God is NOT a Coke Machine!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 18^th Chapter

‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two

others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

I have a personal relationship where blessings fall from above and through those blessings I am wonderfully refreshed.  Those blessings only come, in this relationship, through my offerings and they only come when my giving is in the full amount which has been written.  When I try to get away with giving less... less that what is written... there is no blessing.  In fact, like a neon sign flashing at me, I know right away I have not given enough.  If what I offer is unclean or is marked up or is not crisp and pure and straight it is rejected and again, I receive no blessing.  BUT, when I dig deeply, when I give the proper amount and my offering is pure and clean and straight, then literally within a second, I can hear my blessing coming and then it arrives!  What comes from above is a blessing that is incredibly refreshing, like water in the desert... only SO much sweeter!  It dances within me and rouses my body and mind!  I simply LOVE the relationship I have with the Coke machine in the ferry terminal in Rockland! 

Now, there are some who would argue that this is exactly how their relationship with God works as well.  They say that if you tithe... if you give 10% of your income to the church, and your gift is given with a pure heart, unwrinkled and free from black marks, then God will send you a blessing from above.  But think for a moment what that says about your place and God’s place in this relationship.  It says that YOU are in control.  It says that YOU are in charge and that YOU have the ability to manipulate God by following some kind of magic formula.  It says that a human can MAKE God do something for them.  Is that really how God works?  Can God be manipulated by humans with proper prayers, beliefs, rituals and offerings, and if done correctly a blessing is DESERVED?  Does God really work like the Coke machine in the Rockland ferry terminal? 

You may have gathered that I’m not a fan of this way of looking at God.  It suggests that blessings and gifts from God only come after we do something to put some sort of cosmic god-machine into motion.  It is a horrible illusion that God works like a vending machine... that we each succeed or fail, live or die based solely on how well we, as individual humans can manipulate God.  It is a terrible misreading of Scripture to say that those who follow the correct formula, say the right prayers and give the right gifts are blessed and God is required to robotically send a blessing down the chute when the right buttons are pushed while those who do not follow the right formula, don’t say the right prayers or don’t give the right offering have failed... their inability to do it right, is seen as sin and therefore they deserve not to be blessed.  Those who imagine that each of us is only responsible for ourselves and that we get what we deserve based on how well we each manipulate God like a vending machine have fooled themselves.  The technical churchy word for this is "idolatry"... and the idol they are worshiping is the one they see when they look in the mirror.  

That sort of selfishness and that lack of concern for others is at the heart of the “wickedness” that Ezekiel was talking about in today’s first lesson.  That focus on the self and our own comforts and preferences is exactly what the Psalmist asks God to help us “turn our eyes from beholding”.  That selfish desire to gain power, wealth and control at the expense of our neighbors is what Paul was warning us of in the passage from Romans and that worship of self, that isolation from others, and that obsession with what “I” want is EXACTLY the sin that Jesus told the disciples will destroy a community when it is ignored.  

In Christianity we are called to give, but if you are giving to manipulate God, you are doing Christianity wrong.  As Christians we give to remind ourselves that everything we have... EVERYTHING WE HAVE is not our own.  Try breathing ONLY with the air that YOU have made yourself!  We give to say "thanks"!  In the Hebrew Scriptures the amount of giving they thought would help us remember that everything we have is a gift from God and to give thanks was 10%... a tithe.  It was meant to be an amount that you would feel.  It was meant to be something you would miss and when you missed it, THAT feeling would help you remember that everything you have comes from God.  It was meant to be a reminder to be thankful, but not be so much that it took away your ability to live.  

In today’s world, with a level of income inequality that makes the Roman Empire seem like a charitable institution, the percentage that people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or the Kochs would have to give in order to feel it pinch would be MUCH, MUCH, MUCH higher than 10%.  In the same way, the percentage that a widow living on $600 a month has to give to feel it pinch would be MUCH, MUCH, MUCH less than 10%.  If you want to give a real tithe, then give an amount that pinches you into remembering that none of it was yours to begin with, whatever that percentage turns out to be.  If you can give an amount without much thought, without really missing it, without it pinching you into remembering to be thankful, then it’s probably time to bump up your giving until it pinches more like a tithe.  

The other reason we Christians are called to give is that we are called to, as Paul writes, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”  We are called as Christians to give mostly because Jesus was all about giving and we, as Christians, are called to follow the leader!  Following Jesus in the giving department quickly gets even more “pinchy” than even tithing when you think about exactly how much Jesus gave.  As Christians, if we haven’t yet given EVERYTHING including our lives, as Jesus did, then there is still more we are called to give.  But remember... we follow Jesus by walking TOWARD a destination one step at a time, not by suddenly BEING THERE all at once.  Following Jesus in our giving, means giving more of ourselves over time, throughout our lives.... more time in prayer and study, more time in service, advocacy and worship and more of our money for the benefit of the whole world… all toward the goal of giving all of ourselves like Jesus did.  

Our culture has changed the notion of sin, wickedness and falsehood to become some kind of individual moral naughtiness that’s just between an us and God.  But “Sin” is really putting our own desires, comforts and preferences before our neighbor’s needs.  “Wickedness” is manipulating the ways the world works for our own benefit at the expense of our neighbors, the poor and the oppressed and “Falsehood” is telling ourselves and the world that we are in control and then acting like we have the power to manipulate God.   

May none of us be tempted to reduce God to a vending machine.  May each of us work toward giving as Christ gave and may each of us remember that we were created to be in community… the Body of Christ… drawing one another continually closer, loving one another and treating those who become self absorbed and forget about their neighbors exactly like Jesus treated Gentiles and tax collectors… by inviting them even closer, to eat with us here at God's table and to join us as fellow disciples.  Amen.