Insights Into The Covid-19 Church Era – Part VII
“Bring your tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now, if I will not open to you the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine case her fruit before the time in the field. All the nations shall call you blessed: for you shall be a delightful land, said the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 3:10-12)
“For there was not a needy person among them, or all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.” (Acts 4:34-35)
Lord, open our eyes. People are hurting, but society hides them well. Faced with unemployment numbers that surpass those of the Great Depression, Congress passed Covid-19 Assistance Legislations to prevent the soup kitchens of the last century from resurrecting. We, Americans, have to come to expect our government to bail us out. They bailed our big banks and corporations in 2008. Capitalistic greed got us into this mess; big government bailed us out. No “fat cat” C.E.O. ever ended up in jail. As the stock market again soared, C.E.O. wages and bonuses skyrocketed, stock buy backs became the norm, but the general public, the common hourly worker, saw his wages stagnate while having to now finance his own watered down healthcare plan. With the installment of the Covid-19 Stay-At-Home edict, the hourly wage earner was hurt again. That hurt now aches badly!
Families who lived paycheck to paycheck on minimum wage, working several jobs, found themselves unemployed, evicted, unable to pay rent, and now homeless, living out of their cars. Jobs for unskilled labor totally vanished. American seemed not to care as they failed to recognize their plight. The unskilled, untrained, uneducated segment of our population is drowning, hopelessly wondering who is willing to bail them out, give them hope, or direct their path towards future employment. They’re lost, confused, and hurting.
The institutional church finds itself swimming in the same Covid-19 crisis pool. With closed church buildings, church offices closed, also working under Stay-At-Home restriction, many church staffs also faced being furloughed. Without in house Sunday Services, church’s finances dwindled. Financial input could no longer sustain institutional needs.
While dedicated tithers kept the church institutions afloat, they discovered that churches were unwilling to try new wineskins for their finances. For example, they are not willing to embrace “storehouse tithing” perfected by Joseph who saved Egypt from an economic collapse after a 7 year famine, but eventually bought everyone out and set the foundation or hundreds of years of Israel being slaves. Malachi 3:9 commands to “Bring your tithes into the storehouse.” What storehouse? Our church’s storehouses have been exposed during this Covid-19 period, like Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboards, as being bare! The 1st century church boasted, “For there was not a needy person among them,” yet the Covid-19 church has been laid bare! The church needs to embrace new financial mindsets and wineskins to be as effective as the 1st century church.
How does the institutional church plan to meet the financial needs of its members when they are unemployed, without health coverage, on the brink of homelessness, and desperate? How will the Covid-19 church be judged? Hopefully not this way: “He will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me….. To the extend that you did not do it to one of the least o these, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25: 41-46)
Where is the benevolence, the sympathy, the empathy, the showing of grace, mercy, and love of the Lord? The hurting is real.