May 7th

Tithing our Time in the context of Prosperity

I remember visiting my Oncle Jean in Switzerland twenty years ago.  As we were getting ready to make a toast, I remember my Uncle explaining: “Back in the day, we toasted to our health. But these days, health is not as big a worry. Instead we have a deficit of happiness.” And so now he toasts to health and happiness!  “Santé Bonheur!”

 
When I think of tithing stories in the Bible, the one that I think of first is the woman who gives two coins, which, according to Jesus, is all that she had to live on that day. This woman is tithing 100% -- not 10%, and Jesus notices her humble generosity and trust – trust that she will be cared for by Creator God. With this story, Jesus gives us a high bar when it comes to vulnerability through tithing!

 
In our current day, we continue to encourage tithing according to Deuteronomy 14– giving 10% of what we generate as income. But most of us do not experience the sacrifice the woman demonstrates in this story. For most of us, what we have left over after tithing is still abundance of wealth. And so I am thinking about a parallel to my toast story: if giving money is in today’s world is not the sacrifice it used to be, how can we recalibrate our “giving” in order to live into the “putting yourself out there” vulnerability of the woman in our coin story? 
 
I propose that in our current day, we might want to add “tithing our time” as a consideration when we think about sharing of our abundant resources. I noticed recently that MCC Thrift has beat me to this idea! I would like to build a bit on this concept.  
 
Just yesterday, I heard  a quote from the beloved late Executive Director of Right at Home Housing society in Edmonton, Cam McDonald, was known to say “Say ‘yes’ until you have a really good reason to say ‘no’”. This was his motto for exploring new ideas for housing projects to address housing inequity in our communities. If someone came with an idea, Cam would honour and consider the idea thoroughly in the spirit of “yes – we can find a way.” 
 
Each time we say “yes” to an opportunity, we step into the potential for growth – growth of relationships, growth of understanding, growth of justice in community. And yet we can feel inundated with opportunities to share our time in this way. How do we discern how to allocate tithing our time? I have a two ideas!
 
1.  We have a web of opportunities through our church-related initiatives. This includes MCC, MDS, Camp Valaqua, Bridge Building, Indigenous Relations, Palestine Israel Network, and more. Anything that shows up in our bulletin is an opportunity to consider a “yes!” This is a great starting place to manage the feeling of inundation and perhaps anxiety of opportunity. These opportunities have been vetted.
 
2.  As Mennonites we do things together. When we do things together, we are able to show up confidence and courage. And we are able to amplify the experiences as we share the story of our experiences of blessing of learning and responding -- through giving time. And these experiences are the stuff of testimonials of God at work around us -- in our larger church community.
 
I wonder what God has in store for us as we consider the invitation to grow – not our economy – but our capacity to love and be present in new ways -- by the grace of God -- for the good of our own faith journey, for the good of our human kin. May the Peace of Christ be with us all as we you explore our own and collective growth as disciples of Jesus with courage and confidence to say yes to new opportunities!