Two thoughts come to mind as this year ends and people seem to be catching up on pledges to the church.

The first concerns a campaign ad the Republicans ran several years ago when they were promising to lower taxes.  At one point, the ad showed a couple thinking aloud what they could do with the extra money if their tax burden wasn't so high.  One of them says to the other, "We could give more to our church."  I remember laughing and thinking that that was probably not what most people had planned for their extra money.

But I do see people at the end of the year trying to decrease their tax obligation by increasing their giving.  Perhaps not enough people think of it.

When the stock market was still doing okay several years ago, someone who had retired in January was moaning to me in April that he owed the IRS $25,000 that year because of stock he had received as part of his retirement package.  He really wanted me to feel sorry for him, but then he looked at me and realized that if you counted only my taxable income, I made less than he owed.

But what bothered me most is that he had so much and had given so little.  I haven't yet looked into it where I am now, but I feel that people's giving is a spiritual matter and something the pastor should know.  And I knew how little he had given and realized that he had as much or more than most people in that church.

By April it was too late to tell him that if he had given more he would owe the IRS less, so I am reminding you all now.

But I am not sure that that is what giving is all about, or that we should not as Christians cheerfully pay our taxes.

Perhaps I am just hoping that if you give, even at the last minute this year, you will experience what giving is all about when you see what your giving can do, and then want to continue giving because it changes your life.  We are called to give our first fruits, but perhaps the last minute giving is like the gleanings left in the field. 

Jesus said that where your treasure is there will your heart be also.  So where do you put your treasure?

Lord, I know that you are working on me to teach me to live, to teach me to love, to teach me to give.  Thank you for that and for your love and for what you have given me.

Amen