Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

I thank God and the WSCS president Mrs. Daisy Pradeep for giving me an opportunity to share the word of God in your midst. The passage for our meditation is from Romans 12:6-9.

Our focus is on “if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously.”  The church is the body of Christ, and Christ is the head of the church. In Christ, we are many, but form as one body, and each member belongs to one another and responsible to each other.  Each one has a different gift according to the grace given to us.  St. Paul brought out the giving as one of the spiritual gifts and whoever gives, let them give in generosity.  

At the outset, we should be very clear in our mind and understanding about the giving and gift of giving. The redeemed community of Israel and the Church has very clear mandate that every one is obligated, mandated to give to the support of the community sustenance and the ongoing ministry of the Church. But the generosity of giving is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Hence, the basic giving is the duty and responsibility of every believer but giving liberally to various causes are the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Generosity is endorsed with love and compassion, poverty and insufficiency, interest for commonwealth. This giving is comprised of time, talent, sharing the knowledge and possessions, positions, and appreciating others, esteeming others are part of the generosity.

First let us learn the real meaning of the word giving from a few words of Greek used in the Bible. The word giving comes from the root word ‘DIDOMI’ = “to give.”  The Greek word ‘DOSIS’ to mean the “act of giving, or a gift itself, generous giving” out of need and insufficient fund situations, it is not the overflow but giving out of love to others.  ‘DOTES’ refers to “the giver” The word ‘METADIDOMI’ is used to denote “share, to impart” whatever you can.  The word ‘EUMETADOTOS’ means “willing to share, ready to impart” to the one who is in need.

To acknowledge the “gracious gift or free gift” we use the word ‘CHARISMA’. ELEEMOSYNE means “alms” or charity. The word ‘Prosphora’ means “offering or sacrifice”

GENEROSITY:

‘GENNAIODORIA’ means generosity. GENNAIODOROS means generous, liberal, voluntarily giving. Freewill giving. The English word generosity derived from two Latin words:  1. Genere – beget, produce, create, came to exist, bring to life. 2. GENUS – birth, decent, origin (Father, family, nation, race, class…)

The act of giving can be learnt only from God the Father, who gave His only begotten son Jesus Christ to us in order to save us and to have eternal life. God’s Generosity is expressed in Mathew 20:1-16, Jesus narrating a parable of “labourers in the vineyard”, where he shows the God’s Grace and generosity is mere based on free giving.  We learn the act of giving through 3 steps that Jesus followed in His life and ministry.  Love, obedience and responsibility.

The relationship between God the father and Jesus Christ is bound with love.  Also, he loved us too.  Agape – unconditional divine love.  Whoever we are and however we are, when we approach him, he is Eveready to accept and show his abundant love to us.  His responsibility is to redeem the humanity, and he emptied himself, took the servant form, born in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the father, to the point of death on the cross and made a way for salvation and eternal life. Whoever believes Jesus as God and Savior will be saved and have eternal life.  

Illustration: A basket full of apples, and one or two rotten.  When I say take each one fruit. Then what will you do…The first one will pick up the best and the least is left with the rotten one….Generosity is learnt from the first one picks the rotten and leaves the best to the others.  The love and compassion is derived through this act.

A mother who takes care of her home the best. How does she be with children, husband and whole household?  A mother loves and compassionately does everything best to her household.  In later ages, when some dispute comes between the children or with anybody, what would be the reaction of the mother? She boast herself of her sacrificial services to them.  Is that called generosity?  Whatever we do should not expect anything in return.  Jesus with much love, obeyed to the God Father’s will and humbly gave His life on the cross, and accomplished His responsibility according to the Father’s will. Jesus never said anywhere that he had sacrificed his life for us. Hence, generosity is only fulfilling the responsibility rely on us and not expecting anything in return. Remember the responsibility and executive with love, and obedience.   

Proverbs 31: 30 one who fear the Lord is the blessed woman. The surprise reward comes from the family and people around us. Any celebration, be done with the people who cannot pay back to us. Luke 14:14. The act of giving, should come out of LOVE. Love has no restrictions or limitations. Love is generous. It is imbibed in all creations.  But only when we exercise it, love is lacking. If we really have the salvific experience, we give generously with love.

Abraham and Lot, when they were blessed and flocks were multiplied, Abraham called Lot and said, the whole land is before you, if you take the left hand will go to right, if you take the right hand I will go to the left.  What a generous giving it is?  When Jesus and his disciples were in mission and moving around, some women supported them with what they had. Luke: 8:2-3.  Lydia opened her house for worship in Macedonia where the church at Phillip was established.  Tabitha who shared her love with doing good to the widows and helping the needy. The Churches in Macedonia gave out of their extreme poverty to support the ministry in Jerusalem. 2 Corinthians 8:1-4

Giving to God and to ministry out of poverty: A widow offered 2 small copper coins at the temple was received with high honour.  Luke 6:38 “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with what measure you use, it will be measured to you” Proverb 3: 9-10 “Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing and your vats will brim over with new wine”

I Chronicles 29:14, David says, “But who am I and who are my people, that we should be able to give generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.  We are aliens and strangers in your sight, as were all our forefathers”

In the early church, they practised to share the possessions with all.  Acts 4:32. by sharing the possessions, there were no needy persons among them.  Ananias and Sapphira, on hearing the word, became believer and pledge to offer their possession.  But later they decided to sell a piece of their property and kept back a portion for themselves in order to show that they also generous giver to the church and also wanted to maintain the status among the others in the society.  The act of their giving was to please God and the society.  

So, when Ananias came to the apostle and kept the money before them. Peter asked how he lied before Holy Spirit, didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you to think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God. His wife also lied and both died on the spot.  This example reminds us Jesus’ words in Mathew 6:1-4 while giving we should not be like hypocrites, giving should be for the common good of the body of Christ, it should not be for personal glory or for recognition.

Acts 20:35 “it is more blessed to give than to receive”.   While giving our hand is up and the receivers’ hand is low.   Mark 12: 30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbour as yourself”

Repentance brings the new relationship with God. God’s love abides in us. When we commit our lives with humility and seek his face for salvation, that shows how much love do we have in him.  Love leads obedience.  Obedience to the word brings blessings of joy, and peace. Obedience leads to a greater responsibility for fulfilling the will and purpose of God in us.  Gift of generous giving starts from there.  The Holy Spirit inspires to give more to His service and extension of His kingdom.  Sharing and caring the people around is our responsibility.  We should not expect any reward for it. It is to carry out with love as God loved us.  We are the channel of love to many through the generous giving and lifting them to glorify God.  

May the Lord bless each one of us. Amen.   

Rev. Uma Natarajan