York Minster

Offering where it hurts

Date: 19th August 2007
Preacher: The Revd Canon Jeremy Fletcher

There is an old story I’m sure you’ll have heard. A pig and a chicken walk past a café. The menu outside advertises Bacon and Eggs. The pig and the chicken look at each other. And the pig says to the chicken, “It’s alright for you. For you it’s an offering. For me it’s a sacrifice”.

Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth contain some of the most elevated writing and teaching in the whole Bible. We learn from them of Christ’s institution of the Lord’s Supper. We learn of the church as the body of Christ, of the power of the Spirit, of the resurrection from the dead through faith in Christ, of the hope of Glory. So it is no surprise in our New Testament reading tonight from 2 Corinthians 8 to find a word like “grace”: charis - the free gift of the love of God given in power to his people.

Nor should we be taken aback by the word “ministry”: diakonia – the offering of service just as Christ served as a slave. And the final verse of the reading is a stunning encapsulation of God’s grace shown to us: Christ who was rich became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich. Chapters 8 and 9 of 2 Corinthians are packed full of high theology and elevated language. We should preach from them every week.

The fact that we don’t might be something to do with the fact that they are all about money. Not just about that: about giving money away. Paul is making a specific appeal. The church in Jerusalem has been hit by a natural disaster: there’s a famine in the region and Christian brothers and sisters are suffering. It’s time for the body of Christ to mean something, and if one part has abundance it needs to share that with the parts that are suffering.

What strikes me most powerfully is that Paul makes this a foundational issue for Christians. How we handle our material wealth is at the heart of our believing, not a bolt on addition, to be considered after our prayer life and bible reading and attendance at worship have been put in place. It is central for Paul because he preaches about the God who has given totally and completely to us: Jesus Christ is “grace” to us; free gift, underserved and unpaid for. Look at what Christ gave up for us, says Paul. And see how his poverty has given us unimaginable riches.

Now how does that affect your wallet? Paul does not do the obvious thing. He doesn’t say that Christ’s example should prick our consciences and make us give because we have been shamed into it, like when you see your neighbour put a fiver in the collection and you only have 50p. Paul says that giving financially is sharing in ministry, sharing in service. It is a participation in the self giving love of Christ. His example is the Macedonian church, who beg for the privilege of joining in with God’s generosity. It’s out of joy, not guilt. They see it as giving themselves first to God, and only then to the matter at hand.

So how does that affect your wallet? It’s not that impractical. Having established the principle: that we cannot out give God, and that to give it to participate in God’s generosity, Paul does bring it down to earth: there is a need to be met, and you should then decide how much you can contribute to meeting it. Our generous giving should be informed, but not grudging. Using a practical need as a starting point, Paul shows that giving of ourselves financially responds to the grace of God with the servanthood of Christ in the fellowship of the Spirit.

Working out what to do with our money – and indeed all our possessions, therefore starts with an examination of our hearts and souls, not our bank statements. The Macedonians begged to give even though they had little: time and again I have heard stories of the rich being humbled by the generosity of the poor. It continues with the application of joy: the word for “cheerful” in the verse in Chapter 9 about a “cheerful giver” is the word we derive “hilarious” from. Think about that when the collection plate comes round in a minute. And it results in a fair distribution and in the knowledge that we are being obedient to God. We are to be rich in obedience, by working out where our true riches lie.

How much you give, and to whom you give, is up to you before God. It may be an offering, or a sacrifice. Whatever it is, it should reflect the generosity of God, to whom be all praise and glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, now and for ever. Amen.