Being a disciple of Jesus is hard. It requires our total commitment. As followers of the Way, we have to lose our lives as we know---we have to willingly let them go---in order to be able to have this new life, this new way of being human, that we know in Jesus and through Jesus. This is no light thing. This is not something that is simply about a Sunday commitment to go to church. Oh, that Sunday commitment is huge and important----being in community which transforms us; taking part in worship which transforms us; receiving the Sacrament and letting the Word analyze us which transforms us....but this new life certainly doesn't end on Sunday morning. Each Sunday morning is a beginning, a check-in point, a refill station on this road we call discipleship. So, let us not be like the ones who say to God, "Your rules are too lofty." Let us not think that we'll never stumble; we'll never encounter resistance. Let us make this choice to know God and be known by God out of love, through love, by love, and with love. Just as God has chosen us.
Genesis: So here's where the tithe begins! And a tithe wasn't necessarily a cold, calculated one-tenth of his "earnings." This was an offering of Jacob's firstfruits....right off the top, first thing done, is Jacob giving back a tenth to God---because Jacob recognizes that Jacob's gift to God comes from "everything you [God] give me." When we give, we give to God what is already God's. "All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee."
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