Growth

Bless the Lord!

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1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103:1-5

Worship declares the incredible worth of God. It proceeds from the delight one feels in God.Worship as a discipline requires tending the soul by reminding ourselves of who God is and what He has done. We are forgetful.

God gives us many benefits.
He forgives our iniquity.
God heals our diseases.
God redeems our lives from the pit.
God crowns us with steadfast love and mercy.
God satisfies us with good, renewing our strength.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

God is not impressed with your contempt.

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9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
  Luke 18:9-14

God is not impressed with your contempt.

With this parable Jesus shows us what God is looking for. God is looking for the humble heart. God is listening to the person who will quit the comparison game and admit they are a mess. This tax collector seeks the audience of God.

This one is looking for mercy. This one has heard the penetrating whisper of the Spirit address the depravity of the heart. This one agrees with God. This one confesses without looking for the applause of people.

This one goes home experiencing the transforming-right-making-grace of God.

That’s how God changes a life.

Pray and do not lose heart, even on the safe side of a screen.

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1And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”   Luke 18:1-8

When Christians pray we are not putting our heads in the ground and ignoring the reality of life. Jesus encourages His disciples to pray about the concerns of their life and to not give up. God is just. God hears. And God will act.

I fear though, we give up easily when the matters that could occupy our conversation with God could be intercession in matters of justice. In this parable Jesus envisions His people, the elect, living in a realm plagued by  persistent and chronic injustice. So, they pray. So, they seek God. It’s personal.

And that’s the problem for those of us removed from the stories we only hear from the safe side of a screen. Our quick access to media has allowed us to become armchair critics for those who face injustice. Its not personal to us. Its personal to them. And so our prayers as potential intercessors are lame. We cannot locate the injustice or the vulnerability of those on the weak side of power. On the safe-side of the screen mercy is too easily trumped by self-righteous confidence and condemnation. And so our prayers for justice are reduced to hoping people will behave.

Jesus’ listeners likely would have shaken their heads in wonder at his story. Could a widow, a “nobody,” really have moved a calloused judge full of his own importance and power? Yes. But, more importantly Jesus wants us to know that God is not like the judge who’s only care is for the comfort and quiet of his evenings. Perhaps Jesus also wants the disciples He has chosen for Himself to be like this God who cares. This God who cares so much for justice that He enters into the conversation, not on the safe side of heaven, but on the suffering surfaces of earth, even to the surface of a cross.

So, when you see the cries of those who seek justice, join them, if only on the safe side of a screen, and pray with them for the tender mercies of our God who can change even the most calloused hearts and who has appointed a day for judging us all before Jesus Christ his Son. Then, with your own heart softened, you may get to enter into the real life struggle of others who are chronically bruised by unfair practices and indignities.

Someday… when I win the lottery.

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1We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.  2 Corinthians 8:1-7

Generosity is a matter of character. And like many aspects of character we assume we can actually “put it on” or simply “start doing it” when we “grow up” or when we have more responsibility and capacity. So we may assume we will establish a standard of giving when we have a lot more money than we have today. But that’s not the way it works. You won’t become generous because you have a big salary, or win the lottery.

Our “Secret” of Giving
As Christians generosity is meant to flow from our disciple-life with Jesus. The secret of the Macedonian’s generosity was not that they were wealthy people. Their secret of generosity was that they “gave themselves first to the Lord” and “then by the will God” to the apostles and their work. The tithe was not the beginning point for them; rather their relationship with Jesus and His church was their starting point for giving.

Set your Standards of Giving
The standard of giving that you have today is likely to be your standard of giving in the future, unless you begin to change it in response to Jesus and allow for a Gospel-shaped generosity in your standards. This is how character develops. Its a hardened habit built over time and testing. Then the tithe under the grace of Jesus becomes a generosity baby step. Paul tells the Corinthians to see that that they excel in the grace of giving not through the force of a command but through the force of Jesus’ love in their hearts!

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:8-9

God says, “Eat the tithe!” and gives us awesome instructions on how to be a generous community.

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22 “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. 23And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, 25then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses 26and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. 27And you shall not neglect the Levite who is within your towns, for he has no portion or inheritance with you. 28 “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.                                                         Deuteronomy 14:22-29

With a few conversations and internet searches you will know that the critique of tithing and the church abounds. Yet throughout the Scripture, tithing, (regularly returning 10% of your income to the Lord) is connected to celebration, care and mercy, and blessings.

Celebration
This is amazing! God says, “Eat the tithe.” God gracefully commanded the tithe so we can be free and generous as a community. His vision for people is one in which their response to Him and to His deliverance into the abundance of His provision is to honour Him regularly. As we honour Him we invite our family to celebrate God and His grace towards us. Gather with your family, I would suggest your larger church family, and eat the tithe!

Care and Mercy
Every three years the tithe was also to be gathered in the local community for the care of those engaged in leading the work of God’s people and for those who are especially vulnerable in the community: the “foreigner,” the orphan, and the widow. Jesus critiqued people who tithed and neglected the weighty matters that tithing was meant to support: justice, mercy, and faithfulness toward people. He says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!” Matthew 23:23-24 Tithing supports our community’s gracious generosity for the benefit of vulnerable people, people under pressure.

Blessings in Our Work
The tithe and the gracious generosity its connected with comes with the promise of God’s blessing in our work. I’m going to make “the interpretive leap here” and connect the promise to our life together in the church. God says he will do an amazing thing when we give for the work of our church: He will “bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.” In the age of “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:17-19), God promises that our regular giving response to His grace towards us will yield more. As Bill Hybles has observed, God can get us not only from “A” to “B” (the basic vision of enough in our society) but also to “C,” doing and accomplishing far more good that we can imagine!