What is the Tithe? Deut 14: 22-29, Matt 23:23-24

The question raised this week is quite specific. What is the Tithe? Some of you may be scratching your heads and saying, it’s a strange term that I’ve never heard of, while others may be aware of churches that promote the tithe. Some may be aware of some of the history of this concept. I expect many of us would wonder if the term is relevant any more and may be thinking it could be an irrelevant question to explore. I don’t think so. In fact I think there is a very deep challenge to us in this concept.
A basic definition is this: the tithe is setting aside one-tenth of your income for sacred purposes. It’s normally promoted by more fundamentalist churches that demand high commitment. It’s practiced by Mormons, some Baptists, the Assembly of God, and some independent congregations. Our Presbyterian neighbours at Hornby practice it. In its simplest form, you are expected to put one-tenth of your gross income into the church offering each week. So, if you have a weekly income of $400 before tax, that’s $40 into the church plate each week.
The practice of the tithe is an ancient one in our tradition. It comes from the laws found in the Old Testament, although it is found in other traditions as well. As we read from the law book Deuteronomy this morning, one-tenth of all agricultural produce was to be set aside as well as the first born of flocks. Remembering that this was a time when everyone had a link to the land and the economy was focused almost entirely on agriculture this effectively meant 10 per cent of your income for nearly everyone. The produce was to be taken to the nearest center of worship where it seems there was to be a large feast – a giant party. Bishop John Taylor described it as a spending spree, whiskey and all, to make our commercial Christmas look like a Lenten fast! It was a lavish celebration with the best of food and wine to rejoice and celebrate the goodness and generosity of God. It was a time to remember that the gifts of grain and produce were gifts from a magnificently gracious God. We are trustees but God is the giver. We humans always tend towards hoarding and exploiting for our gain, but God is gracious and generous. It was a time to forget boundaries between people and welcome everyone. It was to remind us that life was good and we are meant to enjoy the gifts God has given us. That’s not something Presbyterians are always good at and when you look at our communion feast which has origins in this meal you can’t help thinking we’ve lost the plot a little!
But there was another critical part of the tithe and that was that the produce was also to be distributed to people who had no land and no ability to grow their own food. The Levites were the priests and the leaders who were responsible for upholding the Law. They were not expected to work in the fields and grow their own food. Likewise, the resident aliens the orphans, and the widows are also identified as people who would also need to be supported. So the tithe was a means to care for people who had a special responsibility for upholding religious practice and those who needed a helping hand. This principle would also be found in laws of gleaning or where the law instructed farmers to leave some of the grain in the field when they harvested so the aliens, the orphans and widows could come and harvest. The poor widow Ruth was able to survive because of this law. When she and Naomi returned to Bethlehem without a cent, Ruth went into the fields at harvest time and gathered the stalks of grain dropped by the gleaners [Ruth 2]. The laws of the Old Testament were very concerned about providing for the less fortunate in our society and in our world. They were concerned to uphold the institutions of religion so that the rituals of religious faith did not die out.
In Jesus’ time it is clear the tithe was a common practice. Much of the tithe went to supporting the priests, the temple, and other religious institutions. Some would have gone to the poor. Jesus upholds the practice, but he does warn the Pharisees who kept the tithe vigorously that it was not a way of earning brownie points with God. What mattered to God was the generosity of their hearts and the genuine way they upheld religion and cared for others, especially those at the bottom.
In the early church this caring generosity towards one another was legendry with people going to extraordinary lengths to help one another and support one another. Genuine poverty was common, but clearly the sense of being brothers and sisters was much more than a polite ‘hello’ on Sunday morning. People would downsize their cars and homes to help others at church and what was mine was yours – or in reality was God’s to be used not for personal pleasure but to build the new kingdom on earth. The tithe I suspect was redundant because the early Christians far exceeded the target of 10% in their generosity. In time the church became more institutionalized and the concept of the tithe on agricultural produce became a popular way to raise money to support the institution and to pay for clergy and other full time workers. In theory all land in places like England and Scotland were subject to tithe. Special barns were constructed to keep the grain, but in practice much of the tithe was received in cash. Tithes were sometimes divided into great and small tithes. The great tithes being one tenth of the major crops,( wheat oats and such) went to the rector of the parish, while the minor tithes (lambs chickens etc) were used to pay the vicar. Sometimes there were special tithes collected. In 1188AD the Saladin tithe was instituted throughout England and portions of France to raise money for the Third Crusade after Saladin had conquered Jerusalem for the Muslims. You may be surprised to learn that it is only in the last 100 years that the system of collecting agricultural tithes in Britain has been disbanded. In other European countries with the advent of industrialization the tithe became a universal tax on income which was then distributed amongst the churches. Most countries have now recognized the secular nature of their citizens and have made such practices voluntary. New Zealand has never had a religious tax set by the government based on the tithe principle.
The question is where does this leave us now. Should we adhere to some form of tithing in our congregation, and if we do what should it look like?
I believe we should practice a form of tithing in our lives. I need to say that I think we should do this because it is a good practice for our souls. I think the principal aim of the tithe is not revenue gathering for the church but as something that helps orientate our lives in God. It is a practice that prevents us getting greedy and reminds us that all things belong to God anyway. It will never be a popular practice in today’s world where we think we own what we have and we have earned what we have. We are not good at seeing what we have as a gift and generosity is not a value that is celebrated. We value people for what they have rather than what they have given away. Tithing re-orientates us into another way of living.
I have to tell you however that I do not donate 10% of my gross income to the church. For me the figure is closer to 4%. Maybe I should do better. However I believe that the principle of the tithe is both to support the church, but also the work of alleviating poverty, caring for others, and helping to build the kingdom of heaven on earth. I like to invest in projects that do this like the giving of micro loans in the third world, donations to Christian World Service, Petersgate, or some other ministry. I like to support groups that work to help build respect for the earth and the creatures of God’s creation. I also am happy to pay my share of taxes some of which are used to support others through our social security system. I have no real idea of how much of our taxes could be included as part of the principal of the tithe, and I would be interested to have someone with more economic and accounting ability than me work this out. Whatever I’m sure I still have much to learn about generosity and letting go of what I often see as mine and not God’s.
I know we all have different circumstances, and I would be concerned if we were to ever get legalistic about the tithe. However I am also concerned that most of us like to live with maximum security and minimum risk and we are not serious about giving sacrificially. If given the option of a holiday in Australia or giving to someone in need, we’ll go for the holiday. What I would like to see is serious decision making in our lives that looks at what we give to the church and other places where the kingdom is promoted and honestly asks ‘am I giving generously?’ I ask us all to look at our gross income and see what percentage we give away and prayerfully ask how it stacks up against the tithe. I suspect we all may discover we have been sucked into a consumer world that has reshaped our wants and needs and closed our hearts to the Christian ideals of grace and generosity and the importance of religious institutions like our church.
Dugald Wilson 24 July 2011