Put your hand up if you've read the book of Leviticus. The very name puts you off. It seems to be full of rules about sacrifices - burnt offerings, about the priests' official garments, about what is clean and unclean, including what to do if you find mildew on your saddle... But there are also things that are as relevant today as four thousand years ago, about sex, about crime and punishment and about justice for the poor. What we have in Leviticus is a series of snapshots of a community that was being set up to live with God at the centre.
What are we to do with all this stuff? I certainly have no intention of wearing a turban or an ephod. We're not going to have animal sacrifices; nor will we start having the seven feasts that the Jewish people had. But there are principles in Leviticus and in the law of the Old Testament generally, that we can apply today. And I believe chapter 23 is a great summary of some of the important stuff in Leviticus. The "Discipline of Giving" - a round of offerings and sacrifices - is part of what it means to live with God a t the centre. Let's look a bit closer at what we can learn for today...
Kay came round to see us in the week while she was there we decided to prepare the songs for today. Kay asked me what the theme was and I said "Giving." I don't know if it was the shock of that, but Kay bit too hard on a bit of shortbread which went flying across the room. I'm prepared for the reaction: "you're speaking about what?" I know that life is tough; I know that there is a recession on. I heard this week of someone who went to Tesco's and bought the same items this week as last week; but this week they were over £3.00 dearer. That's the reality we are all living with. The money we spend is buying us less. It's called inflation and it's part of the bigger economic crisis the Western world is going through. And if we're depending on interest It is affecting individuals, Churches, and organisations like the Baptist Union of Scotland and the Baptist Missionary Society. And I know that inflation, unemployment, or lack of job security, makes life tough for people. So I don't want to burden you... Right? But I do want to call us to disciplined faithfulness in this area.
Firstly, offering takes place in the context of festivity. We were looking last week at the discipline of celebration. It is as grateful people, who have discovered festivity and celebration and joy in our life with God, who bring our offering to Him. So let's be done with any concept of legalism, and idea that offering is something we "Have to do." It's part of celebration. It is the joyful response of a grateful heart. If you're not grateful, you won't give. It's as simple as that.
Secondly, offering was an ongoing thing. There was a discipline about it. Offerings were the overflow of gratitude but they were brought regularly; they were not a matter of what people felt like. Not a matter of emotion or impulse. It was a priority, and the first priority: when the harvest was brought in God had the first fruits (verse 10). . There were these seven landmarks throughout the year when offerings were made. And there was the ongoing, Sabbath discipline of stopping, resting, and an offering of fresh loaves placed on the altar every Sabbath. Paul says "On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come." 1Cor 16:2 Paul wanted when he visited Corinth, to be able to take money back to the suffering church in Jerusalem. But he wanted that to be more than just "having a whip round." It was to be an offering, collected on a regular, disciplined basis.
Thirdly, offering was the best... Listen to the specific offerings mentioned in this chapter.
* A male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering (v. 12);
* Four pounds of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the LORD with a pleasing aroma (v. 13);
* Two loaves of bread made of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven (v 27)
* Seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. (v. 18)
The point of al this is that God was to be given the best. It wasn't good enough to let God have "what you could spare" - like second hand stuff going to a church bazaar. It wasn't good enough to give to god the lamb that looked as if it wasn't going to make it to adult life anyway. In Malachi 1. 6-8 God challenges his people for offering him second best, and asks "would you do such a thing to your employer? Why then do you do it to me?"
Fourthly, offering was for people. Verse 20 says the "wave offering" was to be "holy to the Lord for the priests." That doesn't mean ordinary Christian folks, the poor, should be giving to support Pastors living an extravagant lifestyle; nor to support grandiose dreams and empire-building plans That is wicked and cynical. It's not something I want to be part of.
But that wasn't the intention when this provision was created in Leviticus. The idea wasn't to make the priests rich and to bleed the poor to death. Remember that the Priests didn't have any other share in the land when it was divided up. The tithes and offerings were their share. The idea was simply to provide for people. I don't believe we can turn Old Testament law into New Testament law, but even in the Old Testament, the offerings were used to benefit people. In the New Testament, the Church had one thing and one thing only to spend their money on: people. First of all, to support those without an income, whether widows or disabled or those called to minister the word poorest of the poor, within the fellowship. Then to support the struggling Church in another part of the empire.
Finally, offering takes place in the context of compassion... The very last verse of our reading speaks about another, very important aspect of people's attitude to money and material things. There's a wee reminder about the rule about "Leaving something for the gleaners". The idea was that when you harvested your field, you had to leave some for those whose only livelihood was what was left behind: so cutting carefully right up to the fence was wrong; and so was going back and cutting again any stocks that you missed first time around. It isn't enough to give away money to Church, and continue to treat the rest of your resources as your own. God owns all the doughnuts. Putting something in the offering is recognition of that fact. But it has to be followed through by right stewardship in how we spend and how we gain what we have.
So whether we are preaching giving; or determining how to give; or using the bit we keep to ourselves, an over-riding principle is this: generous, self-sacrificing compassion.
© Gilmour Lilly January 2011
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