Lent 1 - Lenten Generosity
A sermon preached in the United Benefice by Fr James Heard on 9 March 2014
Our stewardship campaign starts this Sunday and for three weeks it’s our chance to think about our identity, who we are. Our vision of making our parishes generous, hospitable, welcoming places means that our giving is much more than making sure we simply survive. We want to thrive as a community! And this involves the giving of our time, talents and money.
As well as beginning our stewardship campaign we begin our journey of Lent. It’s a time when we pause to examine ourselves, our spiritual lives, our relationship with God. Because we all face the sort of temptations of Jesus. They appear in the same forms whatever culture or age we live in - the human craving for power, the lust for fame and success, of self-aggrandizement. And facing the weeds of bad habits that easily can go unchecked. This is what we are invited to do in lent: cut back the weeds, root out bad habits, say sorry and take steps that might begin to heal broken relationships.
I suppose it has something to do with being British, but there are certain things that seem off limit when having polite conversation – politics, sex, and money. Today we’re going to be talking about money, which is something Jesus speaks about much more than sex. Our stewardship campaign starts this Sunday and for the next two weeks – its our chance to think about our identity, who we are; its an opportunity to begin to reflect on our vision, which we’ll be doing more of as we think about a Mission Action Plan in the coming months.
There is so much that happens in this community that goes towards making it the generous, hospitable, welcoming place that it is. People freely giving of their time and talent, often quietly, under the radar, but doing things which we would soon notice if they suddenly stopped. Singing in the choir, serving as sidespeople, readers, intercessors, as sacristans, helping with the gardening, having clean towels in the loo’s, providing refreshments after the services, those who work very hard making sure our accounts are in order, to name but a few. All of which is very important and can I say a heartfelt thank you to all who contribute in this way. It is so significant.
But with a £20-30,000 annual deficit over the last three years we all, clergy included, need to contribute financially if we are to not only survive but flourish as a community. We’re doing our best to reduce our expenses and if you think we’ve overlooked something here do let me know.
It’s worth clarifying at this point that we as a church don’t get any funding from the wider church. There’s no sort of central pot of £millions in the CoE coffers that gets dished out to local churches. Nor do we, unlike many countries in Europe, get any money from the government.
This means that as a community we have to pay for everything – things like service sheets, communion wine, keeping a Grade II listed building in good condition, as well as warm, lit and insured. But giving is much more than making sure we simply survive. We want to thrive as a community.
As the stewardship leaflet states: Our vision is to proclaim and live Christ’s message of compassionate and healing love by
• offering public worship daily to God – over 16 services a week, in fact
• growing deeper in faith in Christ
• providing inspirational music
• resourcing vibrant children's and youth work
• serving the community – through things like the support groups for those struggling with addiction of various kinds, as well as the monthly lunch club, wonderfully organised by Ivo and Anne
• supporting the vulnerable and needy both at home and internationally through our links with Christian Aid
• ensuring our beautiful church is kept in good condition, open and accessible to meet this calling
We give to enable all of this to happen. If you haven’t received a letter over the last week explaining some of this, it means you’re not on the church’s electoral roll. But don’t worry we have plenty of packs here today.
As well as beginning our stewardship campaign this week we began our journey of Lent. It’s a time when we pause to examine ourselves, our spiritual lives, our relationship with God. This week I again found myself looking at Holman Hunt’s painting at St Paul’s Cathedral, ‘Jesus Light of the World’, whilst on my monthly chaplaincy service there. The famous painting has Jesus standing at a door and knocking, metaphorically the door to our hearts. Its often pointed out that there’s no handle on the outside of the door – the point being that only we can open the door. Jesus can’t, and indeed wouldn’t, uninvited, barge his way in. But looking this week at the painting, surrounding the door there are lots of weeds, weeds that have climbed up all around the doorframe.
I’m not a particularly experienced or skilled gardener but I do know that weeds grow fast. They require constant attention – if you leave them for too long, they can overrun a whole garden. And so it is in our spiritual lives – weeds can easily grow and can threaten to choke our relationship with God. There can be many types of weeds in our lives.
Weeds of temptation – the same sort of temptations Jesus faced: the human craving for power, the lust for fame and success, of self-aggrandizement. The temptations of Jesus appear in the same forms whatever culture or age we live in. Weeds of bad habits, which go unchecked; weeds of intolerance, ingratitude or hatred.
These weeds spring up in our lives and limit our ability to love God and to love each other. Hence why in lent we are invited to cut back the weeds, root out bad habits, listen to God’s voice, say sorry and take steps that might begin to heal broken relationships.
This is the stuff of discipleship – walking in the footsteps of Jesus. And, returning to the theme of stewardship, discipleship is intensely practical. I heard a sermon a few years ago on discipleship, and was struck by some very challenging words. ‘If someone were to look at your monthly bank statement, would it give any indication that you were Christian? Would there be anything that would suggest that your Christian faith had an impact on your life as seen on your bank statement.’ Gosh, challenging words that I’ve never forgotten. Because, as we heard on Ash Wednesday, ‘…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’.
Having children makes me acutely aware of how difficult it is to teach them the need for sharing. We try to let them sort things out between themselves but occasionally (or frequently) need to step in, usually just before blood is about to be spilt. Teaching sharing is one thing – teaching generosity is quite a step further. And it is often hard to unlearn lessons we have absorbed in childhood, particularly if we have never had them seriously challenged.
A few years ago, the Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, the Very Revd Joseph Britton, gave a talk reflecting on his time working in both Europe and the United States. He described a fundamental difference between British and American understanding of what it is to be church.
In Britain, he observed, the British believe that the establishment is a sort of bountiful, generous God, which provides. This has unfortunately encouraged a culture of not accepting responsibility or ownership. In the United States, on the other hand, Americans believe that the church only happens because of the commitment of Christians. In the American BCP there is the prayer for the mission, the duty of the church: ‘We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labours…’
This is not a prayer in the past tense but in the present tense. In other words, church has to be recreated in every time and every place, every Sunday. Church does not come into being and then like a wound up clock just continues. Rather, like any living, dynamic relationship it has to be made, recreated each day through prayer and work. We know this in families – each person needs to know repeatedly, preferably every day, that they are loved and valued. St Francis said the same of his relationship with God – he prayed that he be converted not once but every day. This puts a whole different perspective on what it is to be church. It is much more akin to the spirit of the early church described in the Acts of the Apostles.
What the early church did was practice generosity. And when non Christians saw such generosity they were amazed and wanted to join this community too. By becoming Christians they discovered the subverting power of generosity, the transforming miracle of generosity. The early church knew that being a community of believers was a dynamic process; it could only happen through what they did - learning how to be Christians each and every day of their lives. (Elisabeth Morse).
In this parish, I’ve encountered some wonderful generosity – generous love, generous care. My prayer is that we would continue and deepen in our vocation to live out our discipleship as we follow in the footsteps of the One who poured out his life for all.
Our stewardship campaign starts this Sunday and for three weeks it’s our chance to think about our identity, who we are. Our vision of making our parishes generous, hospitable, welcoming places means that our giving is much more than making sure we simply survive. We want to thrive as a community! And this involves the giving of our time, talents and money.
As well as beginning our stewardship campaign we begin our journey of Lent. It’s a time when we pause to examine ourselves, our spiritual lives, our relationship with God. Because we all face the sort of temptations of Jesus. They appear in the same forms whatever culture or age we live in - the human craving for power, the lust for fame and success, of self-aggrandizement. And facing the weeds of bad habits that easily can go unchecked. This is what we are invited to do in lent: cut back the weeds, root out bad habits, say sorry and take steps that might begin to heal broken relationships.
I suppose it has something to do with being British, but there are certain things that seem off limit when having polite conversation – politics, sex, and money. Today we’re going to be talking about money, which is something Jesus speaks about much more than sex. Our stewardship campaign starts this Sunday and for the next two weeks – its our chance to think about our identity, who we are; its an opportunity to begin to reflect on our vision, which we’ll be doing more of as we think about a Mission Action Plan in the coming months.
There is so much that happens in this community that goes towards making it the generous, hospitable, welcoming place that it is. People freely giving of their time and talent, often quietly, under the radar, but doing things which we would soon notice if they suddenly stopped. Singing in the choir, serving as sidespeople, readers, intercessors, as sacristans, helping with the gardening, having clean towels in the loo’s, providing refreshments after the services, those who work very hard making sure our accounts are in order, to name but a few. All of which is very important and can I say a heartfelt thank you to all who contribute in this way. It is so significant.
But with a £20-30,000 annual deficit over the last three years we all, clergy included, need to contribute financially if we are to not only survive but flourish as a community. We’re doing our best to reduce our expenses and if you think we’ve overlooked something here do let me know.
It’s worth clarifying at this point that we as a church don’t get any funding from the wider church. There’s no sort of central pot of £millions in the CoE coffers that gets dished out to local churches. Nor do we, unlike many countries in Europe, get any money from the government.
This means that as a community we have to pay for everything – things like service sheets, communion wine, keeping a Grade II listed building in good condition, as well as warm, lit and insured. But giving is much more than making sure we simply survive. We want to thrive as a community.
As the stewardship leaflet states: Our vision is to proclaim and live Christ’s message of compassionate and healing love by
• offering public worship daily to God – over 16 services a week, in fact
• growing deeper in faith in Christ
• providing inspirational music
• resourcing vibrant children's and youth work
• serving the community – through things like the support groups for those struggling with addiction of various kinds, as well as the monthly lunch club, wonderfully organised by Ivo and Anne
• supporting the vulnerable and needy both at home and internationally through our links with Christian Aid
• ensuring our beautiful church is kept in good condition, open and accessible to meet this calling
We give to enable all of this to happen. If you haven’t received a letter over the last week explaining some of this, it means you’re not on the church’s electoral roll. But don’t worry we have plenty of packs here today.
As well as beginning our stewardship campaign this week we began our journey of Lent. It’s a time when we pause to examine ourselves, our spiritual lives, our relationship with God. This week I again found myself looking at Holman Hunt’s painting at St Paul’s Cathedral, ‘Jesus Light of the World’, whilst on my monthly chaplaincy service there. The famous painting has Jesus standing at a door and knocking, metaphorically the door to our hearts. Its often pointed out that there’s no handle on the outside of the door – the point being that only we can open the door. Jesus can’t, and indeed wouldn’t, uninvited, barge his way in. But looking this week at the painting, surrounding the door there are lots of weeds, weeds that have climbed up all around the doorframe.
I’m not a particularly experienced or skilled gardener but I do know that weeds grow fast. They require constant attention – if you leave them for too long, they can overrun a whole garden. And so it is in our spiritual lives – weeds can easily grow and can threaten to choke our relationship with God. There can be many types of weeds in our lives.
Weeds of temptation – the same sort of temptations Jesus faced: the human craving for power, the lust for fame and success, of self-aggrandizement. The temptations of Jesus appear in the same forms whatever culture or age we live in. Weeds of bad habits, which go unchecked; weeds of intolerance, ingratitude or hatred.
These weeds spring up in our lives and limit our ability to love God and to love each other. Hence why in lent we are invited to cut back the weeds, root out bad habits, listen to God’s voice, say sorry and take steps that might begin to heal broken relationships.
This is the stuff of discipleship – walking in the footsteps of Jesus. And, returning to the theme of stewardship, discipleship is intensely practical. I heard a sermon a few years ago on discipleship, and was struck by some very challenging words. ‘If someone were to look at your monthly bank statement, would it give any indication that you were Christian? Would there be anything that would suggest that your Christian faith had an impact on your life as seen on your bank statement.’ Gosh, challenging words that I’ve never forgotten. Because, as we heard on Ash Wednesday, ‘…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’.
Having children makes me acutely aware of how difficult it is to teach them the need for sharing. We try to let them sort things out between themselves but occasionally (or frequently) need to step in, usually just before blood is about to be spilt. Teaching sharing is one thing – teaching generosity is quite a step further. And it is often hard to unlearn lessons we have absorbed in childhood, particularly if we have never had them seriously challenged.
A few years ago, the Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, the Very Revd Joseph Britton, gave a talk reflecting on his time working in both Europe and the United States. He described a fundamental difference between British and American understanding of what it is to be church.
In Britain, he observed, the British believe that the establishment is a sort of bountiful, generous God, which provides. This has unfortunately encouraged a culture of not accepting responsibility or ownership. In the United States, on the other hand, Americans believe that the church only happens because of the commitment of Christians. In the American BCP there is the prayer for the mission, the duty of the church: ‘We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labours…’
This is not a prayer in the past tense but in the present tense. In other words, church has to be recreated in every time and every place, every Sunday. Church does not come into being and then like a wound up clock just continues. Rather, like any living, dynamic relationship it has to be made, recreated each day through prayer and work. We know this in families – each person needs to know repeatedly, preferably every day, that they are loved and valued. St Francis said the same of his relationship with God – he prayed that he be converted not once but every day. This puts a whole different perspective on what it is to be church. It is much more akin to the spirit of the early church described in the Acts of the Apostles.
What the early church did was practice generosity. And when non Christians saw such generosity they were amazed and wanted to join this community too. By becoming Christians they discovered the subverting power of generosity, the transforming miracle of generosity. The early church knew that being a community of believers was a dynamic process; it could only happen through what they did - learning how to be Christians each and every day of their lives. (Elisabeth Morse).
In this parish, I’ve encountered some wonderful generosity – generous love, generous care. My prayer is that we would continue and deepen in our vocation to live out our discipleship as we follow in the footsteps of the One who poured out his life for all.