The Gratitude and Joy of Tithing

In the Book of Acts (16:9-15… go ahead, read it now!) we hear of a group of women gathered for prayer and worshipping God while Paul and a few disciples go in search of a place to worship.
This story is one of new beginnings… within the church… and within the hearts of some faithful women. It is a rich story as the Lord makes his home in Lydia’s heart. She responds to Paul’s message of Jesus by opening her home, which perhaps becomes the mission center (or church) of Philippi… that we hear about in the Book of Philippians.

We don’t know much about Lydia. Perhaps she was a well respected business woman in her community. She was a dealer of purple cloth which was used for garments for royalty and the rich. More importantly, with hearts turned toward God we hear that she was a worshipper of God (presumably a Gentile following the Jewish teachings and rituals).  This ladies circle must have shared stories of the faith of Noah and the flood, Joseph and the famine, Moses and the Israelites, Ruth and Naomi, Queen Esther and so on.
In the midst of all the teachings there’s a likelihood Lydia and the women discovered that people of faith honor God with gratitude and joy and thanksgiving for everything God does and for who God is! As they grew in an orientation to God’s laws of the First Testament, their hearts began to grow in healthy relationships with others and in relationship with God.
Their orientation to God’s laws led them to respond beautifully – so that others would see God through their gratitude and joy. I’m guessing that as they learned of faithfulness and gratitude toward God and others, they learned about the faith practice of tithing. As the message of Jesus came to her, she was further freed and maybe even convicted of being God’s child. As God’s child through Jesus, she must have learned she was different, and the Lord expected her to show it… as difficult as it may be.
Maybe Lydia as a businesswoman already had the financial skills to be respected among many. But what she likely heard is that her ―check book‖ (as a matter of speaking) reflected her priorities. As she grew in the foundations of faith, she grew in honoring God with all of her resources. She must have realized the abundant ways by which God had blessed her — which as a worshipper of God she could not have ignored the attitude to be a blessing to others.
I’d go out on a limb to say that Lydia was a joyful giver to the church of her day. She realized the resources she had and with the message of Jesus weaving into her heart, the Spirit opened her heart so that she saw at least a portion of her resources were for use in God’s kingdom.
Here, I’ll insert a lesson on tithing and financial orientation to help us relate to the resources we have for God’s kingdom. As a starting place for faithful financial management (note that I am a faith advisor), what I teach is the  “10–10–80″ principle. Based on your income, the first financial priority is a 10% tithe to the church (to God) as a faith response of gratitude and joy for all that God provides in our lives and for the world. The First Testament talks about this as “first fruits.”   The second financial priority is to save 10% to prepare for the future, whether that’s a rainy day (or season) or retirement. The third financial priority is that of daily living on 80%.   80%… wow! It’s amazing to realize how God gives us an abundance to live on! (Remember the purple cloth image in worship  which illustrated the point?)

Being a joyful giver is a response of gratitude for the awesome and wondrous works of God through Jesus. However, when anxiety and fear settle in, evil tries to get a foothold and tells us to circle the wagons, and hold on tighter to what we have. Maybe we even hoard a little more so that we gain a sense of security. When we foster and act out of attitudes of scarcity, our hearts are hardened to the Lord and we forget that our security is in Christ Jesus.
We need reminding time and time again of that which God gave up for us – all of himself in Jesus – so that our anxiety, fears and burdens would be transformed into something of blessing and a glimmer of hope for others.  Through the renewing waters of baptism and through the body and blood of the risen Christ, the love of God comes to us in Jesus and frees us and creates a new-found joy and peace … so that we are re-oriented and so that we re-prioritize, not based on anything that we have done, but what God does for us. What might this re-orientation and re-prioritization look like in our lives?
Gratitude and honoring God with a portion of the abundance which has been entrusted to each of us is a tithe. When we tithe (or grow toward a tithe), the Spirit grows an awareness that God abundantly provides for every need.
So, my friends in Christ Jesus who prepare for our annual and individual reviews of our financial commitments to our church and our God, how will we grow together in faithfulness toward God and one another in terms of our financial joy and gratitude to God? I pray that the Lord opens our hearts like Lydia’s so that we will continue to witness to the awesome freedom with which we’ve been gifted through Jesus our Lord and Savior.

Advent-uring with Jesus,
Pastor Marc