The S Word # 12

THE THEOLOGY OF MONEY # 12
By Douglas Hambidge

WHAT IS MONEY? Part 4
Continued from last week

I learned a great deal from my experience of living in Tanzania about this
whole matter of giving. Here were people who, from my North American point of
view, had absolutely nothing to give, and yet as a central part of their worship
they all gave something. What is more, they made their giving a highlight of the
service. Instead of passing a plate or bag around, everyone in church went
forward and paced their gift either in the large basket in the centre of the
chancel, or on the chancel steps if their gift was in kind, such as a bough or
bananas or a live chicken. As they made their offering they would sing and
sometimes even dance. They behaved as if they were enjoying the opportunity to
give, which was precisely the case. When I asked why they didn’t settle for our
Canadian “passing the hat” method of offering, they responded that they needed
to make the effort to go forward. When I asked why they gave anything at all,
since they were all so poor, their response to that question was interesting too.
They said that they felt a need to give. It was true they had very little money; that
was not the issue. It had to do with their theology of money, even if they would
have never used the term. They had grasped the meaning of money, and that had
nothing to do with the amount they gave or the amount they had. Somehow they
understood how money has a sacramental quality about it, and that it said a great
deal about the one who was giving.

The money we give, in addition to announcing who we are, also declares
who God is in our lives. It says

“This is who I am, and this is who you are to me.”

It is a declaration to God that

“This is the place you have in my life.
No matter how loudly I sing my hymns;
No matter how enthusiastic my ‘Amens;’
No matter how wildly I wave my arms,
This is where you really fit into my life.”

For me this raises the problem of talking about tithing. In fact I don’t do it
anymore, because I might be misunderstood to be suggesting that God’s rightful
place in a person’s life is somehow fixed at 10% or that 10%is an ultimate goal. It
might be taken to mean that when I have reached the 10% plateau I have arrived,
and that God is getting what God deserves, or what I woe God. That does not say
what I want to say about giving.

It’s rather like a revised version of that old hymn, “When I survey the
Wondrous Cross.” In the revised version, a verse would go like this:

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands Ten Percent!”

What I have been struggling with over the years has been the concept of
proportionate giving. That means making my giving match my level of faith. It is
what St. Paul writes about in Romans 12. If I take that seriously I will never ask
people to give more that they are able to give “according to the proportion of
faith.” However I can and will challenge them to give to that level of their faith.
Nor will I ask those without faith to pretend they have faith by giving money to
the church.