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.

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2025
January 2025
 
Sunday 5 January 2025. Christmas 2/Epiphany.  Ephesians 1:3-14. Use this version is Epiphany is being celebrated on 6 Jan

Being faithful to the Gospel means living a life that is about giving in all its forms.

The Ephesians reading spells out our life in Christ as 'a plan for the fullness of time', as if it is a financial plan, but one that has us secure not just until we die, but for eternity.
We all might try different things to prepare for our own financial futures, maybe thrift, or a savings account, or an investment if we are able, because we recognise the challenges of retiring without much to live on. If we're lucky, we may also benefit from an inheritance from our parents or someone else who has cared about us and considers us worthy of their financial blessing.

As it happens, the letter to the Ephesians tells us that we are all fortunate enough to have 'obtained an inheritance'.  But this particular inheritance is a spiritual one that we have 'in Christ', as part of his 'plan for the fulness of time' for us, as we 'gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth'.  

As we hear ‘the message of truth’ so we become included in Christ who is our good news.  And when we believe in Christ we are marked with the Holy Spirit which, we are told, is like a deposit or down-payment, a guarantee of our inheritance from God.  And so as we live our life in Christ we remain faithful to the Gospel, and doing this involves living a life that is about giving in all its forms.

Michael Mullins is a former editor of online magazine, Eureka Street for the Australian Jesuits.  He lives in Sydney and Paris.

Sunday 12 January 2025.  Baptism of Christ (Epiphany 1).  Acts 8.14-17
Sunday 19 January 2025. Epiphany 2.  1 Corinthians 12.1–11
Sunday 26 January 2025.  Epiphany 3,  Nehemiah 8.1-3, 5-6, 8-10
February 2025
 
Sunday 2 February 2025.  Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas).  Luke 2:22-40.

A gifted child gives flesh to a message which becomes the Christian Gospel.

The Presentation of Christ in the Temple stands out as one of the most recognised episodes in the Gospel of Luke.  The Feast of Candlemas and the associated procession with lighted candles reflects Simeon's proclamation of 'a light for revelation to the gentiles'.  Simeon's eyes saw salvation and the child's parents were amazed that so much was being put upon their young son.  They marvelled at what was being said to him. Maybe not wholly understanding all that it meant, they held on to the words and returned to their home town of Nazareth in Galilee, to bring up the child in their ordinary circumstances.

The last verse of this reading is perhaps the most poignant, for how little yet how much it says about Jesus' formation: 'The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favour of God was upon him.'  A gifted child! Indeed there was clearly a sense of propitiousness in the Nazareth air that endowed the child with what it took for him to give flesh to the message that became known as the Christian Gospel.  He was able to endow his community, that became the Church, with a certain generosity that was to become one of its defining characteristics.

Michael Mullins is a former editor of online magazine, Eureka Street for the Australian Jesuits.  He lives in Sydney and Paris.

Sunday 9 February 2025.  4 before Lent.  Luke 5.1-11
Sunday 16 February 2025. 3 before Lent.  Jeremiah 17.5–10
Sunday 23 February 2025.  2 before Lent.  Luke 8.22-25
March 2025
 
Sunday 2 March 2025.  Sunday next before Lent.  Exodus 34.29-end.

We are invited to stop striving and to open our hearts in gratitude.

'The skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.' Moses was transfigured.
Have you ever had an experience that has left you feeling like you were glowing? Maybe you have seen this with other people?  It can seem to happen at very special moments in our lives, when we experience something out of the ordinary.  Perhaps you have experienced such a moment when you were talking with God, that it felt completely extraordinary, a moment of transcendence.
Often when a moment like that occurs it is not something we had planned. It just happened.  We couldn’t explain it.  But because it is something that leaps out of the everyday we can’t manufacture it or will it into existence. If we seek transcendence it’s not likely that it will happen. And this can mean that often when we pray we are not overwhelmed like Moses was and we don’t appear from our quiet times with faces glowing so much that we need to cover them in front of others. Trying harder to create it by ourselves doesn’t work. Instead, we are invited to stop striving and simply to open our hearts in gratitude so that we can receive the consolation of the Lord.  And as we receive all that God has for us, so we are transformed by him as he creates in us a generous spirit.

Michael Mullins is a former editor of online magazine, Eureka Street for the Australian Jesuits.  He lives in Sydney and Paris.

Sunday 9 March 2025.  Lent 1.  Deuteronomy 26.1-11
Sunday 16 March 2025. Lent 2. Philippians 3.17—4.1
Sunday 23 March 2025.  Lent 3.  Luke 13.1-9
Sunday 30 March 2025.  Lent 4 . Joshua 5.9-12
April 2025
 
Sunday 6 April 2025.  Lent 5.  John 12:1-8

Let Your Love for Jesus Shine Through Your Generosity

God embodies love and generosity and today’s Gospel reading illustrates love through generosity. Mary exemplifies giving to Jesus unreservedly, sacrificially, and intentionally.
Mary's love is beautiful yet costly. She pours a pound of pure nard, an expensive perfume, on Jesus' feet and wipes them with her hair. The Bible highlights that this gift was worth a year’s wages for a labourer. This offering powerfully demonstrates her love through its monetary value and deep personal sacrifice.

Mary’s actions challenge us in a world where generosity is often convenient. She gave remarkably, her love for Jesus surpassing material possessions. Like King David, who refused to offer God what cost him nothing (2 Samuel 24:24), Mary recognised that true love for God requires sacrificing meaningfully.

We observe a ripple effect of Mary's generosity, as Jesus states that wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, her story will be shared as a reminder of her love and sacrifice (Matthew 26:13; Mark 14:9). Little did Mary know that her act of devotion would inspire believers for centuries to come.

Mary’s example prompts us to consider showing love for Jesus through generosity. Generosity isn't limited to money though, it can be expressed in various ways: offering our time to mentor others, volunteering for causes or simply showing kindness and compassion to those in need. Like Mary, we are called to give ourselves in ways that reflect our love for Jesus.

Kina Robertshaw is the Rector of the Benefice of Highley, including Billingsley, Glazeley, Deuxhill, and Chelmarsh in the Diocese of Hereford.  Before ordination, Kina was a fashion entrepreneur in Johannesburg and Lusaka. She trained at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, where her research on Christian entrepreneurs led to the co-authored book A Voice to be Heard and the Conversations with Christian Entrepreneurs series.

Sunday 13 April 2025.  Palm Sunday.  Luke 19.28–40. 
Sunday 20 April 2025.  Easter Day.  Acts 10.34-43
Sunday 27 April 2025.  Easter 2.  Revelation 1:4-8
May 2025
 
Sunday 4 May 2025.  Easter 3.  Acts 9.1–6 [7–20].

Can we be generous with our forgiveness?

The story of Paul on Damascus Road is so well-known, it is easy to miss quite how extraordinary it is. Yes, there is the great light from heaven, and the disembodied voice. That is impressive. But what about ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’. God is reaching out to Paul – not with judgement, or condemnation. God is reaching out with complete, free, overwhelming grace – and what’s more, this grace is extended to the one who persecutes the Body of Christ, the Church, hence Christ himself.

How staggering is the generosity of grace here? When we speak of generosity, it is easy to speak first about things, then about time. It is much harder to be generous with what we hold close: the hurts we nurse, the resentments, the still-broken parts that we do not want to expose to God’s light. It is easy to think it completely unreasonable of God to ask us to be generous with our forgiveness, with the gift of grace that God has offered the world. And yet, this is what God himself models here: grace for Saul, the man who persecutes Christians, the man responsible for the death of others, a man secure in his own righteousness, who was not seeking forgiveness or acknowledging his wrongs.

There is no generosity in our lives that does not start with the generosity of God towards us: with grace, forgiveness, love, healing and presence. This generosity is what we are called to model, even in the most unreasonable circumstances.

Isabelle Hamley is Principal of Ridley Hall.  She has written extensively about the book of Judges, and around questions of justice, violence and otherness.  Her other strand of work is focused in particular on questions of spirituality, scripture and mental health.  She writes regularly for BRF, LICC and Church House Publishing, speaks at various events, and contributes to Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and the Daily Service.

Sunday 11 May 2025.  Easter 4.  John 10.22-30.
Sunday 18 May 2025. Easter 5.  John 13.31-35.
Sunday 25 May 2025.  Easter 6.  John 14.23–29.
June 2025
 
Sunday 1 June 2025.  Easter 7.  Acts 16.16-34

With freedom comes risk and choices need to be made.

The parallel themes of profit and loss, freedom and captivity run through today’s reading from Acts. The slave girl is a captive to her gift and its money-making power for others, who see her not as a human being but as a commodity. Something in her intuits and responds to the way in which Paul and his friends also have their choices circumscribed: she sees it as mirroring her own ‘slavery’, But she has enough freedom and ownership of her gift to focus it on Paul, even though that brings her owners no profit.

Paul frees her from captivity to her gift and to her masters but also risks losing her her livelihood. We hear no more of her, but have to wonder what it was like to rediscover herself as more than a divining rod.

Her liberation puts Paul and Silas in prison. Another bit of topsy-turvy narrative ensues. The jailer, it turns out, is so enslaved by his job that death seems to him the only option when he believes himself to have failed. Meanwhile, Paul and Silas sit peacefully in their broken chains and wait to offer freedom to their captor.

Like the slave girl, the jailer now has a troubling freedom. How will his new self deal with his old job? Paul and Silas have introduced risk into this equation of profit and loss, freedom and captivity by giving the slave girl and the jailer back to themselves. They now have decisions to make about how to live in the generous freedom they have been given.

Dr Jane Williams is the McDonald Professor in Christian Theology at St Mellitus College.

Sunday 8 June 2025.  Pentecost.  John 14.8-17.
Sunday 15 June 2025, Trinity Sunday.  Psalm 8.
Sunday 22 June 2025.  Trinity 1.  Luke 8:26-39
Sunday 29 June. Trinity 2.  Gal.5.1,13-25
July 2025
 
Sunday 6 July  Trinity 3.   Isaiah 66. 10-14, Ps 66. 1-8 Galatians 6 [1-6]7-16, Luke 10. 1-11,16-20

We prosper when we respond to the generous heart of God

There can be a temptation to think of prosperity only in terms of money, and ‘prosperity’ can have negative connotations for some.  But in God’s economy, prosperity is a sign of the breaking in of God’s presence and God’s kingdom. All around us creation prospers, in the annual harvest, but also in the renewing of what is broken or damaged. Notice how quickly weeds appear when you think you have cleared the ground. Creation prospers. We prosper when we respond to the generous heart of God, receive of God’s generosity and overflow in sharing it, like a healthy river, or with the energy the disciples had for their missional activity. Those who are close to the heart of God cannot but be generous because God is all generous. We respond to the generosity of God when our service, whatever that might be, is freely offered for the benefit of others and the glory of God.

Jane Winter is Assistant Director of Formation and Ministry in the Diocese of Rochester.
Sunday 13 July  Trinity 4. Col 1.1-14
Sunday 20 July.  Trinity 5.  Psalm 15
Sunday 27 July.  Trinity 6.  Genesis 18.20-32, Ps138, Colossians 2.6-15 [16-19], Luke 11. 1-13
August 2025
 
Sunday 3 August.  Trinity 7. Col 3. 1.-11

‘Your life is hidden with Christ in God.’

…and therefore ‘Christ is our life.’ (v 4). We are united with Christ in the way that a sponge is united with water – it’s immersed in that which at the same time flows through it. The great illusion is to think that Christ is absent and we have to go and find him. Our union with Christ doesn’t so much have to be acquired as to be recognised.
This gives us a new perspective on life. We have been raised with Christ and therefore seek the things that are above, in particular the self-giving character of Christ. If Christ is our life we’re bound to want to share and express those attractive qualities of Christ that drew us to him for ourselves – the generosity, grace, and unconditional love that in his lifetime made him so popular in Galilee, and so threatening in Jerusalem.

A new perspective, a new love.

John Pritchard is a former Bishop of Oxford and author of many popular books.

 
Sunday 10 August.  Trinity 9.  Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Sunday 17 August.  Trinity 9.  Hebrews 11:29-12:2
Sunday 24 August. Trinity 10.  Isaiah 58.9b-end, Ps 103. 1-8, Hebrews 12. 18-end, Luke 13.10-17
Sunday 28 August.  Trinity 11.   Jeremiah 2.4-13
September 2025
 
Sunday 7 September.  Trinity 12.  Luke 14.25-33

First sit down and estimate the cost

Counting the cost of a venture is a sound first step. There is a cost to discipleship, says Jesus, and it means putting Christ ahead even of family loyalties. Sometimes it will feel like carrying a cross to a seriously bad place. So count the cost before you leap in.

This has surprisingly practical implications. I remember at university my church rector teaching about giving, which to a poor student wasn’t an enticing prospect. So, he said, count the cost, think what you can afford – and then double it! That was the challenge of the gospel, not to be wise simply in a worldly way but to be wise in a heavenly way, and to trust that God would make up the difference.

Surprisingly (or not) it works!

John Pritchard is a former Bishop of Oxford and author of many popular books.

Sunday 14 September.  Trinity 13.  Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Sunday 21 September.  Trinity 14.  Amos 8. 4-7, Ps113, 1 Timothy 2.1-7, Luke 16 1-13
Sunday 28 September.  Trinity 15.  Luke 16.19-end
October 2025
 
Sunday 5 October.  Trinity 16: Luke 17. 5-10
Sunday 12 October.  Trinity 17.  Luke 17.11-19

Thankfulness overflows into generosity

Like a pool springboard above sparkling water, gratitude is the most marvellous launchpad for generosity. A heart overflowing with thankfulness will joyfully spring into thrilling cascades of generous giving.
Jesus healed ten lepers. All ten obediently beetled off for priestly inspection. Only one – who knew the additional life-long exclusion of being a despised foreigner – spun round on his clean-skinned heels once he realised that he was cleansed. Overwhelmed with gratitude, he rushed back to praise and thank Jesus. He was blessed with an even deeper healing.
Nine lives were restored to normal; one life was utterly transformed. We can only begin to grasp the extent of God’s love and blessings, but an attitude of gratitude will catalyse generosity. I’m pretty sure that the tenth man will have gone on to transform his community, launching amazing support networks for outcasts, sharing the good news of God’s Kingdom, and changing lives.

Clare Masters was Lay Minister at Bidborough, St Lawrence and Southborough, St Peter in the Diocese of Rochester.

Sunday 19 October.  Trinity 18, Luke 18.1-8
Sunday 19 October.  Trinity 18, Luke 18.1-8
Sunday 26 October.  Bible Sunday. Romans 15.1-6
November 2025
 
Sunday 2 November 2025.  4 before Advent/All Saints’ Day.  Luke 19.1-10

How do we respond to God’s generosity?

‘And all who saw it began to grumble’, there is a challenge in our Gospel reading today for all of us who have eyes to see God’s generosity at work in the lives of others. The tightly-worded description of Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus sets before us a fascinating example of an individual meeting with God’s grace and responding positively. Zacchaeus, hiding up the tree, has the hand of divine friendship held out to him as Jesus’ human hand beckons him down; ‘I must stay at your house today’. His response is true repentance, that is, he accepts the gift and then turns his life around. Zacchaeus mirrors Jesus’ generosity to him, by vowing to live as generously to others in future. But what of the crowds, and what of us? When we observe the good things that God is doing for people around us, what is our response?

Alison Fulford is Vicar of Audlem, Wybunbury and Doddington, and also Rural Dean of Nantwich in the Diocese of Chester.

Sunday 9 November. 3 before Advent.  2 Thessalonians 2.1-5, 13-end
Sunday 16 November.  2 before Advent, 2 Thessalonians 3.6-13
Sunday 23 November.  Christ the King.  Colossians 1.11-20
 

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