Sunday Worship -Open our hearts, our minds and our eyes
Opening Words
Let us open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes to see the generous gifts of God and respond with praise and thanksgiving.
Hymn Knowing you Jesus
Prayers and Lord’s Prayer
Generous God, we come, individually and together, as your people to be resourced, inspired and blessed. We come, thankful for the self-giving love of Jesus. Inspired by his example, may we be generous and giving, with no reward other than knowing we are doing your will. We ask this in his name. Amen.
Eternal God, you call us to this time and place, to still our minds and gather our thoughts, to see the immensity of your giving to us. You are the giver of life in all its fullness; the giver of gifts beyond compare; the giver of more than we can imagine or comprehend. We come before you now. Amen.
Lords Prayer
Children’s address - illustrate giving using biscuits
Three volunteers, each are given plates with different amounts of biscuits (3, 2 and 1), I take the same from each plate (1 biscuit). Two people are still left with biscuits but one has given me everything.
Hymn Above all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_cxhf5ISeg
Notices
Bible Readings:
1 Kings 17.8-16; Mark 12.38-44
Hymn I surrender all
Prayers:
God of all creation, you ask us to care and not to destroy; to share and not to abuse what you have given to us. You ask us to cherish the earth not to abuse it and to use earth’s resources fairly and not to waste them. Forgive our failures and renew our commitment.
God of all creation, May we use your gifts wisely and care for the earth.
Generous God,
you have placed us in community
in our churches, families, schools and neighbourhoods
where we learn that we are stronger together.
You created people in your image,
so amazing and capable of so much that is good,
yet also capable of going choosing the wrong thing.
Give us ears to listen to one another,
hearts to care for each other’s pain,
and hands ready to heal the hurts of our world.
As world leaders meet to discuss climate change,
may your Spirt of truth and justice lead the way to a more compassionate, a more equal and a simpler way of life.
God of all creation, May we use your gifts wisely and care for the earth.
Generous God, you give us all that we need for life. May we learn to live with the same generosity that you show to us, using resources for our need and not our greed, and offering what we can to improve the lives of people who struggle. May we never be closed to the parts of the world that are troubled, or closed to the sufferings caused by our greed in the developed world. Give us and our world leaders generosity of spirit, so that we can walk in another person’s shoes. May we begin to see that we share one home. and that our actions can improve or damage life chances for others.
God of all creation, May we use your gifts wisely and care for the earth
Generous God, you count the hairs on our head and care for the smallest of the creatures on earth. May we live as though our days belong to you, using the gifts of our time and our talents to serve our neighbour, and make a difference in the world. May we hear the cry of those in pain. We place into your hands people who are ill and we ask for your healing…
May we also pay attention to the cry of our earth for healing,
and the fears of the peoples in areas most at risk including:
Lagos in Nigeria; Yemen; Haiti; United Arab Emirates; Manila in the Philippines; Kiribati; Japan; the Netherlands; India and Sri Lanka and so many more…
We hold the peoples of these areas in our hearts together with the hopes and dreams of children and young people.
God of all creation, may we use your gifts wisely and care for the earth.
Prayer Book
Hymn Take my life and let it be
Talk
This week’s message is really about giving, in the light of cop 26, I thought it was important to pause an just think about how we interact with each other and how we give not only to others but also to God himself. In both of the passages we have read this morning the emphasis has very much been on giving, the women in the stories gave to the very nth degree.
In our reading from 1 Kings 17 the widow barely had enough for herself and her son, yet when Elijah went calling, she was persuaded to use the very last of her ingredients to bake some bread which would feed Elijah and her son. In her own words the woman believed this would be her last meal, it was all she had, yet she freely gave it to Elijah. That is some generosity.
In our second reading, the very well-known story of the widow’s mite, is recounted. this woman equally opened her purse and found the smallest denomination available, it was the only coin she had and like the widow above, she gave her last coin to God. the contrast between the woman’s gift, simple and small but everything, was contrasted by Jesus as the large gifts given by the religious leaders were given out of the vast wealth that they had. The amounts they gave could not be compared, in monetary terms the religious leaders gave more, but in actual terms the woman gave everything, the religious leaders gave out of their wealth, they had more at home, she had nothing.
When we give to God, whether it be our money or time, our skills or other resources do we give him a part of our abundance or do we give him everything. This is really the meaning of today’s talk.
How do we see generous living or giving? During lockdown and even before that people in our Country, one of the rich countries of the world were finding it hard to make ends meet. Many people were turning to Food banks, which first appeared in the US in the 1960s. In the UK, they were rare until the early part of the 2000s, becoming much more widespread after the economic collapse of 2008. According to the Trussell Trust, more than 14 million people in the UK – including 4.5 million children – are now living in poverty. And there are more than 1,200 food bank centres in the UK offering support – usually about 7 days of food at a time. The Trussell Trust is founded on Christian principles, and bases what it does on Jesus’ words in Matthew 25.35-36.
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
This was my impetus in agreeing to start what became known as Blaby Elves, during its time this organisation has helped around 10 individuals or families on a regular basis with food vouchers. In addition, at both Christmas and Easter we created 45 boxes and bags to support wider families and individuals at these times. We do still have around £600 available to carry on with this work. Blaby Elves will then cease to exist and will be subsumed into CBT, hopefully with money from a grant that I have submitted on their behalf. We will continue to work within the community and produce the Christmas and Easter goodie boxes and bags. This church also contributes to the Foodbank at Countesthorpe via the box at the back and I know that people in this church also contribute to a local homeless charity. As a church we also have regular coffee mornings all the money of which goes to charities, I have been proud of this giving, but since lockdown disappointed with the lack of support for this, hence the need to find a different way to give via our after church coffee donations.
When does giving stop? The saying ‘charity begins at home’ is often used to limit what we give or do, and to whom. But, as the 17th-century clergyman Thomas Fuller said (and others since): ‘Charity begins at home but should not end there.’ Charles Dickens amended it another way: ‘Charity begins at home, but justice begins next door.’ We are not an island, we can not work in isolation, we have to consider others. The way we live effects not only those around us but also in the light of COP26 the world. Our need to have the best, the biggest, the most modern is at the cost of those in the world who struggle just to feed themselves and their families. I need to recount story I heard on the radio, a lady from Madagascar was explaining why she was so worried about climate change - it is likely to be the first place where people die of starvation or lose their homes because of climate change causing rising sea levels.
Giving is not just about financial giving it is about thinking about others, our neighbours and trying to bring about a fairer world. It is not just about money but about thinking wider and outside the box to bring about equality for all.
But giving is also about our hearts and how much we are prepared to give to God, the Old Testament tells us to tithe, to give 10% of our income to the church, but how much of our other gifts, non-monetary gifts do we give to God. How much time do we spend each week working for God? spending time with Him? I chose ‘All I once held dear’ as our first hymn, because for me knowing Jesus more and more is what is important in my life, everything I then do springs from that relationship I have with Him.
When I was preparing this service, I came across some really good examples of giving and the wider impact that the giving can have.
In 1956, with the wounds of World War Two still raw, Shanti Solomon shared an idea with six other women of different nationalities. Inspired by Jesus’ story of the widow who gave all she had, they formed the Fellowship of the Least Coin – a movement of prayer for peace and reconciliation, at first around Asia but now worldwide. The idea was that, regardless of social and economic status, or nationality or history, women could have fellowship and find reconciliation through simple actions and prayerful lives. And for each prayer said, at least one coin of local currency was given, and when collected this supported projects around the world.
One day, Ivor sank into a pew, short of breath from asthma, and he listened. He started to attend regularly, and over time made a few friends. He lived in the local authority care home, where he always welcomed visitors to his room for a cuppa and a chat. Then, tragically, his only son died in an accident and Ivor asked the minister to conduct the funeral. Several months later, a solicitor rang to ask if the minister could officiate at Ivor’s funeral. He had died suddenly. Oh, and he had left his entire estate to the Church – £350,000. After much prayer and consultation, Ivor’s generous gift – everything he had – funded a new community space. Called ‘open doors’, it provided hospitality for anyone and everyone.
I end by leaving you with this thought.
If you saw an action of overwhelming compassion or generosity, like that of the two widows, would that stir you to do something similar? But there’s more to it than just the doing of the action itself. You never know when your life, your actions, will stir something in someone else. If that ‘someone’ was people watching you, would they see something to inspire them in the way you give?
Amen
Grace
Comments