2 Corinthians 9:1-15
Luke 18:15-30
Wanted to pick back up on the business about first fruits in Deuteronomy. Giving comes up again today in Paul’s letter and in this section of Luke (which covers “let the children come to me,” telling the rich man to sell everything, and the camel through the eye of the needle).
The Bible can be an oddly practical book. There’s a number of passages, OT and NT, that set up the basic economics of the church—giving to the church is a duty of the believer. Ideally one tenth of income, in essence before other costs and taxes. This is presented not simply as something that is practically useful, but also the source of spiritual benefits in itself: 2 Cor 9:7: “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” In the conversation with the rich man, Jesus keeps raising the stakes. Sell all you have. Leave your house, wife, family.
These points about giving form the core of many stewardship sermons, and it always sounds self-serving coming from the minister. God says pay me. I wonder if ministers could somehow be freed of the obligation to make these pitches, which cannot help but being in part about continuing their own income. If the people are giving because it’s good to give (and let go of attachment to possessions), and because God asks for it, this is an important message that can get obscured by the implicit secondary motives.
One line of thinking I went through on these passages was the impression that Christianity is more concerned than other religions with getting its economics in order, and goes further in embedding considerations for the church’s economics into the theology. As I think about it, I’m not sure that’s right. Direct gifts of money and purchases of food seem to be integral to Hindu devotional practice. Many of the passages on giving come up in the Old Testament, so it’s there for Judaism too. I know Islam requires the giving of alms—I don’t know if passages in the Koran specify the kind of support that should go to the imams and other religious officials. One of the distinguishing features of Wicca is that most of its practitioners stay away from payment for ritual. Of course Wicca is not trying to build a religion in terms of a hierarchy, bureaucracy, and facilities. So it needs less money.
The Bible is a little less clear on what the money needs to pay for. In the Old Testament, it’s clearly going to priests. In the New Testament, it seems to be more for the poor or for mutual support. Pretty early on it seems it was decided that the religion would have priests. I guess that’s a given, most religions are led by specialists. But the descriptions of the early church in Paul sound pretty communitarian. Was it necessarily so that Christianity would have professional spiritual leaders? Human nature is such that people will always emerge to claim that sort of role, but I believe that these forms have more rationale. They have to have a firmer rationale.
Again, the Bible and the religion are practical in certain regards. Spreading the good news was an imperative. Extension of the religion is aided by giving some people the job of building and maintaining organizations. Ministers are not solely responsible for extending the faith, but they do provide structure to the communities of faith and make sure the complicated theology doesn’t get completely screwy as it is passed from one person to the next. There is the idea of different gifts, and identifying a dedicated group of people to serve as ministers is consistent with the idea that some should be preaching the word.
Still, it’s not 100% obvious that having a gift for preaching the word means you should be paid for that. I think in some Mennonite communities the preachers are farmers like everyone else. But you get back to size and reach again. And to the idea that preaching requires great knowledge of the Word and of ancillary writings, all of which require dedicated education and intense ongoing reading and learning. More than an amateur can absorb and keep up with.
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