The Church of God in Motion

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Wondrous honor You have given

To our humblest charity

In Your own mysterious sentence,

“You have done it all to Me.”

Can it be, O gracious Master,

That You deign for alms to sue,

Saying by Your poor and needy,

“Give as I have giv'n to you”? (LSB 851.3)

Whence come all that you are, all that you have and possess? Is it by your own work and toil that you have such abundance? Or is whatever you have a gift from God? We confess with all of Christendom, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” He has made all things, and He is the one who gives them into your hand. We confess as Luther writes in the Small Catechism:

He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.

Take heed of what you confess here: He richly and daily provides me with all. Everything you have is a gift of God, given out of His divine bounty, without any merit or worthiness in you. He chooses to so richly bless you because He loves you, because He has created you to be His workmanship, to show forth His love and blessing. He gives all that you need because He knows you need it, just as you fathers know the needs of your children and supply them.

This confession of faith, that all one has is a gift from God which He promised beforehand to give, is what grounded the Israelites in their understanding of tithing or almsgiving. You just heard from Deuteronomy how Moses commanded the people to give of the firstfruits of their lands as an offering to the Lord in thanksgiving of His bounty in keeping His covenant to provide for them. When someone would go to offer his firstfruits, he was commanded to declare: “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.” The confession of faith, and thus the giving of offerings, was built upon this reality – that the Lord has kept His promises, and that His people had come into the land prepared and promised.

Indeed, just as the Lord led His people Israel through the wilderness into the Promised Land which He had sworn to their fathers, so also has He led you into the bounteous riches which He has promised to you. Whatever you have is by His gracious providence. The land yields its bounty because He sends the rain and the sun upon it in due season. The seeds sprout and the plants grow, the animals multiply and grow, your homes and businesses stand – all by the Word of the Lord directing and sustaining them.

He has sworn to you that He will give you all that you need to support this body and life, and He is true to His Word. The Lord cannot lie, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. Throughout your life, whether in good times or bad, you have never lacked for those things most needful. Sure, your table may not have groaned under the weight of many feasts, your cup may not have run over with the best wines, but you have not starved nor wanted for shelter or sustenance. Some are blessed with more abundance than others, but who among us is truly lacking in those things which support this body and life? If you do suffer want, let it be known to the congregation, that our abundance may supply your need.

Moses commanded the Israelites to give a tithe of the firstfruits of their lands as an offering to the Lord, but not because the Lord was hungry. As He told David, all the beasts of the forest and the cattle on a thousand hills belong to the Lord, so He does not need anything you have to offer Him. However, He commands the offering of the firstfruits, that thanksgiving of Him might be foremost in the hearts and minds of His people. Before you sit down to eat, before you rejoice in your abundance, before you store up for the future, give thanks to the Lord for what He has provided this day.

The offering of the firstfruits was given to the Lord at His altar, but it was then to be distributed to those in need. The Lord commanded that the offering be given for those in need, “giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled.” Those who had need, who had no means of providing for their needs, were to be fed from the offerings on the Lord's altar.

The Levites were to receive of the offerings because they were commissioned to be the priests of God for the people of God. They made their living and received their sustenance from the offerings brought by the people of the other eleven tribes. Because they were engaged in the constant work of interceding for the people to God, those who worked the land were to provide for their needs, out of thanksgiving to God.

The sojourner within the towns of Israel was to be provided for out of the abundance offered to God also, because the Lord commanded His people to show hospitality to those on the road. His people had formerly been sojourners in the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh had taken them in during the great famine. Therefore, since the Israelites had received mercy then, as well as in the desert, they were to return the favor by caring for those traveling through their lands. Those who have supply those who have not, so that it may be returned in time of reversal.

The fatherless and the widows were likewise to be supplied out of the abundance of the Lord's altar. These lowest of the poor, with no one to work for them and provide for their needs, were to be cared for by the gifts of those who had plenty. Throughout the Old Testament, this requirement remained constant, and even into the time of the apostles. The measure of the spiritual and moral health of a society, according to Scripture, is how it treats these at the low end of the ladder. As God is father of all, so He provides for all, even if it comes by the hand of strangers or neighbors.

To offer the firstfruits was commanded by God, but it was instituted to supply the needs of others out of the abundance of blessings that God has given to all His children. God promises to provide for all your needs, but it comes through the hands of your brothers and sisters in Christ. This is the mission of the Church – to give the Gifts of God to the people of God, both in body and in soul. Wilhelm Loehe once said, “Mission is nothing but the one church of God in motion.”

Yes, giving tithes and offerings is commanded of you. The Law of God demands it. However, the Law offers no motivation to do it, except perhaps a fear of punishment or shame. What does motivate you toward acts of love and service to your neighbor is the ultimate act of charity, that God offered up His Son to die for you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

St. Paul writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” The Son of God, the creator of the universe, divested Himself of all the glory of the Godhead and made Himself to be a servant to His creation, that He might die for you and for all people. He who is rich beyond imagination gave up His throne in heaven for a time, that He might be offered up on the cross. You, in your poverty, received His riches, while He, in His wealth, took the poverty of your sins and trespasses upon Himself and nailed them to the cross. By bursting forth from the tomb, Jesus has burst the bounds of your poverty and wretchedness, filling you with every good thing by His immeasurable grace and mercy. He has filled you with Himself, that you may never again lack for anything, whether in body or soul. For Christ is your all in all.

Therefore, all tithing, all almsgiving flows out of a grateful heart that is full of the Holy Spirit. The command to give is not a burden, because Jesus Christ has already satisfied your needs. Just as the grace of God is boundless in its measure for you, so His blessings and mercy are boundless to be given by Him through you.

Does it matter what you give? Must you give ten percent? St. Paul writes, “For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.” You see others in need now, and you have means to help them. At another time, you will be in need, and there will be others with means to help you. We do not suffer want in our own houses to supply the needs of others, but know that God will provide through us for all His people. You do not know what will come tomorrow, and you do not know what will come from your generosity.

What you do know is that as richly as God has blessed you already, He promises to bless you even more as you act as His mouth and hands and feet for those in need. He will increase your abundance for the sake of others, and they will bless you in your time of need. St. Paul says:

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.