Serving Bread

I write this post on the eve of one of the busiest shopping days of the year. The after-Christmas sales are sure to entice consumers to spend money getting what Santa didn’t bring them this year. In an economy driven by consumer spending (and in some respects, greed), giving is not one of our values.

Of the handful of modern economic systems, I concede that capitalism may do more to encourage giving than some of it’s counterparts. But giving is usually done on the fringes of our budgets. We give out of our abundance rather than our poverty. We give when we can and when it’s convenient. When we plan our budgets, financial goals and retirements, we are rarely contemplating the role giving should play in our thoughts and plans.

Though John Wesley encouraged both earning and saving, the ultimate purpose of financial planning is to “give all you can.” Saving and earning in of themselves are useless exercises of vanity. In his sermon, “The use of money” he preached, “All this is nothing, if a man go not forward, if he does not point all this at a farther end.” Giving is the farther end. He viewed economics through the lens of giving.

Wesley’s theology of giving is not legalistic (though his methods can come across as that). He doesn’t encourage giving because tithing is a value near to God’s heart. He exhorts his listeners to give because we are created as stewards. He reminds us that everything belongs to God and that we are merely stewards of what God has given us. Our calling is to employ what God has given us for God’s purposes.

In drafting a budget, Wesley provides a guideline on how we ought to think about giving:

1. Take care of yourself. Make sure that expenses that care for the self are addressed.
2. Take care of your immediate family. Next we should make sure that we address the needs of our spouse and children.
3. Give to the family of God. Whatever is leftover after taking care of these basic needs, we should consider the needs of those in God’s family.
4. Give to all. And if there is more money leftover, we should consider the needs of others.

In addition to these guidelines, Wesley asks us to consider some questions about our spending and giving patterns.

1. Am I acting according to my character? Am I acting herein, not as a proprietor, but as a steward of my Lord’s goods?
2. Am I doing this in obedience to his Word? In what Scripture does he require me so to do?
3. Can I offer up this action, this expense, as a sacrifice to God through Jesus Christ?
4. Have I reason to believe that for this very work I shall have a reward at the resurrection of the just?

While excesses is a goal of those outside of the family of God, giving should be the goal of us who are followers of Jesus. And like Wesley preached two hundred years ago, we don’t give out of obligation or because some passages of scripture require it. We give because our identity as stewards requires it.

Wesley did not only preach an economic model, but he lived it. He was fairly wealthy near the end of his life, yet he continued to live on a modest budget and he gave the rest of it away. The last scene of “Schindler’s List” captures why budgeting, living simply, and giving can have an impact on world history. Oscar Schindler is a fantastic model of stewardship.

I could’ve got more out … I could’ve got more … if I’d just … I don’t know, if I’d just … I could’ve got more… If I’d made more money …I threw away so much money, you have no idea. If I’d just … I didn’t do enough. This car. Goeth would’ve bought this car. Why did I keep the car? Ten people, right there, ten more I could’ve got. This pin – Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would’ve given me two for it. At least one. He would’ve given me one. One more. One more person. A person, Stern. For this. One more. I could’ve gotten one more person. I didn’t.