Who eats the tithe?

Some facts about Tithing that might make for an awkward sermon.

 Read this...from Moses, given as part of the law in Deut 14 - i think this is the first time (chronologically) that tithing is mentioned, although it was perhaps a common cultural practice. Anyone got comments. But check out the bits in red: 

Tithes

^{Deut 14: 22} Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. ²³ Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of theLord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. ²⁴ But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), ²⁵ then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. ²⁶ Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice. ²⁷ And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.

²⁸ At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, ²⁹ so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Pretty much YOU are to comsume your tithe with your family as an act of worship. I think the implication is that the firstfruits should be enjoyed by you and your family and you should use them to remember the Lord and worship him.

At what point did we turn this into "you should pay your church leaders?"

I think there is a VERY strong argument for supporting the church financially as a central way to do the bits in blue above....sometimes this might mean paying salaries - i get that. BUT it's very important we don't slip into this priestly model of paying someone to be the man close to God, on our behalf. This, i think undercuts the personal relationship God invites us in to.

PLEASE tell me your thoughts - i think i need help on this one.

Quantum outside

Observation is creative... The act of looking changes things.

Looking into someone creates in them, be careful how you look.

Evolution vs Christianity

Bad title, i know.

Here are my briefest of thoughts on this, as a recovering atheist, a scientist and someone trying to follow Jesus.

The Genesis account of creation was never intended to be read as a literal text.


Evangelical tradition holds that Genesis was written by Moses....Jesus calls the first 5 books of the bible the law of Moses. However, scholars recognise multiple authors/or editors based on stylistic differences through the account of creation. The context of the authorship is perhaps what is most interesting.  It was written by Moses (or others) before the Israelites entered the promised land on their journey from escaping slavery in Egypt. The promised land was Canaan, and the people who lived their, the Canaanites, worshipped various violent gods, notably El. The purpose in writing the creation account was to set the God is Israel, YAHWEH, apart from the gods of the region, which it does in a number of ways. It is here that there begins a theology of monotheism:

• God created ex nihilo, from nothing, (a view supported by Hebrews and various Psalms); all the other gods used stuff, for example body parts of a rival god, to create the world. Gen 1:1-2.  
• The word created is the word bara, a verb which can only have God as its subject. Other available words were yasa- to form or mold, and 'asah which means "do or make".  Both later verbs require pre existent material to use. 
• 'elohim, the word used for God is a standard word for a god at the time, but with an interesting "im" ending, which denotes masculine plural, perhaps a hint at the doctrine of the trinity.
•  God speaks to create.

The point is that Moses wasn't writing for the benefit of post-enlightenment, modern or post modern thinkers.  It was for the benefit of his people, to teach them about their God.  If you are to just read the text in the same way you would read a recipe book, or a newspaper or a scientific textbook, you would come to all the wrong conclusions. 

Consider how there are two accounts of creation within Genesis, in which the order of when things were created is different.  If the author was intending to write a "scientific" account this would have been the biggest, most obvious mistake ever. We have to try to see it through a different lens. 

In this way there is no conflict with Evolution. It was never the intention of Genesis to detail HOW the earth and we were created, but to speak about the nature of God and our relationship with him.  No one knows exactly how it all happened and we probably never will.

Should we trust the scientific narrative of how we came to be on Earth? Good science looks at evidence to find patterns and predict future outcomes.  The science behind your mobile phone works, right?  We are all comfortable using our phones.  Why then would we not trust the science behind evolution?  If we trust doctors to cut us open and pull out the right bits and sew up the right bits, why wouldn't we trust their evolution narrative?

There is an interesting bit of philosophy that comes in helpfully here called the genetic fallacy.  This simply states that knowing where something comes from, or how something comes to be, does not mean that you understand WHY something is or comes to be. Understanding the process of evolution, does not mean you understand the WHY of how it happened.  

I think, at the moment, that God created the universe ex nihilo (a view supported by the Big Bang theory) and used evolution to make us, lowly humans.  I believe he thinks we are "very good", not just "good" like all the other animals.  I believe he called us to rule and reign over the Earth and that he loves us in a special way...I believe lots more stuff too, but i think i can stop there for now.

For the raving loonies who hear from God out there, like myself...I prayed about this issue of evolution once, because i was getting a lot of stick from some Christians for believing in it.  I got a picture, as i prayed, in my head of me diving below this massive tanker ship.  I was fiddling around with those magnetic words you can make poems from on your fridge and i was trying to get the word EVOLUTION to stick to the ship.  It wouldn't stick.

I felt like God was saying that i was trying to put a human word on to something that He had done, and it wasn't going to stick.  He said something to the effect that the word evolution doesn't begin to capture how amazing a thing it was for me to create the world.

So there....that shut me up.