St. Paul loved metaphors. When he wanted to depict the church and its members in relation to Christ, he imagined a body with all its parts and the head that rules it. In our text today, he uses sports imagery to speak of the training regimen of the spiritual life.

Corinth hosted the ancient Isthmian Games, which was something like the Olympics. Paul uses familiar running and boxing examples to illustrate how we can learn spiritual fitness from physical fitness. In that same spirit today, we will look at the spiritual benefits of fiscal fitness by analogy to physical fitness. Here’s the premise: Spirit is to the soul as breath is to the lungs. In both cases, fitness requires getting the heart pumping. Just as running, say, is one fitness exercise that promotes physical heart-healthiness, so financial giving is a Christian practice that promotes spiritual heart-healthiness.

Got milk? Okay. Runners, take your mark….

The apostle begins by assuming that all runners in a race compete for the winning prize. Is that so for you in your spiritual life? Do you have a goal to be at your best? When it comes to your stewardship of money, do you have a plan and a course, or do you spend and give randomly as one might walk or jog aimlessly?

The first thing is to know that it matters. Some people run for fun, some for health, and others for the competition. I am not afraid to suggest that a little competition in giving at church or to other worthy causes is a bad thing entirely. I like to run with better and fitter runners who will push me to improve—which is unfortunate for them, as they drag me along. It helps me aspire to do better. Knowing that someone else is generous in ways you could or should be too is just the incentive you may need. In our 2 Corinthians text, Paul says each of you must give. He does not think that anyone in the church should sit back and say that some ought to run the giving race while others watch from the sidewalk and cheer them on. He knows that we must not give out of compulsion, but he wants all of us to do our part, that we all may share abundantly in every good work.

So the first thing you can do in the matter of spiritual fiscal fitness is to get off the couch, so to speak. Get moving. Get your money moving in ways that it can do some good. Getting started in any exercise program is the hardest thing to do. Saying you want to isn’t enough; you have to get with it. You should set reasonable and achievable goals, but you must begin by beginning. Good intentions don’t unclog your arteries or make you feel better. Good intentions in stewardship don’t feed the hungry or bring the gospel to the lost or pay for youth retreats. Each of you must get with it.

You might start by evaluating where you are right now. Before you begin any exercise program, you should consult your physician. Besides talking to you and checking your blood pressure and weighing you (I hate that part), you can bet the advice will be that the best plan starts slowly and builds consistently. So if you are giving nothing right now, get going and get regular. Open your wallet today. You don’t need to think about it or pray about it; you just need to do what you know is right. If you are giving nothing, you can assume that you are—from a spiritual point of view—fiscally unfit. Some of you might have to start tipping before tithing, embarrassing as it might seem to think of tipping God for good service to you. But it’s better than stiffing your Heavenly Host.

So if it means that you begin with $25 per week for the first six months, start there. But be regular and faithful with it and see if you do not begin to feel the health enter your spirit and the craving to please God begin to grow in you. Don’t waste another minute feeling guilty for what you haven’t done so far; let today be a new start.

Now let’s be honest about this. When you begin a physical exercise program, you know you will have to do more than exert yourself by walking around the block four times a week. If you want to be fit, you might have to drop some dead weight. (Physician, heal thyself!) That will mean cutting calories. In the same way, you will accelerate your spiritual fitness in giving by unloading debt and consuming less. You will have more to give if you owe less.

Some of you are living beyond your means. More money is going out than is coming in. If you are unemployed or have had a severe setback, that is one thing. Most of the time it is a matter of not saying no to things—things like bigger houses or newer cars or fancier clothes that hamper your ability to join in God’s work in the world and honor the Lord with your resources. Time to cut back on spending so that you can ramp up in giving. Seek a proper balance.

It will help your fiscal fitness overall if you work on both at the same time. If you start to exercise and don’t change your eating habits, your progress will be slow. But if you do both at once, you will really see a difference faster. Likewise, you will be more alive to God than to the world if you work at reducing your personal consumption and increasing your financial contribution. Athletes exercise self-control in all things, Paul says. Of course he didn’t know Kobe Bryant, but you get the idea. Those who take it seriously have the best chance to see what they are capable of doing. What are you capable of doing?

I will tell you that you are at least capable of giving ten percent of your income to the work of the Lord. That is the biblical benchmark we can all use for spiritual fiscal fitness. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, God says through the prophet Malachi (3:10), so that there may be food in my house… . The ministry fund of the church is the central clearinghouse for missions and ministries of your primary community of faith. You may give to many other good causes, and your church will live within its means—which is one reason we are not pledging to the budget. We do not want you to think that our ministries are a matter of adding up your giving intentions, good or bad, and doing only that. We go by faith that what God has led us to do, God will move you to fund.

A tithe is ten percent of all your income, before taxes and living expenses. God gives you 100 percent and asks you to live on 90 percent, in order that the gospel may reach the world and injustices be corrected. What a privilege to share in that work! And you will never be disappointed that you do. Nothing done out of love will disappoint. You will never miss the money you have given, because generosity breeds contentment, not the other way round.

A reasonable cardiovascular fitness benchmark might be the ability to run three miles in thirty minutes—that is a ten-minute-mile pace. In fact, Dr. Kenneth Cooper of the Aerobics Center says that if you are doing that more than four or five days a week, you are doing it for some reason other than cardiovascular health. Well, some of you ought to. A ten-minute mile is too slow for many who would be gearing way back in fitness if they did only that. On the other hand, some can’t even walk around the block when they begin, so it is a real challenge. Like a ten-minute-mile pace, a ten percent giving pace is a benchmark. It is neither the starting line nor the finish line. You may need to walk before you jog, while others of you need to pick up the pace and run instead of jog. Some of you need to grow to four, six or eight percent before you get to ten percent. Get going and start growing. Others of you need to grow to fourteen, sixteen or eighteen percent before you get the hang of surplus giving.

Here at Wilshire there are things we are planning for and dreaming of that will require that kind of giving by some of you. A children’s center will take our preschool ministry to a new level. The building will include youth space in the basement—always a good place for teenagers, don’t you know?!—and a large community hall that will expand our hospitality as a church. We have a trailblazing clergy apprenticeship program that will help provide the next generation of well-trained Baptist ministers. There are also wonderful projects in the community, too, that deserve consideration—whether at hospitals or schools or help agencies. People just pitching in and doing their parts will not likely see those things accomplished. It will take those God has blessed abundantly to give substantially beyond the tithe. Just as some gifted athletes need to run a seven-minute mile to get the same fitness benefit as another does at a ten-minute pace, so some of you need to be asking God what more you can do with your resources. And all of us can think about whether our giving ought to end with our death. Imagine laying aside enough money to maintain a perpetual tithe in your will that will bless your church for generations to come.

Now here’s the biggest surprise of the sermon. Ready? You can give too much. Just as you can push yourself too much or too fast to the point of becoming unhealthy, you can rob your family of what they deserve and sap all the spiritual health out of your life by giving away more than you should.

Zell Kravinsky is doing just that. He has given away almost all of his forty-five-million-dollar real estate fortune to charitable causes. Kravinsky grew up in a working-class Russian immigrant family, hearing his father rail against rich people and the ruling class. He graduated from Dartmouth with great accomplishment. His intellectual brilliance was matched by a Midas touch in business. At the same time he was finding properties to flip, he was volunteering with troubled youths in Philadelphia and teaching at a low-performing public school. His sense of the world’s need and his need for self-sacrifice continued to grow. Over time he became virtually addicted to giving. When all the money was gone, he turned to giving himself in more than social ways. Then he donated a kidney to someone he didn’t know, just because he had an extra one. He felt that if someone died and he could have done something to prevent it, he was really guilty of that anonymous person’s death. He now fanaticizes about giving away all of his organs—before he dies. He figures that if he could save many lives by giving up his own, he would be doing something noble for humanity. He would die happy. Thank God his family restrains him a little.

Kravinsky’s sacrificial gifts are bad stewardship because they hurt himself and those closest to him as much as they help strangers. He gives out of sadness and duty, seeking what he calls “ethical ecstasy.” Giving out of love and partnership with God, on the other hand, is cheerful giving, as Paul says. It fills our souls with spirit and leaves us with contentment we could not otherwise know. [Ian Parker, “The Gift,” in The New Yorker (Aug. 2, 2004): 54-63.]

So don’t overdo it. Anyone in danger of extreme giving? I didn’t think so. Would that we would have to have our friends hold us back instead of bid us forward.

But whether you need holding back or bidding forward, your church is here for you. We are not going to shy away from telling you the truth about what makes for a healthy spiritual life. And fiscal fitness is a key part of it. Are you ready to get going?

Givers, take your mark …