Daily Scripture: Genesis 28:
16 Ya‘akov awoke from his sleep and said, “Truly, Adonai is in this place — and I didn’t know it!” 17 Then he became afraid and said, “This place is fearsome! This has to be the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!” 18 Ya‘akov got up early in the morning, took the stone he had put under his head, set it up as a standing-stone, poured olive oil on its top 19 and named the place Beit-El [house of God]; but the town had originally been called Luz.
20 Ya‘akov took this vow: “If God will be with me and will guard me on this road that I am traveling, giving me bread to eat and clothes to wear, 21 so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then Adonai will be my God; 22 and this stone, which I have set up as a standing-stone, will be God’s house; and of everything you give me, I will faithfully return one-tenth to you.”
Malachi 3:7 Since the days of your forefathers
you have turned from my laws and have not kept them.
Return to me, and I will return to you,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“But you ask, ‘In respect to what
are we supposed to return?’
8 Can a person rob God?
Yet you rob me.
But you ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’
In tenths and voluntary contributions.
9 A curse is on you, on your whole nation,
because you rob me.
10 Bring the whole tenth into the storehouse,
so that there will be food in my house,
and put me to the test,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“See if I won’t open for you
the floodgates of heaven
and pour out for you a blessing
far beyond your needs.
Reflection Questions:The idea of giving one-tenth of our increase to God (the church word for that is “tithe”) didn’t start in some church finance office. Genesis said Jacob responded to God’s awe-inspiring presence by pledging to give back one-tenth to God. He followed his grandfather Abraham’s precedent, as recorded in Genesis 14:20. After Israel’s return from exile, the prophet Malachi said the fearful, ungenerous Israelites who clung to all their resources were “robbing God.”
- Israel lived in a largely agricultural society. Most of their resources were livestock and crops. They didn’t have checking accounts, credit cards or 401K accounts. Do you think our situation today makes it easier or harder to determine what percentage of our increase we are giving to causes that honor God? In what ways does giving as a percentage, rather than as a flat amount, create greater fairness in how we support God’s work?
- Deuteronomy 8:17-18 attributed this warning to Moses, as Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land: “Don’t think to yourself, My own strength and abilities have produced all this prosperity for me. Remember the Lord your God! He’s the one who gives you the strength to be prosperous.” Are you ever tempted to think that God had nothing to do with your level of prosperity, that your own strength and abilities have done it all? How can giving a faithful percentage back to God help to guard you against that temptation?
Creator God, let my giving grow from my inner recognition of your creating and sustaining power in my life. Thank you for life, for strength and for talents. Amen.
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Insights from Wendy Connelly
Wendy Connelly, wife to Mark and mom to Lorelei & Gryffin, is Community Outreach Director at the Leawood campus, a graduate student at Saint Paul School of Theology, Faith Walk columnist for the Kansas City Star, and co-leads the “Live and Let Think” dialogues at Resurrection Downtown.Giving orients us toward God and neighbor; it takes our disorderly lives and sets us in right order. St. Augustine often addressed the disorderly posture of humans as being “incurvatus in se,” turned inward on ourselves. When we hoard our blessings, our riches, our talents, we turn inward on ourselves. Choosing a life cut off from God and neighbor, with clenched fists instead of open palms, we become like a stagnant pool of water. Over time, with no outflow, that pool within our souls begins to fester and stink.
God calls us to lives of spiritual outflow, like vessels bubbling over with Living Water. Connected to our Source–the God who creates continually (creatio continua) out of nothing (ex nihilo)–there is no scarcity. Rather, giving orients us toward greater abundance as we demonstrate our good stewardship in even the smallest things. The more we give, the more we receive–take that spiritual principle to the bank.
When the first tenth comes out of my paycheck, it is a small spiritual gesture acknowledging that all I have is not my own, that “I freely and heartily yield all things to God’s pleasure and disposal,” to take a phrase from Wesley. As my treasure goes with God, so goes my heart–and the rest of my life becomes more rightly ordered.
God calls us to lives of spiritual outflow, like vessels bubbling over with Living Water. Connected to our Source–the God who creates continually (creatio continua) out of nothing (ex nihilo)–there is no scarcity. Rather, giving orients us toward greater abundance as we demonstrate our good stewardship in even the smallest things. The more we give, the more we receive–take that spiritual principle to the bank.
When the first tenth comes out of my paycheck, it is a small spiritual gesture acknowledging that all I have is not my own, that “I freely and heartily yield all things to God’s pleasure and disposal,” to take a phrase from Wesley. As my treasure goes with God, so goes my heart–and the rest of my life becomes more rightly ordered.
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224 United States
913.897.0120
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