Today, St. Paul challenges us with this elemental truth of the Gospel—that “he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.” We’re presented today with an opportunity to consider our attitude toward giving of ourselves, our abilities, our resources, to consider how much we give back to God from that which He’s so greatly blessed us. But this question of how much we give is also secondary to the attitude in which we give it.
St. Paul challenges us in today’s Epistle to consider what we would call today our spiritual ‘investment’ in our own future. He does so, calling to mind a farmer sowing seeds: A farmer who sows sparingly—only that which he thinks is the bare minimum he can get by with to produce a crop, will suffer loss: bad weather, drought, a heat wave, pests, other unforeseen problems can devastate his harvest since he’s sown only sparingly. The smart farmer, on the other hand, sows abundantly, more seed than just what he thinks he may need, knowing that some of the seeds won’t sprout, will be eaten by the birds, or will be taken by inclement weather.
So it is with us: we ‘sow the seeds’ of our time, talents, and treasure, our spiritual resources, in order to reap a greater harvest for our souls. The work of the farmer who sows the seeds doesn’t end with the sowing: he has to tend the crops once they sprout; he has to make sure the plants receive enough water, sun, that they are protected from pests and weeds. It’s a tireless job.
What we ‘sow’ in our spiritual lives is a direct reflection of what we’re willing to entrust to God in terms of our time, talents, and treasures. But it’s never just about how much of ourselves we give, but also about the attitude towards God in which we give. Ultimately, everything you and I have, is a gracious gift from God.
Those who are satisfied with occasional church, who rarely pray, confess, or give of themselves through service to God, are missing out on the blessings that God has for us as we entrust our gifts, talents, and treasure to Him; their souls become weak, they struggle more to live a life of faith, to find Christ’s peace and purpose in their lives. It’s often the case that those who are sparing toward Christ and His Church with their gifts, talents, resources, are also those who struggle most with faith and trust in God and His provision in their lives, both physical and spiritual. They struggle to understand God’s central place in their lives because they don’t realize essentially that everything they have is not their own, but that it belongs first to God and that our Christian life is sacramental in nature.
Allow me to explain: While warning us that those who sow sparingly will also reap sparingly, St. Paul also assures us in the same Epistle that the reverse is also true: that he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. This belief has been lived out in our Orthodox Faith since the beginning of the Church: it’s what we call “sacramental living.” A wonderful example of sacramental living is seen in our theology of the Eucharist we celebrate today: God enables us to grow the wheat and the grapes that we harvest in order to make bread and wine. We offer these Gifts to the Lord in the Eucharist, “the thanksgiving.” He blesses and transforms them into the precious and holy Body and Blood of Christ, the “Medicine of Immortality,” which furthers us in our spiritual healing even as it unites us with Him who is Eternal Life.
So it is with our giving to the Church: God enables us to labor, to be productive; we earn a wage for doing so and we give a portion, a ‘first fruit’ back to God to enable the provision and further the growth His Church. He receives these gifts of thanksgiving from us and transforms them into spiritual blessings to us, provides for the ministries of the Church that feed our souls spiritually, and further grows His Church.
The standard of giving that we are given in the Old Testament and which pervades in the New is the tithe, ten percent. It is “the tithe” that St. Vladimir instituted as the standard of giving in the Church of Russia after his and the nation’s conversion. And so we see, that throughout the centuries, the tithe has endured as the standard. If everyone gave ten percent to the Orthodox churches across North America, imagine the well-spring of missions and ministries that could be established and expanded. We could truly bring Orthodoxy to America in this way.
Though Christ God speaks repeatedly in the Gospel about money, its hold on us, its corrupting of us, so as to warn us and put it back into its proper place, our giving to God in the Church is never just meant to be about our money. Instead, we also are given the opportunity to view our time, our gifts and talents, our service to God in a sacramental way as well for these are all part of God’s mercy and abundance towards us.
What we give of ourselves now, impacts our future—just as we hear in today’s Epistle. We build on the foundation that Christ has laid for us in the founding of this local church, Holy Archangels, so that we can continue to grow now while also providing for the needs of all who come to be part of this church family in the future.
In our own Mission, the needs are great but so are the opportunities to serve, which means many opportunities to become by grace what Christ is by nature. Just think how this mission can grow if we all give the “first fruits” of our time, our talents, and our treasure to help provide for this church, which provides for the spiritual needs of her parishioners and others, which has served as a ‘spiritual hospital’ and home for many of us these past three plus years since our founding.
This future is now upon us. We sow now in Fall 2014 that these worthy ambitions can become a reality in the future, assured that God will take whatever we offer him today with a thankful heart, bless it and give it back to us to further His ministry, his church, and His work in our lives.
Increasingly, we’ll need to minister to young families with small children too, while also serving the students and adults whom God brings our way. We need more opportunities for teaching and learning the faith too. In a couple of years, we’ll need to start a youth group program to help our pre-teens and teens navigate the difficult waters of adolescence, while learning to ‘own’ their faith, which will be invaluable for them to have the tools to keep their Orthodox faith in the midst of the present secular and nihilistic culture that dominates.
Growing the church demands a full-time priest, but maybe not in the way that you are thinking: The priest leads and shepherds, he pastors and ministers the Sacraments, he equips the faithful and disciples them, but then it’s the faithful—all of you—who are called to go forth to build up this local body of Christ’s holy Church. More than anything else, your gift of yourself, your time, talents, and treasure, your growing witness and living out of the faith is what God will use to grow us and this church.
Today, I ask each of you to take a “Time, Talent, Treasure” card and begin over the next month prayerfully considering what God would have you give to support this Mission and its ministries. God promises us thatnNo one who sows abundantly will be disappointed by His outpouring, as St. Paul reminds us today, saying: “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God” (II Cor. 9:10-11).
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, 12 October 2014
Sowing Bountifully 2…
Epistle: II Cor. 9:6-11
Gospel: Luke 7:11-16
