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The Second Sunday of Lent
28th February 2010

Faith and Giving

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Today is the first time I have stood here to give the address, so it is nice to be looking out at so many friendly faces.

Everyone should have received a letter a couple of weeks ago about the need for a large increase in regular giving to the parish, an increase of at least 50%. The letter explains the figures, and how the funds that we have are fully committed, and why we can't go on spending more than our income.

It's some time since we had a stewardship campaign to ask members to review their giving. What's happened is that our regular giving has fallen back in relation to our expenditure, so the annual deficit has got bigger and bigger. If we are going to both maintain our worship and proceed with the mission that God is calling us to, we must deal with the deficit. We can't go on depleting the capital that we've designated for the reordering project by spending it on the parish's ordinary day to day expenses.

We can't go forward unless we balance the books.

Because of the importance of the subject in our life together as a parish, I have been given special permission to take five minutes extra to speak about it. Which reminds me of the man who took his young son to a church where the sermons tended to be rather too long. He was an observant and inquisitive little chap. The sermon was just beginning when he whispered: "Daddy, what did it mean when the vicar shut his eyes and put his hands together?" "That meant he was asking God to help him preach". "Oh.". A moment later the boy whispered again: "Daddy, what did it mean when the vicar took his watch off and put it in front of him". "That meant absolutely nothing..."

Love of money has a big place in the society and culture in which we live. I just had an advert through my door for a magazine called Money Week: How to Make It, How to Keep It, How to Spend It. Apparently, if I subscribe, I will learn how to make gains of up to 936% from the final most dangerous phase of the global financial crisis! Get-rich-quick schemes have lots of takers. Millions of people play the lottery in the hope of winning a large amount of money.

In money matters we have a choice before us, of following the crowd; or of following Jesus.

Giving is about following Jesus. It's about going against the crowd, and following the one person who is really worth following.

Jesus calls us to give

Our gospel reading today (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21) was from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is instructing his followers in how to live. The first thing to notice is that Jesus says "whenever you give" and then "when you give"; He assumes we will be giving - this is a basic element of following Jesus.

If we think about why, it is first of all because of what God is like: he is a giving God, a generous God, and we are called to be his children, to become like him. Jesus is the image of God - the supreme example of giving. He practised what he preached. As St Paul put it in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians: You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, that we might become rich (2 Cor 8: 9)

We are called to follow our Lord and become like him in denial of self and in generosity. We are also under obligation to give because everything we have belongs to God - as we say in the liturgy: everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you. We own nothing of our own. We are stewards or trustees of whatever God has placed in our hands. My money, my coat, my car, my house means the money, or coat, or car, or house that God has entrusted to me. It is our responsibility to use everything as he wishes. He is the giving God, the God of generosity. We are called to be like him, to give, to give generously.

Temptations of money

The second thing to notice in the gospel is what Jesus says about the temptations of money. He warns against showing off - against giving in order to get other people's approval. He says that hypocrites give with trumpets sounding (hence our expression, blowing your own trumpet). Instead, he says, give privately and without self-congratulation. For this he uses a vivid figure of speech: don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. That doesn't mean - don't consider carefully what you should give; it means - give quietly, privately; it also means there should be no showing off to ourselves - no patting ourselves on the back.

You will receive an envelope with a response form to indicate confidentially what you will give. Only the Stewardship Recorder and the Treasurer will see the form or know what is in it. They are extremely discreet, and very careful about maintaining confidentiality. What we are asking is that you engage in prayerful consideration, privately between you and God, and decide what proportion of your income it is right for you to give.

Jesus says how to approach this; he says: "go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret". So the lesson is, as Jesus says: No trumpets.

At the end of the gospel reading, Jesus talks about a different temptation - the temptation to store up treasures on earth. He's not saying we shouldn't plan for expected expenditures and save up for them. He's warning about greed, about self-indulgence, about hoarding, and about seeking security in money. He explained this at more length in the parable of the rich fool, who ran out of space for hoarding his possessions (Luke 12: 16-21). The rich fool said: I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry". The money enables him to be self-indulgent and makes him feel secure. But God said to him, "You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?"

And Jesus finishes by saying: "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God". What he is warning against is the selfish and covetous accumulation of wealth. In the gospel, Jesus warns us that a covetous love of money is actually idolatry: "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". And in another place he says "no one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and Money".

By generous giving, rather than storing up for ourselves, we can avoid the temptations of greed, of self-indulgence, of idolatry, of seeking security in things rather than in God. By generous giving, we can knock money off its throne, and acknowledge God's rightful place in our lives.

Storing up Treasures in Heaven

The third thing to notice in what Jesus says is the most exciting part. He says, when we give in secret, our Father who sees in secret will reward us. Some people are troubled by this idea that God will reward us. How can Jesus warn us against selfish vanity, against patting ourselves on the back, and against self-indulgence, and then say in the next breath that we should give because there is something in it for us? But Jesus often spoke about rewards. I think the problem is that we have the wrong mental image.

He is not saying this is a reward like a silver cup at a school prizegiving, with everyone clapping us. He is not saying it's a reward that we earn, like when the police pay a reward in return for information leading to a conviction. What he's talking about is God's response, the way things are. If you play a musical instrument, and practise hard, your reward is that you play better. It's the natural outcome. In the same way, God's reward is the spiritual outcome of our giving.

So what is the nature of the reward that Jesus has in mind? We get a pointer from what he goes on to say: "store up treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". Treasure in heaven is something whose effect is in the eternal realm because it is valued by God. By following Jesus, we help others to know God. That is something of eternal value. By following Jesus, we become more like him. That is something of eternal value. So I think Jesus is saying here that, by giving, we can experience, and help others experience, a fuller relationship with our heavenly Father; we can advance in our experience of the living God, both now and for the future - our future with God.

Giving is a spiritual issue. It's about our relationship with God. It's not a question of the number of pounds given, but whether in our particular circumstances we are giving what God asks of us. Remember the widow's mite. Because giving is a spiritual issue, its value isn't a matter of arithmetic. Jesus said the poor widow who gave two mites had given more than anyone else. We can leave to God the question just how this works. What we need to understand is that Jesus is stating a spiritual fact of life: which is that generous giving is a step of faith in God, of gratitude to God, of love of God, of trust in God. Taking such a step brings us closer to God and we will experience him and see him at work in ways that we otherwise would not. That is our reward. That is an attractive prospect. To make it even more attractive, Jesus encourages us with the thought that treasure in heaven is not subject to any of the problems that earthly treasure is subject to. No moth to make holes, or rust to damage it. No burglars to steal it, or market crash to make it worthless. We have every reason to be cheerful givers.

Jesus's challenge to his followers is: where is our treasure? Where is our heart? What are our priorities? Are we willing to follow him in this, to become like him in unselfish and costly giving?

Hillary Clinton spoke wisely when she said "never waste a good crisis". Our church's financial crisis is also something other than a crisis: it's a heaven-sent opportunity for us to grow - in faith, and in prayerfulness, and in the experience of God in our lives.

How to give

I'll finish with a word about how we give. We have a big step before us in our parish's finances - a long way to go. If someone's drowning in the sea, a mile from the shore, swimming a bit towards the shore won't help them; they'll still drown. They need to make a big enough effort to go the whole way to the shore. We need to make a big enough effort to go the whole way to balancing our books.

Writing in 1 Corinthians Chapter 16 about collections for the church, St Paul said that each person should set aside a sum of money regularly and in keeping with their income. He was there instructing planned giving, proportionate to a person's income. But what is the right proportion? Whether we have ample funds or whether we are in financial difficulty, we need to do the same thing, which is to bring this to God in prayer, and listen to what he is saying to us and then give the proportion of our income that we believe is right.

How you balance your giving between St Martin's/St Paul's and other charities which you support is a matter between you and God. But if we don't support our own church, no one else will. There's no one to do it but us. The most practical way of giving is to fill in a standing order form and use Gift Aid, but of course there are other ways. And when you are considering what is the right amount, we would ask you to remember that we need to increase our income for the whole of 2010, two months of which has already past.

One day when Queen Victoria was out walking near Balmoral, she was caught in heavy rain. Calling at a cottage, unrecognised, she was grudgingly given a tatty old umbrella. She returned it the next day by sending a courtier with it in a splendid coach. The resident said, "If I'd known who she was, I would have given her my best umbrella". We need to remember who it is, that we are giving to. And we can be full of anticipation, because Jesus says: "Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you".

Loving Father,
who sees in secret,
through Jesus you have made us your people,
you have richly provided us with good gifts,
and you have called us to live for you.
May gratitude be in our hearts,
may generosity be in our hands,
and may the joy of heaven
be found among us.