A Journey of Generosity

The Reverend Peter Watson, vicar in the East Vale Ministry Area and Diocesan Finance Advisory Officer

For God so love the world that he gave …

If you’re reading this, it is highly likely that you’ll know how this quote continues. If not, do look up St John’s Gospel chapter 3 verses 16 and 17.

Giving is a spiritual discipline, through which we can allow the Holy Spirit to unlock the fruit of the spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, goodness, kindness, selfcontrol, gentleness. One of the spiritual disciplines is giving, where we can be generous in the giving of our time, of our talents, of our attention, of our money, of our forgiveness. In all of these we follow God in His generosity, and as we learn to be generous, we strengthen our spirituality, mature our Christian faith and deepen our relationship with God.

Jesus has much to say about money and about generosity. Observing the offerings at the temple in Jerusalem (see Mark 12: 41-44) he noted the widow who put in a mite, the smallest amount possible, and said, “…she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had …”.The well-off put in much more, but the point of the story is that generosity of giving isn’t measured in absolute value, nor even in relative value; generosity is measured in how much it costs the giver. For us, only we can know what generous giving looks like, but the bottom line is that if your giving is not significant to you, it is not significant to God.

Today, financial issues continue to be at the forefront of many if not most people’s minds, and the church is not exempt from this. As always in our giving to God and to his church we each need to reflect on what generosity looks like to us, on how significant our giving is to us. But we also as church communities need to reflect on our generosity. The finances of the Diocese are organised so that Ministry Areas pay into the central fund, which then pays the clergy their stipends. This arrangement only works when the generous giving of some covers the financial challenges of others.

The fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, hope and so forth – comes to us as our spirituality and relationship with God deepens. May we, as individual and churches, always be generous in our giving.