Let me say right at the start of this talk how grateful I am to so many at St. Johns who give of themselves very generously (in terms of time, effort, money and their gifts) to make things happen either on Sundays or during the week.  Thank you for all your generous involvement in the life of St. Johns. 

I want to have a close look at 2 Corinthians Ch. 8 and 9.  The reason that Paul was writing to them was that the Corinthian church was lagging behind in their financial support of the church in Jerusalem, which was experiencing poverty and hardship.  Corinth had been the first to offer support, but their enthusiasm had dried up.  Paul had the embarrassing task of writing to them and asking  what's happened to the support you promised to the church in Jerusalem?  Where has your generous spirit gone?  (Ch.8, v7).   Paul was not deceived by appearances.  Outwardly the church at Corinth had all the marks of a growing, lively, spiritual fellowship.  But Paul knew that underneath the surface there was rivalry, immorality and lack of generosity.  And when Paul wanted to test the spiritual temperature of a church, his barometer was not how many people were attending or what spiritual gifts were being used, but how much money is in the offertory plate on a Sunday.

Many of our medieval castles have within them a strong fortified tower known as the castle keep.  This was the place that was safe for the inhabitants of the castle to retreat to if they were being attacked.  And in every Christian there is a castle keep - a part of our lives that we keep back from Jesus.  And very often this is the area of money and possessions.  I must have been a Christian for 10 years before I even realised that, if Jesus was Lord of my life, then he must be also Lord of my pocket and my bank account.  And the castle keep of the Corinthian church was their giving.  This was the bit they were holding back from God and Paul had to challenge their selfishness and lack of generosity.  He does this by using a three-pronged fork.

First prong - the generosity of neighbouring Christians. 

The Macedonian church down the road from Corinth was extremely generous, even though they were very poor.  They insisted on giving towards the church in Jerusalem at great personal cost to themselves (v3).  It reminds me of the story of the widow's mite in Luke 21, where she gave 2 small copper coins, which was everything she had.  This is Christian giving at its very best and it is a far cry from the spirit of our age, which is obsessed with desire for more.  Consumer culture says, put yourself at the centre of your world and treat yourself to all these wonderful things you have always wanted.  But here in Macedonia was a church that was begging for the opportunity of giving money away to help others, at great personal cost to themselves.  And the key to it was their relationship with Jesus (v5).  First, they gave themselves to the Lord and then by God's will they gave themselves to us as well.  Jesus was Lord of their lives in every area, including their money and possessions.

This would have made the Corinthian church sit up and take note.  The Macedonian Christians had very little but gave extremely generously.  The Corinthians had promised much but their giving had dried up.

Chapter 8, v9:  You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.   How would you remove a glacier?  Not by attacking it with a pickaxe, because that would achieve nothing.  No, you would simply allow the warm rays of the sun to melt the ice so that the water begins to flow.  And Paul tackles the coldness and selfishness of the Corinthians in the same way.  Not with a pickaxe, not with angry words of criticism, but by exposing them gently to the warmth of Christ's love, so that their giving  can begin to flow again.  Jesus left all the glory and splendour of heaven for a humble cowshed in Bethlehem and a hard painful cross in Jerusalem.  What an incredible sacrifice,  what amazing generosity.  So all Christian giving is only a response to the incredible generosity of Christ, who though he was rich yet for our sake became poor.  And if you are struggling with this whole area of giving and the ice cold glacier is you, then expose yourself to the warmth of Christ's love and generosity.  I guarantee the ice will melt. 

He spells this out in the rest of Chapters 8 and 9.

(a) The needs of those who are struggling are met .  (Chp.8 v14).  Christian giving is about blessing others.  A large proportion of our giving at St. Johns goes to support other people and other ministries.  Our diocesan quota is twice the size it needs to be, so that we can support a vicar in a parish that would struggle to pay for its own pastor.  In our case, this is Emmanuel, Southall.   But in addition to this, ten per cent of our total income we tithe and we give it away to support our mission partners and various other Christian charitable causes.  This amounts to about £30,000 a year and it is given away under the supervision of the World Outreach Committee and the DCC.  So when you are giving to St. Johns, you are actually giving a lot of that money away to other Christian causes and to help those in need.  This is the blessing that comes to others through our generosity. 

(b)  There will be many spiritual blessings for the Corinthians themselves .  In Chapter 9 v. 6-11  Paul talks of giving in terms of sowing seed.  "Whoever sows generously will also reap generously".  In other words, there will be many spiritual blessings for us as we give generously to others.  So through our giving we will know and understand more deeply the grace of God (v8) and as we provide for the needs of others, God will also provide for our needs (v10).  This is the harvest of righteousness that generous givers will receive (v10:  More of God's love and grace, more of God's provision, more transformation of our characters to reflect the grace and generosity of Christ. 

(c)  There will be great praise and thanks given to God (Ch.9, v12-14).  So if there is a generous response to this appeal that we are currently doing at St. Johns,  lots of praise and thanks will go to God.  We will praise and thank him.  The Bishop will praise and thank him.  Our mission partners will praise and thank him.  The Ugandan church will praise and thank him.  Emmanuel, Southall, will praise and thank him.  And all the people that we reach through our various ministries, like Alpha, Snips and Drop In, will praise and thank him as well.   This brings us back to 1 Chronicles Chp. 29 and David's wonderful prayer "All things come from you and of your own have we given you".  Remember how the prayer begins:  "Yours Lord is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour and the majesty".  So following that amazing gift day in Jerusalem when God's people provided for the building of the temple, the Lord received much praise and thanks for providing what he had first given to them.  Everything belongs to him in the first place and he had moved in the hearts of his people to bring forth their generous response.

So let me leave you with this challenge.  Has God released you into generous giving - like the Macedonians, are you begging for the opportunity to contribute?  Has Christ captured the castle keep of your pocket and your bank account and your savings?  Has Jesus's amazing grace melted the glacier in your heart?

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