Stop! You are Giving Too Much!

Exodus 36:1-7; I John 3:10-22

The title for my message this morning are words that you probably have never heard a preacher say. I have never in my ministry had to tell a congregation, “Stop! Please do not give any more money. Stop giving immediately! You are giving way too much!”  Yet that is exactly what Moses said in our OT reading today.

Let me give you the context for this unusual statement. It happened at Mount Sinai. Not long before this, God had given Moses the Ten Commandments. Moses came down from the mountain, and he saw that in his absence the Hebrews had gotten bored and forced Aaron to make them a Golden Calf to worship. This is a significant detail because the Golden Calf was made from jewelry which the Israelites donated. Moses came down from the mountain, saw what they had done, and in a rage he threw the stone tablets of the Law to the ground shattering them. That happened in chapter 32. Well, the people (most of them) repented and Moses made some substitute tablets to replace the ones he had broken. That was in chapter 34. Chapter 35 describes the plans for building a tabernacle, which was a portable place of worship. The temple would not be built for centuries. At this time they worshipped in a tent that they carried with them. Chapter 35 talks about the women and men who worked in cloth, gold, silver, bronze, jewels, and wood to build the tabernacle and everything in it to be used for the worship of God.

Then came the fundraising. This was an expensive undertaking, and the Hebrews were not rich. Remember they had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. Slaves are not known for their wealth. But the Exodus story does tell us that the Egyptians were so glad to get rid of them and their plagues that accompanied them that they gave them going-away gifts. So that was part of their wealth. Moses asked for contributions from the Hebrews for the building of the tabernacle. That happened in chapter 35, right before our passage.

Our passage in chapter 36 describes the response of the people to Moses stewardship campaign. Every morning people lined up to bring freewill offerings. They brought so much that the trustees complained. It was more than they could use. I have never heard our trustees complain about something like that. So Moses had to give a commandment that said that people were not to give any more. In fact it says, “The people were retrained from bringing.”  It sounds like people had to be physically restrained from bringing any more financial or material gifts. I would love to have this problem in this church. Let us look at the story carefully and see what we could do here at the Federated Church to have this same problem.

1. First, what were they giving to? I think that makes a difference. The cause influences the amount that people give. We see this all the time on the television and on the internet. The Evening News will run a human interest story in the last five minutes of the broadcast about some person who did a heroic or generous deed or was in need. The homeless man who returned a wallet full of cash that he found. The woman who was a bus monitor and was bullied by the middle-schoolers on the bus and needed a vacation from them. The child who needed a medical procedure that the family could not afford. There is no shortage of dramatic stories. A fund is set up and the money comes pouring in. This happens on Facebook pages as well. I don’t think that is the best way to raise money. A lot of just as worthy causes go unfunded because they did not come to the attention of Diane Sawyer of ABC News. But the fact remains that the cause that one is giving to makes a difference.

The cause that the Hebrews were contributing to was the building of a sanctuary for the worship and service of the Lord. And the people responded immediately and generously. Some people do not like the idea of giving to physical things like buildings. But other people love it, because they can see an objective thing bought with their money. That is why memorial gifts are so popular and so many churches have all sorts of things around the church labeled with the names of the giver and the one in whose memory the gift is given. There is nothing wrong with that. Buildings and furnishings are necessary to religious life in America, and it is wonderful to honor those we love with a gift. So I make no excuse for supporting this. That is how we recently bought some extra hymnals. I think it is worthy of our giving, just as it was a worthy project for the Hebrews in our OT passage.

But it must not overshadow the other work, which is much more emphasized in the scripture. This is the care of those who are poor and hungry and thirsty and homeless and imprisoned. That is why things like the Food bank, the Discretionary fund, disaster relief are important. That is why I included the passage from First John as a reading this morning. The apostle John says in that reading: “Whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” Remember that the two greatest commandments are first to love God and the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Ministering to those in need is the heart of the gospel, and it is not just physical needs, but emotional and spiritual needs as well. When it comes to what we give to, it is not either-or. God or people, buildings for worship or ministry to people. It is both-and. As long as it is given by the direction of God.

2. Second. Let’s look at what inspired these Hebrew people to give in such a dramatic and generous way. What motivated them to give so much that they had to be restrained from giving any more? Maybe in part it had to do with what happened a few chapters earlier in the story of the Golden Calf. Perhaps they felt badly that they had given so much money to build an idol. So when they were asked to give to the house of the true God, they wanted to show that they had changed. But their generosity was not just motivated by guilt.

I think it was mostly motivated by love. Remember that the greatest command of the Torah, the OT law given by Moses to Israel before the love of neighbor was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind soul and strength. I think they gave as they gave to a great extent out of love. God had saved them from slavery in Egypt. He had done this in a dramatic fashion through the plagues on Egypt and through the parting of the Red Sea. Their response had been to forsake God and worship a golden idol made from their own hands, which in itself is a symbol of wealth and money. Gold has always been a symbol of wealth, and it has always laid claim on the hearts of people. That is why Jesus taught that one cannot serve both God and Mammon. The Hebrews were saved by God, but chose to worship Mammon in the form of the Golden calf. But still God forgave them. That is the love of God demonstrated. I think the generous giving of Exodus 36 is a demonstration of their renewed love for God.

That is the best motivation for giving – joyful love of God. Paul writes to the Corinthians church, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) That is how I hope everyone here gives. I think that guilt is one of the worst motivators for doing anything. And it has too often been used by preachers and churches to manipulate people, which is why I refuse to use it. The gospel is about the elimination of guilt through Christ, not the fostering of it.

Love of God is the all-consuming passion of the Christian. This cannot be faked. To be genuine our love of God has to be rooted in God’s love for us. Our love for God and our love for others are rooted in God’s love for us. The apostle John says in the fourth chapter of his first letter: “7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

We cannot make ourselves give openheartedly and openhandedly in the way that these Hebrews gave. No way! All of our instincts - fear of not having enough, self-protection and selfishness - will kick in and prevent us from giving in this manner. The only way our hearts and hands can be opened is when we overwhelmed by God’s love for us. And that overwhelming love is supremely demonstrated in Jesus Christ. God so loved us that he gave his only begotten Son. Christ so loved us that he gave his life for us. The apostle Paul says in his Letter to the Romans 5 “6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Love is clearly the major motivation for Christian giving.

3. Third, let’s look at how they gave. I have been mostly talking about financial giving. And that is an important part of the story. But most of chapters 35 and 36 talk about other forms of giving. One is skill. These chapters are all about the artists and craftsmen who volunteered to make the tabernacle and all the articles for the worship of God that had been commanded by God.

It says, “10 ‘All who are gifted artisans among you shall come and make all that the Lord has commanded…. 25 All the women who were gifted artisans spun yarn with their hands, and brought what they had spun, of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. 26 And all the women whose hearts stirred with wisdom spun yarn of goats’ hair…. 30 And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, 32 to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship. 34 “And He has put in his heart the ability to teach, in him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver—those who do every work and those who design artistic works.”

This is talking about art, which in the history of the church has always been a dominant way that people have expressed their love for God. But it does not have to be just this type of skill. It can be all different types of skill. We all have talents that we can use to express our love for God. And it is important to use those skills.

Another is time. The first verse of chapter 35 mentions this before anything else. “Then Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said to them, “These are the words which the Lord has commanded you to do: Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord.” In our 21^st century American culture, time is very valuable. People don’t seem like they have enough time to do everything they want. They don’t have the time to spend with their families. They do not have the time to exercise to protect their health. They do not have the time to relax and enjoy life. And they certainly do not have the time for God. Sunday has become just another day. But the people of Israel made time. They set aside the Sabbath to worship God, and they also used other days to serve God. That is how we today can show our love for God.

We cannot outgive God. But we can aspire to the type of extravagant giving demonstrated in this OT passage. May our love for God be so great, that someone will have to say to us, “Stop it now! You are giving too much!”