St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Give off the top or the bottom?

The collection tin rattles as you go into the supermarket on a Saturday morning. How much do you put in? Well, it probably depends on what change you happen to have in your pocket that day. If you’ve only got Ł20 notes and a plastic card, the collector maybe doesn’t get eye contact that day? If you happen to have the odd coin, maybe you give a friendlier response? (Actually, they aren’t allowed to rattle their tins nowadays: it has been ruled that rattling a tin is harrassment.)

One problem with this sort of giving, and it happens at church too, is that the response depends more on the giver’s snapshot response that it does on the giver’s beliefs. Which is why the bible asks us to plan our giving.

We’re quite used to planning other aspects of our money. We pay our housing bills, our gas and electricity on a system: we budget for so much and we make sure we keep enough money for them. And that’s what God asks us to do with what we give to him.

The Old Testament talked about the tithe - the tenth of your income that you gave back to God. Many of us gulp at the proportion, but a key point about the OT verses on the subject is the planning. “Be sure to set apart a tenth” (Dt 14:22), “bring your tithes which you have vowed to give...” (Dt 12:6) - these verses speak of the fact that if we build it into our budgets, giving becomes realistic.

The New Testament doesn’t speak directly of a tithe, but it does speak of planning our giving. “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income...” (1 Cor 16:2). The first day of the week was pay-day in the Roman Empire, and St Paul is asking the Christians to plan their giving. To give off the top of their income, not the bottom.

So we have boxes of Freewill Offering Envelopes today. I have heard some people say it is unspiritual and fiddly to put cash into envelopes each week (personally, since I’m paid monthly, I give by Standing Order instead), but it is a fundamental principle of giving back to God that we should consider our loyalty to him one of the priorities in our lives, and therefore do it first instead of last. (If you would like a box, ask us and we’ll give you one).

John Hartley

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. December 2001, Page 2.
Home Page. Index of articles. Money: index, Steward, Test me, Why money, Why I tithe, Off the top, Clergy pay. In this issue: (December 2001) Vicar's Letter, Money, Braille & Tapes, Question.	Give off the top or the bottom? The collection tin rattles as you go into the supermarket on a Saturday morning. How much do you put in? Well, it probably depends on what change you happen to have in your pocket that day. If you’ve only got Ł20 notes and a plastic card, the collector maybe doesn’t get eye contact that day? If you happen to have the odd coin, maybe you give a friendlier response? (Actually, they aren’t allowed to rattle their tins nowadays: it has been ruled that rattling a tin is harrassment.) One problem with this sort of giving, and it happens at church too, is that the response depends more on the giver’s snapshot response that it does on the giver’s beliefs. Which is why the bible asks us to plan our giving. We’re quite used to planning other aspects of our money. We pay our housing bills, our gas and electricity on a system: we budget for so much and we make sure we keep enough money for them. And that’s what God asks us to do with what we give to him. The Old Testament talked about the tithe - the tenth of your income that you gave back to God. Many of us gulp at the proportion, but a key point about the OT verses on the subject is the planning. “Be sure to set apart a tenth” (Dt 14:22), “bring your tithes which you have vowed to give...” (Dt 12:6) - these verses speak of the fact that if we build it into our budgets, giving becomes realistic. The New Testament doesn’t speak directly of a tithe, but it does speak of planning our giving. “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside* a sum of money in keeping with his income...”* (1 Cor 16:2). The first day of the week was pay-day in the Roman Empire, and St Paul is asking the Christians to plan their giving. To give off the top of their income, not the bottom. So we have boxes of Freewill Offering Envelopes today. I have heard some people say it is unspiritual and fiddly to put cash into envelopes each week (personally, since I’m paid monthly, I give by Standing Order instead), but it is a fundamental principle of giving back to God that we should consider our loyalty to him one of the priorities in our lives, and therefore do it first instead of last. (If you would like a box, ask us and we’ll give you one). John Hartley
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