How does the practice of first portion giving help us to share God’s gifts? Ancient Israel believed in a two-universe world, the realm of the gods (and later God) and the natural world of tribal life. The second universe controlled the destiny of crops and all living things. To win the favor of the second universe the ancients knew they had to give priority to the second universe. So they began the practice of sacrificing the first of everything to the second universe as a sign of that priority. The tithe or the first tenth was taught as what the second universe wanted. Anything less was robbing the second universe. The promise was that if the full tithe was brought into the temple the windows of heaven would be opened for the giver. There are some two-universe Christians today who see tithing as a requirement in order to get the blessings of the second universe. Other two-universe Christians see it as a guideline for giving from the second universe with less certainty in its magical power. One-universe Christians assume no second universe to please and so might be tempted to ignore some of the benefits of this ancient custom. For one-universe Christian it is not the size of the first portion that is primary but the symbolic value of the first portion. The first tenth was large enough to get the attention of the giver but not so large that there wasn’t enough left to live on. Many people still find that to be true. Why is a first portion, dedicated to our highest values, so important. The first reason is that it continually reminds us of our commitment to our highest values. The ancient proverb said that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”(Mt 6:21). It is still true that our values and commitments follow the expenditures with our checks and credit cards. This symbolic power of giving our first portion to something beyond ourselves that we cherish helps us to live up to our own highest expectations for ourselves. The second reason that first portion giving is so important is that it helps us to evaluate how we spend the portion we keep for ourselves. As the size of the first portion grows the more we have to scrutinize what is left. Excessive cultural influenced spending gets cut so we can support our highest values. The reason tithing works for so many people is that they were wasting 15% on lower values. When they started giving 10% they eliminated that 15% waste and had an additional 5% left for their higher values. The third reason we should practice first portion giving is that the recipients of our gifts really need our money. The projects and values that have called us to commitment still need our resources to do their work. First portion giving is a practical, symbolically powerful way for us to share God’s gifts on our journey to love God’s others.
