Today is a day to be thankful. As we celebrate harvest, we give thanks for the abundance of good gifts we enjoy and for the beauty of the earth God has made. As we celebrate Joanna's baptism, we also give thanks for the love God our Father pours out upon her and upon each one of us, and for the new life we have in Christ as his people.
Everything begins with God's generosity. Our Creator has made a rich, beautiful world and we are to delight in it, receive his gifts with thankfulness, and generously share them with others. If we're honest, we have to admit that we don't always respond like that. Instead, we can develop a greedy possessiveness towards God's gifts, or become unduly anxious about what we have or don't have.
Our New Testament readings this morning challenge us about these two attitudes: greed and anxiety.
In the first letter to Timothy, we are warned against a greedy possessiveness; we are encouraged to learn a simple contentment with what we have and not to be constantly hankering after more. The word for 'contentment' used here can mean 'self-sufficiency' and certainly self-sufficiency was highly valued by the Stoic philosophers of the time. But when Paul talks about being content with what he has, he is not talking about self-sufficiency but God-sufficiency. All our resources are from God and not from ourselves. We are encouraged to trust God for what we need and not to clutch after more than we need.
We are warned that those who yearn to be rich will fall into all kinds of temptations and senseless desires that will 'plunge people into ruin and destruction.' The image is one of being plunged under water, overwhelmed or drowned. We're told 'the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil' which can lead to many pains and griefs. Certainly, having lots of money doesn't necessarily bring happiness; it can sometimes overwhelm and dominate people's lives and cause all kinds of misery. Perhaps we may have experienced that in our own lives or the lives of those close to us, and I think here of stories of how huge lottery wins sometimes cause stress, family divisions and other unhappiness.
The important thing to notice though is that Paul is not speaking against riches themselves, and he doesn't condemn those who are rich. Instead, he is pointing out the destructive effects of the love of money.
What attitude do we have to the material gifts we enjoy, our money and possessions?
This is a key question. It is easy to become addicted to wanting more and possessing more, rather than holding what we have lightly and being generous with it. Money, wealth, possessions can all become idols. As Jesus warns, we cannot serve both God and wealth (Matthew 6:24). Our attitude to money can distort our values and priorities and even 'lead us away from the faith' as we heard in our reading from 1 Timothy.
Instead, we can develop a positive attitude to our money and all the gifts we receive and use them for good. Further advice is given to the rich a few verses later: 'They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share...so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.'
We may not think of ourselves as rich, but in comparison with the majority of people in our world, we are rich. How do we use our riches? On this harvest and pledge Sunday we are encouraged to come with joyful thankfulness for all that God has given us and reflect on how we can share that generously and use it wisely. A traditional Christian discipline is to 'tithe', that is to give away a tenth of our income. This may include pledging to give regularly towards the ministry and mission of the church, or the work of charities relieving those suffering dreadful poverty in our world. It may include giving to clean technologies or organisations seeking to find solutions to climate change, as Dominic Roser encouraged us to do in his talk a few weeks ago.
The lifestyle we adopt, what we do with our possessions and our money, can affect our own spiritual health and well being. It can also make a difference to the lives of those in need and the health of our planet.
But fear, as much as greed, can make us clutch our possessions to ourselves. Perhaps one of the reasons why we are not always as generous as we could be with what we have is that we are plagued with anxiety about the future. This is the attitude Jesus challenges in our gospel reading. 'Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing?'
Jesus isn't saying we don't need these physical things; 'indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things', he says. God is concerned for our physical as well as our spiritual needs; he is concerned for our whole well being. But being financially secure, making more money, possessing more, being materially comfortable is not to be our goal in life.
Rather than worrying about our future security – and we can indeed worry terribly about such things – Jesus offers an alternative. He encourages us to have a different vision, to live by different priorities. 'Strive first for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.' Seeking the kingdom of God doesn't mean just thinking about the next life, 'pie in the sky when you die'; we are to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness now. As we say in the Lord's prayer: 'your kingdom come, on earth as in heaven.' Striving for God's kingdom and righteousness includes praying and working for justice and caring for the vulnerable. As we celebrate the riches of the harvest this morning, we especially remember those in our world who don't even have enough to eat.
The challenge is to learn God's priorities for us and for our world and let them impact how we live, including our attitude to money and material things. I was very struck recently by a friend who decided to leave one job and start another with a big pay cut because she felt she would be more useful there and could use her gifts more fully for God and for others. That's a good example of someone thinking carefully and prayerfully about their priorities. What is most important to us?
Today, as we celebrate harvest, we give thanks to God for the abundant gifts of creation. Today, we also celebrate Joanna's baptism. God's grace is poured out upon Joanna as she is united with Christ and welcomed into the church. Her parents, Bolu and Adiza, will promise to turn to Christ, and go on turning to Christ, as they pray for Joanna, teach her stories about Jesus, and encourage her to grow in faith. We as a church have an important role to play in that too. As she grows older, we pray that Joanna will know more and more of God's abundant grace, learn an ever deeper trust in him, and decide to follow Christ for herself.
For Joanna, and for all of us, everything begins with God and God's grace. God is not a miser; he doesn't clutch his riches to himself, but gives freely and abundantly. He gives to us in creation, and in the gift of Christ. We do not have to earn his love. Sometimes God's generous love is hard to take on board. As one writer says:
'The problem is that the human imagination is simply not large enough to take in all that God is and has to give. We are overwhelmed. God's inexhaustible creation, limitless grace, relentless mercy, enduring purpose, fathomless love: it is just too much to contemplate, assimilate, understand.' (Sam Wells)
Baptism and holy communion are both signs of God's 'limitless grace' and 'relentless mercy' towards us. He does not only give us gifts of life, but he gives us his very self in Jesus. Our Christian life begins and grows through receiving God's grace: as we receive the water of baptism, hear and receive his word, and receive the bread and the wine.
So today we give thanks that God gives himself generously to us. God also calls us to respond by giving ourselves generously to him and to others. As Joanna is baptized, let us remember our own baptism, that we too are called to turn to Christ day by day, to live with trust and generosity, rather than fear and greed, and to follow his priorities in our daily lives.
Helen Marshall