Sermon at Winterslow Parish Church, and Farley Parish Church– Sunday 10th October 2021
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Hebrews
4:12-16; Luke 15:1-10
The
sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted that today’s three readings are not the
ones prescribed in the Church of England Lectionary for this, the 19th
Sunday after Trinity. These readings
have been chosen by the Clarendon Team as we embark upon the Diocese’s Generous
Giving Campaign which, for us in the Clarendon Team, is as much about our own
self-awareness of the generosity which is given to us by God as it is about
giving money to the church. I have to
say that I don’t particularly like the term “generous giving” in the context of
us giving money as I am sure that the giving already made by members of our
community and church is already very generous in respect of not simply money
but also the time which we give to both the church and our local community – I
know this is especially true here in Winterslow/Farley. The essence of my talk here today and the
readings which precede it are to reflect upon and realise the generosity
already provided to us, in many different circumstances, by God.
In our first
reading, Moses is reminding the Jews whom he led out of Egyptian captivity that
it was the generosity of God which created the opportunity for them to be
released from slavery for many years and that that they owed it to him to
choose His Ways, His Commandments, Decrees and Laws which by following them so
far they had been brought to the brink of entering the Promised Land. In other words, they were to recognise the
power by which they had found freedom and a new life in a new land and honour
it. He warns them that “you will not
live long in the new land” if they now turn away from God having accomplished
the long journey and reached their destination.
It is a
warning for us too. Very often, we find
ourselves praying fervently when things are going wrong – arrow prayers,
prayers of intercession and so on. Then
at other times, when everything seems to be well with us and the world, we can
forget about God and pat ourselves on the back for being successful or
content. It is at times like this that
we can lay ourselves open to spiritual warfare – something which I firmly
believe in. That is why we must
constantly remember the blessings which have been bestowed upon us by the grace
and generosity of God – grace being those times when we probably don’t actually
deserve His generosity.
One has to
be careful, though, not to get sucked into the idea of the prosperity gospel –
something which has, in the past, been quite prevalent in the American churches
– that idea being that the more you give to the church (and particularly the
minister) the more you will receive back from God. That suggests that God operates some form of
double entry accounting system – a massive ledger in the sky! As we will discuss further in a moment, that
is actually contrary to the whole concept of generosity.
Moving on to
our reading in Hebrews, the writer, whose identity we are not quite certain of, is here addressing a
group of intellectual Jewish Christians, who would have been well versed in the
scriptures of the Old Testament and would be well acquainted with the story of
Moses and the Exodus. Their Faith would
be well grounded in Jewish rules, regulations and ritual and the author, in his
letter to them, is explaining how Jesus’s teachings and ministry and, indeed,
crucifixion and resurrection are not inconsistent with, but supplement and
fulfil Old Testament prophecies and scripture.
That is why, in my view, it is so important to read the bible story
right through from Genesis to Revelation – to follow the thread of Jesus throughout.
What the author of Hebrews is telling those Jews is that God is alive and
working now – through the living Jesus.
In our Collect this morning and every morning we end with “… your Son,
Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you…” That is the essence of our
Christian belief, that Jesus is not simply an historical figure, a prophet in a
long line of prophets but so much more and that through his resurrection he is
still alive and we can, through him, reach out directly to God – as we shall do
shortly in our prayers of intercession ending our prayers always with “through
Jesus Christ our Lord”.
But, Jesus
was also wholly human too. As the writer
of Hebrews puts it – someone “who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses but
who has also been tested as we are”.
Again the writer, like Moses tells us that we can approach the throne of
grace with boldness and receive mercy and find grace – again, grace being
something so generously given to us because it is not something which we have
earned and are therefore owed in that imaginary ledger in the sky, but is given
to us sometimes when we don’t actually deserve it at all. That is what true grace and generosity means
In our final
gospel reading we hear from Jesus himself.
Here Jesus actively shows God’s grace and generosity by illustrating them
with two very familiar parables. The
context, as we read, is that the self-assured Pharisees, having in their mind
fulfilled the laws set down by Moses and referred to by him in our first
reading, are grumbling and upset that Jesus was spending time with a bunch of
sinners – tax-collectors for example who were deemed to be evil collaborators
with the Roman occupiers. These were
people who were not following the laws and Commandments, people who should be
cast out of society, certainly not encouraged by Jesus. Yet, when we read the
gospels we find that it is these same Pharisees for whom Jesus has few good
words. Why? Because they are not displaying any grace or generosity to those
who do not fit in with their views of what it right.
Jesus, in
his two parables that follow – the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of
the Lost Coin, illustrates that it these very “missing” people whom God wants
us to find and bring back into the fold or the purse; to bring them out from
the cold and isolation, to be generous of spirit.
In today’s
world there are many “lost souls”; people who struggle and are considered
outcasts. We should always remember what
Jesus said early on in his ministry in the context of meeting up with Levi the
tax collector “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick, I have not
come for the righteous but for the sinners” (Matthew 9)
So what does
all this mean for us. Well, first of
all, we should never forget the generosity of God in our lives – that he will
forgive us whatever we do provided that we acknowledge and confess our sins and
truly repent. “There is joy in the presence of the angels” he said “over one
sinner who repents”. We should secondly
remember that everything we have, indeed our very lives, we do owe to God. Recently in a lecture I was reminded how
every element on Earth, every atom and combination of atoms only exists because
of the creation of stars in the universe and the very creation of the universe
itself. When I accept the offering which
you make in church I offer them up to God with these words “All things come
from you and of your own do we give you”.
It is only by the grace of God’s unconditional generosity that, like
those first Jewish exiles, we can live in a land of milk and honey.
However,
there are many places in the world where this is not so. There are places so very poor. There are also many people who are so poor in
faith and spirit in our own relatively affluent society.
My message
for this morning, therefore, is to leave here today reflecting on God’s
generosity in your life – not in terms of double entry accounting – but in how
he has given you his Son, Jesus, as the greater intercessor through whom you
can pray. As Christians our aim should
be, in following Jesus Christ, to be as Christ-like as we can. We will, obviously never achieve it totally,
but we can consider his grace and generosity when dealing with those in worse
places than ourselves. To be generous of
spirit to those whom we might find difficult to deal with. To give generously of our time, if not our
money, to worthy causes and even to the church so that we can spread the Good
News of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, to make the world a better place
full of His grace and generosity.
Amen MFB/165/09102021
