Key Task: Doing Theology

During her lengthy stay at Balmoral Queen Victoria was walking alone on the estate. It began to rain so she called at a cottage and asked to borrow an umbrella. The tenant, irritated by the interruption, gave a tatty old umbrella for which the Queen thanked her. The following day a courtier returned the umbrella with the Queen’s thanks and compliments. The tenant was heard to say, “If I had known who she was she could have had my best umbrella”.

If we knew who we were giving to our gifts would be marked by joy, the cheerful giving of which St Paul speaks. A climate where money talk is constrained, even suppressed by scarcity and fear of causing offence and all too often focused on church buildings is not conducive to understanding money as a gift and giving as a grace. Giving in Grace is not about fundraising. It is about giving in response to God’s love and overwhelming generosity; giving as an act of worship and thanksgiving; giving to enable us to share in God’s action in his church and world.

As St Paul says: ‘we want you to excel also in this grace of giving’ (2 Cor 8:7) Christian giving is much more than calculating how much to give but being caught up in the gracious giving of God. The crucial question is not how much I give, but how much of me, my love for God, my life in Christ, the blessings entrusted to me, are reflected in what I choose to give.

The Bible sets high standards for all of us; people often expect high standards of their leaders. There is an expectation that people ‘walk their talk’. Therefore it is vital that the leaders within the church understand and practice giving above all else as an act of worship. It is important that they engage seriously with the biblical challenge to give generously and freely and that each can honestly say that they have prayerfully and carefully reviewed their own pattern and levels of giving.