Today, I’m going to talk about money ... it’s something I only do twice a year ... late in January as an annual reminder and then in September when Bishop asks all of us to contribute to the Diocesan collection, Catholic Charities. Now, often when people talk about money, you get the impression that they’re trying to talk you out of something ... but I’d like to take a different approach and talk you into something, namely a deeper relationship with God. To begin with, growing up in Chicago, I never remember hearing any Priest talk about the concept of tithing. Regularly and often the priest would tell us that the Church needed money for this reason or that, but I never remember hearing a Priest tell us that it was our duty to give to the Church.

What I heard was ... please give because we have so many needs. What I never heard was ... please give because God instructs you to give. What a revelation it was for me to find out ... that the idea of giving to the Church ... is scriptural ... and very clearly defined! There in the first book of the Bible, in the 3rd Chapter of Genesis, God revealed that He wants us to give the first fruits of our labor to Him ...as a sign of gratitude.

We hear this in the story of Cain and Able. Able, a herdsman brings one of the best firstlings of his flock and sacrifices it to God. The smoke from his sacrifice rises up to Heaven signifying that God is well pleased with his offering. Cain, a farmer, brings an offering of grain, and sacrifices it to God. But his is not the first fruit of the soil, so his smoke does not rise up to Heaven signifying that God is not pleased. Because of this, Cain is jealous of his brother and so he attacks him and kills him; and death enters the world in the form of murder. All because one person gave pleasing sacrifice to God and one did not.

Throughout the Bible, God continues to call mankind to offer Him the first fruits of their labor. For example, in Deuteronomy God says, “You shall tithe all the produce that grows in the field you have sown. And in the Book of Malachi, God asks, “Dare a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me! And you say, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and in offerings!” (God) says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.”

You see, this was the plan that God had in mind from all eternity on how the Church would fund itself ... by people giving the first fruits of their labor back to God. And how much did He say we to give? He uses the word tithe, that means tenth! God wants us to give the first tenth, the first 10%, of the fruits of our labors back to him. This command to tithe appears 46 times in the Bible! Our Protestant brothers and sisters know about God’s plan of Tithing ... and they follow it very well. I happened to get a hold of the Bulletin for Gardendale First Baptist Church. They publish their offertory figures just like we do.Do you have any idea how much money they take in on a given weekend? It says here that on: The first weekend in Jan. ... their offertory totaled $135,155! The second weekend in Jan. ... their offertory totaled $161,430! To put this in perspective, our weekend offertory totaled $14,000!

You might say, well, they’re so much bigger than us; that’s why they get so much money. They claim 6000 members while we have 2,100 members. They’re 3 times bigger than us. Yes, but their offertory is 11 times bigger than ours. Now GFB happens to publish their attendance figures every week and it’s obvious that they suffer from the same problem that we do ... where not everyone faithfully attends Sunday service; something like one-half of the people attend Sunday service. But knowing their attendance makes it easy to find out ... the average offering that those people are giving.

1st week of Jan: $135K / 2,844 people at their service = $47.50 per person. 2nd week of Jan: $161K / 3,331 people at service = $48.50 per person. So it appears that on average the Baptists are giving almost $50 per person ... or $150 per family of 3 ... to their church! You see, Protestant Churches mandate that their members must give a full 10% to the Church, their membership is often contingent on this. In fact I understand that if you work for the Baptist church your tithe is known and expected to the degree that if you don’t give 10% you can’t work there!

Here’s what the Pastor wrote in their bulletin before their last building project. “We are asking you to give ten percent of your income in an undesignated fashion to the Lord’s work through this local church. In addition, we are asking you to give an offering above your tithe to our church’s budget.” You see when they began a building program to build a new campus ... they considered funding it to be over and above their tithe to the church! The Catholic Church doesn’t mandate your offering.
You can come here and worship whether you give or not. But you must know that God commands you to give Him the first fruits of your labors, the first 10 percent!

Imagine if everyone contributed as God designated, we’d never have to have another fund-raiser! We’d be absolutely fine operating on our weekly collection. God calls us to give; it’s His plan for how we are to take care of the needs of His Church.

I can assure you that there are many needs here at Holy Spirit.

• It costs $1000/ Mo. to heat and cool this Church

• It costs $1000/ Mo. to heat and cool the Parish Hall.

• The repaving of our School Entrance cost over $100.000.

• We have to maintain this whole campus inside and out and it’s expensive.

You the faithful are accountable for giving as God requests. As your Pastor, I’m accountable for using the funds wisely. 

I listen to your input through the structure of the Finance Council. I’m accountable to God to be a good steward of all the Church funds. It’s God’s design for His Church; that’s how it continues to operate.
It’s not about need; it’s about keeping our relationship of gratitude with God. Tithe doesn’t mean donation; tithe means tenth! God was very clear on how much He wants us to give back to Him in thanksgiving.

You know January is the time when many people begin to rough out their taxes. I started mine. And it’s also the time I set my strategy for tithing. I’ve been tithing for many years. It’s really quite simple to set up. It can be done on one page. At the top I write down my gross income from the previous year. Then I make a line item for my Parish church and I enter 5% of my income. I divide this amount by 52 and I have the amount my weekly offering. Then I make a line item for Catholic Charities and I enter 1% of my income. Then I list all those organizations that I want to personally contribute to. I break them out into 5 different categories: 1. Education 2. Government 3. Community 4. Pro-life 5. Religious

Then I write in various amounts such that it totals at least 4% of my income. Together this comprises 10% of my annual income ... so this is my tithe, this is my 10% gift back to God. God’s Plan is very fair in that everyone contributes at the same rate of 10%. This enables us, as Paul says today, to “be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” Since I came here last July, I’ve heard several requests for a larger Parish Hall ... and a Children’s Learning Center. Other big parishes have these facilities ... they’re marvelous. But all these things take money. Yet, once we make the commitment to give to the Church as God designed, then we’ll have the resources to serve all the needs of this faith community. Listen to God’s incentive for Tithing, He says, “Try me in this: Shall I not open for you the floodgates of heaven, to pour down blessing upon you without measure?” No ... God will not be outdone in generosity ... when we give to Him ... He comes right back with even more blessings for us! We can’t do without your support. The Church was never meant to be funded by a few ... each person is supposed to provide for its operation ... with everyone paying at the same rate ... which is 10% of what they make. That’s God’s benchmark of support ... 10% of our earnings go back to Him.

I hope that after hearing these ideas that you will take the idea of Tithing to prayer and consider how you will respond to God’s command to give Him the first fruits of your labors. This week you’ll be receiving your Year End Statements for 2016 ... along with a letter from me and a Parish Pledge card. Please fill out your Pledge card and bring it with you to Church next weekend. At the Offertory, you’ll have the chance to bring it forward and place it in a Basket that we will place at the Altar as your intention to support this Church this year. For those of you who are just getting started in the workforce, single people and young marrieds, I’d like to suggest an intermediary plan for you. I’d like you to consider giving one hour of pay each week to the church.

If you make $8 or $10 or $15 an hour, give that much to the church on Sunday. If you work 40 hours a week, that’s 1/40th of your income ... but it’s a start. Then once you’ve gotten established in your job, you can raise your contribution to the church up to 2 hours of pay, which would be 5%, in a 40-hour week. God’s the giver of all that we have and are. He gives us our life, our health, our faith, our intellect, our abilities, our jobs and He asks for us to demonstrate our gratitude ...
by giving the first fruits of our labors back to Him.. So please don’t look at Tithing as God talking you out of something ... rather see Tithing as God talking you into something! Tithing will give you a deeper, more rewarding relationship ... with God and your Church.