Sharing What We Have
Sharing what we have
This is the last in our Back to Basics sermons. After Jesus January, we enjoyed Faith February and now we’re into Mission March. Last week Caroline talked about Sharing our faith, and next week we have a special guest speaker - David Porter, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Chief of Staff and an expert in the area of reconciliation, which is what he will speak about. And then it’s Mothering Sunday, and then it’s our last service, and then we’re into Holy Week and Easter. So, although it’s only the 8 March, this is the only other Mission March sermon that we’ve time for.
And the theme is Sharing what we have.
The gospel that we just heard includes one of the most famous verses of them all - God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.
God so loved the world, that he gave.
That verse doesn’t mean that God owned the Son, and handed him over, like we might put a pound in the charity box, it means that he gave away who he is, he was willing to forgo his very identity, his being. He let go of the love that exists between Father, Son and Spirit, and he gave it to the world, because he loves the world. God shared everything he has, because he loves us. God is a giver.
And in the first reading, from Paul’s letter to the Romans, we hear something similar. In effect Paul says, ‘it’s all gift.' Everything of value is gift. If you earn something, he says, it isn’t a gift - it’s owed, given because a contract says it needs to be given. But faith cannot be earned. A relationship with God, a life lived to the full, love, mercy, forgiveness - these things can’t be earned, they can only be received.
God is a giver. And it’s all gift.
And we know that’s true, don’t we - we know that the things that matter most cannot be earned.
Life; we didn’t choose to be alive. It’s a gift.
Love; we didn’t go into a shop and pick our family, or friends, or those closest to us off a shelf; they were given to us as a gift.
Our gifts and talents; those things that make you, you. You didn’t download them, they’re just what you were given as part of that utterly unique combination that makes you, you.
Take a moment to go through the gifts in your life. The things that you haven’t earned, but which matter most. Take a moment for gratitude.
There’s a beautiful verse in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus has been teaching and training his disciples for a while. He has told them about the Kingdom of God, he has both taught with words and modelled by his actions, and now he is getting them ready to go out and to put it into action for the first time. It’s in chapter 10.
And he says - ’As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.’ and then this ‘You received without payment; give without payment.’
That’s the gospel isn’t it. You received without payment, give without payment.
Everything you have is gift. So give it away freely.
Generosity is who God is. Generous is what we are called to be. Generous with our money, our time, our love and our talents. Generous with all we’ve got.
But being generous is really hard. And I mean really hard. After all, it cost God the life of his Son. It doesn’t get more costly than that.
And we live in a world that is very sceptical about generosity. Sure, we’re good at Comic Relief and Sports Relief, and that’s great. But real, deep down generosity - the kind that of generosity that is ready to give away more than a few quid - that’s not encouraged.
Our culture tells us to accumulate. It tells us that what we have is ours to own and possess, and what isn’t ours is to be desired and bought. It tells us that we deserve it. That we can have it all.
And let’s be really honest here. That’s true of us as well. Being generous is really difficult. I mean, being generous like the gospel calls us to be generous. It’s really difficult.
And it’s difficult because every time we give something away, it’s like a mini-death. When we give something away, it’s gone, it’s not ours any more. There is always loss involved - and the greater the generosity, the greater the loss. And we’re not good at loss. We’re not good at death.
In the days of the early church, back in the 4th century, there was a terrible plague in the city of Caesarea. And the plague is a really horrible illness, massively infectious and with a very high death rate. You don’t recover from the plague. And so anyone in Caesarea with any money got out, leaving the poorest and most vulnerable behind. But not the Christians. They chose to stay. They sat with the sick, they fed the hungry, they tended to the dying and they buried the dead.
That’s a form of craziness, right? To choose not to make yourself and your family safe, but instead to risk your life, for the sake of people that you don’t even know.
But Jesus said - ‘come, pick up your cross and follow me’ - and we all know what a cross was used for, and it wasn’t for putting a few pennies in the charity box.
But that’s the heart of the gospel, and the Early Christians knew it - it is only by accepting loss, death even, that we can step into life.
Those Christians who stayed in Caesarea are credited with one of the great expansions of the faith. Their radical generosity was noticed and people responded - and the church grew.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the great German priest and theologian, who was killed by the Nazis, put it like this - “the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
It’s not much of an invitation is it. Come and die - but it is the gospel.
Now I don’t want to pretend this is in any way easy. Am I ready to give up the things that are of deep value to me? My comfort, my family, my life? No way - I struggle to give 10% of my income away; I choose my own comfort over the needs of others most of the time and there’s no way I would put my life at risk by hanging out with someone who had the plague…..but I know that’s the call, and I pray that I be more ready to do those things tomorrow than I am today.
Because we are clearly called to be generous. To be free enough to give what we have; to give our money, to give our time and talents, to give what is needed and to give in ways that sometimes hurt.
And right now, we’ve got a chance to have a go. The Coronavirus is causing massive anxiety around the world. And it’s clearly right that we take it very seriously. It is already affecting the health of tens of thousands of people and that is only going to increase. And it is very likely that it will affect us too. That people we know - even some of us perhaps - will catch it.
So what is our response? How, as those called to give as freely as we have received, how should we respond. Here’s what one French Bishop has written to the churches in his care:
“Should you shut yourself up at home? Should you raid the neighbourhood supermarket to stock up on reserves to prepare for a siege? No! Because a Christian doesn't fear death. He's not unaware that he's mortal, but he knows in whom he has placed his trust.”
“And a Christian doesn't belong to herself, her life is given, because she follows Jesus Christ who teaches 'whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.'”
Of course we need to be careful and sensible - at the very least in order to protect those who are most vulnerable. Being generous doesn’t mean taking stupid risks. But we should also be ready to step out and to give all we’ve got for those who are suffering; both those already infected and those who are likely to be most lonely and isolated as a result of the virus.
Here then are a couple of very practical suggestions, as we follow God’s call to be generous:
We should be thinking about this sensibly, and taking all the right precautions, but we should not be giving in to fear, panic or anxiety. We will be people of realistic hope, and we should model that in our reaction to the virus.
We should be thinking very carefully about who might be suffering, and doing what we can to provide practical and emotional help. So a visit, if that’s safe, a phone call if not. We need to remember that being connected to other people is a key to wellbeing, and that it’s not just virus’ that kill people; loneliness can do it too.
We should be sharing loo roll!
You’ll have your own thoughts on how we can respond in a godly and generous way to this serious challenge.
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life.
God so loved the world, that he gave.
God is a giver. And it’s all gift.
And we are given, in order that we might give in turn.