NAME:Old First Reformed Brooklyn
DENM:Mainline
AREA: Brooklyn (Park Slope)
SPKR:Daniel Meeter, the Rev. Dr.
DATE: 11/04/2012
Well, you are not far from the kingdom of God. I think if you wanted to see the kingdom of God this week in Park Slope, you should have gone to the corner of 8th Avenue and Garfield Place, and you can still see it, where Congregation Beth Elohim is loving God with all their hearts, and loving their neighbors as theirself – themself – theirselves, themselves. [Laughter.] There’s a picture on the internet of their chapel, which cannot be used for worship because it’s full of food. They’re delivering to all parts of Brooklyn, and they don’t care to whom.
The debate that Jesus had, that was being had here in Jerusalem with the Pharisees the last week of Jesus’ life, and he’s being asked, which is the most important of the mitzvot? Which is the most important mitzvah of the mitzvot? Does anybody know how many mitzvot there are? Commandments in the Torah? Six hundred and thirteen. Right? What were you going to say, Susan? [Susan: I was going to say 600 plus. I didn’t know it was tha big a....] The reason, the heart of Zionism, the reason for the possession of the land of Israel, the possession the city of Jerusalem, and the rebuilding of the temple, among some groups, is because several hundred of those mitzvot, the ones that he’s referring to, sacrifices and burnt offerings, can only be done in Israel, in Jerusalem in the temple. So the debate that Jesus is receiving here from this scribe is a debate that is still held today among believing Jews. How many mitzvot are we supposed to carry out and what does that mean for the possession of Jerusalem? What does that mean for the building of the temple? How can we have the kingdom of the God back? And the answer that Jesus gives is, I think, what you would see in Congregation Beth Elohim this week. We’ll say more about that a little bit later on.
This is our stewardship season, and next Sunday is Consecration Sunday, which means that it’s my job every year to preach about tithing, which gives me the interesting responsibility, no matter what the scripture lessons are that Sunday, to find something in them about tithing. [Laughter.] And I usually find something in there about tithing, no matter what the lessons are. And I do have something this week about tithing, but first let me define for you what tithing is. This is the season of five-point plans, right? So tithing is intentional, it’s challenging, it’s a priority, it’s an investment, and it’s risky. Those are the five principles of tithing. It’s intentional, it’s challenging, it’s a priority, it’s an investment, and it’s risky.
It’s intentional. Tithing is a discipline. Tithing is not charity. Tithing is not a response to someone else’s need. That’s important, we need to do that, but that’s not what tithing is. Tithing is not responding to the needs of your neighbor or even to the needs of the church. Those are important, but that’s not what tithing is. Tithing isn’t even done at church. You do it at home, when you sit down to do your budgeting in general, when you budget the cost of your housing or your Verizon plan or how nice a vacation you expect to take this year. Tithing doesn’t come from feelings but from sober intentionality. It’s done at home when you budget.
Second, it’s challenging. Tithing is meant to cost you. It’s just like your housing and your groceries. If the money you tithe does not cut into what you might spend on other things, then it’s not tithing yet. The ideal tithe is ten percent. That’s in scripture. That seems high if you’re new to tithing. But since tithing is not a law, it’s a freely chosen discipline, you start at three or four percent, or whatever challenges you. And then the next year, you challenge yourself one step higher. The point is the challenge because tithing is a challenge. So it’s intentional, and it’s a challenge.
Third, it’s a priority. It’s from the top. So whatever percentage you choose, it’s the first portion of your budget, it’s the top percentage of your income. You budget your tithe before you budget your housing or your cable or whatever else is in your budget. It’s a tithe. So, tithing before cable, we’ll put it that way, all right? [Laughter.] Because your soul is the dearest thing about you, because your money should serve your soul and not the other way around, so tithing is the tool that you use to prioritize your economic life by your spiritual.
Fourth, it’s an investment. It’s not a response to current need. That’s important, but it’s not what tithing is. It’s your investment in the long-term work of God in the world. It’s also an investment in yourself, in your spiritual power over the money that you have, instead of your money having power over you. You know that in our culture, money means power, and money has more power over every one of us that anyone of us admits to. Guaranteed. Money demands of us that we take care of it and protect it and secure it. Money is very demanding. The more you have it, the more demanding it seems to be. Tithing is how you claim some freedom from that power of money. Tithing is how you accept the power of money but reject what it demands of you. Tithing is an investment in your own empowerment, that you are more powerful than your money is.
Fifth, it’s risky. Every investment, good or bad, has some risk in it. You will ask yourself if you can really do this. You’ll look at a percentage, you’ll say, can I really do that? Your certified financial planner would advise you to invest that top percentage of your money more realistically. To tithe is a risk and it requires faith. You can tithe, really, only as a way of managing your risk by means of the faithfulness of God, by believing that God is providential. You can’t do it unless you believe that God is providential.
Those are the five principles of tithing. The motives of tithing are two: gratitude and love. You heard about gratitude from Jeff Chu [ph] last week, and from Lance Gangemi [ph] the week before. The week before that you heard about love from Kelly Green. I want to take up that love again because of the scriptures that we heard today. So, Jesus, tell us, which is the most important mitzvot of them all, the most important commandment of the 613, which is the first? Is Jesus had been a Christian, which he wasn’t – no, well, he never actually was, never joined the church. If Jesus had been a Christian, he’d have gone to the first of the Ten Commandments, right, from Exodus, the first commandment that we all learn as Christians, “Thou shalt have no other God before me.” But Jesus was a Jew. So he went to Deuteronomy, to the first mitzvah he repeated every morning in his prayers, when he put on his tallit – not tallit, well, I forget the name of it. When he put on his, the leather thing on his head and on his arm, and he repeated the shema, and then the first of the mitzvah that he would say every morning when he prayed was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might.” That was the first, that’s a first commandment for every active, devout, believing Jew, and it was for the Lord Jesus. So, love with strength or might or power. And if money is power, then shouldn’t we also to be able to say, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your money”? That’s the motivation for tithing. Tithing is from love.
Then Jesus, in front of this scribe, adds another mitzvah, from Leviticus. Again, not from Exodus, but from Leviticus. “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Very similar to the first one, but subtly different. You must love God totally, with all, but you must love your neighbor equally as yourself. The command to love God is unlimited, but the command to love your neighbor is measured with proportion. You need to love God with the limitless extravagance of your whole being, but you need to love your neighbor in balance with loving yourself. You love God with everything, and that’s why tithing is the top part of your spending, thereby giving proper meaning to everything else you spend. You love your neighbor in equal proportion to yourself, and that’s why tithing is a percentage that you determine according to the measure of the cost of your life and of your family’s life. You measure the cost of love in real, practical terms. Love of God, love of neighbor, totally in proportion.
Now, you don’t have to do this if you want to be spiritual but not religious. You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to participate in organized religion. You can just go off by yourself to the beach and see God in the sunrise. You won’t have to think about anybody else – except if it’s a beach in the East Coast, there’s gonna be other people there, well. I mean, go to a beach on the West Coast if you don’t want to think about anybody else. You won’t have to share with them or forgive them or be forgiven by them. You can have your spirituality without any risk or challenge or investment. You won’t have to do the work of love as part of spirituality. The complex patterns of realistically reconciling with your neighbor in order to love them and be loved by them, at the same time as you have this real devotion, real devotional activities to God, of your love to God, that complexity of reconciliation and devotion is religion! Spirituality plus organized love is religion. And the reason you invest in these organizations of love that are spiritual is so that when there’s a sudden need like a disaster, a natural disaster, Hurricane Sandy, the storm that followed, an organized love group that’s devoted to God like Congregation Beth Elohim or the Greenpoint Reform Church can be locations of organized love of neighbor. That’s why you contribute, out of love, to keep these communities going.
Love is not love unless there is an object to your love, someone or something that’s loved. If tithing is an act of love, you give you tithe to a whole community of people whom you love, not so much depending on how you like them – you don’t need to love them as much if you like them a lot. If you don’t like them you have to love them more. These are people that you try to practice your love upon, and in real terms. Your tithe makes possible the object of your tithe. It’s circular, a circle of love. When you tithe to this community, you help to build a community in which to practice love. Indeed, a community which requires love just in order to operate. A church, a synagogue, they require love in order to operate. So you contribute to a fellowship of intentionality in which to organize your sacrifices. You contribute to a culture which recites these commandments to your children and talks about them when you are at home. A community of Jesus means that the love of God is at its center and we express that love towards each other in concrete terms. That’s hard work. That means care and visitation, that means the habits of reconciliation, the work of peace, it means organization, and institution, and paying insurance, and hiring staff, and buying Sunday school curriculum. You may invest your tithes in this community as a way of loving your neighbors in real time, expressing the love of God with all your strength because you want to love God with all your soul.
You tithe because you’re thankful for that love. And as was said by Lance and by Jeff, you give because you’re thankful. The love that you get from other people here, not always such great love, never perfect love, but attempts at love, real and practical attempts at love. Most of all, you’re thankful for the love you get from God. You’ve heard that God is love, and you believe that God is love, and occasionally you see that love within the world, and not just in the sunrise on the beach, but in the lives of other people and the sudden appearance of the kingdom of God in real terms, and now and then you recognize that love of God in your own life. Oh yeah, there was God’s love in my life there! And then you remind yourself that this is the greatest motivation for any risk and any investment and any intention, this is indeed the priority of your life, to give thanks for the love of God.
[Singing] Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; unto him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.