Party Like It's Around the 12th -15th Century BC

I've been reading in Deuteronomy lately.  This morning as I read chapter 14, I was struck by this section:

Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.  Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.  But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose.  Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice.

Now, when we modern Christians consider the tithe, we think about a felt obligation to make out checks totaling up to 10% of our income (net or gross, oh dear, what is one to do?).  We then make our checks out to the Christian charity or church of our choice, claim our tax deduction, and consider our love obligation to God to be met.

But here in Deuteronomy, I see something a bit different, something that feels like it is missing from our modern act of tithing.    Now, I may be on shaky interpretative ground here, I don't know, but I'm going to go with this idea.  I see here that the people are to bring a tenth of what they have produced and enjoy it in the presence of the Lord!  It commands them to eat the tithe!  Why?  So that they "may learn to revere the Lord".  Much of what Moses writes has to do with remembering that it was the Lord who set them free from bondage in Egypt.  It was the Lord who provided for them while they were wandering in the desert.  It is the Lord who has promised and will provide for them a land of plenty.  It is the Lord who blesses and provides.  Moses is attempting to provide an antidote to what happens when God blesses us -- we forget that he is the source and we wander away from Him and no longer revere His name.

So what is the antidote?  A party!  Now for many of us, the concept of a party with God may be anathema, but maybe that is just our baggage doing the talking.  Moses says to bring a tenth of what the fields produce as well as the firstborn of the herds and flocks to the place he has chosen.  Then the people are instructed to Eat!  And rejoice!  And they are to do this in the presence of the Lord!

I'm trying to imagine what this must be like.  All of these families coming together at the place of worship that God has chosen, eating and rejoicing together as they celebrate the provision of the Lord! 

Perhaps one of the reasons we often feel distant from God, is we forget to party!  What if we intentionally had a giant party where we celebrated the fact that all we have comes from God?  Of course, the party needs to be focused on the Lord and be conducted in such a way that it furthers our reverence of Him, but wouldn't that be amazing?  (Note to all the marketing, mega-church types, this party is about God.  No rock walls, movie clips, giant video screens, rock bands, etc, etc.). 

So what do you think?  Rather than seeing tithing as a painful act that separates us from our money, how can we return it to the joyful celebration that Moses describes that leads us to revere the Lord more and more each time?  I think I feel a party coming on!