Match Substance with Substance
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost - September 14, 2003
By The
Very Rev. James Hubbard, Dean Interim
- Isaiah 50:4-9
- Psalm 116
- James 2:1-5,8-10,14-18
- Mark 8:27-38
(From The Lectionary Page)
Help us, O God, to be masters of
ourselves,
That we may become the servants of others.
Take our lips and speak through them’
Take our minds and think through them;
and take our hearts and set them on fire;
for Christ’s sake. Amen.
Somewhere I read or heard a story about Mother Teresa visiting the home of a Hindi family with a small amount of food for a meal. There were eight children and their mother had nothing at all to feed them. When she brought the food, the mother thanked her, divided it exactly in half, and left the house with half of the food. Mother Teresa waited until she returned without the food and asked here where she had taken it. "Oh," said the Hindi mother, "next door to us live a Muslim family, also with eight children and no food at all. They are now crying with joy at their good fortune." The children of the Hindi mother clapped their hands with pleasure that they could share their small fund of food; and, said Mother Teresa, "I made no effort to find them more food that night, because I knew how important it was for them to enjoy sharing what they had."
None of us here has ever been privileged in this manner. We share, but we share out of our abundance, not out of our paucity; and I thank God that that is so. My prayer is that every family everywhere could have such abundance. And yet, if that were so, the poor would probably lose their portion of faith and joy to the same extent as we, the wealthy of the world, have lost ours. When James writes in his epistle, chapter 2, verse 5, "Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?" Do you believe that he knew whereof he was speaking? I am here today to address you on two topics: giving through pledging and tithing. I will make an unembarrassed plea for your money, not because God needs it—he owns the cattle on a thousand hills; but because you need to learn to give to God and his church freely and generously. It is in recognition that all that we are and all that we have comes from God, that salvation lies not in some works-oriented fashion, but because of the gifts of grace and life.
First, pledging. This parish, you and I, have a problem, a serious problem. Out of 520 families only 270 pledged this year. That is, 250 households, individuals and families, said to themselves and to the church, "We are not going to share what we have been given, and if we do share some small amount we will not let anyone know what that is going to be." I imagine those 250 families have all sorts of reasons like "We are not in the habit of making commitments." Or: "We don’t like to make promises we cannot keep." Or, "We do not have any money we can call our own." Of course, the 250 managed automobiles, houses, property, food, clothing, education, vacations, perhaps; and a house full of electronic gadgets, many of them through loans on credit cards or though the bank. But when it comes to saying to the congregation and to the vestry, "I am with you. This is my parish and I will share the responsibilities of seeing that the Gospel is preached, the children are taught, the light bill is paid, and the poor are fed," these 250 families opt out and refuse to be counted. Oh, this is a serious matter and I beg you, if you are among these families, please reconsider. If your pledge is only a dollar, pledge it and pay. Be up front with your gift, whether small or great. Rather a dollar pledge that is paid than twenty dollars we can’t count on. Your time and effort are appreciated, but they are not enough to manage a parish: your money is also required. And since everything we do depends on the pledge, then the pledge is essential. My goal for this congregation is 520 pledges this year. What is yours? Please do not be the one to say "519" Pledging.
Tithing. First of all the tithe is 10% of your income. Second, I cannot say for you how much you include in that, but I encourage you to realize that all that you have is from God, and that God asks that we use all that we have for the furtherance of the kingdom of God. In Mark’s Gospel for today, the reading is rather blunt. "He [Jesus] called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?’" Include your money in that saying. But you say, "Why the tithe?" Because the tithe is God’s way for us to support of the house of God and the ministry that spreads from there. It is proportional for rich and for poor. In the book of the prophet Malachi, you can find these words, which sum up the entire theme of the Scriptures on this matter. In chapter 3, beginning at verse 8, we read: “Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me—the whole nation of you! Bring 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. I 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. Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.” Hmm! Well we are no longer an agricultural people. But it does not take a great stretch to go from agriculture to the factory and the office, that is, your means of livelihood. But, you may say, "Show me in the New Testament where tithing is taught!" And do you know, I would be hard pressed to show you that for two reasons. The first is, that tithing was so accepted that it did not need to be mentioned in more than passing; and because, second, the New Testament Church moved beyond the tithe to expect that all we have comes from God and is to be returned to God. The Episcopal Church’s emphasis on the tithe is a radical lessening of the expectations of the New Testament. As we become more faithful, I believe that the tithe will become the starting point, not the goal of giving for Christians.
My family was poor as I grew up. There were five children, and my father always worked at the bottom of the pay scale in the factories where he was employed. My mother handled the money, what there was of it; and the first check written every month was to the Church, and it was for 10% of that month’s meager income. Do you know, the seven of us never starved. We lacked many things that others took for granted; but for that commitment to Christ, we gained so much more. In my twenties, I lost my faith and left the church. When I came back, I was visited by a young man from our parish during the Every Member Canvass. I wasn’t pledging. I was one of the 250, if you will. Mike began to share with me what the church was trying to do, and he asked me to consider tithing. It was a mistake because I immediately asked him how much he gave, and he admitted it was about 3% of his income after all his monthly bills were paid. I’m not particularly proud of my response, but I was angry, well, maybe furious is a better word. To be honest about it I was seething with indignation; but after I came down from my self-righteousness, and Mike was gone, I went to my desk; and pulling out my checkbook, began to list by percent every part of my budget from the largest to the smallest item. By then I was aware that I had been saying, at least to myself, that my faith was once again the more important part of my life. Guess which entity received the smallest percentage of my income. Not very difficult. It was the church at less than 1%. That was what I carelessly gave to the church. It was less than family allowances. It was less than the tipping I did in restaurants. It was less than recreation. It was less than everything; and I, with my wife, made the commitment that night to begin again to tithe our income off the top every month. You have to understand my circumstances to understand the enormity of that decision.
Every month when I wrote the checks to meet our obligations, I did so with mounting frustration that almost always issued in words I could not safely utter in this building. It really did not feel safe to my family. More than once my wife left the house so as not be impacted by my rage. For, you see, we did not have enough money coming in to pay our basic obligations. And yet I knew from my childhood that God will always see the tither through. I don’t to this day believe in magic. I have no explanation for what happened, but within three months of our beginning to tithe, I could pay the bills without swearing or being upset at all. We had enough and our income had not increased. Since that time I have always been blessed with enough and often more than enough. I don’t know that I can say why that is, but tithing has something to do with it. I challenge you prayerfully to consider it. Take God’s challenge in Malachi: “see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing…Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.”
In the middle 1960’s I came into the Episcopal Church through All Saints’ Church in Pasadena, California. Ever since, it has been for me the finest example of what a church can be. It provided for me a substantial experience of the Christian faith. Worship was glorious; both music and liturgy were the finest I had ever known. The preaching was superb, challenging. The educational program was simply the best I have ever seen. Following reading a history of that parish and its rector of 28 years, I ask myself the question, "Is Grace and Holy Trinity a parish of substance in the same sense as All Saints?" How is the preaching? The pastoral care is excellent. Our music program is the best I have ever known. Our Christian education is good and is going to be the best; adult education is excellent, though poorly attended for a parish of the Cathedral’s stature. Our opportunities for ministry are legion. Yes, I conclude. This is a church of substance in spite of the fact that our people do not support it adequately. We have a dedicated staff across the board—every person. Our buildings are beautiful and carefully maintained. Our weakest area is evangelism. We have virtually no program and little concern for evangelism, the reaching out to the unchurched. However, this is a parish of substantial offerings for anyone who wants to come and be a part. What is needed is for you to take the substance of your life and match it with the substance you find here. When you begin to do that, this place will become for you the most exciting center of life you have ever known and are ever likely to know. Immersion into the life of the one God through the community which is here will change the course, not only of my life and yours, but of this entire city. Your money is not everything, but it is a consequential and substantive part of you, and it is as essential as the rest of you. This is my challenge to you. Match substance with substance, and see what God will do. Amen.
