Oh, nice. Now that our stewardship campaign is finally over, we have a scripture about money. Great.
Some church leaders, including some who call themselves pastors, will tell you that God wants your money. They’ll tell you that God needs your money. Give your money to God, because God needs your money.
God doesn’t need your money. (I can say that, now that the stewardship campaign is over.) God doesn’t even really want your money.
In ancient times, people offered animal sacrifices to God instead of money; but those animals were worth a lot, and sometimes were even used as money, in a way, as people traded them, giving and receiving animals and livestock in exchange for goods or services. But repeatedly, God says that God doesn’t want their sacrifices.
In Psalm 50, God says: “I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the air; and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.”
Through the prophet Amos, God says: “Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon.” In the Message Bible, this verse is paraphrased in a way that gives it a 21st century twist; it says: “I’m sick of your fundraising schemes, your public relations and image making.” (I can say that, now that the stewardship campaign is over.)
By the time we get to Micah, the people are exasperated. They cry out: “What can we give you, God, that would make you happy? Can we come before you with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will you be pleased with thousands of rams, or ten thousand rivers of the finest oil? No? What about our firstborn children, our precious babies?”
But none of these offerings are acceptable to God.
And let’s not forget the money-changers in the temple. Jesus saw them there, and he got so upset that he overturned their tables; but do you know why they were buying and selling and exchanging money in the temple? They were doing it to help people make proper offerings to God. Jesus’ own parents made such an offering shortly after he was born. They went to the temple, exchanged some money, purchased a pair of turtledoves or pigeons, and offered them to the Lord; and they did it all according to ancient Jewish teaching. But Jesus overturned the tables, because apparently, God does not want these types of offerings.
If these types of monetary offerings were what was really important, then why wouldn’t God be happy with the large sums of money placed into the treasury boxes by rich people? But according to Jesus, God is not all that impressed with their gifts. Jesus says that God is more impressed with two small coins, worth but a penny, placed into the treasury by a poor widow.
Now, I could tell you that God wants your money, that God needs your money, but that would be a lie. Anyone who really needs money isn’t going to be satisfied with a penny. Anyone who really needs money will be happier with the larger sums.
So if it’s not money that God wants, then what does God want? Let’s return back to Psalm 50, where God says “I will not accept your animal sacrifice.” Later on in that same Psalm, God says: “Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me.” Thanksgiving, then, is a sacrifice pleasing to God.
Let’s return back to Amos, where God says “I will not accept your burnt offerings, and I’m sick of your fundraising.” It is in that same passage that God says: “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Justice and righteousness, then, are offerings pleasing to God.
Let’s return back to Micah, where the people are trying to figure out what they can give God that would make God happy. They offer up their own children to God, the greatest gift they can think of, but in return they are told this: “God has told you what is good. What does the Lord require of you? The Lord requires that you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”
I haven’t yet mentioned Hosea, but he, too, talks about what it is that God really wants. In the book of Hosea, God says: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice; the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” What’s interesting about this verse from Hosea is that it is repeated elsewhere in scripture. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus himself quotes it not once, but twice. “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice; the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
The rich people gave more money than the poor widow. So what. They gave out of their abundance. They gave what they could spare. Their offering of money was just that: an offering of money. And God doesn’t need money.
The widow put in her two coins that added up to a penny, but really, she put in so much more than that. Her gift wasn’t just a gift of money. Her gift was a gift of the heart. She put all of her money in the treasury box, and she gave all of her heart to God.
God doesn’t want your money. Now I know that there’s probably someone in this room who heard me say that, and they thought to themselves, “Great! I’m off the hook!” But most have you have probably figured out by now that that’s only half of the message. God doesn’t want your money; God wants something much bigger, much more important, much more significant than mere money. God wants your heart.
The problem with al those ancient sacrifices was that, too often, people looked at them as a way to buy God off. Same thing with the money changers in the temple. Same thing with the rich who contributed large sums out of their abundance. Not only does God not want these types of offerings; God is offended by them.
God does not want an offering of guilt. Forgiveness is free. You cannot buy it.
God does not want an offering of appeasement. You cannot secure God’s favor with money.
God does not want an offering that tries to secure God’s love. That’s not how our covenant with God works. God’s love is a free gift to us, and any offering we make in return is an offering of thanksgiving.
All of this is not to say that money is not important. God is interested in the heart, but ancient wisdom tells us that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The reason God is not impressed by the offerings placed into the treasury box by the rich is that the hearts of the givers were not in the offering. Their hearts were with the even larger treasure they kept for themselves.
Ancient wisdom also teaches that a good offering to give to God is a tithe—one-tenth of one’s income. However, it is clear that a tithe given without heart is worse than no tithe at all. On the other hand, a penny given with heart is greater than the most enormous sum of money given without heart.
In a few minutes, our worship leader will say a few words on stewardship as we prepare to take up the offering, and I don’t want to make his task any harder than it already is. So let me clarify: I do think it is a good thing for you to give money to the church. However, it’s only good if you give your heart as well. It’s only god if you give cheerfully. It’s only good if you give because it brings you joy to see how God’s kingdom is made real and present through the ministry we share. It’s only good if you give with a heart full of thanksgiving. If you can give like that, then it is a very good thing.
But if you give out of guilt … if you give because you want your neighbor to see you place something in the plate as it passes … if you give regretfully, thinking of what you could buy with this money if only you didn’t have to support the church … if that’s why you’re giving, then keep your money. God neither needs nor wants your gift of money if that’s all it is, a gift with no heart.
In just a few weeks, people will—if they haven’t already—start their Christmas shopping. Americans spend over 400 billion dollars each year on Christmas. Often, someone will ask me what I want for Christmas. Then they’ll go out and get it for me.
The truth is, we feel obliged to buy things at Christmas. A lot of the things we buy, we don’t want to buy. Fighting the crowds at the mall, racking up credit card bills, does nothing to put us in the Christmas spirit. The season of Christmas joy becomes a season of Christmas rush, and our heart just isn’t in it.
You know what would be a really meaningful gift? One that you put your heart into. Maybe it costs a lot of money, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it only costs you a penny, or even nothing at all. But if your heart is in it; if you’re giving it because you want to, not because you feel obliged to; if you are giving it out of gratitude, and if, in giving, you find joy … that is a wonderful gift. That is a gift that brings joy to the one who receives it.
That is the gift that God really wants.
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