Yesterday we concluded our series of services thinking about stewardship.  On the whole they seem to have been well received and certainly generated some good questions from those who heard my sermons.  That stewardship is a whole of life issue should, by now, be firmly planted in people's minds; how they make that a reality is something they must determine for themselves.

Yesterday in my service on the theme of 'time' I ended by sharing some thoughts I've played with on and off for a number that draw together some of the principles from the mandates for tithing and for Shabbat.

When we looked at money, I had worked with a whole series of biblical material but began in the Torah where there are, it seems to me, three purposes to which the tithe is put...

1. The practical support/maintenance of the priesthood
2. The great feast before God
3. One third to be set aside for widows, orphans and foreigners

I postulated (as I have done before, elsewhere) that this might form a model for church finances whereby we spend a third on cost of ministry, a third on the worship life (including fabric) of the church and a third on mission and charitable giving.  Since in my church ministerial costs and maintenance costs are similar that would give a hint of what extra would be necessary to achieve that ideal.  I didn't say that we must or even should do this, merely I thought it was a good ideal.  Since, like many churches, we don't actually quite meet the cost of the first two, there's a long way to go.

And then to our time.  Some ideas I have played around with over a number of years, on and off, which draw together the principles of the tithe with the mandate for Shabbat.  If time is viewed as a 'commodity' that can be employed (not a model I especially like but it works for this purpose) and if we take seriously the mandate for a complete day of rest and the idea that time could be tithed, what might that look like?

One week = 168 hours, less 24 hours as Shabbat leaves 144 hours.

Suppose we choose to commit one tenth of that explicitly to conscious Christian activity, what might that look like?  I choose my words carefully, the idea of 'time for God' and 'time not for God' is not one I endorse but at the same time not every moment of every day is consciously God-centred.

So, a tithe of 14.4 hours, of which on average around a third will be sleep!  To keep the sums simple let's say that leaves 10 waking hours...

Public worship will probably occupy around 2 hours a week, and daily devotions the other six days say 30 mins each, making a total of 5 hours.  That leaves five more hours to be consciously employed.  Now suppose 2.5 hours were given to work in/for church (possibly including mission) and a further 2.5 to charitable endeavours (and/or mission in many modes) beyond the church.  What impact would that have?  Again, not saying anyone must or should, just what might it look like, what might it achieve?

After the sermon yesterday we sang Fred Pratt Green's hymn 'When the Church of Jesus Christ shuts its outer door' (BPW 614) which seems to me to offer some important correctives both to individualist pietism and smug social action...

When the Church of Jesus

Shuts its outer door,

Lest the roar of traffic

Drown the voice of prayer:

May our prayers, Lord, make us

Ten times more aware

That the world we banish

Is our Christian care.

If our hearts are lifted

Where devotion soars

High above this hungry

Suffering world of ours:

Lest our hymns should drug us

To forget its needs,

Forge our Christian worship

Into Christian deeds.

Lest the gifts we offer,

Money, talents, time,

Serve to slave our conscience

To our secret shame:

Lord, reprove, inspire us

By the way you give;

Teach us, dying Saviour,

How true Christians live.

F Pratt Green (c) Stainer & Bell

So, on into March and a set of 'one off' services looking at Fairtrade, Children in the Church, a free Sunday visiting my little sister and then Palm Sunday... where is the time going? ;-)