A hearing on the spending side of the equation was held tonight at 7:30. I was torn between this and the same sex blessing hearing starting tonight at 7:00, but ultimately dinner with my friend John won out. Sometimes friendship and a shared history win out over the machinations of church procedure. Imagine that. See The Lead to find out what happened. I have no idea.
A phrase from Psalm 4 has been rattling around in my head the last few days: "More than when grain and wine and oil increase." if it sounds familiar to you, it's probably because it's in the service of compline. I like it because it has a nice rhythm to it (it fits without too much forcing into iambic pentameter), lending itself to calming repetition. Also because it's a weird phrase - what's it about anyway?
The full phrase is: "You have put gladness in my heart, more than when grain and wine and oil increase."
In an agrarian society, abundant grain and oil signify security and prosperity. Abundant wine can be viewed as either a blessing or a curse, depending in your predilections, but suffice to say that all three items indicate a closeness to the land that we seldom feel today.
I seldom quote Leviticus, but I looked at it today as I was considering the question of financial stewardship in the national church. Because let's be real: "grain and wine and oil" sounds poetic and has a nice rhythm what with it's evenly stressed syllables and all. But what do we care today? What would fill us with equivalent gladness? May I suggest cash money $$$?
So let's check Leviticus 23:9-11:
The Lord spoke to Moses: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
In other words, you make a sacrificial gift of the first fruits of your fields in honor of God who made it possible, without certainty of the rest of the harvest (you could always be hit by a hailstorm the next day and be totally screwed).
And actually, as Leviticus would have it, you would have no claim to your sacrifice come the hailstorm, and worse, even a generous priest couldn't give it back to you. Here's Leviticus 22:10-13:
No lay person shall eat of the sacred donations. No bound or hired servant of the priest shall eat of the sacred donations, but if a priest acquires someone by purchase, the person may eat of hem; and those in his house may eat of his food. If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the offering of the sacred donations; but if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced, without offspring, and returns to her father's house,as of youth, she may eat of her father's food. No lay person shall eat of it.
Here's the good news: if the last few decades of battles in he church have taught us anything, it's this: Jesus calls us to be better than Leviticus. The church takes our first fruits (mostly) in the form of cash money $$$, preferably but infrequently (according to the data) at the level of about 10% of our salaries.
The church of Jesus Christ, as opposed to the religion reflected in Leviticus, is aimed at the material and spiritual benefit of outsiders. Namely those who have not been baptized, those who have not entered our walls, those who have not heard of the good work we do and the good news we offer, or those disenchanted former believers whom we have failed. Our budget is called to emphasize a use of believers' sacrifice to reach those outside ourselves.
So I encourage the Program, Budget, and Finance Committee to look hard at the expenditures they recommend, seeking not to please constituencies, so much as please God.
The Levitical budget committees mandated giving the required 10th to God in the fire, and giving the rest to the priests. Psalm 51 tells us the God doesn't want our stinking burnt offering. He can feed himself just fine, thank you. We must deal with the pragmatic realities of funding what is actually needed to keep the ship afloat. But first, not last, we should determine who God calls us to serve, and what resources we will use to serve them. We should ask ourselves how we would deal with dollar bills if they were instead sheaves of wheat or jars of oil. With our grain, and wine, and oil, do we hire a development staff to get yet more, or having met our own needs, do we give it away in faith?
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