The Mar Thoma Church of Dallas, Famers Branch

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July

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

The first Sunday of July is stewardship Sunday or the Sunday set apart for offering tithe. It reminds us, the meaning of Christian giving and we are stewards in God’s creation. Paul in his second letter to Corinthians (chapters 8-9) explains the nature and meaning of Christian giving.

Paul says about the Macedonian Christians that “they give themselves first.” (2 Cor 8:5.). For Paul Macedonian Christians are good examples for giving. In spite of severe ordeal and extreme poverty, their abundant joy has overflowed in a wealth of generosity. They put themselves on the offering plate. There are at least four ways in which a man may give gift (a) he may give as a duty (b) he may give from motives or prestige. The real source of such giving is not love but pride (c) he may simply to find self satisfaction. He may think far more of the pleasant feeling that he has when he gives the gift than the feeling of the person who receives it. None of these are wholly bad, for at least the gift is given. But the only real way to give is (d) to give under love’s compulsion. This is in fact to give in God’s way, because God so love the world that he gave his son. It challenges us our duty to offer ourselves as the thanks offering to God.

Paul elaborates the theology of giving by narrating the self emptying nature of God, in other words God’s poverty for our riches. You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor (2 Cor 8:5).Our Lord had all the treasure of heaven. He gave it up, he gave himself up, even to death, that we might have heavenly riches, new life, and eternal life. Paul says that incarnation is the greatest act of giving. The ground of all such giving is God’s inexpressible gifts in Christ, which prompts such giving in response. Giving here means availability. God in Jesus available to every body is the basis of giving. The possibilities of expressing Christ in terms of real situation of people are endless. When we inter act the real situation of people we are making relevant the incarnation of Christ to the society. We have been generously treated by God. Can we be anything else but generous to your fellow men?

Mother Teresa says “when a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed.”

May God Almighty bless us all.

Rev. Vinoy Daniel