Second Sunday of Easter 2024

 

Second Sunday of Easter

Lectionary readings: Acts 4.32-35 and John 20.19-31

Easter is not a day, or even a long weekend. Easter is a Season, lasting seven weeks (which is longer than the Season of Lent, the season of preparation for Easter). It is a Season of learning what it means to be a people, a community, defined by resurrection. And our reading today from the Acts of the Apostles invites us to engage with how the resurrection empowers us to overcome one of the key forces of death in the world: the hold that wealth has over us.

In the Gospels, Jesus speaks about our relationship to money more than anything else. In the Sermon on the Mount, he explicitly says, ‘You cannot serve both God and mammon’ (Matthew 6.24). Mammon translates as riches, money, possessions, or property; and Jesus describes this as operating like a rival god: either we find ourselves serving mammon, and the claim it asserts over our lives; or we choose to serve God. Either way, we are not the masters of our own lives. Mammon asserts its claim over humanity in every age and society. In our context, we swim in the sea of neoliberal free market fundamentalism, that holds so many in the captivity of poverty, and a few in the captivity of wealth—and we tend to assume that, at worst, this is the best of all possible alternatives. This is how Mammon rules over us.

In light of the resurrection, Jesus’ followers recognised that their financial resources were not theirs alone but were given for the common good. They didn’t erase ownership, or pool all their resources into a common purse; but they did release and redistribute capital to meet need.

Of course, these first to follow Jesus believed that he would return within their lifetimes. Our situation is very different; but then, the circumstances of Christians have varied from context to context around the world and through the ages. We are not given an ideology to subscribe to (e.g. Capitalism, Communism) but a principle to bring to bear, in creative ways. In our context, the influence of Christendom has shaped both taxation as contribution to a common purse and charitable giving as a non-governmental form of organised redistribution according to need.

But we likely assume that our money is our own; resent taxation as government taking what is ours; believe that this money is wasted through mismanagement, whether by local or national government or by institutions funded in this way; and think that those who are supported by the Welfare State are sponging off society. This is how Mammon holds us captive.

We at St Nicholas’ are a Christian community whose life incurs financial liability: primarily, the cost of ministry to the parish; the cost of maintaining our buildings [some of these costs are large and can be partially offset by grants]; and the cost of utilities, of heating of buildings so that they are inviting spaces for hospitality and welcome. These are largely our costs to bear. And again, Mammon raises its head.

The Church of England, of which we are a part, does have access to an in-perpetuity endowment fund. The Church Commissioners support the Church of England’s ministry in various ways, particularly in areas of need and opportunity. At the end of 2022, the Church Commissioners’ investment fund held assets valued at £10.3bn. The Commissioners committed to distributing £1.2bn to the Church of England over the three-year period 2023-25. Their support meets around 20% of the annual running costs of the Church of England, including statutory commitments such as pension obligations. They fund mission and ministry in the poorest parts of the country; initiatives such as racial and social justice interventions, engaging with young people, short-term funding for new initiatives, and supporting the Church to become carbon-net zero by 2030; they support chaplaincy, ordinands, bishops and archbishops, cathedrals. They don’t, as a rule, support the ongoing costs of parish churches—although they did distribute money right across the Church of England to offset the fuel bill crisis: we received money, which, being on a fixed-rate contract, we felt that we did not need, and so our Parochial Church Council voted to pass that support on to Sunderland Minster, whose need was greater.

But whenever the Church Commissioners allocate money, others complain: ‘Why don’t we get any of this money?’ This, too, is Mammon, the resentment of others receiving to our supposed cost.

In 2023, the Church Commissioners created a new in-perpetuity endowment fund to address the sin of racial injustice. They determined to allocate a sum large enough to have meaningful impact, without harming their existing commitments, and decided to set apart £100m over a nine-year period. This might sound like a large sum of money, but it is approximately 1% of their current assets. The intention is that the interest on this fund be used to support projects and initiatives among communities who to this day experience the lasting negative impact of the chattel slave trade. A year in, they have invited other institutions and private families, beyond the Church, who benefitted from the chattel slave trade to contribute to the fund, with the aim of raising a total endowment of £1bn.

The backlash has been vocal—this, too, is Mammon. ‘We weren’t personally responsible for the slave trade; why should we take responsibility for addressing it’s lasting impact?’ ‘African kings sold their own or neighbouring people; and the Muslims sold more slaves than the Christians did.’ ‘It is our money, and it is wrong to give it away, when we have needs of our own.’ ‘I shall be withholding my giving to the Church until it reverses this policy.’ All these sentiments—which you can read in angry Letters to the Editor—are simply ways of choosing to ignore need. The scandal is not that the Church of England is committing 1% of her resources to address racial injustice. The scandal is that anyone within the Church should think that this is a scandal. It is a scandal to the servants of Mammon, not the servants of God. But every one of us is vulnerable to such thinking: we may have thrown ourselves on the mercy of God, but Mammon wants us back.

At the national and international level, and at the local level, the Church must wrestle with what God is asking us to do with our money. And we are called to live as people of the resurrection: as if we believe that the forces of death have been defeated.

If you give, financially, to St Nicholas’ Church, I want to say, ‘Thank you!’ And I want to invite you to take this opportunity to review your giving. Our circumstances change. You may need to reduce your giving at this time, and if so, thank you for what you have given and for whatever you are able to continue to give. You may be able to increase your giving at this time, in which case, thank you: it will make a difference. It may be appropriate to maintain your current level of giving, though, please, not by habit or default.

If you consider this to be your church community, and you don’t, at present, give financially, I want to invite you to do so. To contribute to the meeting of our needs, at a level that is honest about your own personal circumstances. Not long back, the Church of England guideline was that 10% of our disposable income should be charitable giving, with 5% going to our local church and the other 5% to whatever charities matter to you. This raises questions such as, is disposable income whatever is left after tax, or after tax and bills? Today, the Church speaks, instead, of encouraging generosity in giving, whatever that looks like for any of us in our circumstances. I think it is up to us to decide what we are able to give; but I would commend to you the practice of making your giving to your local church 50% of your total charitable giving. Why? Because other charities are able to pay fundraisers, have access to advertising, whereas we do not, and are primarily dependent on one another. Yes, our overall costs are smaller than those of national and international charities; but our contributors are also far fewer.

If you do not currently give, and would like to, may I highlight the Parish Giving Scheme as an excellent means to do so? If you are a UK taxpayer, this enables us to claim Gift Aid in real time throughout the year; and also allows you to review and increase or decrease your giving annually. You’ll find information packs by the door.

And if you are unable to contribute financially to our common life, know that you are welcome here. We share what we can, not what we do not have. Thank you for whatever ways you are able to give of yourself for the common good. May we each receive what we need.

We read that ‘the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul’ (Acts 4.32). That their lives were knitted-together as one. The account continues, introducing Joseph, known by the nickname Barnabas, which means ‘son of encouragement,’ whose giving was an encouragement to all. We also meet Ananias and Sapphira. They also sell property, and bring the proceeds, but they keep some back for themselves while being dishonest about that. They have been captured by Mammon—whom Peter associates with Satan. For they did not have to sell their property; and, having sold it, they did not have to contribute it all to the common fund; but they chose to give a deceptive impression. Convicted of this, they both drop dead, one after the other.

We give, not out of compulsion, but in love for one another, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and to address practical needs. Most of all, our giving is a testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus—to the grace it releases among us. May we know that grace in our common life. Amen.