Giving and Mision
At the beginning of this series of sermons, I promised not to choose special reading, trusting that all readings (including theones set for the day are about giving, because every word of God is a giving word.
This week's readings:
The passage from Isaiah showsGod giving himself to the people. "I revled myself to thos who did not as for me ...... To a nation that did not call on my name I said 'Here am I, here am I'". To an ungrateful people God givs punishment - butill not "destroy them all."
Paul, writing to the Galatians talks about the git of being "children of God" by being bptised into Christ. That gives the privilege of being "heirs according to the promise", and abolishes the walls race, religion, class an gender. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ."
The gospel reading is the story of Legion - so calledbecause of the many demons that had got into him. He lived among te tombs as an outcast. Jeus gives him healing and the man is better - in his righ mind and bck in community. The gift that Legion offers is his testimony - "he went away andtold all over the ton how much Jesus had done for him." |
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. George Bernard Shaw We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what w give. Winston Churchill Vicki Robin, in Your Money or Your Life, writes about people who istead of making living at thir work, make a dying, or in some cases, make a killing. Eventually we become kown not for what we had but for what we gave. One of the great dynamics of money isthat it groundsus, and when we put money behind our commitments it grounds them too, making tem real in te world. We can wish for better schools, a clean environment, and world peace .. but when we put our money behind those intentions, we become really serious about them. Money is a great translator of itention to reality, vision to fulfilment. Lynne Twist Withdraw legitimacy from the myth of scarcity. No matter how much or how little money we have flowing though our lives, we can us our money in a way that affirms life, instead of scrambling for more and obsessing about the movement of money up or down in our lives.
We can shift from scarcity to sufficiency, from complaint to commitment, from envy to gratitude. Lynne Twist Scarcity speaks in tese terms: never enough, emtiness, fear, mistrust, envy, greed, hoarding, competition, fragmenation, separateness, judgemnt, strving, entitlement, control, busy, survival, outer riches.
Sufficiency speaks in tese terms: gratitude, fulfilment, love, trust, respect, contributing, faith, compassio, integration, wholeness, commitment, accetance,partnership, responsibility, resilience add inner riches. Lynne Twist | So far in this series about giving we have focussed on: the giving of God
love is forgiving and love is for giving
Possible preaching paths Aligning oursleves with the mission of God - who loves the world so much that he gave his only Son. Is there that alignment between what God's mission and our own business as his Church? |
