Good Morning. My Name Is Scott Gratsinger and I M on the Elders Team Here at 2Nd Street

Good morning. My name is Scott Gratsinger and I’m on the elders team here at 2nd Street. Pastor Gregg teaches about 40 times a year here at church and the elders usually teach twice a year, often with all of us sharing for four or five minutes each. This time Pastor Gregg asked me to share my story and what God has laid on my heart, and so here we are.

It was interesting to hear the story of my friend, Robin Baker, when he shared his story earlier this year at 2nd Street. You see, just like Robin, my story is one of growing up in a house that seemed to live at church. There was Sunday morning Sunday School and then Sunday morning church service. That was followed by Sunday night service, mid-week Bible Study, and Youth Group meetings at various times. And just like Robin, there was dressing up; shirts and ties for the guys, a jacket for the men, at least on Sunday morning.

In that “church” culture then we would have our own language, with special church words. Now, understand that this was a small town church, not terribly fancy, but still we had a bell and a steeple, we would sing something called the doxology, partake in communion, teach the Gospel, and of course every Sunday morning and evening we would have the ushers come forward to “take the tithes and offerings.”

I always wanted to figure out what these church words meant, especially when we don’t use them in the rest of our everyday life. Can you imagine going to training at work and at the end of the session you ask if anyone wants to join you in singing the doxology? Huh?

There’s an old story about a young bride that is serving ham to her husband for the first time and as she lays the ham out on the table he asks her where the end of the ham is. “I cut it off before I cooked it,” she replies. “How come?” he asks, and she says she’s not really sure, but that’s how her mother always cooked ham. The next time they’re at her parents this young woman thinks to asks her mom, “Mom, why do you cut the end of the ham off before you cook it?” “Well, honey,” she says, “I’m not quite certain, but you should ask your grandma, because that’s how she taught me to cook a ham.” So, later that week this curious woman decides to visit her grandmother across town. “Grammy,” she asks, “why is it that I’m supposed to cut the end off of the ham before I cook it?” “Oh Sweety, you know when your grandpa and I got married we were so poor. I had this little bitty pan that wasn’t even big enough to fit a whole ham, so I would just cut the end of it off so it would fit. I guess I’ve just baked it that way ever since.” We can’t live in our faith in a way that just repeats the same action over and over without knowing about why and how we do certain things, and I think that’s exactly how we treat our money in relation to our life in Christ.

I’m going to make a bold statement, and I will just say that this may not necessarily follow the opinion of Pastor Gregg or the Yearly Meeting or other teachers in our church. I believe that the “Tithes and Offerings” are dead. Kaput. As Jesus-followers they are simply history.

Now, two things just happened as I said that. First, Pastor Gregg just looked at his calendar and said to himself, “whew, well at least Scott is only on the elder’s team for eight more months.” At the same time, the head of the Finance Team just rolled his eyes and is

1 wondering if he can get one of those large Vaudeville hooks to quickly pull me out of the building.

So, what does it mean? Tithes and offerings? Where do we get these words? Where do we get these concepts? Grab a Bible and let’s go back to the beginning and maybe they’ll let me stay around a few more months.

I think it’s cool that Pastor Gregg is just starting through the Book of Exodus because that ties well into where we are going to be today. You see right in the middle of the Exodus God gives to Moses what we know as the Ten Commandments, the Big Ten. And at some time later, after the worship tent called the Tabernacle is constructed the Law of God is given to Moses and becomes the next book of the Bible, Leviticus. Leviticus is all about how to present offerings and sacrifices to God. It’s like an offering “How To” guide. Kind of “Burnt Offerings For Dummies.” We hit the ground running:

1 Then the LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When any man of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock. 3 If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the LORD.

Leviticus 1:1-3 (New American Standard Version)

And this is the start of seven chapters describing the way and reason for sacrifice to God in this new worship tent that had been created. There’s a great deal of detail here. We have the “What and How:”

 How to sacrifice bulls, rams, and  How to sacrifice flour goats  How to sacrifice bread  How to sacrifice birds  How to sacrifice grain

The animals would be killed and in very specific ways they would be offered on an alter as a burnt offering. The flour would be mixed with incense. Salt would be added to the flour, bread, or grain.

2 And then we also have the “Why:”

 To please God  To ask God for forgiveness of sin  To give thanks to God for a tribal leader  To make an agreement with God  To ask God for forgiveness of sin  To ask for God’s blessing for an ordinary person  To ask God for forgiveness of sin  To make things right with God for the High Priest  To ask God for forgiveness for  To ask God for forgiveness of sin “other” sins for the entire nation  For ordaining priests  To “make things right”   There was even a sliding structure to deal with wealth or poverty. If you couldn’t afford a bull, a goat or lamb was acceptable. Can’t afford a lamb? Two birds could be substituted. These are the “offerings” that we speak about when we talk about “Tithes and Offerings,” and the practice went back to even before the time of Moses as you can see in Genesis 14. Even the oldest book in the Bible, Job, talks about offerings.   If those are the offerings, then what about the tithes? What kind of word is tithes anyway? Well tithe is literally translated from the work tenth, as in one tenth, or ten percent. And while we see it mentioned in the law that was delivered through Moses in several locations, we’ll look back at the end of Leviticus to see it most simply.   30 Ten percent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees.  Leviticus 27:30 (Contemporary English Version)   That’s it. Simple. Tithes (that is 10% of your harvest – this society was largely agrarian after all) and offerings to make agreement with, and atonement toward God.   And then something happened. Could it be…?   That reminds me of a story. A little first grade girl is in Sunday School and she has been well trained. It’s the 2nd Sunday of February and the Sunday School teacher says, “Today we’re going to talk about the Father of our country. Does anyone know who that is?” All the children are confused. They’ve never talked about US history in Sunday School. Slowly the little girl raises her hand and says timidly, “I want to say ‘George Washington,’ but could it be… Jesus?”   And then something happened. Could it be…? Yes, Jesus. Jesus came, and went through the crucifixion on the cross and the resurrection from the grave and everything was turned upside down. For the Christian it marks the distinction between the old and new. The Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant. While we don’t throw away the Old Testament, I can just imagine God grabbing His family Bible and going to the pages between Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, and Matthew, the first book of the New Testament, and gluing in a blank page, then taking out this really big rubber stamp and stamping PAID IN FULL right there in that book. The price for the old law is paid in full with the blood and death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. We study the Old Testament to find out what God cares about, but we study the New Testament to find out how to live.   Look at the offerings instituted in Leviticus chapters 1-7; PAID IN FULL. Read about the dietary restriction established in Leviticus chapter 11; PAID IN FULL. The laws dealing with cleanliness and sickness in Leviticus 12-14? PAID IN FULL. And, the tithe in Leviticus 27? PAID IN FULL.   And if that we’re the end of the story we could all go home. But that’s not the end of the story. In this young, post-resurrection church in the book of Acts, let’s see how the church dealt with giving:   32 The group of followers all felt the same way about everything. None of them claimed that their possessions were their own, and they shared everything they had with each other. 33 In a powerful way the apostles told everyone that the Lord Jesus was now alive. God greatly blessed his followers, 34 and no one went in need of anything. Everyone who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money 35 to the apostles. Then they would give the money to anyone who needed it.  Acts 4:32-35 (Contemporary English Version)   In this early collection of Jesus followers they weren’t just bringing ten percent. They weren’t just bringing twenty percent. They were selling their possessions and bringing all the proceeds down. And in the rest of the New Testament we see collection for helping the “saints,” which was mostly for the persecuted Christians back in Jerusalem. What we don’t necessarily see is instruction for tithing.   Where does that leave us then? You see, for the rest of our time this morning I would like to talk about money. In a lot of churches pastors are understandably cautious about spending too much time instructing how we as a church should give. There is a concern that because the pastor is employed by the church that when there is teaching about giving that the pastor is actually asking people to give to him or her. They want to tread lightly and not ruffle too many feathers. Since I don’t work for the church I can give it to you straight. I can ruffle feathers and trip over misconceptions. Lucky you!   Why and how do we give? What are principles for giving? I want to end this morning with a mix of “hows” and “whys.” I’m standing up here sharing what I’ve learned so far in my walk, not because I do any of this very well.   I would like to share eight principles of giving and then just give you a chance to reflect by asking a question or two about how it applies to your life. I love the Friends practice of asking questions of reflection called queries.   Principle #1. We give as a natural response of Jesus’ gift to us  We’ve just come through the Easter season. We remember the gift that Jesus gave us in his suffering on the cross and before on Good Friday. It almost makes the idea of a tithe, a tenth, seem shallow and petty. Jesus gave us His all; how do we respond?   16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.   God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.   19 We love because he first loved us.  1 John 4:16-19 (New International Version)     Query #1   How do I respond to the gift of Jesus’ sacrifice for my life? What do I give up easily? What do I hold back?   Principle #2. Why we give is more important than what we give  Remember how upside-down Jesus turned everything? His teaching took the Jewish law and bored down to the core, to the very heart of it. The law said not to murder. Jesus taught that hate in the heart toward someone was an equal act. So, it’s no surprise that the reason why we give became the crucial component of the equation.   1 Be careful! When you do good things, don't do them in front of people to be seen by them. If you do that, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.   2 When you give to the poor, don't be like the hypocrites. They blow trumpets in the synagogues and on the streets so that people will see them and honor them. I tell you the truth, those hypocrites already have their full reward. 3 So when you give to the poor, don't let anyone know what you are doing. 4 Your giving should be done in secret. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you.  Matthew 6:1-4 (Contemporary English Version)   Query #2   Do I care who sees the gifts I give and the acts I perform? Do I give to build up my resume of spiritual accomplishments? Or, do I give to demonstrate God’s love?   3. We give to encourage others  Remember that church we read about earlier in Acts 4? In that church they sold land and houses and brought the money to the Disciples and the entire church was unified. Listen to what it says about an average Joe in that church:   36-37 Joseph was one of the followers who had sold a piece of property and brought the money to the apostles. He was a Levite from Cyprus, and the apostles called him Barnabas, which means “one who encourages others.”  Acts 4:36-37 (Contemporary English Version)   And throughout the rest of the New Testament we no longer see him called by his name, Joseph, but by his nickname, Barnabas, The Encourager. This is the same Barnabas that when a newly transformed, former church-persecutor named Saul showed up in Jerusalem and tried to get plugged into the church that was suspicious of his motives, it was this Barnabas that took him to the Disciples and convinced them that Saul was a changed man. It is the same Barnabas that was commissioned by the church to join Saul (who later became known as Paul) on his first missionary journey to Turkey. And in late in Acts 11:22-24 it says:   22 The news about them [the Antioch church] reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23 Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; 24 for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.  Acts 11:22-24 (New American Standard Version)   Barnabas had a gift of encouragement that was excitingly infectious to people he contacted and the message of Jesus was spread because of it.   Query #3   Does my giving encourage people that see my life? Do I build up others through my life of giving?   Principle #4. We should be giving regularly  It is one of the few teachings in the New Testament about how we should practice the act of giving in our own church when Paul tells the Corinthian church:   1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so do you also. 2 On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, as he may prosper, so that no collections be made when I come.  1 Corinthians 16:1-2 (NASV)   Besides being spiritual, often Biblical teaching is just plain practical. The habits and tendencies of people in a Greek church 2,000 years ago aren’t really that different from us today. I really admire the people that say that they save up and give their God-gifts once a year; I really do. I couldn’t do that. By the end of the year I would have frittered it away on books and movies and gas and coffee and whatever and I would be bringing to God a shadow of what I thought I would at the beginning of the year. It’s our nature to live in the moment and spend in the moment.   John Wesley, the 18th century English preacher who founded Methodism taught:   “When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart.”  John Wesley (1703-1791)   Wesley knew that the longer he held money that he had committed to God, that belonged to God, the more that he would feel like it belonged to him.   Query #4   Do I regularly bring my gifts to God? Or, do I hold onto God’s money until it becomes mine? As I live in this moment, do I give to God in the moment?   5. Giving needs to be sacrificial – There needs to be a cost  I love David, also known as King David in the Old Testament. David was not perfect and we see him, warts and all, in the books of Chronicles and Samuel. David sinned (big time) and yet was so quick to repent. He had a heart for God.   At the point of the history of David where we read today David had sinned. Again.   18 So Gad [a prophet] came to David that day and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 David went up according to the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded. 20 Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. 21 Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be held back from the people.” 22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” 24 However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 David built there an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Thus the LORD was moved by prayer for the land, and the plague was held back from Israel.  2 Samuel 24:18-25 (New American Standard Version)   Do you see the lesson? Araunah wanted to show his generosity to David, perhaps to even participate with David in the offering to God. But David knew that an offering that came without sacrifice was really of no value at all.   When we give to God we give something that’s ours, our time, our talents, our effort, our sweat, our passion, our money and we take it and say, “God, this was a piece of me. And now it’s yours.”   We’ve probably all made that trip to the Goodwill or Salvation Army truck to take a box of stuff that has seen better days; not quite junk but certainly not new. God wants what we value. Why? To show that we value God even more.   Query #5   Is my gift to God just a Goodwill gift? What do I really value and how can I give that away for the sake of Jesus?   Principle #6. Giving needs to be willing  A few weeks ago pastor Gregg taught on moving from an attitude of being orphans to being children of God. Remember? Do you remember this yellow sheet? On the orphan side of the sheet where he talks about MOTIVE BEHIND PRACTICING THE CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINES we see that it’s out of a sense of duty and earning God’s favor, or no motivation to be involved in the Christian disciplines. But, the true child of God experiences the Christian disciplines with a true sense of pleasure and delight….Lives a life of spiritual exploration with God.   To that same early Greek church Paul wrote this:   6 Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;  2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (New American Standard Version)   Do you understand? God wants for us to give freely in everything. Why? So we can bask as children of God in His abundance.   Query #6   When I give, do I do it because I have to? Or because I want to? Do I give out of a sense of guilt? Or a sense of love?    Principle #7. We give to become Jesus to those in need – we are Jesus’ ambassadors  It is an awesome responsibility to be an ambassador. As a Jesus ambassador we live to represent him to people we meet. We should be their “Jesus echo.” It’s probably way over-marketed, but the WWJD – what would Jesus do – movement urges us to stop and think and act in the way that Jesus instructed. To that same church in Greece, Paul wrote in his letter:   20 We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.  2 Corinthians 5:20 (The Message)   20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us…  2 Corinthians 5:20a (New American Standard Version)   A 16th century Spanish nun, St. Teresa of Avila wrote a poem that is as true today as it was for her Carmelite order of sisters almost 500 years ago:   Christ has no body but yours,  No hands, no feet on earth but yours,  Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,  Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,  Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.  Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,  Yours are the eyes, you are his body.  Christ has no body now but yours,  No hands, no feet on earth but yours,  Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world.  Christ has no body now on earth but yours.  St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)   While her poem doesn’t talk of God’s ability to act supernaturally in our world, she correctly gives us the emphasis of our need to give, in whatever way, to be Jesus where we live. And what people need to see when we are done giving is not Scott, or Shelley, or Lish, or Wayne or Eddie or Luke, or Gregg. It’s Jesus.   Query #7   Do I see, really see the needs of people as I walk through my day? Or do I run so hard and so fast that people are a blur? Do people see my Jesus in me?    Principle #8. We give as we become mature followers of Jesus  Maybe you’ve seen the caption:  Just because you grow old doesn’t mean you have to grow up.   That’s the saying. That’s another way of saying that you can be an old spoiled brat just as easy as being a young spoiled brat. That’s not really our expectation, is it? Not really.   We grow, we learn, we goof, we learn some more. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be some old super-solemn, sour-faced stick in the mud. But, as a baby I drank milk, ate ground up Gerber’s, and slept about 20 hours a day. As I’ve matured I’ve seen that there’s more out there than milk and mashed bananas, and it’s the same way in our Jesus life. The more and deeper we fall in love with Jesus, the further we want to see accomplished what Jesus wants.   James said as much when he wrote in James 2:17:   17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.  James 2:17 (New American Standard Version)   17 Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?  James 2:17 (The Message)   Our expectations of babies are pretty slim, but as a grown up person we expect a bit more. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome he said:   1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)   That well-formed maturity includes how we give in response to needs around us.   Query #8

 Do I act like a baby Jesus follower? Do I treat my giving in a mature way? Is living a life of generosity easier the longer I follow Jesus?

 I want to finish up with a story and one last query. It was probably 1967 and we had driven from our dairy farm to Medford to do some Christmas shopping. I was four years old. The dairy was a fun place to grow up and I never realized it at the time but at for the first eight years on the farm the farm made no money. Mom recounts that in those years she felt like my grandpa watched every dollar we spent. It was probably true, since he was bankrolling the operation. I never knew we were poor; I was just happy to be there.

 We had gone to the Medford Shopping Center to do Christmas shopping. Now the Shopping Center had two anchor tenants: Sears & Roebuck on one end and Payless Drug Store on the other. We had sent Dad off somewhere and Mom and I were in Payless getting a present for Dad. Mom had made the purchase and I begged to carry the bag.

 Seeing my Dad my four-year-old-excitement couldn’t be contained. As I ran to Dad I yelled, “Look what we got for you.” The bag went flying and the contents flew even higher as his present hit the floor and separated into three or four pieces. For Christmas we had gotten dad a beautiful set of shiny, stainless steel, FANCY…..toenail clippers. The gift was modest but the excitement in the giving, that was anything but modest.

 When that offering bag went around today, when the Mexico Work and Witness team contacted you, when you received that letter from the kids going to Haiti, did you scratch out a check or dig some dollars out of your wallet without even thinking? Or did you write your check and say, “Look Father God! Look what I’ve got for YOU! What can we do with this gift? Where can we make a difference today?”

 Query #9

 When I bring my gifts to God, do I present them in an attitude of excitement? Is my giving an ordinary act? Or do I look for the extraordinary that God will do with my gift?

 Let’s pray…

 As you go out as the scattered church called 2nd Street, may we remember St. Teresa’s words:

 Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,  Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. 