p.85.
iv Letty Russell, "Partnership in Stewardship," Teaching & Preaching Stewardship, p. 7.
v Parables, Etc., 6.4.5.
vi Johnson, op. cit., p. 27.
vii 2 Corinthians 9:11b, Today's English Version.
viii Johnson, op. cit., pp. 109-111.