As we are all well aware, we are in the midst of a global economic crisis. The world is facing a financial maelstrom and so too are churches and religious bodies, including all the partners in the Baptist General Association of Virginia family.
I would like to offer three responses during these stressful times.
First, for the church to be an effective witness, we must align the way we live with what we say we believe. We in the church must confess that we have been as guilty as the rest of society when it comes to poor financial management, carelessly borrowing what we could not afford and purchasing what we did not need.
Jesus advised that we render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render to God the things that are God's. The image on the coin belongs to Caesar, so we are to render that to him. But the image on you and me is the image of God. We are to render to God our values, our priorities, our view toward things in light of that image. Yet Caesar always wants to grasp what ought to belong to God. We need to confess Caesar's grip on us.
Second, we need to speak openly about the importance of our offering, of our gifts to God. For most people, giving is just a practical necessity, something that keeps the building open for the many ministries of the church, provides for a pastor and staff, purchases literature, supports missionaries all over the world, supports Virginia Baptist ministries, helps feed the hungry and keeps the homeless warm.
On one level, our giving does do all of this, but we need to remind ourselves that there is a far deeper reason for giving. Our giving is a symbol — it is a symbol of us. The saddest thing that has happened to the Western mind is our tragic loss of the sense of symbol. The truth is that a thing is never merely a thing; it always stands for something else. This is why things can be so dangerous and have such power.
So from the beginning, worshippers have always brought their most essential things to express their worship to God — sheep, oxen, grain, grapes. In more primitive and misguided fervor, they even brought their children, flesh and blood offerings to God. The gift became perverted.
We too are capable of perverting the gift whenever we give our offering to placate an angry God or to make a bargain or to attempt to buy a blessing. Yet beyond these perversions lies the deep and instinctive need to offer a thing of expression in worship. When we bring our gift — our money — it is telling about us. It will tell of a great love in us or of a small love in us, of joy and delight or of calculation and fear, of a life open to God or of a life guarded and fisted.
Third, as a symbol, our giving does something to us. A proper offering will lead your soul to take the shape of the offering. It's too simple to say, “If I had a better faith, I'd bring a better gift.” It is more true to say, “When I bring the better gift, something in me will find the better faith.” Our heart and our behavior are in a constant dance with each other. Sometimes the heart leads and sometimes behavior leads. It's when my behavior leads that my heart falls in step and I'm miraculously changed.
So strangely, the gift we set before God becomes a gift to our own souls. That's why Paul says that real children of God give their gifts as hilarious/cheerful givers. They've witnessed a transforming freedom within themselves.
Let me tell you a story of a hilarious/cheerful giver. Sara was 3 or 4 years old. She had brought a little money that Sunday morning, but the offering plate went by before she was ready. But Sara would not be denied. She began chasing the plate down the pew. Not knowing what she wanted, all the grown-ups smiled at Sara but kept passing the plate ahead of her.
When the offering plate came to the end of Sara's pew, the usher passed it down the next pew. So Sara swung out into the aisle and ran into that pew, still chasing the plate. Finally, her father got up and spoke to another usher, who held the plate until Sara got there. She slam dunked her offering and went back to her pew, out of breath and triumphant.
If we knew half of what our gifts mean, we'd be just that eager to give them! We'd be just that relentless to give them, knowing they are symbols of ourselves to God. We'd let them shape us into what and who we shall become.
John Upton is executive director of the BGAV.