Suits and tithes

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that here may be food in My house, test Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need." Malachi 3:10

"At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your town. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the stranger, the orphan and the widow who are in your town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do." -- Deuteronomy 14:28-29

The first verse gets thrown around a lot as a reason to tithe, but do we follow the second half? To "pour out for you a blessing until there is no more need." Is our tithe being used for the stranger? the orphan? the widow? For....NEED?

Or is it used solely for self-perpetuation? Salaries? Buildings? Savings?

Perhaps one of the greatest twistings of scriptures is the verse most often used on "stewardship day": the parable of the widow's mites. We are told we should be so willing to give our money that if we only have two mites we should give it.

This exposition misses the whole point of the parable. This parable is a condemnation on the institutions that allow a poor widow to give away her last two mites.

Modern subheadings obscure this in our Bibles, but let us not forget the verses preceding the parable:

And in his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Hoarding what God has entrusted to us

I find an interesting parallel between the parable of the ten minas in St. Luke's gospel and the way the church does or doesn't use its talents and resources to be Jesus to the world.

We have basically the example of three types of stewardship, all of which I have seen played out in different Christians lives.

1. We have the example of the servant who takes one and makes ten. Here is that Christian: when faced by the opportunity to serve, he will entrust himself to God's care, abandoning himself to serving God.

2. We have the servant who takes one and makes five, showing us the example of one who serves more cautiously but still serves his Lord using what God has given him to further the Kingdom.

3. And last we have the servant who is paralyzed by his view of his Master, thinking of Him as a severe man who takes those things others have worked for. This servant is not only focused on the aspect of his Master in His capacity as judge of the wrongdoer, but thinking of the King as a common man and not as the protector and enabler of His subjects, rightly requiring the increase.

How often do we sit around and speculate about what God would have us do to the exclusion of doing anything? Why is it so hard to abandon ourselves to serving our God with all He has given us?

I suspect that part of our apathy is due to the fact that we view God in a human frame and not as the One who gives all and asks for that which we can joyfully give of the abundance He has given us, and partly because we have forgotten the story of the rich man and Lazarus and the examples of St. Martin, St. Brigit, St. Francis and St. Clare, Dr. Livingstone, R.G. LeTourneau, Mother Theresa of Calcutta and so many others.

So what gifts and talents has God given you? How are you using them to glorify Him and further His Kingdom?