Giving as Spritual Discipline

 

SIW 25.02.2024

 

Looking at bible verses about giving I read one that I have read and heard a lot of times before but somehow the emphasis changed

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others

And I got this mental picture of someone parading with trumpets and throwing money in the air and I nearly laughed out loud. It’s such a ridiculous scene, isn’t it?

Well that’s a clear picture of how giving shouldn’t look so lets have a look at what the discipline of giving looks like.

The first thing I think we want to consider is whether the discipline of giving is the same as *just* giving. Why do we say giving is a spiritual discipline? Why is it not just something we do?

Well the difference between giving and the spiritual discipline of giving is in those two words:

spiritual

and discipline 😊

Discipline is something we do that yields benefits in the future. There can be a reward at the time we do it but the real benefits come later. The difference between disciplined giving and random giving is that discipline is intentional, we think about it and plan for it. Discipline is regular and consistent. It might be a small habit but the results build over time.

If we think about exercise, we might get a runners high or we might lift weights to get “the pump” and make our muscles look temporarily bigger but the real reason we exercise is so we can have long term benefits. Little by little we get fitter and stronger, we barely notice but the results add up

So what spiritual benefit is there when we give in a disciplined way? Giving makes us more like Jesus. It helps us to get closer to God. Giving is a practical way to show love and showing love, loving our neighbour, is what God wants us to do

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

Flexing our generosity muscle makes us more generous. And practice makes things easier, so that when life gets harder or the gift we want to give gets bigger, more difficult, more sacrificial, we are already good at giving.

So we know that the spiritual discipline of giving is giving in a way that will yield results in our spiritual life. It’s one of the ways we can build treasure in heaven.

When Paul was planning to visit Corinth he wrote:

On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

The instruction is for everyone to give. To do it weekly and proportionately.

We give intentionally and often, so what will we give?  We can give time: being unhurried with people, giving time to encourage or teach or help out. We give time when we join the worship team or sit with someone who is sick or in pain.

We might give our talents by playing music in church or using our love of reading to read to a child or offering our talent for cooking by making a meal for someone.

We give when we have an attitude of generosity and everyone likes to be treated generously. Sometimes the person we need to really be generous to is ourselves. Giving through our attitude means giving the benefit of the doubt, assuming good intentions and knowing that everyone has unseen burdens.

Then of course, there is the giving of material goods and money. When we think of giving we usually think of money and that’s because money is versatile, when we can’t assist with a need in any other way, money allows us to contribute.

What is disciplined giving? It’s something we do to please God, to show gratitude and obedience to God and to become more like Jesus. It is regular, it is intentional and it is holistic. It is an attitude we live with and it leads us to give in a variety of ways.

 Who should give? Paul says to the Corinthians

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

He wants us to be cheerful in giving, to put our heart into it, not to see it as an obligation.

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

Every one of you.

How should we give?

When the bible talks about giving How to give is the really big topic.

We just heard from Corinthians that we should give in proportion to the way we have been given. If we don’t have much, we are not required to give so much, if we are well and truly blessed we are asked to share.

Lets hear directly from the word about giving:

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

He wants us to be cheerful in giving, to put our heart into it, not to see it as an obligation.

He wants us to be discreet. We give to help and we give to serve God, nobody needs to know about it because God sees. It’s a private thing between God and us.

Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 

He wants us to generous or you might even say overly generous, giving to those who ask and not expecting a return.

Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Here we see giving as a priority. Giving the first fruit, not giving our left overs but giving first, honouring God with our gifts.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need

In these verses God asks for us to give in faith. Give to me, he says, test me out, give so that it hurts and wait to see what I give back. Wait to see that you won’t be in need. Find out that the blessings will be poured out.

I wonder what blessing we might receive if we really give?

What might our lives look like if we give holistically, generously, regularly, and in faith. How might we be changed? How could our communities, our families and our churches be impacted by our giving?
On a website called Generis, I saw a quote that says it better than I can:

Giving is not about getting money out of pockets. It’s about reverence, honor, faithfulness, and gratitude to God. 

Giving has the power to transform the giver, to remove idols from our hearts, because it is not merely a transactional act. It’s an intimate act of trust and a tangible act of obedience to the Lord.

Come all you Unfaithful

Sydney Inner West 03/12/2023

Advent week 1

Reference: Romans 8: 1-8

Theme song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-QHbpYjuIg

Come all you unfaithful. It’s so different, isn’t it? So unexpected. I want to read to you the way the song came about, in the words of the writer, Lisa Clow:

I was struggling. It had been a long year and a half. Finances were stressful, I miscarried twins, and on top of it I was battling a deep relational bitterness.  My church was having their annual service where they kick off the Christmas season with carols and special songs and I, was not singing. I told them that I wouldn’t be able to sing, but what they didn’t know is that I was too overcome with shame to stand on stage before my church.

That Sunday morning, I stood at my seat as they began to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and the first line of the song just clobbered me. It hit me like a giant wave of guilt. 

O come all you faithful, joyful and triumphant!

I remember hearing those words and thinking, “I have been so unfaithful. My joy has dwindled, and I am a triumphant…failure.” And I didn’t sing the rest of the service

At that time, when Lisa was ashamed, sad, bitter and grieving she felt like a failure, she may have felt like the descriptions in The Message translation Romans 8, that she was living under a low lying black cloud, fated to the tyranny of sin and death, part of the disordered mess of struggling humanity.

But we see from the words of the song that this is not the end of the story and we come to the point where the sacrifice of the Lamb Of God brings us to a place of healing:

O come, guilty and hiding ones
There is no need to run

Christ is born for you

He's the Lamb who was given
Slain for our pardon
His promise is peace
For those who believe

 

Now, I’m supposed to be thinking about the shepherds today and I’ve been stuck on the song writer but the shepherds are coming because I just mentioned the lamb!

 

And God went to a lot of trouble to make sure the shepherds knew who they were visiting when they went to see the baby in the manger.

These shepherds were not ordinary shepherds, they were the priestly shepherds who were responsible for the safety and suitability and ritual cleanliness of the lambs which were sacrificed in the temple and we know this because in ancient Israel, the only sheep which were allowed to be any where near municipal boundaries were the sacrificial flock, all the others had to live in the wilderness. These shepherds and their sheep were in the fields, in walking distance of Bethlehem.

So they were cared for by these shepherds who were priests and knew the scriptures backwards and because they had to make sure the lambs met all the ritual requirements, the shepherds were responsible for the salvation of the whole community.

When a ewe was ready to lamb, the shepherds took her to a safe place because they couldn’t just have these lambs born in a field and vulnerable to the elements and getting hurt and things like that. And we know where the shepherds took these ewes, they took them to the “Tower of the Flock” where it was safe and clean and protected. And when the lambs were born they were wrapped up in cloths to make sure they didn’t wobble around on their cute little newborn legs and fall and get hurt. And they were kept still until they were calm and could be allowed to walk around.

Show picture

There is a tower on the site still today but it’s a very tall and well made tower so I think this one is closer to the tower that was standing at the time. It’s interesting that when we think of the shepherds watching over their flocks we just think they were watching but watching over really suggests that they were on top of a tower like this.

So when the angels said to the shepherds “This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” they didn’t have to go looking in every manger in town for this child, they knew which manger it was, it was the only one where there were swaddling cloths ready to wrap a lamb and keep them safe and pristine and it was the one they used for all the pure temple lambs. And being shepherds, they would have taken a special interest in the prophecy in Micah 4:8 which told them that the Messiah would be born in a tower like this “But you, tower of the cloudy Shepherd, of the daughter of Zion, your time has arrived and the first Ruler of the Kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem has come”

How did Mary get to be here in this tower? Well when Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem and needed somewhere to stay, they customarily would have gone to the home of a relative and been put up in a guest room but women usually tried to birth away from home so that their house wouldn’t become ritually unclean and it would have been quite usual to go somewhere else. So it may have been less a case of no room at the inn and more a case of you can’t dirty up our house but we’ll take you down to the place where we take the ewes, it’s quiet and safe there, a great place to birth undisturbed.

 

The shepherds knew the prophecy because it was so intimately linked to their work and to their location, they understood the symbolism of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, they were the people who ensured and verified the purity of the lambs, they knew where to look.

And if you had something to reveal, something that wouldn’t be recognised or understood or respected by everyone, you’d want to be careful to choose the right people to reveal it to, the right people to then take the news to the world. The shepherds were the right people to understand what they saw, the right people to explain to the world, the right people to verify that Jesus was the Lamb of God.

 

And so, we come back to the lamb of God, the lamb who achieves the purity we never can, the lamb who makes us clean and free, who is perfect and makes us perfect if we are in him. And we can be confident that we no longer need to be feeling unfaithful, dirty, ashamed. God showed us without question that Jesus is the only sacrificial lamb we will ever need:

 

He’s the Lamb who was given

Slain for our pardon

His promise is peace

For those who believe

So come, though you have nothing

Come, He is the offering

Come, see what your God has done

 

Jesus Calms the Storm Mark 4:35-41

 

Have you ever seen this painting? It’s Rembrandt’s imagining of the scene we find in Mark 4 where Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee. It’s dramatic, ,isn’t it?

Lets have a quick look at the characters in the painting:

This fellow here (bottom right) seems to be sea sick: hanging over the edge of the boat, clutching his head. I feel like this bloke has no ability to really respond in any way except the way his body is reacting. He can’t help out, he probably can’t comfort anybody, he’s just there trying not to make a mess.

And then we have the fellow in white. I don’t know what he’s doing. Maybe he’s fallen and hasn’t got back up yet, maybe he’s so terrified he’s frozen there. Whatever he’s doing, it’s not having a lot of impact on the situation.

Up around the mast we have some disciples who are busy. These men are probably the experienced sailors of the group and I suspect the storm is far too big for them to really gain control of the boat but they are doing what they can: Getting sails down, making things as safe as they can and maybe trying to get into a position where they will be able to recover if the conditions ease.

We also have the disciples who have woken Jesus up, I think these guys are experiencing the fear that shows up as anger. They say “teacher, dont you care if we drown?”

It feels as if they are almost accusing Jesus of abandoning them.

And now let's see what Jesus is doing.

Jesus has recently gathered his disciples, he’s done some healings and driven out some demons and on this day he’s been preaching. Then he suggests this trip across the sea and everyone gets in the boat and Jesus goes to sleep. There are people who say he is asleep because he’s just plain old tired and there are those who say his sleepiness is all about showing how unconcerned he is. Anyway, he’s asleep and this storm comes up and it’s a huge storm . the waves are dumping into the boat and the wind is howling and things are really bad.

Now, some of the disciples are fishermen and they’re probably used to boats and storms but the writer is telling this story to the Jewish people who were not sea going people and in fact they have stories about monsters in the sea: we have the leviathan appearing in the Psalms and in Job. And there is the story of Jonah being tossed out of a boat into the belly of a fish so the audience to this story have the understanding that he sea is scary and it’s dangerous and then to add to this scary, possibly evil sea, these fishermen are so scared that they grab Jesus and they say “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 

So there’s a cultural understanding that  the sea is scary and it’s a kind of metaphor for evil and Mark is telling this story where even the fishermen are terrified.

We need to note at this point that the disciples called Jesus “teacher” So far, they had seen him preach and heal and exorcise demons but he hasn’t revealed exactly who he is yet. The disciples are thinking he’s a teacher or maybe a shaman. 

So, back to the boat, the terrified disciples wake Jesus and there’s actually no hint that they know he can do anything about the storm “teacher don’t you care if we drown?”
They just want him to be awake while they are suffering through this, they want to know that this experience is shared.

And Jesus gets up and the bible says he  “rebuked the wind” Now some commentators who are more scholarly that i am have said that the use of the word “rebuke” doesn’t suggest there are demons but to me there is an echo of the times when Jesus rebukes satan so it’s possible that the writer of Mark is suggesting that Jesus is chastising an evil presence. 

And after rebuking the wind, Jesus says to the wave “Quiet”

“Be still” 

And they did. The wind died down and it was completely calm.

Who would have imagined or expected that? The raging storm had just stopped.

Jesus is showing, for the first time, that he is God. He shows it by commanding the wind and the waves to be still. It’s not something a teacher, a wise man or a healer can do. It’s supernatural and the people knew that only God has command of the elements and that the earth recognises the voice of Jesus because it was his voice that commanded their existence to start with

Jesus’ authority as God is demonstrated in his words: the command “Be still”  sounds like a reference to psalm 46 “Be still and know that I am God”

Jesus is , I think , the original genius of literary references and I’m sure these devout Jewish people recognised that “Be still” led them directly to Jesus identity.

Jesus has demonstrated who he is by his words and by his actions, 

He has stilled the earth itself by speaking. He has unleashed God’s sovereign power. The kingdom is right there, right here

He has verbalised who he is by his reference to the psalms

And as we look back to the start of the story, we see that his authority is also demonstrated by his timing. He is God, he knew the storm was coming before he got in the boat, he chose this time to go out on the sea and go to sleep.

Mark finishes the story telling us that after Jesus stopped the storm, he said to the disciples “Why are you so afraid. Do you still have no faith?”

The disciples were terrified and asked each other 

“Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Today you might not have Jesus in your boat. You might be saying to him “Don’t you care that I’m drowning?” or maybe he is saying to you “why are you afraid? After everything you have seen, where is your faith?”

Let’s listen to this song and consider what is happening in our conversation with Jesus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxLV4zRmhm8