Services
This Autumn, the Church of England is celebrating
THE SEASON OF GENEROSITY.
A time set aside to give thanks for God’s gifts; to reflect on what it means to live with gratitude for all that we have and all that we are; and to commit ourselves to living generously.
At Holy Spirit we are dedicating three Sundays (from Sunday 28th September to Sunday 12th October) to the themes of this season: Generosity, Giving and Gratitude.
Week One, 28th September, focuses on GENEROSITY, what it means to be a people created and sustained by God’s generosity and how we might live generously in response.
Week Two, 5th October, celebrates GIVING as we hold our annual HARVEST THANKSGIVING and bring donations to support the work of the Ace of Clubs day centre and the Food Bank. In this week we reflect on how giving transforms the lives of those who give and those who receive.
Week Three, 12th October, when we receive five of our young people into Communion, our theme will be GRATITUDE and how it shapes our lives and transforms our understanding of who we are.
The money is a distraction. This week is Generosity Week and, in both of our readings, the rich come to a bad end: In Amos 6:1a, 4-7 the prophet warns that those who “lie on beds of ivory … eat lambs from the flock … drink wine and anoint themselves with the finest oils” will be “the first to go into exile” and in Luke 16:19-31, the rich man who in his lifetime received good things ends up being tormented in Hades. But it’s not the money that is the problem it is what we do with it and what it does to us. In both readings the rich have two problems, they have distanced themselves from God and from neighbour. High on mount Samaria the rich “are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph” because they believe themselves to be secure, to be set apart. The rich man in the parable lives safe behind his gates and does not even notice Lazarus’ suffering.
Living generously begins not with our money it begins with our hearts. Hearts that are radically open towards both God and neighbour. As we gather around God’s table, we see that we are in need of both God and one another. When we acknowledge that we depend upon God for all that we are and all that we have, life becomes a gift to share.
I doubt that anyone would choose Jesus to be minister of finance: Last week he commends the actions of the shepherd who abandons 99 of sheep to look for one that’s lost. This week, in Luke 16:1-13, he commends a dishonest land manager who squanders his master’s wealth.
At the heart of these parables is a call to prioritise the relational above the transactional. Like the first reading, Amos 8:4-7, they are a plea for solidarity and unity which stems from an understanding of the deep interconnectedness of all life.
Both Luke and Amos were written in the context of great economic inequality in which poor tenant farmers often ended up enslaved as bonded labourers who could, in the words of Amos, be bought for the price of “a pair of sandals”.
Despite his dubious motives, the manager in the parable releases people from their debt and so sets them free. At the start of the parable, he is solidarity with the rich landowner, he too desires to increase his own position at the expense of others. It is only when he experiences insecurity that he can begin to empathise with the experience of the vulnerable and stand in solidarity with them.
Both Amos and Jesus invite us to embrace a life that is relational: to acknowledge that all that we are and all that we have come from God and that we flourish when our lives are used for the well-being and building up of all of God’s creation. In the words of Desmond Tutu, it is “in seeing the many ways in which we are similar and how our lives are inextricably linked, we can find empathy and compassion… ultimately, it is the humble awareness of our own humanity that allows us to give and to forgive.”
The story of the lost sheep in Luke 15:1-10, reassures us that, whatever wrong turns we take, we still belong to God. But it also tells us that if we belong to God, we also belong to each other. The one and the ninety-nine need to be reunited. Jesus addresses this story, not to the one lost sheep, but to the “99 righteous persons”, who have neglected to search for the missing one and are incomplete without it.
The story of God’s people wandering in the wilderness in Exodus 32:7-14 reverses the situation: here it is not one sheep who has wandered off but the whole people of God who have “turned aside” and followed their own path.
Moses is the one remaining. He is offered the chance to become a great nation but he refuses the blessing unless it is shared with all God’s people. He reminds God that, for better and for worse, they all belong to God, all heirs to God’s promise.
Would it have been easier for Moses to abandon his people to their fate? hell yes! God’s people are not always easy to live with. But faith is not given to us as individuals, it is given to us as a community. A relationship with God is always also a relationship with all God’s people. The one cannot be saved without the many, the many cannot be saved without the one. Just as we all need God, we all need each other. God’s promises can only be enjoyed when all share in them.
Follow me and have blessings, long life and prosperity or don’t and have curses and death. The choice offered in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 is a no-brainer. We all want blessings and life not curses and death. But in Luke 14:25-33 the choice seems to be follow me and give up all those blessings: family, possessions, even life.
Does choosing God means choosing life or does choosing God mean giving away our life? It means both.
Luke’s gospel is addressed to a community which is fragmenting under threat: families, congregations and communities were closing ranks. This is a common human reaction to perceived danger or scarcity: we protect our own and what is ours. We see this happening across the world from Trump raising tariff barriers to Reform targeting asylum hotels.
When God promised the people of Israel life and blessing in Deuteronomy it was a communal blessing: for all people to share the land and the blessing it offered. Jesus is not opposing this promise; he is re-offering it to us: the blessing is for the many not the few. Jesus is reminding us that all that all that we are and all that we have comes from God, it does not belong to us. Our lives are not about us they are given by God to be used for the well-being of all.
The choice we are offered is to let go of our small lives and become part of the expansive life-giving mission of God. To choose to practise justice, honour creation, protect the vulnerable allows our lives overflow and bring life to the world around us. Then we will be blessed by being the blessing.