Preaching generosity

An opportunity to look at our lives and the gifts we have been given.

In the rhythm of our life as a church, the autumn term comes to us as a gift in the form of our Stewardship (Generosity) Season. I welcome it with real joy because it gives us an opportunity to regroup as disciples of Jesus and to have a kind of spiritual MOT. An opportunity to look at our lives and the gifts we have been given; We take time to ask:

Lord what is your purpose for me now?

What will you have me do with the time that I have?

What will you have me to do with the gifts you've given me?

What will you have me do with the money you've given me?

What is it about my presence in this place that you want to use for the advancement of your Kingdom?

It’s not surprising that this is the lens through which I read this Psalm. I see here a declaration of the kingship of the Messiah. The meditation of my heart can only be: may he reign forever, and Lord start with me. 

Long may he live!
May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
and bless him all day long. Psalm 72.15

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to hand over ‘our’ ministry – but it can have far reaching effects.

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to hand over ‘our’ ministry to someone new and untried. Can you imagine what went through Eli’s mind, when he realised that God was calling – not to him, the priest – but to Samuel, a young lad who ‘did not yet know the Lord’?

In a time when ‘the word of the Lord was rare’ in the land of Israel, Eli could easily have been tempted to keep his knowledge of God to himself. He could have begrudged young Samuel his call from the Lord, nursing resentment that his own sons had been rejected from serving as priests because of their bad behaviour. Eli could have told Samuel to be quiet and go back to sleep, holding on to the things of God for himself and his sons – scoundrels though they were.

But he didn’t. 

Instead, he taught Samuel how to respond to the voice of the Lord: ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ So the word of the Lord came to Samuel; and through him, to all Israel. 

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to hand over ‘our’ ministry – but it can have far reaching effects. 

Rev. Dr Miriam Bier Hinksman is a curate in the diocese of Canterbury. She has written an academic tome on Lamentations, as well as Reading Hosea: A Beginner’s Guide, available here: https://grovebooks.co.uk/collections/biblical/products/b-108-reading-hosea-a-beginner-s-guide 

Spread the generous invitation with others.

One of the images that runs throughout the Bible is that of a wedding. That may well be why the first of the signs in John’s Gospel is set at a wedding.

Weddings are wonderful, but not if you are left out. Yet in Revelation an angel says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”.

You are invited. Not just to the wedding of the year. The biggest of royal or celebrity weddings has nothing on this.

This is what all history has been working towards. And you are invited.

And not just a guest to stand at the back and gawp at the bride’s dress. You are invited as a part of the bride. And you are called to go spread that generous invitation with others.

What could you do, what could you give to share that invitation?

Tim Edwards is Rector in the Benefice of Knockholt with Halstead in the Diocese of Rochester. .

Trust that God will fulfil his promise to care for us

Simeon is often portrayed as an old man. He’d waited his whole life for the fulfilment of the promise God had made to him, that he wouldn’t die before seeing the Messiah.

Can you imagine how he felt holding Jesus in his arms? Can you see the tears on his cheeks as his faith is finally rewarded?

Simeon’s generosity is expressed through his trust in God’s promises. He gave his whole life in service to God, trusting that he would see the Messiah with his own eyes.

Sometimes when we are asked to give, fear can hold us back because we’re worried we won’t have enough, but Jesus promises us that he will always care for us, even when life is difficult.

Giving away our material possessions, including money, can be an expression of a generous-hearted trust that God will fulfil his promise to care for us.

Joshua Townson is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Oxford

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

The first part of Psalm 24 celebrates God’s power over the cosmos and the world – the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The second celebrates the temple as the microcosm of the entire universe. The worshipper ascends to worship in an attitude of awe and reverence towards God, preparing their heart and life to enter the sanctuary.

Yet they are assured at the same time that the one who truly seeks the LORD will receive good things, blessing, from God. The third part dramatizes God’s victorious entrance or advent into the temple.

As Christians we know that Jesus has come as the temple and centre of gravity of the universe, the place where we can meet with God in trust and without fear. 

What a fitting Psalm for reflections on generosity. It is fuel for our prayers that each time we go out into the temple of creation, we live and work for Jesus’ final coming as the glorious king of the nations. This involves the giving of our lives in worship of the One who gave it all in the first place.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

Generosity in adversity

Today’s readings are threaded through with sadness and loss. David mourns the loss of Jonathan, the person he most clearly and consistently expresses love and affection for. In the gospel passage, the inherent risk and scariness of life is apparent as a twelve-year old child’s death is announced while Jesus unexpectedly encounters a woman who has been debilitated by persistent hemorrhaging for the whole of that child’s life.  The Psalm too calls out in agony for divine redemption: ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord’. How, then, do we recognize generosity in the face of adversities such as these? Not all our experiences will lead to the literal resurrection of a child, nor the miraculous healing of a long-term health condition. We find that generosity comes through taking our pain to the God whose love holds us and our pain, and in finding solidarity, companionship and genuine love in our relationships with one another. In Christ we find someone who shares in the fullness of our adversity, our loss, our frailty: and who assures us of the constant, generous companionship of the Spirit who meets us where we are, in the fullness of our humanity.

Dr Jo Henderson-Merrygold  is Director, Centre for Discipleship and Theology at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

We lift our voices in joyful praise to the Lord.

Recently, I had the privilege of hearing a friend share a touching story about a woman who, despite mourning the loss of her husband, seemed to overflow with God's peace. Even in her darkest moments, her inner light continued to shine brightly. In reflecting on this, I was reminded of the passage from 2 Samuel 6, where the ark of God was joyously returned to Jerusalem. David and all of Israel with him celebrated with immense joy and fervor before the Lord, using various instruments to express their praise and gratitude for his goodness.  David, in his exuberance, was also deeply generous to those around him, not only providing animals for the offerings but also giving to each person present a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins.  Everyone rejoiced and received.

We also find this same sentiment of joy and praise in Psalm 24, a psalm that pictures worshippers approaching the mountain of God, where a cry goes up of, ‘who is this King of Glory’ and the resounding answer comes, ‘the Lord Almighty, he is the King of Glory.’

Sometimes, our generosity can be seen through our response to God in worship as we lift our voices in praise to the Lord.  In these moments our knowledge of the love and peace of God can seem to shine or flow out from us.  How then, when we are caught up in praise of our loving God, can our generosity enable and encourage others also to respond in worship of almighty God?

Busola Sodiende is founder of Bearings Point Media, a digital publishing media firm working in partnership with bloggers, influencers and creators, and @dyshmedia.  She is a Church Commissioner for England and a member of the PCC at Holy Trinity Brompton.

Can we be generous when the world demands too much?

There’s too much to do.  Whatever we do, whenever we do it, it isn’t enough.  There are demands from the kids, demands from the boss.  Email is a wonderful thing, but it really does make it impossible to switch off.  There’s pressure on finances, no time to nurture relationships.  The traffic is heavy and the trains are crowded and late.

All we want to do is to stop.  To get away.  To rest.

The Apostles must have felt a bit like this.  As they gathered round Jesus and told him what they had been up to they complained that they hadn’t even had time to eat.  Jesus’ response was to say, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile’.  He recognized that it was too much for them.  That they were drained from doing so much of his work. Here, Jesus was offering respite and calm in the middle of their busy lives. How must the Apostles felt at those words?

But it wasn’t to be.  The crowds and their demands followed Jesus and the Apostles.  Jesus could have turned round and said ‘no!’, ‘enough!’, but he didn’t.  He must have been feeling the same pressure as the apostles, but his generosity in saying yes to the crowds, and healing the sick changed the lives of many people.

Are we willing to be generous, even when life is difficult, when we have too much to do, when we simply want to rest?

Liz Mullins is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Rochester

In 2 Samuel 11, we see the beginning of the downfall of the House of David. Where previously Saul had let his court be destroyed by distrust and jealousy (see 23th June), David does the same with this brazen act of abuse and adultery, covered up with deceit and murder. Underlying his many and various crimes, though, is greed. And isn’t greed – like Saul’s jealousy – ultimately borne of fear? The fear of not having enough, which mysteriously seems to increase rather than decrease as people accumulate wealth and power.
And yet, this fear doesn’t prey on the rich and powerful only. The economy of scarcity affects the poor as much as the rich, albeit in different ways. The story of Jesus feeding the five thousand – here in John 6 (and in similar passages in the other gospels) – gives us a glimpse of what it looks like when the Kingdom of God breaks into and overwhelms this economy of scarcity: there is, it turns out, more than enough.
It’s perhaps no coincidence, then, that the Bible repeatedly describes fellowship with God in terms of a meal, a banquet – or indeed, like here in John 6, a mass picnic! At God’s table, there’s more than enough.

Dr Guido de Graaff is Tutor for Christian Doctrine and Ethics and Director of Studies at St Augustine’s College of Theology. His doctoral thesis was published as Politics in Friendship (T&T Clark, 2014). Other research interests include Dietrich Bonhoeffer – in particular the theme of vicarious representation in his theology and ethics – and environmental theology.

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body.”
 
It can be easy to read this verse thinking it doesn’t apply to me, after all, I don’t lie.  The truth is though that we don’t have to lie to be deceitful.
 
There are some churches where expressing doubt or disappointment is viewed as a lack of faith and consequently people may say ‘everything is just fine’ even when it’s not.  There are other churches, often in areas of greater deprivation, where the opposite is true - what you see is what you get!  People are breathtakingly honest about their lives, creating a real depth of relationship and care.  On reflection, we can see the masks worn in some churches can keep people apart, preventing us from being real with each other.
 
Sometimes people can work so hard to present a perfect image, appearing to have ‘the perfect house’, the ‘perfect marriage’, the ‘perfect children’, but this can set a bar so high that others around feel they cannot approach.  In reality though, many people are actually really struggling to negotiate through the circumstances and challenges of their lives.  In hindsight, what we notice is a gift in ‘being real’, when honesty about our struggles can be a real encouragement to others in their faith journey.
 
It may seem strange to suggest being generous with reality, but honestly to hide it is a form of deceit.

Margaret Wooding Jones is a Licensed Lay Minister. As well as serving in her local parishes, she works with the Spirituality Network in Rochester Diocese and regularly leads Quiet Retreats and training days. She is hoping to publish a book shortly.

How do you grow in generosity?

We are told to live as wise followers of God, using our time wisely. But how much time do I/we waste? Where am I not living wisely? When we live in the world, we tend to covet what others have! This started in Genesis, where Eve coveted the knowledge of God (Genesis 3:4-6), we see it where the disciples start to covet who is the greatest (Luke:22:24) and happens today where we want bigger homes, the latest gadgets or more knowledge. How can we change this? We can look to God, to be filled by His spirit. We can look at what He has and what He has provided. All we have is provided by God, even the breath in our lungs. When we realise and start to always give thanks, even in hard times. We have a heart transplant with God’s heart, and we become more like God who is generous!

Stephen Read is from Ambassadors Football who share Jesus through football. He helps new missionaries/workers to build teams around them, who partner spiritually and financially so they can be sent into the harvest.

We are blessed because God is near.

There is an apparent contradiction in this Psalm. We begin with lovely imagery of dwelling comfortably and securely in the Temple close to the altar, the symbol of God’s presence, like a bird safely in its nest. Yet, next, we are out in the wilds on pilgrimage soaked by the autumn rain, dodging puddles of water in the Valley of Baka. What links them is that God is present in both. The ultimate generosity of God is to share His very self with us, to be the sun that warms us and the shield that defends us whether in a place of sanctuary or journeying onward in pursuit of the divine purpose for our lives. We are blessed because God is near. God is both our strength and our home, the reason for our stepping out into the unknown and the relief and comfort on our return. It is better to be stationed on the threshold of God’s house than enjoy luxury and excess with those whose ways contradict the Lord’s. For in trusting God, we will know favour and honour, and no good thing will be withheld. That is a promise that can be relied upon today and forever.

Andrea Campanale is the first Licensed Lay Pioneer in Southwark Diocese. I work as a Project Officer for the Methodist Church, teach Mission, and Evangelism for St Augustine’s College of Theology and Pioneer Ministry for Cliff College.

The Israelite pilgrims are Mount Zion – trusting, generous, abiding for ever!

Following the longest psalm in the psalter (119 with 176 verses), there are a series of very short, punchy psalms, the next 15 (120 to 134) average only 6 verses each. Number 125 is a shortie, 5 verses, and titled a ‘Song of Ascents,’ likely sung by Israelite pilgrims as they ascended to Jerusalem to celebrate festivals and holy days like Passover, Tabernacles, and Weeks. The vast majority of these pilgrims were not rich, deClaissé-Walford says ‘they were victims of injustice in their daily lives; they most likely felt crushed.’ And yet they sing of their trust in the LORD, the one who ‘enfolds’ (or surrounds) his people. It has been often noticed that the most generous people in society are the poor, for poverty, ironically, grinds in an empathy comfort cannot. In the honour-stakes you cannot go lower than nothing, so what comes one’s way is shared, giving is honourable and is honoured. These ones really, really trust, and God really, really loves ’em (Lk 6.20). Note the contrast: Mount Zion is immovable, unchangeable, and mute. Yet its pilgrims dance, and sing, and go home with altered lives. They are Mount Zion – trusting, generous, abiding for ever!

Canon Dr Neville Emslie is Director of Mission and Ministry in the Diocese of Canterbury.