Bible Text: Exodus 36:2-7 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Exodus | We are almost finished with our series on the book of Exodus. It has been one interesting story after another!  We met Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives, who did what they could until something new could take hold.  We learned about Moses, and how God raised him up to be lead the suffering Hebrew slaves out of Egypt.  We saw ourselves in the story of the Passover meal which is the foundation for our sacrament of communion.  We read about how God provided manna and quail, provisions as they transitioned from slavery to freedom.  Last week we focused on the Ten Commandments, a basic set of laws for how to live in freedom and community.

A lot has happened for the Hebrew people, but they haven’t reached their destiny yet.  They are headed toward Canaan, the land that God promised to Abraham many years before.  They have a long way to go before they will be in the land of milk and honey.  We can imagine how anxious the Hebrew people must be to get there!  We are frustrated with this pandemic, and it hasn’t even been a whole year yet!  Can you imagine waiting forty years for “normal life”?  But the people are not ready.  They need more detailed rules for living, which you can read in Exodus chapters 21-23.  They need to decide if they really want to be God’s people or not–next week we’ll look at the Golden Calf debacle in Exodus chapter 32.  And most of all, they need to figure out a way to have God travel with them.  They have not been free very long, but they already know that unless they have God’s presence with them as they travel, they will not travel well.  They will veer off course, they will get tripped up, they will miss the mark.

In our scripture passage today, we meet up with the Israelites when they are in the process of building the Tabernacle.  When we hear the word Tabernacle, we might think of a large permanent structure used for worship.  But the word tabernacle really means “tent”.  God commanded the people to build a tabernacle, a portable sanctuary in which God would dwell, a sanctuary they would carry with them as they traveled from Sinai, through the wilderness, to the land of milk and honey.  After giving very specific instructions on how the tabernacle should be built, something amazing happens.  Exodus 36 tells us that the people were so excited to have God’s presence with them, they gave generously to the tabernacle building fund.  So generously, in fact, that Moses had to tell the people to STOP giving!

Can you imagine that?  The people were so eager to give their gifts to the Lord, they actually had to be told to stop giving so much!  Wow.  How would you like to be part of a church that, instead of asking for more money from time to time, asked you to stop giving?  I have never heard of this phenomenon happening anywhere else, except in this story in Exodus.

So let’s think for a few minutes about why this happened, and what it might have to teach us.  First of all, the people gave out of gratitude.  Since they left Egypt, they had been on an emotional roller coaster.  Elated.  Scared.  Filled.  Empty.  Hopeful.  Discouraged.  At every turn, God was there to smooth things out.  Next week we will read about how they were even flagrantly disobedient, melting their jewelry into a golden calf while Moses was on the mountain getting the law.  Yet God has not abandoned them.  God was willing to stick by the people were not so great at sticking by God.  They gave their offerings in gratitude for God’s steadfast love.  How about us?  Do our offerings reflect our gratitude?

This week several people asked me if I’ve started my Christmas shopping yet.  I’m sure you’ve heard sermons in the past about how Christmas has gotten so commercialized that maybe we are missing the point.  But I would love to preach a sermon someday about why we should give MORE gifts at Christmas!  Done well, gift giving at Christmas is a beautiful tradition.  Our gifts to our loved ones are echoes of Jesus, the gift God gave to the world God loves.  Giving generously is a holy act!  We might choose particular gifts because we got them on sale, or because we want to support a favorite store or cause.  But we choose to give because we LOVE.  We love our family and friends, and we are THANKFUL for their presence in our lives.  That is why the Hebrew people gave to the tabernacle.  They LOVED God for freeing them from slavery, and they were THANKFUL for God’s presence in their lives.  When you place your offering in the plate, you are saying, “Thank you, God!  Thank you for your love.  Thank you for your presence.  Thank you for your faithfulness.”

That is why we have, until COVID, always taken an offering during worship, as an act of worship.  It would be much more efficient I suppose to send everyone a monthly invoice.  But giving to the church isn’t about paying the bills.  It is a holy act.  Your gifts, whether you are able to bring them physically to the church, or you mail a check, or you have your bank mail a check, or you are trying out our new online giving option—no matter how you get it to the church, every contribution you make is like singing a praise song to God.  Each offering is an act of worship.

The Bible tells us the Hebrew people were delighted to give their gifts.  They were eager to give to the building of the Tabernacle.  I think this is in part because they wanted the tabernacle to be beautiful–they wanted their god’s dwelling place to be more beautiful than any other religious shrine of their time.  But I also think they wanted it to be beautiful as a reflection of what God had done for them.  They were trading in the gold and plunder they got from the Egyptians and investing it in a new way of living.

Before they were slaves; now they are free. Before there was only work; now there is rest and recreation, too.  Before there was no mercy; now there is grace.  Before there was the Pharaoh and his self-centered ways; now there is Yahweh whose ways are ever directed to his children’s good.  The Hebrew people gave their offerings as a sign of their investment in God’s ways.  They wanted nothing to do with their old way of life in Egypt.  They were dedicating themselves completely to living a new life.

How about us?  Do you have that sense, that you are dedicating yourself to a new way of living, when you make your offerings?  Our situation is a little different, because we are not giving plunder from the Egyptians.  We work hard for our money and earn it honestly, and living day to day is expensive.  But when we choose to give of our financial resources to the church, we are putting our money where our hearts are.  Our first love.  Our eternal home.  Every time we put money in the offering, we are saying, “God, this offering reflects how much I love you.  This reveals my priorities.”  God does not ask us to give everything we have.  Only a percentage.  The traditional Old Testament standard was 10% of your earnings.  That is a goal worth working toward, because it is a way to show, and grow, our love for God.

Once there was a pastor who was trying to convince his congregation to work toward tithing.  He wanted to make it sound easy.  So he said to one his go-to people, Barney, if you had one-hundred cows on your farm, would you give one to the church?  Barney said, sure pastor, I could do that.  The pastor said, great.  What is you had fifty sheep, would you give one to the church?  Barney said, yes, I could do that.  The pastor said, super.  What if you had ten pigs, Barney, could you give one to the church?  Barney said, that’s not a fair question.  The pastor asked, Why not?  Barney said, because you know I have ten pigs!

We can look at this story and say, “It was easy for them to give.  It was gold and riches they got from the Egyptians; it wasn’t really their stuff anyway.”  But it was all they had!  They gave all they had, out of gratitude for God’s faithfulness day in and day out, and out of the love they felt for God in the moment.  Each one gave as they could.  They didn’t expect someone else to do it all.  Each person gave as an expression of their gratitude and love.  What a beautiful picture of faith.

I think there’s one other important reason the people gave so generously, and that has to with the future.  They gave, not only in response for what God did for them in the past, and in gratitude for God’s presence with them in the present, but out of their desire to see the future God had in mind for them.  They wanted to get to the Promised Land.  They believed in the vision, of travelling with God to a special place, and building a nation there that would be different.  They wanted in on the work God was going to do, building a people who would model to the world a society based on love, mercy and justice.  The Hebrew people understood this vision, this special place, to be the nation of Israel.  Many modern Jewish people today give generously out of this same vision.  I can’t tell you how many places we visited on our trip to Israel a few years ago where we saw “giving walls”–stones engraved with the names of people and foundations who have given money so important religious sites could be preserved.  The Hebrew people in our scripture passage today gave because they believed in the vision, of life in the promised land, and that tradition of giving continues today.

Jesus tweaked this vision a little.  It’s still a vision of a society built on love, mercy and justice.  But instead of being confined to one particular nation, it is a kingdom of heaven.  It is a kingdom without geographical confines.  The whole world is included in Jesus’ vision.  When you put your money in the offering plate, you are expressing your belief in Jesus’ vision, that the church has a unique role of modeling this new way of living for the world.

We live in a time when many people are disillusioned by church and feel it hasn’t helped them live in communion with God and in harmony with others, and it hasn’t been an agent for justice they way God intended.  Churches are made of people who aren’t perfect, so of course, churches aren’t perfect.  There is much to criticize.  But Phil and I put our money into the offering plate because we believe in the vision of the church.  We believe there is no other movement on earth that has the redeeming power the church has.  This is the best place in the world to learn about truth, and grace, and joy.  This is the best place in the world to work with people of other faiths in missions of love to make the world most just and kind.  This is the best place in the world to experience the new life Christ died for us to have. The church is God’s chosen vehicle for helping a world that thinks God is nowhere realize that God is indeed now here.

The Hebrew people would have a long journey ahead of them before they reached the Promised Land.  But they knew enough already to know, this tabernacle, this sanctuary, this God, that is what they wanted to invest themselves in.  They gave out of gratitude, they gave out of love, they gave because they believed in the vision.  There’s no reason why that shouldn’t be all of us, too!  Thank you for all the ways you support your church, and if you’ve never given to a church before, I hope you will seriously consider making giving a priority in your budget.  Phil and I have been married 32 years and trying to be tithers the whole time, and we can tell you, it’s a very practical way to make God the center of your life!  It’s also a guaranteed way to boost your joy.

Next week will be our last Sunday studying the book of Exodus. I hope you have enjoyed the stories and felt a serendipitous connection between the experience of the Hebrew people and what is going on in our world today.  I especially hope we can feel the connection between today’s passage of scripture and what is going on with us.  Gratitude for what God has done in the past, thanksgiving for God being with us now, and a desire to invest in the future so we can get to where God wants us to go?  That’s a lot of good stuff!  Wouldn’t it be great if we gave so generously, our finance committee has to tell us to stop?  Amen!