Tithe.
Does that sound like a 4 letter word to you? Let's talk about it...
The Bible talks about money more than it talks about faith and prayer.
Jesus talked about money more than he talked about heaven or hell.
Why?
Because our resources, their sources, and their uses is a major part of what it means to be an individual-in-community, what it means to be faithful and spiritual, what it means to be human. Money's important. It's not inherently evil. It's important. At my church, we talked about money for the whole month of October. You can listen to my messages here: Grace Giving, Giving in Perspective & Proportion, Cheers!, and What's That Smell?. So if you have the time and interest, there is about an hour and a half of content for you on the biblical ideas of giving and generosity.
Stearns offers two insightful perspectives on money and on giving.
Money is the current that flows through the power lines of society.
Giving inoculates us against the power that money can sometimes hold over us.
What do you think of those images? Do you resonate with them? Agree with them? What power does money have in your life? In your work and relationships and decisions?
Lest you think that talking about money doesn't apply to you because you're not rolling in it, let's get a little global and historical perspective on the issue. If your income is $25,000 per year, you are wealthier than 90% of the world's population. If you make $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99% of the world's population. If you own a car, you are among the 7% of the people in the world who do so.
The combined income of all American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. It would take 1% of that to lift the poorest billion people in the world out of extreme poverty. Imagine what could be done with 10% (the biblical principle of the tithe, which means, simply, tenth).
The world would change. The world would know the whole gospel in all of it's redemptive and beautiful authenticity and action.
Please join this Advent book club by reading The Hole in our Gospel
and this blog every day until Christmas.
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