The people of Israel have escaped slavery in Egypt. God, with Moses as a chosen leader, rescues the people and provides for their journey. Last week, we looked at the Ten Commandments as a kind of common ethic to draw them together and lend greater health and structure to relationships.

Now there are more commandments about making idols and about mixing religion's influence in any way that makes the people neglect God. God commands them to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) and the Feasts of Weeks and Ingathering (Harvest). He reminds them of the importance of Sabbath.

In and around those commands, God tells them to give their first born (19-20) and their first fruits (26). It's not the first mention. Elsewhere in Exodus, and earlier in Genesis, and over and over in the Old Testament, we see the notion of the tithe - first born and first fruits offerings - laid out before the people by God and His agents.

Here's the idea - the firstborn animal of any womb belongs to God as an offering. The first born son of any family belongs to God as a priest. (To this day, some very traditional people will assume that I'm the oldest brother in my family…). And the first-fruits of the field or orchard or vineyard belong to God as an offering. Other passages specify how much of the produce by using the word tithe, which means tenth.

The first or tenth wasn't the only offering. At the various feasts, (Unleavened Bread, Weeks, Ingathering - later others), more offerings would be made. There were also sin offerings, peace offerings, trespass, daily, vowed and freewill offerings. In every case, there was a spiritual/symbolic element to the offering and a practical element. Spiritually, the tithe or offering represents the giving of one's whole self to God's glory. "Lord, here's the first and best, to represent that you are first and best in my life." Practically, the tithes and offerings served to feed and care for the poor, widows, orphans, aliens, other charitable purposes, plus the vital functions of the clergy (Levites and priests).

In Chapter 35, we see the beginning of the Tabernacle project. This portable sanctuary was to be very functional and elaborate, requiring skilled architects and costly materials. Later in the Old Testament, similar efforts took form at God's direction to build and then rebuild the temple in a fixed location in Jerusalem. All of this required even more giving. So it wasn't just about tithing, but tithing was a declaration - God is the first and best thing in my life.

Just to paint a broader backdrop to our understanding, here are some interesting Old Testament prescriptives.

Over and around it all is the notion that all the earth belongs to God (all that we are, all that we see, all that we have) is clearly stated in Psalm 24:1. While I'm sure that every generation of God-lovers has struggled with the gimmes and keepsies, the chief ethic has never really changed. It's all God's. Not 10%. Not any percentage less than 100%.

Still, the giving of the first 10% was to be an acknowledgement of God's claim on everything.

When this offering happened, it wasn't a sad, grudging march to the altar. Deuteronomy 12:18 isn't the only passage that paints the picture of what I'd call a "tithe party." Basically, the meat wasn't just burned up. It was barbecued, and the people would feast, the poor would feast, and admonition is given "not to forget the Levites." "These things I remember as I pour out my soul," writes the choir director of Psalm 42, "how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng." It was festival of giving, praying, sharing, feasting. No unthinking jingling of pocket change or the flash of a few bucks. These folks poured in to celebrate God and give, at least in the better seasons of spiritual fervor.

They also had the "shimitta," or the seventh/Sabbath year. Every seventh year they rested the fields, and if any crops grew up incidentally, they were up for grabs. No storing allowed; only sharing. All debts were put on hold. This was immediately costly, but (as soil agronomists could tell us) good for the land. Beneficial over the long haul.

On the seventh, seventh shmitta/Sabbath year (the 50th year) they were commanded to have a year of Jubilee. In that year, the ground was rested, all produce was fair game, no storing or hording, indentured servants/ bondslaves were set free, hired workers were given the whole year off, all land returned to its original owners, to honor God's original allotments to the 12 tribes. All this to prevent oppression, exhaustion, spiritual forgetfulness, and to promote mercy, generosity, and a sense of stewardship rather than ownership. It all belongs to God.

What else? All the time, the corners of a person's property belonged to travelers and the poor. In other words, all fields had 4 portions set aside for free pickens.

Giving to the poor, by the way, is a major theme in the Old Testament, and I could have listed dozens of passages. The Jewish people, in their best seasons have, for centuries, practiced a sophisticated strategy for charitable giving (called tzedakah).
Finally, at the end of the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi speaks the hardest words about tithing. "You rob me," says the Lord. "How do we rob you?" "In tithes and offerings. Bring the whole tithe." They were shorting God and it represented a deep spiritual swoon in the life of the people.

God says, "Test me, and see if I will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you won't have enough room for it." That challenge is virtually the end of the Old Testament.

The New Testament starts with Jesus and he picks up right where Malachi left off. No, he doesn't talk about tithing, in specific. But he never backs down on the Law (think not…). In fact, he always raises the bar (you've heard it said…). As for money and giving, Jesus notes time and time again the relationship between how we handle money and where our devotions lie (where your treasure is…). 18 of his 38 parables concerned money and assets. Some of his sternest warnings were to the rich (eye of the needle…). In the parable of the talents, Jesus warns all of us, rich or poor, from squandering our assets by feeble, guarded, security-driven, risk adverse behavior. He urges us, instead, to risk and to invest and to be virtual skydivers and bungee-jumpers in terms of the way we live and give and invest by faith. The widow is lauded for giving her only and last coin to the offering, while the rich and the proud are verbally skewered for thinking they're doing something special by skimming from our excess.

Lay up your treasure in heaven, says Jesus... And we can assume that Jesus both tithed (he was a full practicing Jew), and participated in special offerings.

As we move through the New Testament, again, we find little or nothing about tithing. 10% giving seems modest at best and probably ridiculous to most who were early followers of the one who laid down everything.

The early church in Acts 4:32 let go of the notion of personal possessions. They lived in community and shared as any had need. There were no needy people in the early church. People sold houses and property, and resources were distributed according to need.

Acts 20:35 quotes Jesus as saying that it's more blessed to give than to receive, and this ethic drove the Macedonian church of 2 Corinthians 8 to give in a time of their own affliction, in spite of their own poverty, out of freedom, each according to his or her ability, beyond their own power as a ministry to the famine-stricken Jerusalem. 8:5 says, "They gave first themselves to God, and then their money."

So Paul exhorts in 2 Corinthians 9, "Don't give under compulsion. Give hilariously. Sow much and you'll reap much. You'll be enriched in every way to be generous on every occasion (2 Cor. 9:11). So different than the prosperity doctrine, taught in so many schlocky churches and on television. "Give so that you can be rich… (even Jim Baker has rejected this). God is saying, "I'd only enrich you so you can give." And, yes, I think God loves to bless extravagant givers, but that's true of rich and poor who understand the joy of being used by God to distribute His graces. Like any loving father, God loves to give good things to His children. But like the best of fathers, God loves to see us own His values and imitate His lavish kindness.

Yes, the New Testament is rife with warnings. "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10). The rich should be commanded to be rich in good deeds. (That's us, by the way. If you have even one car, a house and a refrigerator filled with food, you are in the category of 8% of wealth worldwide). And so, you can't take it with you (1 Timothy 6:18-19).

Paul teaches us how to land with all of this. "I have learned the secret of living in plenty and living in want. Contentment. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."

The enemies of contentment are covetousness, pride, comparison and unhealthy kinds of competition. Greed and lust kill contentment. Feeding them is like feeding a monster. Small measures hardly cut it. Paul teaches something much more drastic. Romans 12:1, "I urge you…present your bodies as living sacrifices…this is your spiritual service of worship." Not just money. Not just time or talent. Not just songs or prayers. Lord, here I am. I'm yours. Now you lead me. You show me. You teach me and help me with this hard matter of discerning how to steward your resources.

Now, just between us siblings, this is where I've landed; not in a static way, but in a biblically informed and principled way, that I'm trying to live into.

1. I believe in the tithe. I believe in making a first-fruits, free-handed offering to God's church. That means writing the first check in every pay period to the church, and without dictating the specific beneficiaries or program. This is a spiritual exercise of relinquishing control, divesting myself of ownership and blessing the forward progress of God's kingdom agenda through His primary agent - the local church.
2. Then we go for a walk in the Spirit. We watch, we listen, we pray, we read, we follow our instincts and intuitions and end up giving to things that light up our switchboards (amazing how God unites us).
3. We also live in community - our friendships and our church. Life in community means that there are some things we do together whether it lights my fire or not. Special offerings and projects, seasons and festivals. If Dale wants to have a parade for Katrina, I'm showing up. If Lila wants to have a dinner for Niger, I'm there. Yes, we miss some, but community matters, and I respect the passion of others enough that I'm going to try to honor and feed those passions even if I don't know the difference between Niger and the Congo.

And then I just love to give to vision.

Helen Keller, when asked "Is there anything worse than blindness?" answered, "Yes, sight without vision." So I get jazzed when, whenever, whoever is dreaming of changing the world for Jesus sake. No vision, no interest here. Big vision, get out of my way.

This church has too often been stunted and starved by a small or vague vision. If we're serious about changing the world (and I assume we are. If not, why are we here?) then we need to find and hold a shared vision that's so much bigger and better than provincial churchianity.