Luke 18:18-22, Acts 2:43-47, 5:1-11

“A Christian Gives: To Whom”

October 18, 2009

Rev. Tom Harris

          The passages today each offer slightly different perspectives and insight upon the subject of giving. The first is a story about a rich man’s question to Jesus. After hearing that the rich man had lived a good moral life and lived obediently to the Jewish Torah, Jesus tells him he must do one more thing to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him he must sell everything he owns and give the money to the poor and then come follow Jesus. This is a theme in other teachings of Jesus. People are called to sell material possessions and give to the poor.  In some cases, like this one it is a prerequisite for following Jesus.

          Then we have the passage from Acts chapter 2. This describes an idyllic and wonderful time right at the beginning of the church’s life. These first believers are living communally. They are selling their possessions like Jesus taught, but there seems to be a new intermediate step added. Instead of giving the proceeds directly to the poor, they are giving the proceeds first to the faith community; the church and the faith community then gives to the poor and the needy. In fact, based on other passages in Acts it may be that the money is going to people who have need within the community of faith and not just the general poor of the city of Jerusalem.

          Then in the third passage,  Acts 5 the idyllic nature of the communal experience has faded significantly. Now there are people who are selling possessions but secretly withholding from the community some of the money. Our example is the story of the dramatic death of Ananias and Sapphira seemingly because they lied to the Apostle Peter and withheld money from the community. Now there is a new dynamic at work. Instead of faith and trust and cooperation it says in verse 11 “great fear seized the whole church.” Now there is an element of obligation and even mortal fear motivating people to give.

          I was raised by a man who held deep resentment for the church and organized religion in general. In particular, I remember him grumbling about how the church is always asking for money and only wants people for their money. This grumbling became so deep seated in my psyche that I cannot to this day give a Stewardship Sermon or ask a congregation to give generously to support the ministry of the church without hearing my father grumbling in my head. And then when I read passages like the ones we read today where Jesus says give to the poor, and the church says “no, give to us first”, and eventually church members begin giving to the church out fear that they will be struck dead if they don’t, I feel very sympathetic to my father’s view point; sympathetic even though I know that my livelihood depends on people giving first to the church and not directly to the poor. But, if we are really following Jesus teaching we have to ask the question, “why do we have an intermediate step between out our pocket books and the soup kitchen?”.

          To be fair there are very good reasons for giving to the poor through the church; good reasons for having that intermediate step of the church between our pocket books and the soup kitchen. As a matter of fact never had the importance of supporting the faith community first struck me so powerfully as it did on my retreat two weeks ago with the Buddhists. The Buddhist term for their faith community or as they would say community of practice is a Sangha. Though the theology is different the word Sangha for Buddhists is almost identical to the word Church for Christians. A Sangha is a group of people who come together to support each other in their practice of meditation. It can refer to a local group of three or four people who meet regularly to meditate or it can refer to all practicing Buddhists in world. What struck me on the retreat was the reverence with which they honor their Sangha even more than Christians honor their church.

          I’ll give you three brief examples. First , at each meal five contemplations are read. These are equivalent to a blessing. The fifth of these five contemplations is “We accept this food so that we may nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, strengthen our Sangha and nourish our ideal of serving all beings.” We have a similar blessing in Christianity, “Bless this food to our use and us to thy service.” The difference is they acknowledge at every meal not just that they serve others, but that they service others through and because of their faith community, their Sangha, their church.

          Second, there is a doctrine of Buddhism call the Three Jewels in which a Buddhist may take refuge or from which a Buddhist may draw strength. It sounds roughly equivalent to a Trinity though there are certainly important difference. The Three Jewels are the Buddha either as a divine being or as an exemplary teacher, the Dharma which is the actual teachings of the Buddha and those who came after him. And the third Jewel elevated within this trinity of refuge is the Sangha. The community of practicing Buddhists. We have a Trinity of Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer and the Sustainer who is the Holy Spirit is intimately connect with the church, but the Buddhist bypass the divine person and directly revere the community as the source of strength.

          Finally, after a time of meditation or a time of teaching everyone in the group stands and bows at least twice. They bow first to their teacher. And they bow second to the Sangha. So every time they get together they acknowledge the centrality of the community that makes their practice, their faith possible.

          We have a lot to learn from the Buddhists. We are called by Jesus to give to the poor and the needy. But, without the church community passing down the teaching and nurturing and strengthening our faith we would not know the teachings of Jesus about giving to the poor and needy. Our community lifts up the teachings of Jesus and inspires us together to give more generously and be better followers of those teachings. In fact, it is an orthodox teaching of the church that the church community is the body of Christ in the world. We don’t have Jesus physically with us but we have him with us through our community presence. We need one another to nurture, to hold accountable, to practice our faith together. A Christian who does not need a community of people to support and be support fed by, has missed the point.

          So then it is the Buddhists who have helped me recently to see that giving to, supporting and even revering the church is essential. I remember a 90 year old woman at the church I served in Charleston, Hildred Davenport. I asked in a Women’s Bible Study once what the difference was between tithing to the church and giving. And Hildred said, “Well that’s simple, there is no question about whether you tithe ten percent of your income to the church, but after that you have decide whether to give.”

So then, if we can establish the importance of giving to the poor through the church and even if everyone gets on board about that, the church then has the responsibility to collectively and generously turn and give to the poor. This then raises lots of questions which I believe we are called to wrestle with communally. How much or our communal resources do we spend on our building? How much of our communal resources do we spend on professional ministers or Christian Educators? How much of our communal resources do we spend on professional musicians?  How much do we sent right out the door to CARES Food Pantry or Ephiphany House for low income seniors or Presbytery Missions in Western Maryland or PCUSA mission in Africa?

          At Govans we are a part of a historical organization. We did not just pop into being this morning. And that organization through history has already made some decisions in answer to those questions. As part of the Presbyterian USA denomination we have determined that professional, seminary educated, Ministers of Word and Sacrament are a vital part of our common life and faith, for interpreting and teaching the Bible, administering Sacraments, providing pastoral care and prayer. So some of our common resources go to paying that minister.

We have also made decisions as an organization that our building is a common resources that we are called to use to serve the community and those in need. Govans does that better than most churches in my opinion. We house the Senior Center of North Baltimore that serves many low income seniors in our community. We house the Govans Preschool that provides service to working parents in our community. I’d like to see the Preschool become more of a service to the poor by bringing in a larger percentage of low-income enrollments through scholarships. We house the Peace Study Center that is now one of the largest collections of children literature about Peace making in the country. And Cindy and Hannah continue to work to bring that material into the local schools and communities where violence is so prevalent. We also provide space for a vital Debtor’s Anonymous meeting, New Wave Singers which is Baltimore’s largest, LGBT choir and Fresh Breeze which is a Buddhist Sangha. Then there is the Labyrinth that is currently being used by a meditation group for ex convicts and our Community Garden in which the very soil beneath our feet is used to feed the hungry. Of course, all this building use requires an office manager and sextons in order to coordinate and clean. All that use is in addition to our largest free community outreach which is our weekly worship services in this Sanctuary on Sunday morning. We have also made decisions that those worship services should have professional music leadership which I believe we feel enhances the experience for everyone who participates. So all those decisions that have already been made mean that a significant portion of our budget stays with this organization before going out the door to a local soup kitchen.

          But even with all those decisions having been made, we are called as a community to give directly to other programs for those in need. That’s where our Benevolence Budget comes in. The Benevolence Budget goes right out the door in the form of money to organizations serving the community.

At Govans our Benevolence Budget consists entirely of money people give to it. So when you pledge your are asked to divide your pledge as you see fit between our operating the pays for the building and staff and day to day operation and benevolence. Some of what I have just been saying demonstrates that this is somewhat of an artificial separation. How is the cost of heating and cooling the Senior Network not benevolence? Ideally, I believe, the understanding of the church as a communal body of faith practice calls for a unified budget. Where people offer one pledge and the church through the Session which consists of the elected representatives from the congregation then allocates the money as they feel called by Christ. I think we should move toward that but it can hard to make the transition in practical terms. So, in the meantime, given the teachings of Jesus about giving, we should think who do that in other ways.  

In conclusion, I do believe it is important and legitimate despite my father grumbling in my head to give to the church as a means to give to the needy. Maybe Hildred Davenport had the right idea. Give 10% to the church and then if you want to give beyond that feel free. But, the church, our faith community, our community of practice, our Sangha, matters. We need to not just support it. We need to revere it. It makes us who we are as Christians. So, in the end we do have a double calling. We are called as individuals to revere, love and financially support our church. And then as a church we are called to communally give to the poor and the needy and to wrestle as a community with how to do that faithfully.