“We give to God and his Church - Sacrificially” FUNDING OUR FUTURE - Sermon 3 Sunday 24th October 2010 - P&J

Today’s sermon is the third in a series about stewardship.  The theme for the whole series is that Jesus is God’s gift to us and in response, we give to God and his Church.

Two weeks ago Jenny spoke very movingly and convincingly about the need to give generously as part of our Christian commitment and in order to fund our two churches and our ministry in the town.  The facts and figures are all in the booklet produced by the stewardship team.  If you haven’t had a chance to pick one up yet please make sure you do, so that you are fully informed of the costs of running the parish and of our current income.

Today I have been charged with speaking about responding to God’s gift to us in Jesus by giving to God and his Church sacrificially.

In ancient times believers in pagan religions, when times were hard and they felt that the gods were against them, would offer human sacrifices to propitiate the gods.  Abraham, surrounded by pagan culture, but following the one true God, believed that he was being called to sacrifice his only son Isaac.  It’s a real drama as Abraham struggles between his duty of absolute obedience to God and his knowledge of God’s promise to him that he will be the father of a great nation.  But in the climax of the child’s lying bound on the funeral pyre before God finally lets Abraham off the hook, we learn a vital lesson that resonates throughout history, that the one true God is never to be propitiated in such a way.  Human life is precious to him and his promises to us will be fulfilled.

So how come this all seems to be turned on its head when God is prepared to sacrifice his only son?  What is going on?  This very idea can be a stumbling block to belief for many people.  They can’t reconcile a God of love with a father who would do that to his child.  And rightly so!  It is horrible.

The truth is that this interpretation of Christ’s death is deeply flawed.  Our God is a Trinitarian God .  He is three persons in one God.  This was not a cruel Father sacrificing his son as payment for our sins.  This was our own God, in the person of Christ, giving of himself, putting himself entirely in our power, out of his deep love for us all.

As Paul wrote, God, In Christ, “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, and became obedient to the point of death.”  Our God, having showered us with gifts as a token of his love, then gave us the ultimate gift, the gift of himself, hanging on the cross.

This then is the Christian understanding of sacrifice.  It is not the giving up of something or someone outside of ourselves.  It is the giving up of a part of ourselves.

William Vanstone was a brilliant post-war parish priest and theologian who died in 1999.  He refused any academic posts, writing only three small but influential books at the end of his parish ministry.  He writes about how we can respond to the love of God.  Our response  should be appropriate to the love that we recognise.  Nothing can adequately convey the limitlessness of love, and yet one response may be less inadequate than another.

Vanstone wrote a hymn which puts this into words far better than I can.  He wrote  Open are the gifts of God,
Gifts of love to mind and sense;
Hidden is love’s agony,
Love’s endeavour, love’s expense. Love that gives, gives ever more,
Gives with zeal, with eager hands,
Spares not, keeps not, all outpours,
Ventures all, its all expends. 

This self-giving love was what motivated the widow of Zarephath.  She was down to her last handful of meal and few drops of oil following the failed harvest in the area and was expecting that she and her son would die of starvation.  And yet her response to the love of God was to give all that she had in order that Elijah might eat.God knows our weaknesses.  We none of us like to be outside our comfort zone and most of us keep thick padding around that zone to protect ourselves from harm.  Financially we plan our lives so that we can afford to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves and keep a roof over our heads.  And as we earn more we eat better, treat ourselves to meals out, buy a bigger house or a better car, go on more expensive holidays, save more for a rainy day.  When Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him he was reading Peter’s character well.  At that point Peter failed to respond adequately to Jesus’ love for him.  But Jesus never gave up on him and Peter learnt from his mistake.  If we hold back, if we are afraid to commit ourselves too deeply, if we let our fear of being hurt prevent us from giving generously of the gifts that God has give us, then we are with Peter, denying Jesus.  We all, and I include myself, need to look deep into our hearts and ask ourselves are we really responding appropriately to God’s self-giving love.  When it comes to our financial contribution to supporting the life and work of the church are we giving sacrificially?  Only God knows the answer to that question.  We may feel that we have been less than generous in the past, but Jesus is still holding out his arms to us, just as he did to Peter, saying it’s never too late, you still have a major part to play in the building of my kingdom.Every day at morning worship on Iona the congregation joins in saying “We will not offer to God offerings that cost us nothing.”

If we respond appropriately to God’s overwhelming gifts to us then we will return to him so much of what we have that it will hurt.  And if it doesn’t hurt then we are probably not giving enough!

Mary Goodson

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