Reflection - Christian Giving

When we focus on Christian giving, and our response in thanksgiving to God for a multitude of blessings, we might turn to Romans chapter 12: 1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect”.

The place of beginning is clearly to see that God leads by example. Consider that classic text in John: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Giving follows loving as surely as night follows day, for it is in the very nature of love to give. Nels Ferre talks about what it means to give ourselves in surrender to the God: “Self-giving to God and for others is the way to find release from destructive tensions, from slavery to self, from anxiety with regard to others and to material things and so set us free for creative joy and true self-fulfilment”.

Human nature is of course a complex thing, but so many have come to find that the more they steered their life in that direction of self-giving, the greater the spiritual power they found, and the more real God became. What that means in fundamental terms of life-orientation needs to be spelled out in a number of particular ways.

It means that we give our time to God. We sometimes use the term 'full-time service' to refer to those working in the church or in para-church groups. But full-time service is for all Christians; it is the difference between a job and a vocation. One is something we do for a living; the other is something we do for God as well. To give our time to God is to give our work to God; but in a society so influenced by activism, we can easily believe the illusion that the busier we are the better or holier we are. Someone has truly said that work, even when offered to God, can be the way we elude God. “We can bury ourselves in work. We can become 'too busy to think (or pray)”. To give our time to God, and our work to God, is to let God order our priorities.

Finally, there is the recognition that when we give ourselves to God, God will transform us. There is no better example of that than the story of Zacchaeus, the little tax collector who climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus. Zacchaeus came face to face with Jesus, and Zacchaeus saw in the mirror of Jesus' face, the kind of person he could be. Jesus set free the real Zacchaeus, and released in him that spring of generosity that was an expression of his salvation. We have here an invitation to take a further step in faith, to move a little closer to God. We all face the question – are we giving things to God, or are we giving ourselves?