Giving from our gifts

Preached at St Michael’s, Solihull, meeting in Sharmans Cross School.

10.30am Eucharist on Sunday 1^st January 2009

Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemass)

Readings: Malachi 3: 1-5 Hebrews 2: 14-18 Luke 2: 22-40

Last week I was talking to a lady, and she was experiencing panic in her household because 31^st January was the last date for submission of an on-line self assessment tax return. Well today is 1^st February, so I hope that they got the job done and can now relax. This got me thinking about tax. I don’t know about you, but I always used to think that it was very strange that people who worked for the government had to pay tax. I used to think it would make much more sense to pay government employees smaller salaries, but to pay them tax free. Would this not save all kinds of administrative costs involved in paying out money and then taxing it back in again? But as I have got older I have come to understand the wisdom of everyone paying tax. There are many administrative advantages, but it seems to me that the biggest single advantage is that government employees share in the experience of being a taxpayer. If taxes go up, because of some government policy, then they share the pain with everyone else. If taxes go down they share the benefit. If some mess up in government wastes a lot of tax payers money, then government employees are likely to be just as annoyed and frustrated by it as any other tax payer. So the additional circulation of money caused by paying government employees and then charging them tax ensures government employees and the rest of us have a shared experience of being tax payers. This common experience of paying tax helps us to understand one another. It helps the nation to build a common mind on the way that government money should be spent. In its own small way it helps us to build unity in the nation.

And we have a similar situation in our financial giving to the church. There are people, like me, who work for the church and are paid by the church, but we also give money to the church. Just like everyone else in the congregation we have to sit up and take notice when the church asks us to review our giving and perhaps to give more. So church employees face the same challenges on giving as other members of the congregation. And this additional circulation of gifts in the life of the church gives us a shared experience of giving. This helps us to understand each other and to build unity in the church.

This pattern of giving from the gifts that we have received is also evident in the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, which we heard about in our gospel reading today. God had given to Mary the huge gift of the baby Jesus, and yet Mary still went to the temple to present her baby back to God, because the law said that, “every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord.”

Mary and Joseph knew that Jesus was the Son of God. So they knew that the whole temple, and all its officials which exist for the worship and glory of God, also exist in a certain way for the worship and glory of Jesus. And yet this did not prevent them from making the sacrifice required by the law, “a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons.” In fact we are told that Mary and Joseph did everything that was required by the law of the Lord before they returned to Galilee.

So even though the Holy Family received very special gifts from God, given to them for very particular purposes, they still felt the need to give gifts back to God. And so we see a circulation of gifts a bit like the circulation caused by government employees paying taxes, or church employees giving money to the church.

And this pattern of receiving gifts and then giving back goes very deep. It is central to the life of God himself. God the Father gives everything to Jesus. In Ephesians (1: 21) we read that the God has set Jesus far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and … has put all things under his feet and has made him head over all things. And yet Jesus too gives everything to the Father. In Gethsemane Jesus is reluctant to drink the cup of poison, but he realises, deep within him, the need to do God’s will, not his own. It costs him everything; his human body dies. God the Father receives this gift of everything from his son, but then he has more gifts for Jesus, beginning with the gift of the resurrection from the dead, and our salvation. And the result of this total self giving is the perfect unity that we see in the Holy Trinity. As Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14: 10-11).

As Christians we are called to share in the glory and holiness of this life of God, this divine life of heaven (e.g. 2 Th 2:14, Heb 3: 1,14). To prepare for this sharing we need to practice giving and receiving. Let’s be generous givers! We know that we brought nothing into the world. All that we have is God’s gift to us, either directly or indirectly. We also know that we will take nothing out of the world when we die, so ultimately everything that we have must be given away or lost.

Let’s give then, not just money, but of time, attention, talents and prayers. And let’s not be ashamed to receive gifts or love or attention from others, because these enrich us and allow us in turn to give more. All this giving helps goods, and money and news and experiences to circulate within the life of the church, and within the life of the wider community. This helps to build up a common life, a shared understanding. It leads to a sense of belonging and cohesiveness in the community, and it leads to unity in the church. Unity! This is perhaps God’s greatest gift to us, but we can only receive it when we are giving ourselves completely to one another.