Harvest: Giving & Receiving

Deuteronomy 8:7-18 Lord God bringing us into a good land

2 Corinthians 9:6-15 God loves a cheerful giver

Luke 17:11-19 Christ heals ten lepers

 

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind,

not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

(2 Corinthians 9.7)

 

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Why give? What motivates us to give? What makes us cheerful in giving?

 

Harvest festival is a time when many people are moved to give.

 

There is a close relationship between giving and receiving, because today we give special thanks for what we receive from the land and respond through giving harvest offerings.

 

St Francis of Assisi, in the classic prayer attributed to him, says that it is in ‘giving that we receive’.

 

That opens up the possibility that receiving prompts us to give.

 

Perhaps that is why giving is something that we tend to do instinctively at harvest time, because Intentionally reflecting on the abundance of creation – however much humanity seems hellbent on wrecking it – shows us that we are always the recipients of a gift in our lives.

 

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Being aware that we are, first, recipients of a gift is at the heart of the spiritual life.

 

The existence of the world and universe is itself a gift to us; and a gift implies a Giver.

 

The point of all the language of creation in the Biblical witness is that all that we know, all that we have, is first and foremost, an unmerited gift that we have been given by the great Giver, that is God our creator.

 

Life itself is a gift.

 

Not one person here, nor ever has lived, has determined that they would be born outside the gift they are through their parents.

 

This is what we call ‘grace’.

 

Grace is an unmerited gift, a gift that you cannot work for or strive for, because it is the gift of the Giver: God.

 

Each of our readings today has opened up the theme of unmerited and freely given grace.

 

In Deuteronomy an abundant land, where there is no want or scarcity is described, which is God’s gift to his people.

 

It is a land that prefigures the abundance of the New Creation in Christ, life as the baptised in the Church.

 

And there is a trenchant reminder that reinforces this point about grace and the gift of God:

 

Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. (Deuteronomy 8.17-18)

 

Grace is not earned or worked for: it is a gift to be responded to.

 

The Second Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians takes this point further:

 

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9.8)

 

That’s grace; a gift to be responded to, not under compulsion but willingly and cheerfully.

 

A pattern emerges: receiving prompts gratitude which frees us to give.

 

Or at least that’s the theory.

 

The Gospel reading today holds a mirror up to us all in our response to the blessing, healing and abundance of God.

 

Am I a person of gratitude? Do I willingly and joyfully respond to the gift of life, to the abundance of creation, to the grace I receive in my life day by day?

 

The gospel reading could be heard in a very moralistic way: remember to say thank you.

 

That’s not a bad message, but there’s something richer going on.

 

There were ten lepers and one came back to give thanks.

 

This is illustrating the Biblical principle of giving known as a tithe.

 

A tithe is the gift of a tenth of what is received: ten lepers, one responded with gratitude, that is the tithe.

 

Serious, sacrificial discipleship works on the principle of the tithe and is a feature of many churches to this day: giving a tenth of what I receive in my income or abundance.

 

Why might I give generously? Because I receive generously, not just things, trinkets to acquire, but the deepest most fundamental gift of life itself, sustained by grace and the abundance of creation.

 

But our giving is not just measurable in a tithe, it is even more it is surrendering our very selves to Christ.

 

The deepest gift is the gift of God’s life to us and us to God.

 

The Eucharist is the place of that divine exchange and makes sense of all we say about receiving and giving, for a gift is offered in the sacrament of the altar, itself a channel of grace, to which we are invited to respond: Christ himself.

 

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We give items at harvest festival that we know will make a difference to others, which in itself is a reward to us; the art of the spiritual life is to give and, in the words of a prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola, ‘not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing God’s will’.

 

May this harvest thanksgiving prompt us to consider why we give, how we give and what we give, for the benefit of all people, for the mission and ministry of the Church and, with that, in response to the God, the Giver of all good things, who sustains us in life.

 

So to God the Blessed Trinity - our Maker, Redeemer and Sustainer - Father, Son and Holy Spirit be all honour, thanksgiving, adoration and praise to the end of the ages. Amen.