Earlier this year we began a series of three talks on giving. We had had two, and it was in fact Glen who was going to give this third talk.
Sadly that was interrupted by a certain event.
Well, I planned to give the third talk today. And then further events happened a couple of weeks ago, and I wondered if I should change the readings and theme.
Afterall, how can we talk about generosity at a time like this?
Some people have very little
We need to focus on ourselves
We need to survive
We need to make sure that we have enough for ourselves and our immediate family
But you know that it does not work like that, and often it is when things are most difficult that people can become most generous.
Paul writing to the early followers of Jesus in the ancient city of Corinth, tells them of the giving of the Macedonians: “for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” (2 Corinthians 8:2)
And it is when we are generous, especially in hard times, that we can continue to grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ and that we can find our freedom
And in 2 Corinthians 9 Paul speaks of the blessing of giving.
When we give, he says, there is a blessing to the individual who gives, there is blessing to the one who is given (in this case it is the church community) and there is blessing to God.
‘The one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully’ (2 Corinthians 9.6)
That echoes the words of Jesus: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6:38)
And Paul continues:
If we give, freely and without any sense of compulsion, God will provide us with every blessing that we need so that we can abound in every good work (v8)
If we give, God will increase our harvest of righteousness (v10)
If we give, ‘you will be enriched in every way’ (v11)
I cannot stress enough that this is not a promise that if you give, God will make you materially richer.
Sometimes we hear that
I like the story of the multi-millionaire who stood up in front of the congregation in the UK. He said, ‘I came to this country with £10. I gave it away, and the Lord gave me £100. I gave it all away, and the Lord gave me £10000. I gave it all away, and the Lord gave me £1m pounds. I gave it away, and that is why I am standing in front of you as a multi-millionaire.
And a little old lady at the back said, ‘Go on. I dare you!’
No. Following Jesus and learning generosity is NOT the way to become rich.
Think of Jesus himself. Think of the apostles. They were not rich men.
In the space of one week in 1997 two world famous women died: Princess Diana and Mother Theresa. Their wills were read. Princess Diana left behind 20 million pounds. Mother Theresa left behind 2 saris and a bucket.
As someone said, and this is probably the best advise that I have heard on giving, ‘If you freely give 10% of your income away, then I can guarantee you one thing. You will have 10% less money’.
So how should we understand, ‘You will be enriched in every good way for your great generosity’ (v11)
1. I note that it is not addressed to the individual. The ‘you’ of v11 is the ‘ya’all’ that we find in the Greek New Testament. It is spoken to the community.
If one person in the community gives, then the community will be enriched in every way – materially, because someone has given to it, but also in so many other ways. Others will be encouraged to give. The community itself will begin to learn to give. People in need will be provided for. People will see your obedience to God and will be able to see how the gospel, the good news of Jesus, transforms lives. Others will pray for you, and there will be thanksgiving to God.
2. But it does also apply to the individual, to you or me, when we give
It is what I call the generosity cycle.
In a time of great need there are two ways that we can go.
We can go into ourselves
It is the ‘natural’ way to go.
The world out there is a dangerous place. The other things in the world appear, especially in a time of difficulty, either as threat or as food. It is a vicious place out there – we eat or we are eaten. And so we close down. We go in. We build stronger walls, we put bigger locks on our doors. We grab hold of what we have got. We hold on to it with tighter fists. And we end up as knot. A full stop.
We can learn to give, to go out of ourselves
There is an astonishing act of grace – which began with the giving of the Lord Jesus of himself for us, and of the giving by the Father of the Holy Spirit to us - which breaks open that cycle. And instead of going in, we begin daso go out, we grow out. We give, and we discover that we were made to give.
As individuals we are enriched – but enriched in the way that matters. Generosity breeds generosity. Not just of money, but of gratitude, time, service, and prayers – sometimes with tears.
And we begin to discover that if we genuinely and freely give, then God is faithful and will look will after us – and even if we do find we struggle financially we begin to learn that it is OK.
I’ve been reflecting again on the line in the Lord’s prayer, ‘Give us each day our daily bread’. It is a very strange line that Jesus asks his disciples to pray – unless there was for them a serious question about where their daily bread was going to come from.
People in wealthy societies say the Lord’s prayer. They may argue about what version to use.
People who are with the disciples of Jesus cry out to God in desperation but also confidence, ‘Give us today our daily bread’.
That is the life that it seems that Jesus, and the community of his disciples, lived. A life of daily dependence on God for everything. That is why they saw miracles. On one occasion they needed to pay a tax. So Jesus tells Peter to go fishing, and Peter catches a fish which has in its mouth a coin. They use the coin to pay the tax.
And although that sort of daily dependence on Jesus is radical, and I am not sure that many are called to voluntarily choose to live that sort of live (and usually it is lived in community and not on our own), it does show us what could be.
But I suspect that some of us here are being taken, possibly against our will, to that position of great vulnerability. People you love have been taken from you. You really do not know how you will financially survive through the week; you may have to make an incredibly difficult decision – if you are told to do something that everything in you is against.
But we do have a choice. It is the choice to hold on or to let go, to go in or to go out.
And if we choose to give, to let go, so we begin to grow out, we grow bigger, we discover that life is not about getting, but about giving and interdependence.
And how we react will affect others.
A story is told in the desert fathers of a hermit. He was asked, ‘How is it that some struggle in their religious life, but do not receive grace like our predecessors?’ He replied, ‘Because then love was the rule, and each one drew his neighbor upward (outward). Now love is growing cold, and each of us draws his neighbor downward (inward), and so we do not deserve grace.’
Giving and interdependence is what is at the heart of the life of the Trinity: giving love, honour, glory to each other.
And notice how, in our reading, Paul refers to the interdependence of the believers: the gifts of the Corinthian Christians provide for the needs of the Judaean Christians, who are experiencing severe famine. And they in turn, will ‘long for you and pray for you’ (v14)
And as we give what we can, we grow in generosity, not just of money, but of praise, time, hospitality, service of others, prayer for others, trust in God and praise to God.
My dear friends, none of us know what the future holds.
As things go so obviously out of our control, and as we become more vulnerable, that line, ‘Give us today our daily bread’ becomes increasingly relevant.
We know that as a Church. After a time of relative financial stability, our pipes have broken, and we are having to clear out almost all our reserves, all our savings, in order to pay for their replacement.
But I do know this – the answer is not to go in, but to go out. It is not to try and get and keep, but to give
Give generously to the community of the people of God – I have never known a time in my ministry when the community of the church has been more important, when opportunities for the gospel are more abundant, or when the presence of God has been more real. And although we do get money from concerts and people who use the church, we need your giving.
Give generously to those you know who are in need:
Give generously, but also wisely, to people who ask you on the streets.
Rowan Williams in his book ‘Looking East in Winter’ quotes a Russian Christian interviewed for a television programme during the Soviet era. She was asked if Christianity made her happy. She replied, ‘You’re not a Christian so that you can be happy, you’re not in the Church to be happy but to be alive.’
