Sunday, May 3, 1998
Jim Todhunter
"First Fruits or Used Tea Bags"
Exodus 23:14-l9a Matthew
6:19-21, 25-34
A number of years ago I paid a visit to the missionaries who lived near our little Peace Corps village in the highlands of Ethiopia. These folks were very kind, very conservative, Christians from the plains of Calgary, Alberta. They lived in what appeared to me to be a quaint compound designed to recreate the western Canadian frontier culture of about, say, 1875. The women wore bonnets and long dresses, the men wore coveralls and big boots.
As I was chatting with a missionary named Lloyd, we looked up and saw an Ethiopian Airlines DC-3 fly over on its way to the grassy landing strip outside town. On these twice weekly flights, the mall would be delivered. After another half-hour several Ethiopian students who lived with the missionaries arrived with a bundle of letters, plus a large, battered, cardboard carton. Lloyd looked at the box ruefully and then asked the student to put it inside the barn. Then he muttered something to himself and shook his head. I asked him what was up.
"Used tea bags," he said. "Used tea bags?" "Yes. Our churches back home started this project several years ago. They wanted to support us in our work. So somebody got the idea that they would ask everybody to send us their used tea-bags. You know, you pour your cup of tea, say a little prayer, and take the tea bag out of the cup and set it aside for those doing God's work in far-off Africa. Now, a couple times a year we get a carton of them. They are all stored over in the barn." I was amazed "Why don't you Just ask them to find some other project?H "well," he said, "I guess we Just don't want to appear unappreciative for anything we get."
That made a strong impression on me. I wonder if the attitude of those people back home is characteristic of some folks' Christian giving. What kind of hospitality is it to give someone a tepid cup of tea, brewed with a used tea bag? Think of those biblical stories in which God appears in disguise to Abraham and Sarah. Fortunately for them they give of their best even to strangers. But what does an offering of tepid tea say about the giver and the receiver?
Today is Pledge Sunday. Last Sunday we celebrated how important it is to be connected with one another and with God. Now today marks the culmination of our Stewardship Campaign. Christian stewardship is based on two durable, biblically sound concepts - concepts that together represent the exact opposite of weak tea served up from used tea-bags. These are the concepts of giving from the first fruits (that is, off the top), and the notion of proportional giving.
First of all, the idea of giving of the first fruits goes far back into biblical antiquity. It is a theme that Jesus echoed in his own day. "Seek first the kingdom of God." "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." That which you give first of all is, by definition, what is most important to you. That is self-evident. The people of the Old and New Testament never say that we should neglect the vital needs of home and $family, But they do say, give off the top to Cod. The first fruits of what we have been given need to be given away. And in giving these first fruits away, you will truly he taken care of yourself. If, on the other hand, one's attitude is that I will first take care of everything that I believe to be important for survival for family and self, and then see what is left over, what is one saying about God and the gifts one has been given. Such an attitude is based on the belief that what we earn, what we come to possess, is somehow ours and is something we are entitled to. Isn't it TV's Simpson family who pray thanking themselves for everything because they earned it? Giving off the top is the spiritual reminder that we belong to God, and the good things of life are gifts to us. When we get mixed up about this - then we experience anxiety. Then we worry. Then we struggle to control everything in the mistaken belief that we are in charge.
Together with giving off the top, giving of the first fruits, is the idea of proportional giving. It is the conviction that as you give off the top, you also give a percentage that has been established. In the Bible, of course, the prescribed percentage was the tithe, the first tenth. At the Chicago congregation of the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, the largest and fastest growing African-American congregation in our United Church of Christ, he told me once that it is expected that every board member and every officer of that church be a tither. He said "That's the baseline expectation. Then we start taking the offerings." What would the budget of CCC look like if everyone here tithed? What would the budget of CCC look like if everyone contributed at 5` of gross income - the half tithe that the UCC recommends for its members? My crude calculation indicate that our operating budget would more than double. More than double.
In some respects the percentage itself is not so much the issue. We all recognize that the demands and responsibilities of life undergo changes, the seasons of responsibility have their ebb and flow. A family, for example, with kids in college is in a particular situation. Or a sandwich generation couple with aging parents and growing kids - the demands change. But consider just picking a percentage to give off the top. Decide on it, do it, and then don't worry about it. In other words, as Jesus says, "Do not be anxious." If you are feeling anxious about all this, then it should alert you to some deeper spiritual matter here.
It may surprise you to hear that money is Jesus' Just about favorite topic. Your bank statement and tax returns are the most reliable indicators of your spiritual priorities. This said, it follows that prayerful deliberation about one's financial priorities can truly be liberating - a liberation from worry and anxiety. Here is a good stewardship quote:
For many people, charitable giving - whether in terms of time or money - means "to part with," rather than "to become a part of." Such people fall to realize that giving broadens and deepens the life of the giver even more than it benefits the recipient. In giving to worthy causes, we expand the arena in which we can participate in the world. Giving, in other words, is liberating; it offers us more space in which to act and thereby increases our potential for fulfillment.
I began with an example of the weak tea of tepid giving. Let me close with a different one. In the little Harlem congregation where I worked as a seminarian, there was a lady named Mrs. Anderson. She had been born on East 123rd St. before the turn of
the century. She was among a handful of white folks who had not fled the area. Why should she? It was her home. And it was her church. She was quite elderly now and a widow and a woman of modest means. And she was the kind of person who was a strange sort of embarrassment to congregation and pastor, because she steadfastly insisted on giving everything she had away. She kept her home nice and lived comfortably if simply. But everything else, she Just gave away, mostly to the Church. From time to time little delegations were sent to visit Mrs. Anderson to see how she was doing. There was the worry that somehow she was becoming eccentric and needed help. How else to explain such rash behavior? But she was always found to be happy and hale, clear- headed and composed. She just believed that she should give everything she possibly could away, mostly to the church. Why? She didn't need it and it wasn't hers anyway. It was God's. She had a home. She had a church. She had a fulfilling life. And to give all this back to God so others could be helped seemed very logical to her. And besides it made her feel wonderful. And what is more important than that?
You might take one more look at your pledge card and see how your feel. Why not see your pledge decision this year as an opportunity to choose between worry and anxiety on the one hand, and feeling wonderful on the other? Choose between the tepid tea of caution and the wonderful feeling of generous and Joyful abandon. Remember how generous God has been to you. Our cups truly do runneth over. Then, as you come forward, truly let go of it all and give thanks to God. Amen.
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