Preaching generosity

This lectionary-based resource is here to help you preach confidently not just about money, but about generosity in every sense. 


Preaching Generosity is a new, weekly, bite-sized preaching resource, produced by the Diocese of Rochester in partnership with St Augustine’s College of Theology and the National Giving Team of the Church of England.

Each week, a short sermon idea drawn from one of that week’s Common Worship lectionary readings will be made available to give preachers the tools to become comfortable and confident in preaching about generosity.

For weekly inspiration direct to your inbox our inbox, please register here

Please use these shortcuts to get to the month you are looking for:

January 2024
 
Sunday 7 January 2024.  Baptism of Christ.  Acts 19.1-7.

How can we freely share the gift of life in God’s Spirit with the world?

‘We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’

Can you imagine the shock on St Paul’s face when the Ephesians said this? These people were Christians, but they hadn’t even heard of the Holy Spirit! 

Their problem was that they were stuck with just the first part of the Christian message.  Remember John the Baptist’s words: ‘I baptise with water for repentance, but one will come who will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’  This new baptism is not just about repentance but is also the gift of new life in the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus freely gives this gift to his disciples and Paul shares it with the Ephesians.

Having been given the gift of new life in the Spirit, the starting point of Christian generosity is to ask ourselves: how can we freely share the gift of life in God’s Spirit with the world?

Joshua Townson is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Oxford.

Sunday 7 January 2024.  Epiphany.  Psalm 72.1-15

An opportunity to look at our lives and the gifts we have been given.

In the rhythm of our life as a church, the autumn term comes to us as a gift in the form of our Stewardship (Generosity) Season. I welcome it with real joy because it gives us an opportunity to regroup as disciples of Jesus and to have a kind of spiritual MOT. An opportunity to look at our lives and the gifts we have been given; We take time to ask:

Lord what is your purpose for me now?

What will you have me do with the time that I have?

What will you have me to do with the gifts you've given me?

What will you have me do with the money you've given me?

What is it about my presence in this place that you want to use for the advancement of your Kingdom?

It’s not surprising that this is the lens through which I read this Psalm. I see here a declaration of the kingship of the Messiah. The meditation of my heart can only be: may he reign forever, and Lord start with me. 

Long may he live!
May gold from Sheba be given him.
May people ever pray for him
and bless him all day long. Psalm 72.15

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

Sunday 14 January 2024. 2nd Sunday of Epiphany. 1 Samuel 3.1-10 [11-20].

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to hand over ‘our’ ministry – but it can have far reaching effects.

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to hand over ‘our’ ministry to someone new and untried. Can you imagine what went through Eli’s mind, when he realised that God was calling – not to him, the priest – but to Samuel, a young lad who ‘did not yet know the Lord’?

In a time when ‘the word of the Lord was rare’ in the land of Israel, Eli could easily have been tempted to keep his knowledge of God to himself. He could have begrudged young Samuel his call from the Lord, nursing resentment that his own sons had been rejected from serving as priests because of their bad behaviour. Eli could have told Samuel to be quiet and go back to sleep, holding on to the things of God for himself and his sons – scoundrels though they were.

But he didn’t. 

Instead, he taught Samuel how to respond to the voice of the Lord: ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ So the word of the Lord came to Samuel; and through him, to all Israel. 

It takes a certain generosity of spirit to hand over ‘our’ ministry – but it can have far reaching effects. 


Rev. Dr Miriam Bier Hinksman is a curate in the diocese of Canterbury. She has written an academic tome on Lamentations, as well as Reading Hosea: A Beginner’s Guide, available here: https://grovebooks.co.uk/collections/biblical/products/b-108-reading-hosea-a-beginner-s-guide 

Sunday 21 January 2024.  3rd Sunday of Epiphany.  Revelation 19.6-10

Spread the generous invitation with others.

One of the images that runs throughout the Bible is that of a wedding. That may well be why the first of the signs in John’s Gospel is set at a wedding.

Weddings are wonderful, but not if you are left out. Yet in Revelation an angel says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb”.

You are invited. Not just to the wedding of the year. The biggest of royal or celebrity weddings has nothing on this.

This is what all history has been working towards. And you are invited.

And not just a guest to stand at the back and gawp at the bride’s dress. You are invited as a part of the bride. And you are called to go spread that generous invitation with others.

What could you do, what could you give to share that invitation?


Tim Edwards is Rector in the Benefice of Knockholt with Halstead in the Diocese of Rochester. .

Sunday 28 January 2024.  Presentation of Christ in the Temple.  Luke 2.22-40.

Trust that God will fulfil his promise to care for us

Simeon is often portrayed as an old man. He’d waited his whole life for the fulfilment of the promise God had made to him, that he wouldn’t die before seeing the Messiah.

Can you imagine how he felt holding Jesus in his arms? Can you see the tears on his cheeks as his faith is finally rewarded?

Simeon’s generosity is expressed through his trust in God’s promises. He gave his whole life in service to God, trusting that he would see the Messiah with his own eyes.

Sometimes when we are asked to give, fear can hold us back because we’re worried we won’t have enough, but Jesus promises us that he will always care for us, even when life is difficult.

Giving away our material possessions, including money, can be an expression of a generous-hearted trust that God will fulfil his promise to care for us.


Joshua Townson is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Oxford

Sunday 28 January 2024.  Presentation of Christ in the Temple.  Psalm 24.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.

The first part of Psalm 24 celebrates God’s power over the cosmos and the world – the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The second celebrates the temple as the microcosm of the entire universe. The worshipper ascends to worship in an attitude of awe and reverence towards God, preparing their heart and life to enter the sanctuary.

Yet they are assured at the same time that the one who truly seeks the LORD will receive good things, blessing, from God. The third part dramatizes God’s victorious entrance or advent into the temple.

As Christians we know that Jesus has come as the temple and centre of gravity of the universe, the place where we can meet with God in trust and without fear. 

What a fitting Psalm for reflections on generosity. It is fuel for our prayers that each time we go out into the temple of creation, we live and work for Jesus’ final coming as the glorious king of the nations. This involves the giving of our lives in worship of the One who gave it all in the first place.

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

February 2024
 
Sunday 4 February 2024. 2nd Sunday before Lent. Psalm 104.26-end.

Faced with a creative, playful God, how can we not rejoice and sing God’s praise?

If you can possibly squeeze in the entire psalm – do! But if not, you at least need to begin at verse 24 for the rest to make sense: 

‘O Lord, how manifold are your works! 
In wisdom you have made them all; 
the earth is full of your creatures.’

The picture is of a world teeming with life, all of which is created and sustained by God. 

God gives to all creatures with an open hand, but one is singled out for special attention: the sea monster, Leviathan. You could have a lot of fun with this in an all-age service. Try flipping to Job 41 and drawing Leviathan from the description. What is Leviathan meant to be? A dinosaur? The Loch Ness monster? 

Then notice this: in the psalm, Leviathan is formed to play in the sea. That’s it. This great sea creature is just for fun! 

God creates and sustains all life, yes. But God does not just give the bare necessities of life, God also gives the delights – the fun, the playfulness, and the joy.

Faced with such a creative, playful God, how can we not rejoice and sing God’s praise?

Rev. Dr Miriam Bier Hinksman is a curate in the diocese of Canterbury. She has written an academic tome on Lamentations, as well as Reading Hosea: A Beginner’s Guide, available here: https://grovebooks.co.uk/collections/biblical/products/b-108-reading-hosea-a-beginner-s-guide.

Sunday 11 February 2024.  Sunday next before Lent.  2 Corinthians 4.3-6.

God who created light in the beginning still shines light into people’s hearts.

Paul writes that our gospel message is ‘veiled’ to people.  

Doesn’t it just feel like that?  

We share something about the Lord Jesus that seems so clear, so compelling, and our friends or family members just don’t get it.

If it were just that they didn’t see why we are into something, like a love of bagpipe music, that would be their loss, but not especially serious.

But those to whom the gospel is veiled are ‘those who are perishing’. Not seeing the beauty, the splendour, the glory of Jesus has eternal consequences.

Happily, God who created light in the beginning still shines light into people’s hearts, as he did for us.

He does that as we clearly and simply share the message of Jesus and lay down our lives for others.

How can you do that this week? And for whom will you be praying that they will see God shining a light into their hearts?

Tim Edwards is Rector in the Benefice of Knockholt with Halstead in the Diocese of Rochester.

Sunday 18 February 2024.  1st Sunday of Lent.  Psalm 25.1-9.

When we share, we work together to show Christ to the world and express his love.

‘To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.  O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame.’

This psalm is soul-wrenching; imagine David filled with fear, his enemies closing in, having nowhere else to turn except to God. He breaks down and simply prays ‘I know you love me Lord. Help me!’

What a beautiful expression of hope in the face of fear! This is what the church offers to our broken world. The church – the Body of Christ – is Jesus’ representative on earth and he calls us to hear the cries of those in despair and to generously offer them the hope of God’s love.

Giving to church is about enabling this response. We share what we have as individuals with our church community so that we can work together to show Christ to the world and collectively express his love.

Joshua Townson is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Oxford.

Sunday 25 February 2024.  2nd Sunday of Lent.  Psalm 22.23-31.

We allow the sovereign Lord to shape us into open-handed people.

You can’t escape the recurring theme of the sovereignty of God in the Psalms of the day for the last couple of weeks. Today is no different. For dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. There will come a time when all peoples and all nations will acknowledge this.

There is an underlying invitation for us to line up with his rule. Honour him! Revere him! Be a part of his open-handedness towards all he has created. Today, as we reflect on the call to generous living, to hear the call to remember the poor. What a wonderful vision captured in one little phrase: The poor will eat and be satisfied.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, around one in five in the South East are currently living in poverty - that's 1.9 million people behind this statistic, in our churches, and in our communities. As we allow the sovereign Lord to shape us into open-handed people, we will be caught up in the sweeping story of his reign and our lives will praise him. 

The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

March 2024
 
Sunday 3 March 2024. 3rd Sunday of Lent. John 2.13-22.

Through Jesus Christ, everything essential has already been given to us.

‘Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’

How many of us will admit to being essentially selfish? It’s not easy, sometimes, to acknowledge that our motives for coming to church, or serving God, can be mixed. At our services there can be a whole lot going on that is not just to do with preaching and living out the gospel. There can also be an element of what’s in it for me?

The animals being sold in the temple were needed for the Passover sacrifices. Moneychangers were needed for coins from faraway places to be exchanged. All this was necessary for the proper sacrifices to be made in worship. But somewhere along the line, all this buying and selling activity had become a profit-making exercise, with the buyers and sellers forgetting that the whole point of it all was worship.

Through Jesus Christ, everything essential has already been given to us. Why, then, do we feel the need to turn our acts of worship and service into opportunities for personal gain? 

As long as we are human, our motives will be mixed. But let us remind ourselves, again, that Jesus has turned the tables, and turned the world upside down.


Rev. Dr Miriam Bier Hinksman is a curate in the diocese of Canterbury. She has written an academic tome on Lamentations, as well as Reading Hosea: A Beginner’s Guide, available here: https://grovebooks.co.uk/collections/biblical/products/b-108-reading-hosea-a-beginner-s-guide.

Sunday 10 March 2024.  4th Sunday of Lent.  John 3.14-21.

God gives his Son, the only eternal Son, whom the Father has loved for eternity.

John 3:16 is the most famous verse in the Bible.

It highlights three things about God’s generous love:

Whom does God love? The world. The emphasis is not on the breadth of the world, or its beauty, but where things have gone wrong. The world is ‘us’ as we reject God and his good rule.

How does God love? He gives – not flowers or kind thoughts – he gives his Son, the only eternal Son, whom the Father has loved for eternity.

How to receive this love? Everyone (every single person – including those who think this could never include them) who believes, who grasps who Jesus is, is not condemned (no matter what anyone may have done), but receives life.

The most important thing is to see God’s love – we are than changed to share and show that love – but it starts with receiving it for ourselves.  

Do we know this love?

Tim Edwards is Rector in the Benefice of Knockholt with Halstead in the Diocese of Rochester.

Sunday 17 March 2024.  5th Sunday of Lent. Psalm 51.1-13

Let your light shine before others.

David, having asked God to renew his heart, shares a hope that by what he does, people who’ve fallen away from God will return to him.  Remember Jesus’ words: ‘let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.’  By what we do we show people what it means to have a relationship with God, which is why we are called to be generous – so that we can be reflections of the Father’s generosity to the world.

Being a Christian is not something we do alone, though, but as members of the church, the ‘Body of Christ.’  When we give our money and time to church we commit to working together to build up our Christian family so that, as a community, we can show the world what it means to have a relationship with God through faith. 

Joshua Townson is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Oxford.

Sunday 24 March 2024.  Psalm 118.19-29 – Liturgy of the Palms.

Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf enables our salvation.

Christ has opened a way for us, enabling us to enter the gates of the righteous. His sacrifice has won him the label, a ‘man of sorrows who is acquainted with grief.’ He took upon himself our pain and bore our suffering. As Isaiah puts it: 

He was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

This sacrifice on our behalf made him our chief cornerstone as Christ became our salvation. As we reflect on generosity through the lens of this Psalm – the sacrifice of the rejected one brings to mind the words of the great hymn:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were a present far too small.
Love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

The one who is the gate to righteousness invites us to mirror his generosity in our own lives. The invitation to walk the way of righteousness is an invitation to a life of self-giving love.

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

Sunday 24 March 2024.  Palm Sunday.  Psalm 31.9-16 – Liturgy of the Passion 

Generosity, is an act of defiant hope, declaring our trust in God through thick and thin.

Our Stewardship (Generosity) Season in 2022 was buffeted by the gathering storm of the ‘cost of living crisis’. At the time we were uncertain about how fuel bills were going to affect us, as individuals and as a church. It felt counter-intuitive to be talking about generosity at a time of such great uncertainty. We felt the call to generosity, though, was prophetic in assuring us that it was not the time to hunker down. It was a time to ‘lengthen our stride and widen our embrace’ (1 Chronicles 11.9 Message). We were able to heed this call because we knew in whom we had believed.  

 

The Psalmist is mired in his own crisis. He cries out to the Lord in his distress, not mincing his words. I have become like broken pottery, he says.  Such a vivid image of a shattered life. In the end, when all is said and done, his very real troubles do not extinguish his trust in God. More and more, I am convinced that Christian Stewardship, with its inbuilt call to generosity, is an act of defiant hope, declaring our trust in God through thick and thin.

But I trust in you, Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hands;

Esther Prior is the vicar of St John’s, Egham, vice-chair of Church Pastoral Aid Society Patronage Trustees, serves on General Synod as Pro-Prolocutor and the Crown Nominations Commission.  She is a contributor to God’s Church for God’s World:  Faithful Perspectives on Mission and Ministry, published by IVP.

Sunday 31 March 2024. Easter Day. Isaiah 25.6-9 and Acts 10.34-43.  

God’s incomparable love goes out to the ends of the earth.

Who is salvation for? 

For whom will the Lord set a table groaning with rich food and well-matured wine?

Who will benefit from the destruction of death, that we celebrate on this resurrection day?

One word rings out from the Isaiah reading today – all. 

All peoples and all nations.

From the women who first witnessed the empty tomb, the message of God’s incomparable love continues to go out to the ends of the earth.

And so it is that the apostle Peter is able to say, ‘All the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sin through his name’ (Acts 10.43). 

How will all the people who come through the doors of your church today know that God’s forgiveness and salvation is also for them?

Rev. Dr Miriam Bier Hinksman is a curate in the diocese of Canterbury. She has written an academic tome on Lamentations, as well as Reading Hosea: A Beginner’s Guide, available here: https://grovebooks.co.uk/collections/biblical/products/b-108-reading-hosea-a-beginner-s-guide

April 2024
 
Sunday 7 April 2024.  Easter 2.  John 20.19-end

Can we believe, even when we can’t see?

What does it mean to believe?  With religion there can be an assumption that we believe without any actual evidence.  In this reading, Thomas wants to see the evidence.  He isn’t prepared to take anybody else’s word for it.  He didn’t believe till he saw Jesus. He didn’t trust the word of the disciples.  Why didn’t he believe them? Why didn’t he trust them? Trust is risky. When we trust someone, we open ourselves up, make ourselves vulnerable.  And that can be scary.  It is easier to doubt – to be sceptical.  But in that vulnerability is a generosity in which we are giving ourselves to others.

Thomas believed in the end, and that belief allowed him to be generous. Thomas trusted in God, made himself vulnerable and committed to Christ. He spent the rest of his life preaching and baptising. He went as far as Kerala in the South of India. Thomas’s name is ubiquitous in Kerala.  His “yes” to God has echoed down the centuries.

How does the story of Thomas speak to you about belief? Doubt? Trust? How do you feel about risk? Do you believe that all things are possible for those who believe?  Are you willing, like Thomas to become vulnerable and commit to Christ?

Liz Mullins is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Rochester

Sunday 14 April 2024.  Easter 3.  Zephaniah 3.14-end

God has brought joy and abundance.

This passage is awash with joy, excitement generosity and hope.  Have a look at the language:  ‘sing aloud’, ‘rejoice and exult’, ‘he has turned away your enemies’, ‘he will renew you in his love’.
 
If you look further back to the first two chapters of Zephaniah though, this joy has come out of times of trouble and difficulty:  ‘I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth declares the Lord’. 1:2;  ‘I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem’.1:4

A generous God has forgiven, has brought his people together and given hope.  Disaster has gone, shame becomes praise, God will bring the people home and restore their fortunes.

These words speak of abundance; of plenty.  Too often in our churches we have a mindset of scarcity.  There isn’t enough money.   There aren’t enough volunteers.  Anything we have needs to be saved for a rainy day. Everything’s a mess.   But as we trust God and believe in a generous God who provides, then this narrative is turned upside down and we are freed to be joyful, to exult and to be generous.

Liz Mullins is Generous Giving Adviser in the Diocese of Rochester

Sunday 21 April 2024.  Easter 4.  Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 23, I John 3:16-24

Jesus is the driving forces behind our sacrificial giving, even when our resources are lacking.

Why do we give to others? Why do we extend generosity to family and friends? What compels us?
"...By what power or what name did you do this?" (Acts 4:7)
“know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (Acts 4:10)

One name—JESUS—is the driving force behind our sacrificial giving, even when our own resources may seem lacking.
Each day can feel like it begins with a deficit—a lengthy list of tasks to complete and sometimes I have procrastinated and deferred responsibilities to the next day.  I rely though on the Holy Spirit to guide and support me through the trials of each day. Often, something simple or significant occurs, which we might overlook if we are not attuned to God. When we recognize that Jesus is wanting to be part of our day, we can find ourselves ending the day with unexpected acts of kindness from others. I am deeply moved when this generosity comes from the most surprising places.  Lord, what have I done to deserve your grace and mercy? Psalm 23:6 reassures us, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."


Therefore, with a heart overflowing with gratitude for the undeserved favour I receive, I turn outward to others. This is how we grasp the true essence of love: Jesus Christ sacrificed His life for us, and in return, we sacrifice for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16).

Busola Sodiende is founder of Bearings Point Media, a digital publishing media firm working in partnership with bloggers, influencers and creators, and @dyshmedia.  She is a Church Commissioner for England and a member of the PCC at Holy Trinity Brompton.

Sunday 28 April 2024.  Easter 5.  Genesis 22:1-18

God will provide for us beyond our imagination.

The sacrifice which God demands from Abraham seems exceedingly cruel, and Abraham’s journey to Moriah utterly agonising. Is God not the LORD of the covenant, after all – promising to create abundance out of the ‘nothing’ of Abraham’s and Sarah’s childlessness? Is God taking it all back again, just like the other gods?


Reading the story in the light of Easter doesn’t make things any easier, with new tough questions emerging: if the ram provided by God is a type for Christ, the ultimate sacrificial Lamb offered for our sake, doesn’t that just take the cruelty of the story to a new level? And why does God demand this sacrifice in the first place?


Fortunately, the Scriptures contain many other stories with which to tackle such questions. Meanwhile, as we read this story, we may hold on to the conclusion which Abraham himself reaches, as he names the place where he was put to the test: ‘The LORD Will Provide’. God is the same after all – the LORD of the covenant, standing by his promise of offspring as abundant as the stars. There is nothing God needs from us, whereas God will provide for us beyond our imagination.

Dr Guido de Graaff is Tutor for Christian Doctrine and Ethics and Director of Studies at St Augustine’s College of Theology. His doctoral thesis was published as Politics in Friendship (T&T Clark, 2014). Other research interests include Dietrich Bonhoeffer – in particular the theme of vicarious representation in his theology and ethics – and environmental theology.

May 2024
 
Sunday 5 May 2024.  Easter 6.  Acts 10:44-end. 

Welcome generously

What does it mean to be a diligent disciple? For those hosting Peter, their diligence required circumcision to physically mark out the depth and extent of their commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Imagine their shock, then, when the Holy Spirit shows up for everyone, including those who are definitely uncircumcised. The text does not linger on their responses as the silence moves us quickly to Peter’s words: an abundant welcome through baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. That welcome enables the faithful disciples to move beyond division, discrimination or prejudice that can create a culture of us and them. No longer does the text distinguish between the circumcised and uncircumcised believers when they invite Peter to stay. The generosity of welcome transforms this emerging community and builds a shared recognition that honouring the love of God is most important thing: they demonstrate the practice of loving one another, as well as loving Peter, the stranger amongst them. This powerful account of the arrival of the Holy Spirit challenges our preconceptions about how and with whom God can, and does, work. May we be encouraged to open ourselves up to welcome anew God’s abundant, generosity and fellowship.

Dr Jo Henderson-Merrygold  is Director, Centre for Discipleship and Theology at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

Sunday 12 May 2024.  Easter 7.  Acts 1:13-17,21-end. Psalm 1.

Abundance looks outwards and is generous with time, care and attention.

Acts 1.  It may be relatively easy for us to imagine Jesus moving around with a group of twelve men following along, it’s a bit of a crowd but somehow manageable.  However, we know from the Gospels that he was frequently accompanied by far more, for example numerous women or the group of 72 etc. Here we have the names of two who were with Jesus throughout his ministry from his baptism through to his death and resurrection.

To say that Jesus gave generously of Himself is an absurd understatement, but I wonder whether we even consider what that looked like in his daily life.  In a society where we value our privacy and personal space, especially since Covid, this might seem very challenging, but how willing are we to share our lives in order to disciple others?  Shared meals?  Shared knowledge?  Shared time and space?

According to Ps 1, those whose roots go deep into the things of God, whose hearts are set on Him, will be fruitful (v. 3).  That sense of abundance is not necessarily of material things but of a deeply rooted character that is outward looking and generous to others in time, care and attention.  The kind of person we all want to hang out with, in fact, a person a bit like Jesus.

Margaret Wooding Jones is a Licensed Lay Minister. As well as serving in her local parishes, she works with the Spirituality Network in Rochester Diocese and regularly leads Quiet Retreats and training days.  She is hoping to publish a book shortly.

Sunday 19 May 2024. Pentecost.  Acts 2:1-21, Ezekiel 37:1-14

We reach out to embrace the stranger.

"And it will come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21).
I reminisce, even as early as five years old, nestled beneath my blankets, gripped by the fear of the night's darkness, reaching out to God, imploring for His comforting presence with me. Throughout my teenage years, I drifted away from God, gradually distancing myself until it became painfully apparent that I was slipping into despair. In my desperation, I cried out, "Lord, if you are there, please come and rescue me." The book of Ezekiel serves as a poignant reminder of how the prophet of God spoke and prophesied for dry bones to spring back to life. Similarly, my own journey of renewal commenced in a gentle, gradual manner. I discovered solace within a nurturing small group where mutual support and uplifting prevailed. The pivotal decision to immerse myself in a community of faith marked a profound turning point. Four decades have elapsed since then, yet akin to a child, I still find myself calling out, "Lord, help me."


Consider the community around you and within your church. Is there anyone who feels adrift, yearning for fellowship? How can we embody the compassionate hands and feet of Jesus, reaching out to embrace the stranger and uniting in harmony to strengthen their faith in Jesus?

Busola Sodiende is founder of Bearings Point Media, a digital publishing media firm working in partnership with bloggers, influencers and creators, and @dyshmedia.  She is a Church Commissioner for England and a member of the PCC at Holy Trinity Brompton.

Sunday 26 May 2024.  Trinity Sunday.  Romans 8:12-17

To live by the Spirit is to be liberated from scarcity and fear.

To live according to the flesh is to live by the desires of the flesh. That sounds like a tautology, but it contains an important point: flesh is self-absorbed. Flesh is a creature tempted to think they can be ‘like God’. But to give in to this delusion, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer points out, is to cut oneself off from divine grace which sustains all of creation. Flesh, then, is a creature condemned to survive on its own resources, with other creatures reduced to the status of competitor, threat or environment to be exploited.
To live according to the flesh, then, is to live in fear: fear of scarcity, fear of others, fear of death – and ultimately fear of God, who will not let flesh go on living in its self-absorbed state forever.


But when God calls us to account, it is in order that we might live once again as the creatures God intends us to be. To live by the Spirit is to be liberated from scarcity and fear and united with Christ. Led by the Spirit, we are no longer deluding ourselves we are ‘like God’, but instead are made ‘heirs of God’ – sharing in everything that is Christ’s.

Dr Guido de Graaff is Tutor for Christian Doctrine and Ethics and Director of Studies at St Augustine’s College of Theology. His doctoral thesis was published as Politics in Friendship (T&T Clark, 2014). Other research interests include Dietrich Bonhoeffer – in particular the theme of vicarious representation in his theology and ethics – and environmental theology.

June 2024
 
Sunday 2 June 2024.  Trinity 1.  1 Samuel 3.1-10 [11-20]

Generosity of Response. Are we open to God’s word speaking to us today?

The Word of God is to be treasured, whether whispered at night in unrecognizable ways or hidden in clay jars. It is likely to surprise and confound, especially when the presence of God seems distant or rarely recognized. To read, even in Samuel’s call which is a story familiar to many, that the Word of God was rare can offer us reassurance that God’s call to us warrants something remarkable in our own responses. Jesus himself reminds us that our responses need not be bound by what our friends, peers, colleagues, or those whose respect we value (or want to respect) think is acceptable. Eli could so easily have responded with harshness to Samuel’s unknowing persistence just as Jesus is met with condemnation and shaming for transgressing the conventions around honouring the sabbath.  Some things, though, are more important than the human rules and expectations we carry. So, the questions for each one of us remain, are we open to God’s word speaking to and through us today, and what human-made boundaries are we willing to transcend in order to honour that vision? 

Dr Jo Henderson-Merrygold  is Director, Centre for Discipleship and Theology at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

Sunday 9 June 2024.  Trinity 2.  Mark 3:20-end

God’s generosity brings all of us into a family of faith.

Families come in all shapes and sizes with such a mixture of relationships, some are good, life-giving and nourishing, others can be painful, disappointing and a source of anxiety, hurt and shame.  Most lay somewhere in the middle.

In this account from Mark we see Mary’s mother-heart coming to care for her son whom she perceives as being over-wrought and harassed by religious authorities.  She brings along her other sons for additional support.

Jesus’ response to her care is, at first sight, somewhat startling (vv. 33,34). Was He really casting Mary and His brothers aside, or was He demonstrating the reconciling power of love and a depth of care and compassion that those who follow Him are capable of extending to one another?  Far from ignoring their care, Jesus is generously including those who are close to Him and in relationship with Him into His own family.  God’s gift to His people does not diminish our natural, familial relationships, it enhances them, but it also sets each one of us, no matter how alone or lonely, within a family of faith.  If you saw yourself as a brother/sister, father/mother to members of your church, what might change?

Margaret Wooding Jones is a Licensed Lay Minister. As well as serving in her local parishes, she works with the Spirituality Network in Rochester Diocese and regularly leads Quiet Retreats and training days.  She is hoping to publish a book shortly.

 

More content will be uploaded as it becomes available.

 


Key Contacts

Liz Mullins

Generous Giving Adviser

Get in touch

 

 
Privacy Notice | Powered by Church Edit