“To give regular financial support to the Church,

with the biblical tithe as the minimum standard of giving”

I want to open this morning with an account from the life of one of the greatest characters of the Old Testament, a man whose life we’re all very familiar with, although perhaps not with this particular series of events in his life. The man’s name was Joseph. And in the forty-seventh chapter of the book of Genesis we read of this episode in the life of Joseph that I think should be instructive for us as we consider the fifth of the ten duties of the laity as outlined in the canons of the ACNA, that duty being: “To give regular financial support to the Church, with the biblical tithe as the minimum standard of giving.” READ GEN. 47:13-25

Now as I said, Joseph is character we’re all pretty familiar with. And that’s good because we need to bring what we know about Joseph to this episode to understand how it applies to us, and especially what it teaches us in this matter of our stewardship of the gifts God has given us, especially our finances.

What is it that we know so well about Joseph? It’s that his brothers faked his death, and then sold him into slavery, right? But that’s just the beginning of the story, isn’t. Because the real story in the drama of Joseph’s life is about what goes on behind the curtain, so to speak. Its about how God, by his invisible hand of providence, raises Joseph up, at least symbolically, from the grave and causes him to ascend, through what he suffers, to become ruler over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. That’s the real story of Joseph’s life, isn’t it? And so in Joseph, we’re given to see seventeen-hundred years before his birth, a type, a foreshadowing of the life of Jesus Christ. That’s the real significance of the life of Joseph as we read the account of his life from Holy Scripture.

So when we come to this passage, this account, we see Joseph again acting as a type of Christ in relation to the starving people of Egypt. The seven years of famine had come. The life of the people was in the land, but the land was dead. They had no seed. There was no seed in all the land except in the Lord Joseph’s house. So life in Egypt was, in a very real sense, Joseph’s to give. He had the seed; he had the life.

Well, the people first came to Joseph with their money. They thought they might buy the life-seed from Lord Joseph. But if money can’t buy you love, it certainly can’t buy you life -at least not for long. When the money’s gone, when you’ve spent everything you have, everything you’ve ever earned, you’re still can’t claim life as your possession. Spend all your money on exercise, special diets, and all the life-extending technology you can get your hands on, and in the end that’s all you’ve done – extend life, just like these Egyptians did for only a year. Life, and more certainly, eternal life, can’t be bought with any currency, whether it be the green-back or the good work, because you’re born dead. You’re born the victim of spiritual famine. You have no life-seed in you. And you can’t kick-start yourself into life simply because dead men generally don’t kick-start anything. You’re in the hole, and you can’t buy your way out.

The people next came to Joseph with their livestock. When you’re starving the cow is more valuable the coin. At least you can eat the cow. The life was in the cow, at this point for the Egyptians. But the people offer their livestock to Lord Joseph in hopes that he might find them a favorable exchange for the life-seed - the lives of bulls and goats in exchange for the life of men. But even the lives of all their animals proved to be inadequate to permanently secure the life-seed. No amount of animal sacrifice can ever give life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, because, as the Scripture says, “it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

So when the money was spent, and the stables were empty, the people finally come to Lord Joseph and say, “We’re dead in the land. We have nothing left. We can’t try to buy your favor anymore. We have nothing left to offer except our own lives. Buy our lives and our lands. Makes us the indentured servants of Pharaoh. Take our lands. Let them be added to Pharaoh’s kingdom. Only give us the life-seed that we may have bread to eat and that we may feed our children. Why should we die in your presence?”

And Joseph said to the people, “Indeed, I have bought you this day. And I have bought your land. You and your lands from this day forward will belong to Pharaoh. And behold here is the seed, here is the life-seed by which I have purchased you for Pharaoh. I’ll give it to you, and I’ll even give your lands back to you on loan from Pharaoh. But you must sow this seed. You may not simply consume it. And of the increase of your produce four-fifths will be your own. But one-fifth of the increase you must give back as interest to Pharaoh and his kingdom.”

And the people answered, “You have saved our lives. You’ve saved us from the famine. You’ve saved us from certain death. We entrusted our lives to you, and you gave us the life-seed in exchange. We acknowledge that our lives are no longer our own. You’ve purchased us to Pharaoh, and we will be his servants. And so we will give back a fifth of the life you’ve so graciously given us.”

Now do you see the real meaning of this episode from the life of Joseph? Do you see how Joseph foreshadows the saving work of Jesus Christ? And do you see how this passages teaches us the reasonableness of giving back a portion of the life the Lord has purchased for Himself by redeeming us from death?

You see, the first principle of Biblical stewardship is that we are not our own. We’ve bought with a price. Redeemed from our spiritual famine not, says St. Peter, with perishable things like silver or gold” or even the blood of bulls and goats, but by the precious blood of Christ. Christ shed his blood to be our life-seed – the life is in the blood. And he gave his body to be our life-sustaining bread. But we have that life from him in exchange for our own lives. We’re paid for. There’s been a change of ownership. Christ purchased us for his Father by his own death on the cross. Therefore, we truly are not our own. “Having been set free from sin, we have become the slaves of God,” say St. Paul. So nothing that we are, and nothing that we have – our money, our time, our talents – none of these things truly belong to us. They all belongs to God through the purchase price of his own Son.

But then the second principle of Biblical stewardship is that we have our lives back from God on loan. And we have our lives on loan not to use them just in any old way we please. We may not use them to pursue our own sinful lusts and pleasures. God expects 100% accountability of the lives that belong to Him. God expects us to sow the live He’s loaned us to produce an increase first for his kingdom, and then for our own well-being and the well-being of our children and of society. God gives us back our lives on loan, but He expects the interest.

Think about it. Because Christ has purchased us by his blood, God could expect us to dedicate everything we are, everything we have to his service. And, in fact he does. Jesus says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” In other words, our first priority in life must be God’s kingdom since Christ has bought us to be servants of our King.

Now we can easily convince ourselves that we’re seeking first the kingdom as long as the kingdom is this sort of nebulous, disembodied, “spiritual” reality in our minds, as it so often is. But when we remember that the kingdom of God is an incarnated reality, that the kingdom of God has a real, physical presence in the world called the Church, then it becomes a little more difficult. Think about it. God could expect every one of us to dedicate ourselves completely to the service of the Church. He could require us all to become monks and nuns and live in a monastery out on some rock off the coast of Scotland or some such place. He could expect that, couldn’t He? It’s within His rights as our owner. But what He does require instead is that we seek first the kingdom through the principle of the tithe - the best ten-percent, the top of the budget. And the top of the budget not only of our money, but of everything we have: our time, our talents, and our treasures. And then think about this: Pharaoh required one-fifth – twenty percent. God only requires ten. Ten percent of your life as the interest on eternal life. Not a bad deal, considering the alternative.

What would you give for eternal life? All of your money? All of your livestock, if you had any? Maybe your pets? Would you sell yourself as a slave for your entire life on this planet, in order to be a free son or daughter of God in the life of the world to come and have an eternal inheritance, something to truly call your own? Would you give up your life to attain that life? You don’t have to do any of those things, because Christ did them all for you. So how much do you think you owe him for the life he’s given you? 100% of your life? 90? 50? He only asks that you invest your life wisely and in accordance with his law, so you may give him the increase, the interest for his kingdom. The rest of it he’s given to you for your own well-being, for your own enjoyment, and for the good of others, so long as you receive it with thanks. But give him his just due. Give him your tithe. Give him the best ten percent, the top of the budget of your time, your talents, and your treasures. Because the third principle of Biblical stewardship is this: that to those who are faithful in what they’ve been entrusted with in this life, much will be given to call their own in the life to come.

Seek first the kingdom of God through the principle of the tithe: the tithe of your time, the tithe of your talents, and the tithe of your treasures. +