"Stewardship"
Our focus through the first week in October is ‘Stewardship’ when we are encouraged to think about how we play our part in the building up and maintenance of God’s Kingdom, and in our worship, we have reflected on the feeding of the five thousand; it is a well-known story and the only miracle to be included in all four Gospels.
What a wonderful story it is! A story of generosity on the part of those who offered what little food they had, and even more so on the part of God, who took what was offered and used it not just to provide what was needed, but more besides. It’s a story about God’s abundant generosity, God’s abundant grace that is lavished so freely upon us.
And there are great parallels with some of what we experience in church today. The disciples have a big task ahead of them: to feed five thousand hungry people and so immediately they think about money. It would cost too much to feed all these people, we just don’t have enough so we’ll have to send them away and they can feed themselves. Confidence wavers and anxiety levels spike as financial and practical concerns take over from spiritual teaching and contemplation they had been enjoying with Jesus.
This might sound a little bit familiar, especially to those on the Church Council, with the regular discussions that take place there about money. The concerns that we haven’t got enough and so can’t possibly do all the things that we want and need to do.
Jesus, on the other hand, knows that this group of people, this community, already have some resources among them; God has given them all that they need and more, so his job is to help them recognise that and to tap into all that they have in responsible ways. The disciples come to Jesus in a flap, and he calmly tells them, “the people don’t need to go away, you give them something to eat”, and they as express doubts, Jesus asks, “how many loaves have you? What have you actually got? Go and see.”
One person, in John’s account of the miracle it’s a young boy, offers just five loaves and two fish. It’s clearly not going to be enough to feed all 5000 people, but he freely gives the little he has so that Jesus can use it. And as we know, Jesus takes it and blesses it; the disciples distribute it and there are 12 baskets-full left over.
There was no way the disciples could feed the crowd on their own; they just didn’t have enough. But neither did Jesus feed the crowd without their help. He didn’t produce food out of thin air, he took what had been offered and given freely and he used it and multiplied it not just to provide what was needed, but to provide an abundance of food besides.
And that brings me to our own situation. Our PCC meetings are often rather like that description of the disciples, we spend a lot of time looking at our finances, worrying about the fact that we’re running at a significant deficit, trying to come up with ways to increase our income. Our confidence wavers and anxiety levels spike as the financial and practical concerns all too often take over from spiritual and ministerial matters.
Recently I wrote out to church members telling you how much money we need in order to meet all our expenses which I think was helpful but our giving as Christians, our stewardship, should not be about what is needed, it should be about what we have that we can offer freely, in order that God might use it to bless God’s people abundantly.
Jesus spent quite a lot of time talking about money and wealth and poverty and possessions. But he never said, we’ve just received a big bill and we’re struggling to pay it so can you please give a bit more. Jesus never said, we’ve spent £X on candles this year, please can someone cover that cost. Jesus never said, our ministry to children and young people is dependent on someone putting up the money to fund it.
Our giving should not be about what is needed but about what we can give. As followers of Jesus, we are called to prayerfully consider all that we have; we are called to recognise that all we have comes from God; and we are called to freely offer back to God and God’s church whatever we have that we can give.
For some of us, financially, that may be nothing or very little, and that is absolutely fine. But however much or however little we have, our faith, our discipleship, demands that we think seriously about money and what we do with it.
So this month, I offer a challenge to each and every one of us, myself included, to spend some time thanking God for all we have and prayerfully considering what can freely offer back to the work of God’s Church. Many folks already give regularly but it is good practise to review our giving on a regular basis. It may be that your circumstances have changed, and you need to reduce your giving. Or maybe you can afford to give a bit more than you already do. Or maybe you’re new to church and didn’t know about giving. Or maybe you’ve been meaning to get around to sorting out your giving for a while and just haven’t quite found the time.
My friends if ever there was a time, this is it! This is the time for each and every one of us to prayerfully consider all that God has given to us and all that we can offer back to God. But don’t do it because you think or know we need more money, or because someone needs to pay for the candles or the bread and wine or the boiler repair or anything else. Do it because you’re grateful for all the gifts God has given you; do it because you believe in a God of generosity; do it because you believe in a God who has lavished us with abundant grace; do it because you can’t wait to see the miracle that will happen when we all offer to God the little bit we have and let God use it for the good of all God’s people.
We have a lot to learn from that person – perhaps a young boy - who offered the loaves and the fish. I wonder if he was really the only person out for all five thousand who had brought any food with him. Or maybe he was the only one who looked into his basket and saw what he had, instead of what he didn’t have, and was willing to act. Either way, he knew that he had something to share and so he offered it freely. And because he did, all ate and were filled. May we do the same.
Paul.
"The Radically Inclusive Love of Jesus for All."
Some say that preachers really only have one sermon in them, it is just interpreted in different ways. I don’t really think that is true per se, but I do think there is some truth in it, and if you stripped everything back, my sermon message would be the ‘radically inclusive love of Jesus for ALL’. This may be obvious to you already in terms of what you have heard me say but given it is Manchester Pride on August Bank Holiday Weekend, and I am busy organising the Pride Eucharist in the Cathedral, and will be walking in the Pride Parade with ‘Christians Walk With Pride’, I thought it a good time to share something of my own story.
The best place to start is by saying that for the majority of my 20s and early 30s I just instinctively felt that I was not welcome in church. To be fair, this wasn’t because I had been told not to come but having been to a very religious school in the 1980s, I never imagined there was a place for me in church. In fact, truth be told, in retrospect I think I thought that was probably fair. In other words, I had no right to be welcome in church.
I came out in the mid 1990’s, I was in my early twenties. Clearly being gay had been legal for nearly 30 years by then, but it wasn’t really the “done thing” to be indiscreet outside the comfort and safety of the gay scene. My parents were accepting but still for the first few years it was not widely known in my family. And of course, at this stage HIV and AIDS remained the “gay plague” in public consciousness and I think this coloured the view of the mainstream.
I went through periods of attending church, but I would tend to go to an 8am said Mass which as generally attended by a handful of people, I would arrive just before the Mass was about to start and would be the first out of the door at the end. I felt that if I was cornered and asked about myself, I would have to tell a lie. LGBTQ+ people have this thing of regularly having to come out or to be opaque and it saddens me.
About 15 years ago, I read an essay written by the journalist Charlie Brown about his conversion to Roman Catholicism. As gay man this was something of a surprise to him, but he described a Mass that was regularly celebrated for gay people in Soho, in an Anglican church in fact. He also talked about finding in Catholicism a big enough space where his own weaknesses and failings drew him closer to God. He seemed absolutely comfortable with his sexuality and being part of the church.
When I plucked up the courage to speak to a Priest about it, I was evidently too honest because he said he regretted I had been so open and suggested that Mark and I would need to live as Brothers, so I went back to the anonymity of 8am Masses and not feeling part of it.
Mark and I moved back to Manchester from Essex in 2011 and I did a google search with 3 words – “gay, Catholic, Manchester”. In truth I was praying to find a gay Roman Catholic Mass like Charlie Brown had found in Soho. Instead, I found an Anglo-Catholic Church, St Chrysostom’s. I attended for the first time on Christmas Eve 2012, having begged Mark to come with me, and I have to say I was nearly sick when I realised, we had to sit in the choir stalls so close to everyone else but I was hoping they lived up to the inclusiveness of their website.
They did live up to their promise of inclusivity and I started to attend their Parish Mass on a Sunday morning. By the beginning of February, I had plucked up the courage to stay for tea after Mass and the rest as they say is history.
In 2021 I was ordained, and each day, I look in the mirror and can’t believe that I have the privilege of this calling. It is such a far cry from creeping in and out of church hoping no one notices me. I am so grateful to be in a Diocese that’s trying its best to be inclusive and to be serving in a mission community where I am loved for who I am, and not only me but my wonderful partner too.
We must never take inclusion and equality for granted, we need always to be intentional and when we get it wrong, on whatever grounds, because this isn’t just an LGBTQ+ thing, we must learn the lessons and do better next time.
I would never have dreamed ordination would be an option for me and the Church of England still worries me, infuriates me, and makes me feel very sad at times; but I have hope for the future that the ‘Radically Inclusive Love of Jesus for ALL will be found throughout the church some day and mission communities like ours will no longer be the exception to the rule. After all, I’m a Christian and in Christ there is always hope!
With every blessing.
Fr Paul.