Everyone: Giving of Ourselves
Mark 12
22 October 2023
Rev Miak Siew (FCC)
Last week, Pauline kicked off this new sermon series “Everyone,” she said “I want to begin this morning by being very upfront with you. The objective of today’s sermon is not to guilt trip you into feeling more grateful.”
Likewise, I want to begin this morning by being very upfront about today’s sermon – it is not to guilt trip you to do anything – it is not to guilt trip you to give more to FCC, to step up to volunteer. It is an invitation to think about what giving of ourselves means.
We may have heard “God loves a cheerful giver” from 2 Corinthians 9:7 – “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
I think guilt tripping falls under “under compulsion.”
Pauline quoted Diana Butler Bass – “God’s gifts bring forth gratitude, and we express our appreciation by passing gifts on to others. When we share gifts, we become benefactors toward the well-being of all. Ultimately, this new structure is a way of being.
Gratitude then is not a transaction of debt and duty. Rather, gratitude is a spiritual awareness and a social structure of gift and response.”
How critical do you think this “spiritual awareness and social structure of gift and response” is in our Christian faith?
Not important
Somewhat important
Important
Very Important
Central to our faith
If you said that it is important, very important, or central to our faith, I want to ask – how do you connect “gratitude is a spiritual awareness and social structure of gift and response” to our faith?
The reason I ask – is because if we don’t make the connection between “gratitude” and our faith, then we will treat it as a peripheral to our faith. It is something good, but not central.
I believe “gratitude is a spiritual awareness and social structure of gift and response” is central to our faith.
We often quote Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” I do not doubt a single Christian would argue against what Jesus said is the greatest commandment. Where we differ, is how Loving god with all our heart, our soul, our mind, our strength, looks like in action.
Some may think loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is listen to the pastor, and don’t question. I wish that was the case. It would certainly make my life a lot easier.
Some people think loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is to come to church every Sunday.
When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, He didn’t reply with just one, He gave two. He added “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
The teacher of law who asked Jesus replied “To love God with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33)
I think that “gratitude is a spiritual awareness and social structure of gift and response” is what “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ Look like in action.
We cannot repay God – and God isn’t after our repayment – but rather God is seeking to transform the world through love, love that transforms us, and allow us to transform the world. That is why I think Jesus gave two commandments when asked what is the greatest commandment – because if he just gave one, we would end up defining what loving God looks like according to what works for us, what is easy for us. But here, Jesus points to loving our neighbour as ourselves –
God’s love for us bring forth gratitude, and we pass that love and share what we have with others and that brings forth the well-being of all creation, isn’t this “loving our neighbour?”
We must remember – Love isn’t a transaction. Love is unconditional.
I want to return to 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 and 10-11
6 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
“Now God who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
These verses are often used to prop up the prosperity gospel – you will be blessed because you give, or what you give will be multiplied.
I have issues with it because it reduces our relationship with God down to a transaction. And if our relationship with God is a transaction, it is no longer love. God is only good to us when we can “sow” and give. God is NOT a cosmic investment programme. I know that sells religion very well – you give more, you get more in return.
What we sow will be multiplied (like the boy with the five loaves and two fishes), but not multiplied for us – the point of the multiplication is ALWAYS directed to others, and not the giver. Those of you who serve – like on the welcome ministry who welcome people at the door – don’t realise what they sow.
Michael and Melvyn are members who are based in London. They attend FCC physically when they are here in Singapore, and attend virtually when they are home. They met up with Shuying for a meal recently and who welcomed them when they first came to FCC in 2018. What we give, is for the kin-dom, not for ourselves.
The idea that we give so that we get more in return isn’t love and it
isn’t gratitude. It is greed. When we receive gifts and blessings and love, and we want more, that is greed.
What we have been given, what we have been blessed with, is meant to be given away.
When we don’t allow God’s love and blessings and gifts to flow through us, we are hoarding. Receiving, without paying it forward, is hoarding. Jesus said Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Hoarding stems from fear, a scarcity mindset that there isn’t enough, and actually a lack of trust and faith in God’s provision and love.
In Exodus 16, when collecting manna (bread from heaven), some Israelites didn’t follow Moses’ instructions not to keep the manna until morning because they didn’t trust that God will provide the next day – and what happened? The manna was full of maggots and began to smell.
This of course comes from our experiences in life, and how the values of the world shapes us. But following Jesus means to take on a different set of values (and often, church, even us at FCC, take on the values of the world because it is so prevalent, so ubiquitous)
11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
The gifts we are given – is so what we can be generous. It is from our hearts of gratitude that we share these gifts, so we contribute towards the well-being of all, making the kin-dom God real here on earth.
The extent of how God’s kin-dom manifests in the world depends on what we sow, what we give. If we sow sparingly then we will also reap sparingly. How much the world is transformed depends on how much we allow God’s love to flow through us through our response to God’s love.
One of the worship songs we sang today – is the prayer of St Francis of Assisi. It demonstrates the power of giving ourselves, responding to God’s love,
Prayer of St Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
God, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Our response, our gratitude, and “giving of ourselves” is asking “Lord make me an instrument.”
And we come to experience – “in giving that we receive,” what Pauline quoted from Diana Butler Bass – “Gratitude, at its deepest and perhaps most transformative level, is not warm feelings about what we have… the deep ability to embrace the gift of who we are, that we are, that in the multibillion-year history of the universe each one of us has been born, can love, grows in awareness, and has a story. Life is the gift. When that mystery fills our hearts, it overwhelms us, and a deep river of emotions flows forth – feelings we barely knew we were capable of holding.”
This transformation, this embrace of the gift of who we are, will enable us to sow love, pardon, faith, hope, light and joy.
Jesus has talked about giving? (this is from Mark 12:13-17)
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax[b] to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him.
This passage is often misinterpreted to mean that we should separate church and state. Jesus pointed out Caesar’s image is stamped on the denarius, and said give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.
Give to God what is God’s. What do we give to God? So what is God’s image stamped on? Us! What do we give to God? Ourselves!
But when you hear “giving of ourselves,” what comes to your mind?
Some of us may connect “giving” to financial giving to the church. Some of us may connect “giving” to giving of our time, energy, resources.
But how do we give ourselves to God?
Giving of ourselves is a discipline. It needs to be thought through, and carefully considered, and not just a heat of the moment decision.
I look to Jesus as the example:
“He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is my body.” – Mark 14:22 …
“Take… bless… break… give”.
Take –
We are the offering. How have we allowed God to take us into God’s hands, mold us, shaped us? How do we say “Lord, let me be your instrument?” Are we aware that God is holding us, shaping us?
Bless
Are we aware of the blessings and gifts God has given us in our lives? Do we trust in God’s love – that love that is unconditional and not transactional? Do you recognise the unique talents, gifts, abilities, resources that God has blessed you with?
Break
Then are we willing to break and give away what we have been given? It is not easy – this is sacrifice. There is a cost. Jesus said “this is my body, broken for you.” He knew what the cost was.
For most of us, we are probably not called to sacrifice our lives – not like the martyrs of the early church. But we are called to give of ourselves in other ways. We are called to give of ourselves to others so that the world is transformed, that there is a new way of being.
We keep forgetting. The early Christians – the beloved community – in Acts 2:44-47, “ All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds[j] to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home[k] and ate their food with glad and generous[l] hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.”
Now, I am not asking for you to sell away all your possessions and give to FCC. I believe the circumstances they were in, and our circumstances we are in are quite different.
I really appreciated what Rev Joseph from Open Table MCC said when taking up the offering when I visited them years ago – he said “We are not really giving to God. God doesn’t need our gifts. What does the creator of the universe and everything in it wants from us? We are giving to the community trying to do God’s work.”
You all have contributed to this community – we won’t be here celebrating 20 years if not for the generosity of giving of yourselves with your time, energy, resources, fianances – your selves.
When we consider Take, Bless, Break, Give, as a discipline, we think about how we break and give our time, energy, resources, finances. It is important we think about how much we are able to give. Sometimes we over commit – we say yes without realising it is beyond our ability (or resources), and sometimes we under commit – out of fear that we don’t have enough.
Here at FCC, we don’t talk much about financial giving in the sermon – the service leaders do talk about it during announcements when taking up the offering. I think I want to share what Clarence preached a sermon on giving many years ago.
He said while FCC does not enforce tithing – that is giving 10% of our income – he said it is a good yardstick to put aside a tenth of what we receive to give away. We hope that people will give 5% to FCC, and the other 5% to other charities or individuals who may be in need or worthy of support.
Of course, we all have different financial circumstances – and that is part of the discipline – to think about exactly how much we give. Gary said this before – and when I heard it years ago I thought it was rather harsh but I want to invite you to hear it from an authentic place – not as criticism but as an invitation to examine our hearts. Gary said “giving is not about tipping God with our loose change.”
For members of this community, this church – this is our commitment to each other. Many of you have already done so – especially those who come from other churches who have laid the foundation, teaching you the importance of giving. “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion.”
This is not easy for me to say – because it can be seen as self-serving, but these resources will empower us to do God’s work of love, justice and peace in the world. How much impact we can have, depends on how much we are able to sow.
This applies to our gift of time and energy as well. Many of you step up to serve – and it is a way of giving of ourselves – and it is important to think about how much we can give our ourselves in this way.
We still are short of volunteers – and while we want to move to live worship every week, we don’t have enough volunteers to do it – because with the current number of volunteers, we would just burn people out.
But giving of ourselves isn’t just about finances or serving in church. It is also about doing what God requires.
And one thing that is weighing on me heavily is what is happening in Israel / Palestine. These are our siblings. The people of the book – Christians, Jews, Muslims.
Jaime mentioned earlier that it is not easy to sift through all the information on social media about what is happening – it is not easy because there is so much propaganda and misinformation. Every piece of information that comes out is trying to sway us one way or another.
It is not easy – I have Jewish friends, and I have Muslim friends. I don’t know how my Jewish friends will hear what I have to say, I don’t know how my Muslim friends will react. I may lose friends. I may get into trouble for wading into a topic that I shouldn’t get involved in.
It is easier of course to just keep quiet, not talk about it.
But my heart is convicted. I know this is what is required of me.
It is not about choosing a side. It is a false dichotomy.
If there is any sides to the war / conflict, it is who suffers and who benefits.
I know people on both sides are suffering. Many people have been trying to build bridges to bring about peace – and all their work crumbled just like that.
If there is any side to choose –
It is so easy for warmongers to stoke up emotions and divide us – to split us into sides. And even when we feel, our side may have not been totally right, we hold back from criticising our own people, because we may be seen as a traitor, we may make our side lose moral standing.
So on one side, they cannot criticise HAMAS, and on the other, they cannot criticise the Israeli government for its retaliation. Both of them are wrong. And what they are doing are evil. But HAMAS isn’t Palestine, and Israeli government isn’t Israelis.
This cycle of violence, war, retaliation will just continue. When the children who survived this grow up, they will learn only to hate the other. And we will repeat. We need to break this cycle.
Do we think normal people ANYWHERE – Israel, Palestine, Russia, Ukraine – want war? Do you think people want to kill?
We are played – played by those who benefit from the chaos, the violence – and it is so easy to stoke up emotions of fear and anger and hate. It is so difficult to build bridges and understanding.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace! Make us instruments of peace!
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is suffering, healing
where there is war, peace
There is one song I learned when I was an intern in New Spirit Community Church. It is a song that is in Hebrew and Arabic (ok one word is Arabic) by Mosh Ben-Ari, an Israeli musician –
SALAAM
OD YAVO SHALOM ALEINU
Od yavo shalom aleinu
Od yavo shalom aleinu, ve’al kulam (x2)
Peace will yet come upon us
Peace will yet come upon us, and upon everyone.
Salaam, aleinu ve’al kol ha’olam,
salaam, salaam (x2)
Salaam, upon us and upon the whole world,
salaam, salaam.*
