Give More John 1:6-8; 19-28
Introduction - Effort! [From Aotearoa Psalms, Prayers of a New People, by Joy Cowley, No. 36. 1989, New Zealand)
There is nothing more demanding, when we feel tired and as though we have given our all, to hear a small voice – ours or someone else’s - offer a critique and hint at, or say – ‘Try Harder’, ‘Do Better’, ‘Give More’.
“Right!” we think as our resentment levels rise and we become tetchy – “look out you!”.
We are not naturally wired to become a human bundle of co-operation and helpfulness from then on.
However, when it comes to Giving More, all the complexities around our understanding of what Giving is, can come to the fore - and any flaws or distortions in our thinking about it are accentuated.
Tucked away in the middle of the Psalm I have just read are a couple of insightful stanzas of conversation –
‘Lord, what’s that you say?
I don’t have to please you?
Why not?
And
“I don’t understand. You say I do it not for you but for myself?
Oh come off it, God.”
These questions prompt some self-examination around what the motives for all this effort are in the first place. Perhaps that’s a good place for us to start when we encounter internal resistance to Giving More.
Dare we ask God and ourselves why we are giving in the first place?
The answer may be more liberating than we realise.
There are other fish-hooks in ‘Giving’ that can also – and wisely so – put us off Giving More.
For example, at times we can experience Giving as Judgement…..
Smile we do … but I do believe the underlying expectations between behaviour and gifts will be alive and well in some homes this Christmas. We know that Giving as Judgement has an arbitrary nature and is not always fair; so why would we completely trust it?
A close cousin to Giving as Judgement is Giving with Strings Attached, and I don’t think I need to elaborate on that one; it smacks of manipulation and control – certainly NOT the kind of Give More that sits easily with a Christian ethos.
And then of course, there is Giving with Risk – like the risk of spoiling the child or eroding independence and autonomy or simply going over the top in a way that embarrasses the receiver. In these situations Giving More colludes with the perceived prospect of social harm.
And last, but definitely not least, there is Carefully Measured Giving – which of course means that we definitely can’t Give More, even if we wanted too. We are governed by fear. What if there is not enough? What if my gift is not wanted? Am I treating everyone the same?
And so it goes on; we can be paralysed just t-h-i-n-k-i-n-g about Giving, let alone doing it.
If we are to reclaim our Christmas as one of joyous celebration and to live differently this Advent - by Giving More – and of course Receiving More - then we need to be much clearer in our minds and hearts about what we are about. We need to reclaim our Christian character as a generous people who reflect their generous God; whose extravagant giving is known to us as we receive the Christ child.
We need to throw to the four winds, the layers of confusion outlined earlier. So where to start …..
The passage from Isaiah, called the Good News of Deliverance, resounded with me as I prepared for this morning. “They (God’s people that is - us) will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.”
That evokes quite an image.
In my local park there is a huge oak tree; much older than I am. If I walk underneath, the ground is covered in a thick layer of acorns that crunch underfoot. If I move out from under the shadow of its canopy, small seedlings are sprouting up everywhere; enough to establish a forest. Each year, this tree just keeps on keeping on – flowering, dropping acorns with abandon and sheltering the seedlings that grow from them. On and on, up and up, this tree knows about Giving More.
It neither spends - nor strikes social bargains - nor strives and stresses to grow walnuts instead of acorns. This OAK is simply ITSELF, and out of its very BEING comes such an abundant extravagance of gift that I can only marvel at it. It gives itself fully to all it was created to be. It gives glory to God the Creator; it multiplies life and goodness even as it just stands still.
How wonderful it would be if all our giving came out of our BEING, rather than our DOING. How simpler it would be to Give More; how much less effort it would all be. We need the “doing” of course, but it comes second; it doesn’t have to lead the charge.
And I need reminding of that more than most!
The Oak tree also draws me to think of the many images in our Scriptures that point to our God as faithful and trustworthy in his Giving.
(For the keen Bible readers …)
Luke 6:38 “….. give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back”.
2 Corinthians 9:7 “Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Matthew 13:31-32 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.
Also in Matthew 13 there is the parable of the Sower of the Seed, where the sower spreads seed generously, not pre-judging which will grow and which will not. I am drawn to ask a rhetorical question, “Did the sower at any point pause, check out the soil and limit seed use? Was there any mention of precision seed drilling?
Not a one. The sower kept spreading, and spreading.
As Christians we are freed to Give More because, contrary to cultural expectation, we will never run out. What is more we can feel encouraged to Give More because when we give gifts that matter, they have a multiplying factor – they grow and grow.
How rewarding is that!
To Give More is our calling and remember, generosity is in our DNA because we are the body of Christ, the children of God.
But we have to try it to see it, we have to do it to experience the outcome, we have to risk being different in today’s wilderness – and then, like John the Baptist we too will be able to offer our own testimony of the Light that has come into the world.