"If it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously." – Romans 12

 

". . .the Israelites generously gave the first fruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything . . . and they piled them in heaps."

 

         In the list of gifts of the Spirit from Romans 12, we notice that the last three on the list come along with an instruction concerning the attitude the person is to have in carrying out the gift.

         Contributing to the needs of others – generously

         Leadership – diligently

         Mercy – cheerfully

         The gift we consider today is "contributing to the needs of others." It may be both a gift and a command, or a gift that all possess, or a gift in which some particularly excel at that which we all do. In some measure we are all involved in contributing to the needs of others.

         What we know is that when we give, we are to give generously. What does that mean?

         It means that our priorities must be shifted, or re-ordered.

         It means that we must make a commitment to give, and probably have a plan.

         It means that we make the contribution to the needs of others before we begin our important and desired tasks and obligations of the day. It is to be first-fruits giving. In Old Testament times, that meant the farmer gave the first portion of the harvest to God before he cut the rest.

         We read two examples of this generous contributing to the needs of others. The first is King Hezekiah, who reopened the Temple and reinstituted the worship of God with the full ministry of priests and Levites. Hezekiah contributed his own money first to this project and then he gave the order for the people to bring their tithes. That is not behavior that is typical of a king. Kings usually focus first on the military and on the treasury. They build up their own power and wealth, and then take care of some needs if there are adequate leftover funds. Hezekiah reorders the priorities. He places the worship of God first. He funds the project of reopening the temple with his personal funds. He trusts God in this, and discovers that God is faithful.

         In our other reading we found that Paul was considering three trips:

•  He could sail off to Spain to do Missionary work, the thing he loved most and was called by God to do.
•  He could go to Rome for a time of fellowship with the church there, something he was eager to do, for he had many friends in that church.
• He could go to Jerusalem with an offering for the impoverished saints there, a place where his life was in danger and a place where he may not have been well thought of by all.

He chose to go to Jerusalem, and contribute to the needs of others first. This is where I often get mixed up. When given a choice of what to do, I usually pick Spain; I choose to do the important work that I like to do. But Paul put contributing to the needs of others first, and so experienced the faithfulness of God. The Gospel continued to spread throughout the world.

         Both Hezekiah and Paul took care of contributing to the needs of others first. They reordered their priorities, made a commitment to give generously and gave first, before tending to their other important callings. Both experienced the faithfulness of God.

         Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz, an evil king who followed other gods and worshipped the idols of the surrounding nations. First he used the sacred objects of the temple for idol worship, and then he shut the temple down entirely and closed its doors. He eliminated the music, the liturgy, the offerings and sacrifices, and the practice of tithing. The priests and Levites, those "set-apart" servants of God in Israel, were no longer cared for. They had no land, since they were to be free to serve the Lord and received their provisions from the tithes of the people. When tithing ended and the temple was shut down, they were left in a very difficult position.

         This story reminds me of when I went to Russia a few years ago, and we talked to a Russian Orthodox priest in St. Petersburg who was in a church that was doing a great deal in the care of orphans, ministry to street kids, and drug and alcohol recovery. He said when the Communists took power, one of the things they did to discredit and destroy the church was to forbid the church from doing any humanitarian work. So for 75 years the church found it very difficult to do any ministry to the poor or to bring the love of God to people in a practical way. He said that once you lose that, it is very difficult to get it started again.

         So Hezekiah had a difficult task. For him it was to put worship first in Israel again, and that meant providing for the "set-apart" servants of God. But he put the worship of God first, even though the empire of Assyria was looming, and in fact Sennacherib, King of Assyria, attacked Judah right after this. With danger from Assyria, and no tithes coming in, Hezekiah put his own money to the task of re-establishing the worship of God in Judah. He took a risk first, and then he called the people to bring their tithes. He experienced the faithfulness of God.

         It took four months to bring in the harvest of the various crops, but in the end the people brought in so much that it was piled in "heaps." The text mentions grain and new wine and oil and honey and herds and flocks. It must have been quite a sight. The needs of the priests and Levites and the worship of God were met.

         It is the self-giving love of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, that turns our hearts to the needs of others. With thanks we give generously, whether to Covenant World Relief or to the needs of our church, or to our world-wide mission. To give generously we too need to reorder our priorities. We need to make a plan, to make sure that God is first. We too must take that risk of trusting God, when things loom in our lives that make us anxious. God is faithful. How else will we experience the faithfulness of God, except through our generosity?

         At the table we experience once more the broken bread, a symbol of the self-giving love of Christ that makes available God's salvation to us. We experience a taste of the heavenly banquet, our great hope, and are renewed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Christ we place our trust. We know God is faithful.

         Amen.