Don't Be Guilted into Giving

Random thoughts on this post:

Raised Catholic, I broke a nun’s heart and attended an Assembly of God service. It was a sermon day for money appeals galore (three offerings). I had not seen this before.
The sermon was based on Psalm 126 basically saying “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy”
(v.5).

The visiting from Africa, pastor, had proclaimed that the end of each harvest required a setting aside of seed for next years crop planting. It had been a poor crop year in Burkina Faso. But required bags of seeds for next years’s grain were set in bags in a separate facility.

In time, folks were starving. No food to be found. A little boy wandering as little boys do, came across the bags of seed, and ran home with some,…. telling dad, “We are saved and won’t starve! I found some grain”.
Dad recognized the seed grain for the spring crop to come, and knew if they ate that seed, there would be no planting or new harvest…..assuring starvation. He told his son to return the bags of grain to where they were.
They would be planted; not eaten now….and some starvation now, would preclude all starvation later.

“Those seeds would be sowed in tears”, the pastor proclaimed, but they will reap with songs of joy”, from having that small alllotment. He wanted money to hold back starvation in the interim.
Hence, the third offering. I still remember that from 20 years ago, but do not know if it is a recycled sermon for money pitch, or a solo performance that year, as needed.

But the effort sowed tears in an audience of a mega spot, and thousands of dollars accrued immediately for a third offering cause. I assume motivations to contribute or not varied, but it was a memorable momey pitch as you can see.

Above, I read:
“What I’ve been reminded of is that, as Pastor Norm rightly said, faith and finances are inextricably linked. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” said Jesus in Matt. 6:21.”

I do not agree with Pastor Norm.
Mother Teresa was doing her thing for the poor of Calcutta, long before the Nobel Prize and accompanying money that she then gave to her Indian people and cause, for taking care of the least among us.
We are told to “Store our treasures in heaven”…..but that locale does not have an ATM machine.
Treasures take many forms, and Mother Teresa was storing up her treasures long prior to Nobel monies being added to the cause. Her treasure storing truly revealed her heart, and it had zip to do with finances.

New churches mean new buildings, new parking lots, new maintenance, new worship leader, salaries and more. None of the money feeds a single soul, gives medical attention to the ill, rehabs a prisoner, and the like; but, it does keep the game of church-money in profits, more than prophets.
We have lost our way as Christians on this.
Few pastors want a small church; they seek bigger and more modern, and MEDIA to outreach.
That is their treasure; their heart.
And it is to the detriment of the church of Jesus Christ globally

(It amazes me that churches needed cash for Haiti earthquake, and the Tsunami folks a few years back in Aceh, but remain silent as oil fills the Gulf of Mexico. Treasures are a funny thing and truly DO reveal the heart.

Third and final observation:
Jesus healed ten lepers. One returned to say “Hey, I just wanted to tell you I deeply appreciate what you did for me and healed me”.
Christ changed the topic.
“Were not ten of you healed? Where are the other nine?”

When I hear this anytime, I am reminded to be a “ten”, not an “other nine”, for their ingratitude will one day be judge by the Master Healer. But no money exchanged hands between Christ and the “ten”.
His treasure and heart were linked and stored in heavenly currency called gratitude, for what he ahd received. He went back to Christ and said “Thanks”. Christ did not say “Your welcome”.
He queried the motives of the other nine and a lack of gratitude that will come back to haunt each.
This is not guilt; this is guidance from Christ.
Notice a “tenth” returned.

I have a suspicion that the entry to heaven’s narrow gate will approximate this number and ratio.
Perhaps 10% will enter heaven as a result of knowing how to store treasure in heavenly currency in God’s economy. Building bricks and mortar, paving parking lots, having esspresso machines on hand for “the elect” to enjoy church (with donuts too please) has nothing to do with tithing…..but that is where the vast majority is consumed.
We are way out of whack as Christians on tithing, how to tithe, why, and the songs of joy we reap when we store treasures in heaven, not here.

I said last above, but more comes to mind, so I add:
My aunt was among the poorest women I ever knew. She was also among the most joyful people I ever knew. I recall many a time when someone would compliment something in her home…..from curtains to her purse. Whatever it was, she always replied: “Oh,…do you like that? Take it now! It’s yours!”
People were stunned as she emptied her purse and smiled as she handed it over, empty, but filled with joy to the giver and receiver, for BOTH knew it was “liked”.

As a family, we learned to NOT tell her we liked something or she would stop what she was doing and give it away to you. This was a woman who had nothing……and everything. She died with a smile.
I suppose she thought we liked it and so she left the planet, with her smile left behind. I miss her.
As Christ said of the woman who ticked off Judas by beaking a nard of oil and washing Christ with her hair and tears comingled: “Leave her alone. What she has done is for me, and will be remembered wherever the Gospel is preached forever, She done what she could”. That was my aunt. She done what she could.

Ok, last thought….though I wish I could tell them all.
I worked for an oil company at one point, and the president invited me to his church. I went.
It was a decent sized, modern Protestant church, whopper choir, mission oriented spot.

Offertory time came, and plates of gold plating were passed row to row, front to back.
It was my first visit and I observed this tithing moment up close.
I passed the plate to the president, who had a $20 bill in his hand, but his hand was shaking in grasp, with an internal decision underway in his mind, to drop it in or keep it. It consumed a good ten seconds and a frustrating scowl on his face, until his second wife on the other side of him and me, nudged him to move it buddy. He dropped the twenty in.

At work, i asked an older co-worker what that was all about. Surely he did not invite me to church to display that a millionaire several times over was a skin flint….so why the trouble disbursing a twenty dollar bill?

The coworker replied two items:
“Look around here Keystone. We have to recycle one box of paper clips in this office. When you need one, go to the office receptionist and claim a recycled one. (I laughed at this, for I had lamented to a friend of the hoarding of paper clips and she mailed me a whopping 100 clip box for a Christmas gift for 99 cents).
I was the envy of the oil company workers, thereafter.

“Keystone”, he continued, “this man is running out of planet to vacation. He is gone three weeks of each month. But long ago, he bought for that church he took you to (and my coworker when HE started working long before), the organ in the upper loft. He thinks he is going to heaven for storing that organ up there.
In his mind, it makes no sense to give another $20 when you gave the organ….he’s going to heaven already”.

I began to understand the minds of the poor through my aunt giving away anything she had that brought joy to another.
I began to understand the perils of the rich getting into heaven…..when you hoard paper clips to save money, yet vacation in Thailand and 6 more spots annually, but church giving is once a lifetime and get it over with.

“Where are the other nine?”
Be a “ten”…….again and again.