It was a hot long day … not the first hot long day. The crowds had been there three days now. The disciples could see their excitement as they listened to the master. You could see that look in their eyes as they just had to listen to every word he said. But after three days of listening and sitting and heat, that look was slightly gone. The people needed food.
Jesus challenges the disciples ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.’
According to one of the other gospels - the disciples pre-empt this by trying to get Jesus to send the crowd away.
After all there only three possible solutions. Send the people away to sort themselves out. Fork out money that they don’t have to feed five thousand people. Or Jesus miracle food out of no where.
Jesus doesn’t choose ANY of these option. He most certainly does not miracle food out of no where, and he does not expect them to spend money they don’t have. Rather he takes what little they have … and it is very very little … just 7 loaves and a few small fishes.
It’s amazing something very very little can make a huge difference. One year Chad Rose ended up with a spare Christmas tree. Somehow he had ended up with a second real Christmas tree - where he was Christmas trees only cost $25 so he decided to give it away. He put an advert on the internet - free Christmas tree for a family that needs it. “I mean, it was just a tree,” Chad Rose told me, in recounting early on how he approached the decision to give the single tree away.
But with each e-mail he read from would-be recipients, it became clear to him how significant a tree can be in contributing to the holiday aura.
With every note he received, he was sobered at how an outlay of $25 or more for a Christmas tree is beyond the financial reach of so many in our midst.
“Hello,” began one e-mail. “My husband and I have 6 kids so you can imagine Christmas time is rough for us. We also have three birthdays at the end of the year.
“Having a real Christmas tree would be such a great blessing this year (because) usually we draw a Christmas tree on a large poster and hang it in the corner.”
From another hopeful, Rose received this: “You are a blessing! I was just getting ready to explain to my 6 year old daughter that Christmas is not just about a tree. In actuality, not being able to afford one this year was going to be more devastating for me. If you have one available…we would love to get one. Either way, what you are doing is truly incredible and I can not express how grateful I am for the impact you are having on people in your community.”
“I was overwhelmed,” he says of the response, which started streaming in just minutes after he posted his ad. A tiny gift like a Christmas tree, able to make such a difference. But what was he to do with so many people needing help…
I have been astonished at St Barnabas by the level of generosity here. You only had to look last week at our St Barnabas Day festivities at the sheer overwhelming quantity of cakes and other food you donated. Enough to last us not just for the day itself but for Sunday too. I know of individuals in this congregation who have been in financial trouble who have been helped out by other individuals - sometime with them knowing who was giving sometimes anonymously. And last year you showed this again - by the incredibly generous way you responded to our Stewardship campaign. Pledged giving went up by something like a third. So any Stewardship Sunday has to start with an immense thank you for all your generosity. Please turn to those around you and give them a round of applause to thank them for their generosity.
Your generosity does make a huge difference. Renting out the hall may bring in some money that helps with the building and stuff like that. But effectively what you give pay for there to be a vicar here. If you hadn’t consistently been so generous over the years St Barnabas would have been merged in with another congregation or perhaps even shut - but you over 6 decades through your giving have kept the work of God alive in this place, So thank you.
Now personally I am much comfortable with Paul’s approach in our second reading talking about “the abudent joy” and “wealth and generosity” than I am with the rather threatening approach of Malachi in our first reading “Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In your tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me— the whole nation of you! Bring the full tithe into the storehouse,”
Tithing - giving 10% of our income - can seem an enormous challenge - one that some of us may dive into with abandon, but for many of us may take several years of working up to before we can get there.
But of course you can’t give what you don’t have. A fellow priest has a way of talking about this through doing maths. Who here knows their nought times tables? What is 10% of nothing?
If we don’t have we can’t give. This is probably the worst possible time for me to be standing up talking to you about giving. As most of you now know, my marriage has recently ended - and I don’t yet know what my financial circumstances are. I don’t know if in a few months time I may not because I want to but because i have to cut my giving to the church. There may be others of you in different but similar circumstances. But what sort of vicar challenges other people to raise their giving if he doesn’t know if he can keep up his own giving.
But actually that is what Malachi is challenging us to do - the point of tithing is most importantly that giving should be proportionate. 10% of a little is a little but 10% of a lot is a lot. And we might not all make that 10% … but as a goal it is a worthy one to strive towards
You will all have heard of JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books. Perhaps you have read her stories that your grab your attention both with their level of detail and with the realism with which they convey emotions. But her own story is perhaps more worthy of a booker prize than any of the stories she has written.
Let’s start near the end. In 2011 JK Rowling became the first person ever to become a billionaire through writing books. She was entered on the Forbes Rich list - cited numerous magazine. The first person ever to become a billionaire through writing books.
In 2012 she became the first person ever to leave Forbes Rich list not because of financial mismanagement but because she had given so much money to charity. Malachi challenges us “not to rob God” but to tithe 10% of our income. J. K. Rowling however didn’t give away 10% of her INCOME, she didn’t just give away 10% of her over-all wealth. In that 1 year alone she studiously gave away 16% of her wealth, while strenuously avoiding any tax mitigation schemes that might have reduced the amount she needed to pay to the government.
Now as to why JK Rowling gives away so much, we’ll come onto that.
Of course, there is a problem about talking about seriously wealthy people giving away seriously large sums.
We could talk about Bill Gates who has pledged eventually to give away half is wealth and has given away $28 billion dollars already … but most of us don’t have $28 billion dollars, and it can make us feel a bit inadequate about the giving we do give. But that is not how God thinks.
Compared to the wealth of God the wealth of Bill Gates is nothing. God loves what Bill Gates has done but God loves even more that little boy who took his tiny packed lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fishes and donated it to Jesus. God loves what JK Rowling has done, but God loves even more the widow who took her last penny and put it in the Temple Collection box. God loves the huge big corporate donors, but God loves even more the amount you give that might not have 6 noughts on the end … but which actually, you feel the pinch when you give it in a way that a billionaire could never have experienced.
As I have said already - not every one of us can increase our giving and some may even be in a position of having to cut it. But the reason that won’t be a problem is because this is a generous congregation and people who can give have always given generously. Now some of you may be saying “well if I increase my giving it can only be by a very small amount. Is it worth it?” It’s amazing how the little pennies from different people add up and make a huge difference. Inflation creeps in each year. 2 or 3% might not seem much - hardly worth increasing my giving to cover just that… but in churches where people all take that attitude, over a few years it quickly adds up. If you can increase your giving, the amount you can increase it by, however small, makes a huge difference. Since you were all so generous last year, realistically there’s perhaps 10 or 5 of you who can this year make a seriously big increase to your giving this year. But I am hoping that at least half of you might be in a position to make a small increase. Because however small it is, it makes a huge difference.
Bill Gates may have given away $28 billion dollars. Many other rich people have set up trusts that gave away millions. And that does make a difference. Because of Bill Gates, serious progress is being made in combatting malaria. And for some of those of you who have families in countries where malaria is rife, that is a big thing. But charities that rely on donations from big givers can find themselves in very perilous situations. After the 2008 financial crisis many charities got into choppy waters after their big donations fell. The one set of charities that survived virtually unscathed - ordinary Church of England parish churches. Relying not on a small number of huge donations but on a huge number of small donations - churches proved far more resilient. Because faithful Christians who might not be giving a large didn’t cut their giving in the way the big trusts did. And those little amounts that some sceptics would foolishly write off all kept the work of God going in this country.
Which brings me back to JK Rowling the first person to become a billionaire through writing books, and the first person to give up being a billionaire by giving money away to charity. What made her do it? Part of it may be her own experience of poverty - when she wrote the first book, she was single mother abandoned by the child’s father, living off benefits. Why would she seek to avoid paying tax when other people’s taxes had kept her going when she was at her lowest ebb? And why would she hoard money for herself when she had experienced true poverty and could help rescue others from it. But there is also another factor - her faith in God. JK Rowling as any of you who have read the Deathly Hallows will know, is a committed Christian. And there is something about having experienced that generosity and love from God that makes you want to show love and generosity to others.
When Malachi challenges us “not to rob God” Malachi tells us also that if we try out tithig God will “open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing”. I don’t think that means that God is going to buy each one of us mercedes. God promises to look after our need not our greed.
joel Rogers, a wealthy tax accountant in America challenged his parents:
“Being devout Southern Baptists my parents have steadfastly been giving 10% of their income to the church their whole lives. I recently voiced my opinion that I thought that was too [much to] give, and my parents and I got into an argument.
After a little back-and-forth, my parents conceded tithing at 10% may not be the exact amount ‘God’ expects, but my mother said something that stuck with me. She said the 10% they give to the church makes them happier than anything else they spend money on.”
According to a 2008 study those who give more away are consistently happier than those who spend the money on themselves or save it. Could this be part of the blessing Malachi talked about? “Then all nations will count you happy for you will be a land of delight”. (Malachi 3:12)
St barnabas, as I have said is probably the most generous of the four congregations I have served in. It also strikes me as an exceptionally happy church with very little dischord. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t mean there isn’t pain and brokenness here - but there is also community and happiness . I think there could be a link and the generous spirit. Being generous minded makes this a happier place.
Which brings me back to Chad Rose and his Christmas trees. Chad was giving away a tiny gift of a $25 dollar christmas tree when he was faced with heart rending stories of people his one tree to help.
Faced with the prospect of telling all but one party that the tree was spoken for, he put the other requesters on hold and drove to a tree farm in Greenville, where he bought 40 more, carting them to his Lowell home on a large trailer.
He spent most of Wednesday going over his list, checking it twice, and not paying much attention to who’s been naughty or nice – just deserving.
And after helping these people - do you think he felt sadder or happier? And his small gift inspired others. Ann Posont of East Grand Rapids read Rose’s ad and contacted him, not to get, but to give. She offered to donate ornaments and other trimming for folks who ended up with trees. I wouldn’t be surprised if once this story hit the media other people had not been inspired to give too.
A little gift can make a huge difference - which is why when faced with 5000 people to feed, Jesus doesn’t magic food out of nowhere, but instead takes the tiny hopeless helpless offering that was available - 7 loaves and a few small fishes - and uses to feed a crowd as large of population of Northolt Park.
That is always Jesus’s way. He doesn’t care if we only have very little to spare. When we share what we can spare however tiny - he transforms it’s impact into something amazing. You may well not be able to increase your giving by very much. If you cannot increase it all - DONT feel embaressed. But if you can increase it by a little bit, however small, God will use it to make an incredible huge difference
