(2 Cor 9:6-14)

6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." 10Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

The Church of England operates on a set lectionary of readings. This means that every Anglican church (across the world) does the same reading each Sunday. Since I arrived in Shepherds Bush I have preached each week on the Gospel reading. It is only in the last few weeks that I have started to preach on the Epistles. The Gospels are the stories of Jesus' words and deeds. The Epistles are the letters written by Paul to the early churches telling them how to make sense of what Jesus said and did. Jesus gave the foundational teaching and then Paul drew out the implications.

Paul travelled across the early world telling people about the reality of significance of Jesus' death and resurrection. He gathered people together in the places together and formed them into churches. He then wrote to these churches dealing with issues and answering questions as they arose. I have shifted to the epistles because I believe that it is the right time for us to be asking the questions of ourselves that Paul was asking of the churches that he visited and then with whom he kept contact.

The verses that I am looking at is verse 7 & 8:

7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

I am (in fact) breaking with Anglican protocol in that this is the second week that I have preached on these two verses. I was away last Sunday and so many of you may well not remember the previous sermon. Anyhow, we are a high street church and many people will not come every Sunday and so will not have heard the sermon anyhow. I am going to carry on breaking with Anglican protocol and preach on this same verse for some weeks to come - same verses, different sermons, don't go away, it will help us to ask the questions of ourselves that (I believe) we need to be doing.

It is easy to come together when there is an inspiring sermon, an uplifting song from Sam, we get a chance to meet some new people, chat with some friends. It gives us some time to think, gets us out of bed and when the service finishes we have the whole day ahead of us to do as we will. It is not so comfortable when church is not as we think it should be, if we think that the children have been too noisy, if we think that the service has been boring, if we are annoyed by something that someone has said

Paul outlines three attitudes to adopt for us to adopt if things to do not seem to be going our way. I will use the analogy of music to express this idea. How does Paul want us to behave the day the music dies?

1. LOCALLY: It is not immediately apparent how we might do this when we live fast technology driven, London lifestyles. How do we live locally and care for people when we don't know the people who live around us? Therein lies the point of us coming together in one place and creating a corporate life. In Corinthians Knowing that they claim this church as their spiritual home, they supported the church staff and programs from which they derived benefit. (I Timothy 5:17-18, I Corinthians 9:13-14)

How else does Paul want us to behave the day the music dies?

2. CHEERFULLY... The second principle of giving is cheerfulness (verse 7) - give until it is downright hilarious. That gives a sense of the root meaning of the word cheerful in the text. God loves a hilarious giver. In the early church they give their offering not just to an organization, but rather to God - and they give willingly, and not under compulsion, but with a spirit of joyful worship as their resources flow out to serve others. Knowing that God gives so extravagantly to them and will provide for them, they seek to follow His example and want to give willingly. (2 Corinthians 9:5-7)

How else does Paul want us to behave the day the music dies?

3. SACRIFICIALLY... It is a constant exercise of grace, intuition, determination and energy to keep ourselves from simply reproducing in church the dominant cultural paradigms of society. We are socialised into living by a principle of give and get - we get out what we put in. This is a recipe for good manners and respectable living. It is not an invitation to the freedom we work together in understanding on a Sunday-by-Sunday basis. In the early church they understand that Christ gave himself for us, and so they joyfully present all they are and have back to God as a "living sacrifice." They learn to "give until it hurts" and then give a little more ... until it feels good! (Romans 12:1-2, 8; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9)