Stainglass window
Christmas 2011
3rd Dec Advent Party
12th Dec @ 2pm
Carol Service at Oak tree Court
16th Dec @ 2.30pm
Carol Service at Stratford Court
17th Dec @11am
Carol Singing outside Co-Op
18th Dec Nativity and Christingle Service and Carol Service
24th Dec @ 11pm (Service starts at 11.30pm
United Service at URC Etwall Rd
25th Dec @10am
Christmas Day Service
‘WHAT DO I OWE?’
Dear Friends,
As the offering plate came round during the service, the old lady, who had been away for a couple of Sundays, gave one of her envelopes to her 4-year-old grandson to put in. When the plate came to her, he whispered, ‘It’s alright, Gran. I’ve paid for you!’
For some Christians, the subject of giving is anything but joyful. It’s a subject of great touchiness. As Michael Baughan, former Bishop of Chester, comments, whenever he preached on the subject, there were always those who would set their jaw, fold their arms, and determine not to be affected by anything said!
Give just one sermon a year on the subject, and people say, ‘The church is always asking for money!’ But it is a reality we must face, however uncomfortable or even irritated it makes us feel. The Bible is clear; our commitment to God is measured in tangible things. Not in how often we say we love him, but how much we prove it by giving of ourselves to his work.
In Old Testament times the people of God had to provide what was needed for the Temple. We don’t have to provide animals and grain today in order for the church to function, but we do have to maintain the work of the ministry of the church. The electricity and heating have to be paid for, the stipend of the minister, sharing with the needy- there’s no magic source of money. All that we have comes from what people put in the offering.
For those Old Testament people, the command was that a tithe was demanded of them. The word ‘tithe’ means a tenth. The Jews were to bring a tenth of their produce to the Lord each year. While there is no express command in the New Testament that God’s people should tithe today, proportionate giving certainly is commanded. We are stewards of God’s wealth, and must make wise use of what he shares with us. If we reject tithing on the grounds that it’s Old Testament legalism, we need to check that our New Testament freedom doesn’t result in as lesser standard of giving!. For many of us, tithing of our income is basic to Christian living.
It means that God has first claim on our income, and not the remnants of what we can afford when we’ve spent what we want on ourselves. The prophet Haggai rebuked the people of his day, because they were spending all their money on themselves and their houses, and were neglecting God’s house: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?’ (Haggai 1:4)
As the apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘On the first day of the week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income….’
(1Corinthians 16:2)
It’s not the actual amount we give, but how it relates to what we have.£5 may be a great deal to some people, but it is mangy for others earning a high salary, or with comfortable savings. Wrote Winston Churchill, ‘We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give’.
Why should we give? In his second letter to the Corinthians (chapters 8 and 9), Paul has three powerful reasons:
1, GIVING IS A MARK OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP
The concept of giving lies at the heart of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is an n act of worship- that’s why it is an integral part of our services.
Our material gifts are really spiritual sacrifices to the Lord, Paul called the gifts from the Phillippian church ‘ a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God’
(Phillippians 4:18)
2.GIVING IS AN EXPRESSION OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
The key word that should describe the Christian church is ‘koinonia’- fellowship. In New Testament terms, Christianity is not something we practise on our own, but in community with others. So giving is an expression of our care for one another.
3.giving is the Christian message.
What do we believe and proclaim? That God so loved the world that he GAVE his only Son. That Jesus Christ GAVE his life for us. ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich’.
What we take up in the services is not the collection; it’s the offering of our gifts to God as an expression of love and thanks to him. If we are grateful to God for what he has done for us in Jesus, then we should want to give to his work.
‘Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift’
Your friend and pastor,
Jonathan Calvert