Pentecost 3 2013
Father Adam Trambley
June 9, 2013, St. John’s Sharon
Today’s
first reading reminds me of a Kingston Trio song, Desert Pete.
So
remembering Desert Pete’s instructions, let’s dig into First Kings. Israel is experiencing a serious drought,
brought on by disobedience. Elijah has
just come out of a wilderness area where he found a little trickle of a stream
to drink from and the ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and night. Finally the streambed dries up and God tells
Elijah to go to Zaraphath, which is not in Israel. Zaraphath is in Sidon, a foreign area. God says he’s told a widow there to feed
Elijah.
Now
imagine you are this widow, living in the middle of a drought with your
son. All you have left in your larder is
enough flour and oil for one pancake.
You can’t go to the store and buy more food, because there isn’t any
more food. You can’t go out to the
garden to pick some vegetables, because all the plants have died of
thirst. All you can do is eat your last
pancake and hope the rain comes in time for something to grow again before you
starve to death. This widow in Zaraphath
is in that situation, and she is gathering dry sticks outside the city to cook
her last meal. She meets a foreigner who
asks for water. Now she probably doesn’t
have much water, but she agrees to get him some. Hospitality is important in that part of the
world. Then, while she is on her way to
get water, he calls out, “Get me some food, too.” She tells him, “I don’t have anything
prepared, and I’m just about to cook the last pancake in my house and eat it
with my son before we both starve to death.”
Now the
expected response to such a pitiful request would probably be something like,
“Oh, I’m sorry. Let me share some food
with you.” Or at least a, “I wish I could help.
Don’t worry about it.” But Elijah
says, “OK. Go home and cook up that last
pancake for me. After I’ve eaten, God
will make sure there is enough for you and your son.” Amazingly, the woman does what Elijah
asks. She goes and feeds him. Then she has enough to feed her and her son
that meal. Then she makes Elijah a
bedroom upstairs and she feeds Elijah and herself and her son and the rest of
her household as long as the drought lasts.
The jar of meal is never empty and the jug of oil doesn’t fail.
You’ve
got to prime the pump, have faith and believe, right? Give of yourself before you receive.
I find
it helpful to think of our blessings as water coming through a faucet. If we turn on that faucet fully to pour out
blessings upon others, blessings come to us, as well. But if we turn off the faucet, holding
everything in for ourselves, then we stop that flow. More than that, what we do have becomes
unpleasant to us, just like the lukewarm tap water that comes out when we first
turn on a faucet that has been off for a while.
If our faucet has sat unused for too long, we may even need to prime it
with what little water we have, following the instructions of Old Desert Pete.
The
Biblical principle involved is the principle of sowing and reaping. What we plant is what we harvest. When we step out in faith and obedience to
God with our tithes and offerings, we open ourselves up to receive blessings in
return. Notice how when the widow
provides food to Elijah, she receives back all the food she needs. She has to step out in faith, however. She doesn’t tell Elijah to wait and see what
she has left. She takes a risk in faith
to give first, and then takes care of herself.
We’ve
seen examples of the jug not running out during our community lunches on
Saturday. We know at least one occasion
when we had a lot more people than we had prepared food. But somehow, another serving kept showing up
in the pan, as needed. Members of the
congregation faithfully stepped out to feed people, and God blessed them as
they did so, providing enough for everyone. God still provides.
We are
all called to the same kind of faithful risk-taking to bless others as the
widow of Zaraphath was. In Luke’s
gospel, Jesus says, “Give and it will be given you, a full measure, pressed
down, shaken together and spilling into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure
you get.” God wants to measure
incredible blessings for us, but we’ve got to begin with the faithful giving
that opens us up to receive them.
One of
those steps in faithful giving is our tithing.
Tithing is giving the first ten percent of our income back to the
church. Tithing is the Biblical standard
of giving and we in the Episcopal Church understand it as the minimum standard
of Christian giving. Scripture commends
us to give our firstfruits to God, so that he can bless the rest of what we
have. Our tithing to the church is our
first step in turning on the faucet of God’s blessings so that we can turn our
entire financial lives over to him for his care. Our tithe is the water in the bitters jar we
use to prime the pump to live into God’s generous care for us. Just like the widow first took care of
Elijah, so that she could let Elijah take care of her, we give to God through
his Church so that we can let God take care of us.
I’m not
talking about tithing today so that the church gets more money. The church doesn’t need our gifts. The church is God’s and he takes care of
it. We need to give our gifts to the
church for our own good. Trust me, there
have been times in life when I have not tithed, and it was not fun. At one point, I decided that I didn’t trust the
church I was going to then with my money (it’s not this church). Given the little money I had, I’m sure it
didn’t matter to that church, but it kept me from trusting the community that I
probably needed around me at that time in my life. And I still had but little money. At other times, Jane and I didn’t think we
could afford to be generous to God and others.
As long as we felt that way, we never did seem to have enough. But when we began to tithe, which was when we
were in school, living on practically nothing but scholarships and gifts, we
found the flour and the oil didn’t run out and our needs kept being met
somehow. The more we have tithed and
given, the more we have been able to give to both the church and to those in
need. And all our needs have been met,
even if occasionally it happens in God’s time and not in our own. But that’s the exciting part of living by
faith – never knowing exactly what is going to happen next, but trusting that
God will take care of us in times that seem good and times that are
struggles.
Now
somebody out there may feel like they just don’t have the faith to tithe their
first fruits, to give to the poor, to prime the pump, to offer their last pancake
to some impolite immigrant. There are a
couple of steps you can take to help.
First, pray. Pray daily for the
faith to do be generous and receive God’s blessings. And let me know so that I and some of our
prayer team at church can be praying for you as well. Second, start to take small steps forward and
see how God is able to work in your life.
Make two columns in a notebook.
In one list how you are sowing blessings by giving to the church and by
giving to those in need. In the second
column list the blessings you are receiving.
Then keep doing what you see making sense. Third, know that if you do take a step in
faith and risk tithing or moving toward a tithe to God by giving to St. John’s,
that we’ll help you out if you run into trouble later. Part of what a parish family is meant to do
is backstop each other when needed.
God
doesn’t want us crawling through the desert hoping for a small drink that we
find here and there in a bitters jar when we are thirsty down to our toenails. God tells us to give until we receive,
feeding the hungry, bringing our tithes and offering to God, priming pumps
until water gushes from the spigot and rain falls from the sky.
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