Midweek Faith Lift
August 29, 2018
“Tithing-Take Another Look!”
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Malachi 3:8-11
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. 11 I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the Lord of hosts. (NRSV)
And so we begin! This passage from Malachi that assures us that when we bring our full tithe into the storehouse, we will receive “an overflowing blessing.” Not only that, the locusts, who could destroy your crop and your vine will be rebuked. All the wine and grain you need, you surely will have if you only tithe! How could we resist that bargain? Heck-of-deal, isn’t it? This assurance is from the Hebrew Scripture whose essential message was about how to have a relationship with God. The basis for loyalty to the One God was that if you obey God and God’s laws- the Mosaic Law- you will be blessed and if you do not, you will be cursed. And it is clear that God is asking for your all, the WHOLE tithe, not just some! So don’t make me come down there or you will….pay for it!
What is not made clear is that the whole deal about tithing, giving 10% of your income to the Temple, is that under Mosaic Law, it was required. It was “mandatory fun” so to speak. When the 12 Tribes of Israel formed a nation, one of the tribes, the Levites, were designated to be priests. Their work was to take care of the Temple, all the ritual animal sacrifices, and other priestly duties. The Levites had very restrictive laws and they lived on the 10% that was tithed or taxed on the rest of the Hebrew people. So in the time of Malachi, the tithe was a tax that was required and that beautiful statement we heard at the beginning is kind of like a sales pitch for paying your tax or tithe to the Temple. The Jewish kingdom was a theocracy, so the church and state are the same thing.
So where does that leave us in modern day Christianity and in Unity in particular? As I noted last week, Unity of Ames and all Unity churches that I am aware of operate on a “gift economy.” This means that we do not do a yearly pledge drive or give out numbered offering envelopes and publish the amounts given by each number and so on. Nor do we have “annual dues” that are a part of being in this spiritual community. We do have a budget for Unity of Ames and we do tithe as a church community. Last year, when Jim and Susan added it up, we actually tithed 11% of our income in 2017. In addition we give $150.00 every month to Good Neighbor, which is a charity.
Why do we do that? Why do we as a church, tithe? Well, to answer that question, first let’s look at what is not a part of our conscious tithing at UCOA. We don’t give so that the storehouse is full of an overflowing blessing. The whole issue of tithing is not “what are you giving to?” What are you hoping to get or receive as a result of your tithing? The real question is “what are you giving from?” The whole point of giving is to open to the flow of Good, of Love, of Consciousness that is web of life in which we all live. The real energy of giving is to “give way” to the full energy of Spirit flowing through you, through us as a spiritual community. As Butterworth reminds us, God can only do for us what God is able to do through us as individuals and as a spiritual community. Giving is like breathing, you have to do it to live.
The “whole tithe” that we heard about in Malachi is not just a tithe check that we write every Sunday or as a church we write every month. If we think that just writing the check is the whole deal, we are missing the whole point of giving. It would be a cheap trick to tell you that if you just give each week to UCOA, you will prosper. It doesn’t work like that. Butterworth tells of a young woman who began tithing and magically expected to receive a raise and a bonus at her job. However, she was chronically late, left early and spent a good deal of her time visiting with co-workers. Today she would be on her cell phone or the internet! As Butterworth so succinctly points out:
It could be said there is a raise in salary for her, which will become effective when she does. She tithes but she does not give. She needs to begin to think give, to become service oriented, to go the extra mile, to be more creative in her work. Tithing can be a great way of getting into a giving consciousness but it is not a substitute for a giving attitude (p.189)
What is tithing then? It is a practice that serves us like training wheels when we are learning the skill of riding a bicycle. It is a discipline that calls our attention to how we are showing up and participating in the flow of good, the flow of Love in the Universe. It is a practice, like meditation, that is designed to help us develop our consciousness, our awareness of our true Divine nature and how it is that we are a part of that Divine Flow. It helps keep that question in our conscious awareness---the question of what is it that God would do through us? What are we giving from? What are we giving way to when we give?
It is a practice intended to cultivate a giving attitude, a giving consciousness of service without expectation or attachment to what comes back to us or how or when. When we let go of the training wheels, we are choosing to trust in that Divine Flow of Good. We begin giving of ourselves, which is where the true giving consciousness rests.
When I was going through divorce back in 1990, we also went through bankruptcy. It was a painful and thorough “letting go” process, a real consciousness cleaning, if you will. It truly opened the “windows of heaven” for me because in that process of cleaning, I discovered Unity. In the divorce, I made a conscious decision not to “go after” my first husband for all I could get. Yes, I felt betrayed, and I was hurt and angry, but I was not vindictive. Don’t ask me why, I was not that spiritually mature at that time! It just wasn’t my nature to get even. I must have learned that karmic lesson in another lifetime! What that did for me is to “open the storehouse of heaven.” The storehouse of consciousness of the “more” of God energy was available to me, even though I had no idea what that would be.
I lost my house, but I found a lovely home where I have lived for the past 28 years. I lost my marriage, but in time, Todd and I found each other and have been married 22 years. My ex-husband did not go after my IPERS, which he could have done, and that is what provided income for me while I attended seminary. Most importantly, while I did recover financially and then some, what I gained in spiritual understanding and maturity through my study of Unity is beyond value in terms of dollars and cents. How do you put a dollar value on peace of mind and serenity?
While I always gave on Sunday at Unity of Des Moines, at some point, I finally started actually tithing. While I don’t want to engage in a testamonial about tithing, what I discovered is that my prosperity truly increased as I tithed. What happened for me is that I stopped worrying about what was there or not there in my bank accounts. You truly cannot out-give God! Prosperity flowed in the form of scholarships for both of my children for college and scholarship funds for me for Unity Institute. It flowed in the form of incredible trips I have been able to take through Todd’s work. It is an amazing flow of good!
Butterworth states that “On the human levels of consciousness, one may emphasize getting and having as the prime goals: in spiritual consciousness, one seeks the way of giving and being.” (p. 192.) When the windows of heaven open and pour out a blessing, what we understand metaphysically is that this is all about consciousness. We step into the flow with a “giving attitude,” the consciousness of God pours into us, for as Jesus said repeatedly, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” We are the windows of heaven and we will be poured out as a blessing. When we give, we receive, and the receiving is always a greater flow from within. Whatever we receive, whether it be love, guidance, creative ideas, relationships or financial support; it is all in the same stream as giving.
The last bit of instruction Butterworth gives us in this chapter is to remind us that we give in order to give, not to receive. For the moment we focus on receiving, we lose the flow of giving; we move from gift economy to transactional economy and we are out of sync with the spiritual laws of giving to give. That is of critical importance in understanding how this works. When we were preparing for the Ragbrai riders, we had to pause and remember that this was a service; we were serving them with a generous Spirit and whatever we received was a part of this stream of giving and receiving. That is what made the day so enjoyable and whatever we received was truly a gift.
Here is what Jesus had to say about giving from Matthew:
Matthew 6:3-6
3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (NRSV)
This isn’t about keeping secrets; it is about truly recognizing that you give in order to give, not as a transaction, but as a spiritual practice. And when you stay in that consciousness, any lapses into “getting” or a sense of craving or bargaining are not in the energy field. You are rewarded by an expanded consciousness of giving in order to give. So, tithe if you like, or even more daringly, Spirit invites you to take off the training wheels and learn to give in order to give.
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb