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Introduction “Faith, by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (Jas 1.17). When James wrote this, he wanted to let his brothers and sisters in Christ understand that the fine statements we make about God must be accompanied by action. Our heritage There are many ways in which we can act to show the love of God to others. The history of the Christian Church shows how (for example) schools, hospitals and care for the elderly and the orphaned sprang from a loving concern for others. Of course, Christians were not alone in this; other world faiths have a similar history. The challenge of such a tradition is that we should not treat it like a museum full of reminders of the past that we keep polished and dusted and with little cards of explanation about how things used to be. We fail to understand tradition when we simply use it to glorify the past or to justify old practices. Our responsibility Tradition is better seen as a relay race in which we pass on the baton from generation to generation. So the past should spur us to find our own ways of ensuring that our faith and our worship are not dead. We must find new ways of acting. Of course, one way in which we can continue to act is by our financial giving. Both through the local congregation and through other charitable causes, we can do our best to see that the care of those in need is properly resourced. Another way is to give time to support charities (local, national and international). Making marmalade to sell for a local housing association, or sitting with the homeless in a drop-in centre are good ways of expressing our Christian action. We can buy Fair Trade goods; we can give our old (but serviceable) clothes and furniture to those in need. We can contribute to disaster appeals, and so on. Action in worship Week by week, we have the opportunity to give financially to the life and work of our own church. Of course, this includes some items of maintenance – but it also includes mission activities. When we give little, we see little by way of result (cf. 2 Cor 9.6). If we want to achieve something more than the minimum, we have to offer something more than what is left after we have had first pick. If we believe that God comes first, then we must act accordingly: faith without works is dead! Yet there is a danger that we think of our offering simply in terms of finance. Perhaps, we could add to the offering plate items for prayer (see leaflet 8) or pledges to act, so that when the offering prayer was said we truly knew that we were counting the cost (Lk 14.28) and setting our hands to the plough without looking back (Lk 9.62). Two old traditions to reconsider There used to be a tradition of the Communion Offering. It was a way of caring for one another. In the early Church there was a tradition that the deacons took out communion to the sick. It was an expression of how those who could not be present were not to be forgotten.
Further Thinking The Old Testament talks about tithing (there were three separate tithes!) as a way of caring for the needy (as well as for the maintenance of a place of worship). Should we set aside first of all a set part of our money for the needs of others? How much do you think it costs to maintain Abbey Baptist Church as a place of worship (including the cost of personnel)? Should we give less to the needy? The picture a the head of this page shows something about Christian giving – but there is no money in view. What ways do we at Abbey give in addition to our cash? |
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Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, Reading. RG1 3BE Tel: 0118 957 2197 |
