GIVING FROM THE HEART
A Sermon by Rev. Louis D. Synnestvedt
"Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a
willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord"
(Exodus 35:4).
For four hundred years the Children of Israel were slaves
in a foreign land. Their cries for deliverance brought help
from the Lord, who sent a man, Moses, to lead them out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. On their way to
the promised land the Lord spoke to Moses upon Mt. Sinai for
the purpose of giving the instruction necessary for the people
to fulfill their part of their covenant with God. In return
the Lord promised them prosperity and peace from their
enemies.
One of the important tasks that now faced Moses and the
people was providing for a place of worship to insure the
Lord's continued presence with His people. Directions were
given on the construction of the tabernacle. Now it was time
to gather material support for the project. But the material
resources were not to be obtained by any means at their
disposal. Moses, through the inspiration of the Lord, called
upon people to give freely from their hearts. The building of
the tabernacle was to be an expression of their love to the
Lord and of their dedication to the worship of Him. "Take from
among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing
heart, let him bring it as an offering to the Lord."
The same principle of giving can and should apply today
as together we provide for the worship of the Lord Jesus
Christ as He is now revealed in His second advent. The Lord
calls upon us to give freely from our hearts to support and
promote the uses of worship and instruction. These functions
which help to insure the Lord's presence with us include the
various rites and sacraments, education in the light of the
Lord's new revelation, as well as work of the priesthood.
These are all uses vital and necessary for the well-being and
advancement of the New Church on this earth.
There is much we do individually and as a group to
benefit the church and to make it possible for others to learn
about and pay homage to the Lord. People freely serve on
committees; they work to maintain our house of worship; they
visit the sick; they bear children and keep the vows made when
their infants were baptized; and they support one another in
living their faith. So much is given that we could never
measure the amount of time or the degree of devotion that goes
into the support of the church and its uses. Perhaps we should
never attempt to measure all these signs of dedication. Like
King David, who was told not to number the people, we should
avoid drawing too much attention to these good works that are
being donežnot to be counted but for the sake of the good
itself which is accomplished by doing these things.
Our love for the Lord and our desire to insure the Divine
presence among us is also expressed by the offertory brought
forward during the Sunday service. This offering as with the
offerings of time and talents, is made freely from a willing-
ness of heart. Our placement of the bowl at the entrance of
the chapel is to allow people to participate at the beginning
of the worship service in a tangible way. It also avoids the
sort of giving which is overly conspicuous and that would tend
to take away from the spirit of a free will offering.
To give freely is to give according to your own con-
science, which is the case in any context, whether it be a
gift to a friend or spending time with your family. The free-
dom to give is hurt when someone else tells you what to do
from a sphere of dominion. But freedom is strengthened when
you act from your own inner commitment to something you
believe in and love.
When giving to the church is discussed, the question may
usefully arise, "Should I give to this or that church organi-
zation?" But before answering the question, it should be
pointed out that what we strive to do is to focus our giving
not on the church but on the Lord. Our giving is an expression
of thanks for the blessings He has shown us. Our contribution
is a statement that we acknowledge that all we have is really
the Lord's. "I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows" (Psalm 66:13). "Offer to God thanks-
giving, and pay your vows to the Most High" (Psalm 50:14).
These are the reasons we attempt to incorporate an offering
into our service of worship as a living representative of a
spiritual attitude and acknowledgment.
So to answer the question of giving to a church organiza-
tion which obviously has a human element to it, we should give
where we can feel that the gift we make is a gift to the Lord.
This does not mean that we have to agree with everything about
a particular organization, but it does mean that we should
have enough confidence in its uses that we can give sincerely
and in a sphere of worshipping our Heavenly Father.
A concern some people have is over how much they should
give when giving to the Lord. The incident recorded in Mark's
gospel gives a powerful answer. The Lord witnessed many people
giving of their riches to the temple offering, when along came
a poor widow who cast in her two mites. Jesus called out to
His disciples and said to them, "Verily I say to you that this
poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to
the treasury: for they all put in out of their abundance, but
she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole
livelihood" (Mark 12:43,44).
This woman put in everything. This very extreme circum-
stance is to be a catalyst for our personal reflections about
our giving. We too can put in everythingžnot literally, for we
would lose our means for being useful, but we can put in
enough to show our complete gratitude to the Lord. We can put
in an amount that, for our circumstance, expresses our
awareness that all of our wealth, our income and our material
possessions are a gift from the Lord's mercy.
This awareness that all we have is from the Lord does not
come naturally to us. What we own seems to come so much as a
result of our own efforts and struggle. We note this teaching:
"A person does not at all know what is given to him [from the
Lord] gratuitously . . . The reason why he does not have this
perception is usually because worldly and earthly things are
dear to him, and not heavenly and spiritual things; and there-
fore he does not believe in any influx through heaven from the
Lord, thus not at all that anything is given him" (AC 5649:2).
The message here seems to be that if we make a habit of
looking to higher, spiritual things for our happiness, our
possession of worldly things will be put into the right per-
spective. It then would be easier to give with the acknowledg-
ment that all we have is a gift from the Lord.
We have enjoyed laughter with a friend. That was a gift
from the Lord. We have seen a child show tenderness toward
another person in need. We have admired the star-studded
canopy of the night sky. We have felt a sense of victory over
some sin conquered for a time.These are gifts from the Lord.
Essentially we return these gifts through a life of regenera-
tion that looks to the Lord in appreciation for His mercy
toward us.
The tithe or tenth is a figure often mentioned as a
guidepost for giving. The tithe, when mentioned in the Word,
is representative of an inner reality of spirit. We are taught
that "to tithe" signifies the heavenly qualities of goodness
and the sight of truths which are stored up by the Lord in a
person's interiors (see AC 3740). The Lord guards these
remnants of good and truth deep within us as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings. These qualities are what make regener-
ation and eternal life possible. Therefore, spiritually
speaking we give a tithe whenever we find expression of our
inward loves and perceptions through our words and deeds.
We are also taught that "the tenth part" signifies every-
thing (AE 675:18). And we read in the doctrines: "The tenth
signified a blessing in all things, thus that everything was
holy and blessed. This is evident in Malachi: `Bring all the
tithes to the house of treasure that there may be food in My
house; then prove Me in this, if I will not open for you the
windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until there
be no room for more' (3:10). `To open the windows and pour out
a blessing" signifies the inflowing Divine from which is
intelligence and life eternal; . . . and this also is
properly meant by the `blessing' that would be given if the
tithes were brought; so `tithes' here signify that everything
was thus blessed" (AE 675:19).
The tithing spoken of in the Word, then, represents all
that we give, materially and spiritually, as our acknowledg-
ment that we are blessed by the Lord on every plane of life.
As we give, the Lord will give in return with other blessings,
including the satisfaction that comes with acting from
conscience.
The Lord Himself said, "Give and it will be given to you:
good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over
will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that
you use, it will be measured back to you" (Luke 6:38). In
explanation of these words the Writings tell us: "This measure
and quality [of charity] will be infilled to eternity, which
is meant by ` . . . good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, and running over, shall be given into your bosom.'
`Measure' here means the measure and quality of affection of
charity, which will be increased to eternity within or
according to its degree in the world" (AE 629:14).
Our support of the church and its uses is completely
voluntary. The only compelling force should be in an inward
response to the invitation by the Lord to "take from among you
an offering to the Lord." Our giving, whether it be of our
time, our finances, or our private devotions, should be
focussed on the Lord, who is the source of our life and the
true owner of all that is good and true.
The natural man looks negatively upon all things,
including his giving to the Lord. In his reluctance he will
give only so far as it does not hurt his level of comfort or
interfere with his worldly outlook on life. But the spiritual
man looks positively at giving. Whether he has much or little
to give, he gives his all by making the Lord and the worship
of Him first in his heart.
Let us respond as did the Children of Israel in the
making of the tabernacle. As we fulfill our love to the Lord
in a life of charity and giving, there will surely be an out-
pouring of blessing from the Lord that looks to our eternal
happiness. As our heavenly Father said, "Freely you have
received; freely give." Amen.
Lessons: Exodus 35:4-19; AC 9938:2
Preached in Kitchener, Canada, May 10, 1987
Arcana Coelestia 9938:2
They were called "gifts and offerings made to Jehovah"
although Jehovah, that is, the Lord, does not accept any gifts
or offerings, but gives to everyone freely. Nevertheless, He
wills that these things should come from man as from himself,
provided he acknowledges that they are not from himself but
from the Lord. For the Lord imparts the affection of doing
good from love, and the affection of speaking truth from
faith; but the affection itself flows in from the Lord, and it
appears as if it were in the man, thus from the man; for
whatever a man does from the affection which is of love, he
does from his life, because love is the life of everyone. From
this it is evident that what are called "gifts and offerings
made to the Lord" by man are in their essence gifts and offer-
ings made to man by the Lord; and their being called "gifts
and offerings" is from the appearance. All who are wise in
heart see this appearance, but no so the simple; and yet the
gifts and offerings of the latter are grateful insofar as they
are offered from ignorance in which is innocence. Innocence is
the good of love to God and dwells in ignorance, especially
with the wise in heart; for they who are wise in heart know
and perceive that there is nothing of wisdom in themselves
from themselves, but that everything of wisdom is from the
Lord, that is, everything of the good of love and everything
of the truth of faith, thus that even with the wise, innocence
dwells in ignorance. From this it is evident that the acknowl-
edgment of this fact, and especially the perception of it, is
the innocence of wisdom.