In the name of the Father, and the Son, and

the Holy Spirit. Amen

Good morning,

It’s lovely to be with you today. I’m very

grateful to you all for allowing me to come

and speak.

My name’s Joshua Townson and I’m the

diocesan Generous Giving Adviser which

basically means I support churches in talking

about financial giving […] which, as you can

imagine, always makes me everyone’s

favourite visiting speaker.

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It’s really great to be with you on your

patronal feast this morning because I get to

preach about Mary, a subject – a person I

should say – who really gets to the heart of

the Christian message about our relationship

to God. So before I get into the subject of

financial giving I’d like to take some time to

dwell a bit more on what Mary can teach us

about the nature of Christian faith.

To answer that, though, I need to begin with

the reading from Galatians. As a reminder,

Paul says:

when the fullness of time had come,

God sent his Son, born of a woman,

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born under the law, in order to redeem

those who were under the law, so that

we might receive adoption as children.

And because you are children, God has

sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,

crying, ‘Abba! Father!’

In the wider passage that these lines are

taken from Paul is talking about the new

freedom from the legality of the Old

Testament given to Christians through Jesus.

He explains that, where under the Old

Testament we were slaves of the Law, in the

New Testament we have been made not

slaves but children of God. This is why, Paul is

saying, we can call God Father.

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Now Christians in the early church spent

hundreds of years trying to figure out how

God’s Son “ being born of a woman ” changed

humans from slaves into children and the

answer they came to can be summarised in

two phrases: The Holy Trinity (one) and (two)

the Mother of God.

The first - the Holy Trinity – as many of you

will know, says that God is both one being but

three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This means that the Son referred to by St Paul

when he says ‘God sent His Son’ is the Second

Person of the Holy Trinity – the Son of

“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” In the Holy

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Trinity because they all share one being The

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all equally

God.

This is why Isaiah said in the first reading

‘Look, the young woman is with child and

shall bear a son, and shall name him

Immanuel!’ – Immanuel means God with us.

In other words, God himself has come down

and joined us.

This, then, is where we get the term Mother

of God about Mary because the early

Christians realised that when Paul says that

‘God sent his Son, born of a woman’ it is only

logical to say that Mary gave birth to God

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himself because the Son is just as much God

as the Father and the Holy Spirit.

But this troubled some of the early Christians

who suggested that there might be a couple

of problems with this idea: firstly, if Jesus is

God, why does he call himself Son of Man and

imply that he’s a human being? On the other

hand, if Jesus is God and not a human like he

says, how can anything he does be replicated

by humans since he would be totally different

to us?

The answer can be found in Hebrews chapter

2 which says:

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For the one who sanctifies and those

who are sanctified all have one Father.

For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to

call them brothers and sisters. Since,

therefore, the children share flesh and

blood, he himself likewise shared the

same things, so that through death he

might destroy the one who has the

power of death, that is, the devil, and

free those who all their lives were held

in slavery by the fear of death. For it is

clear that he did not come to help

angels, but the descendants of

Abraham. Therefore he had to become

like his brothers and sisters in every

respect, so that he might be a merciful

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and faithful high priest in the service of

God, to make a sacrifice of atonement

for the sins of the people. Because he

himself was tested by what he suffered,

he is able to help those who are being

tested.

Hebrews tells us that not only was Jesus God,

he was also a human. In other words, Jesus,

being God, made himself just like us so that

we are able to share in the new life he bought

for us by his Resurrection. You might

remember Paul’s famous hymn in Philippians

chapter 2 which makes a similar point:

Though he was in the form of God,

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He did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of

death—

even death on a cross.

And so the early Christians realised that Jesus

is both fully God and fully human.

This is where Mary comes back into the story

and where we see just how important she

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really is because, if Jesus gets his God-ness

from being the Son of God and part of the

Trinity, where does his humanness come

from?

The answer is that it must come from Mary,

or, in other words, Mary is the source of

Jesus’ humanity.

This is why she is so important in the Christian

faith and why so many churches are named

after her. She isn’t just the person who gave

birth to Jesus, she’s also the one who

provides the connection with the rest of

humanity – the human nature of Jesus […]

Obviously a pretty important role!

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But this also has an important impact for us

too. If we can call God Father because Jesus

has made us his brothers and sisters, then by

the same logic we can call Mary our Mother.

This is exactly what Jesus says at his

crucifixion in the Gospel of John:

As he was dying Jesus saw his mother

and the disciple whom he loved

standing beside her, he said to his

mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’

Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is

your mother.’ And from that hour the

disciple took her into his own home.

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Christians have long interpreted this passage

not just to mean that Jesus wanted John to

look after his mother but also that he had a

spiritual meaning that Jesus’ disciples are

being given Mary as their spiritual mother.

Just as God is our Father, Mary is our Mother.

This pattern is a reflection of Jesus himself –

Jesus is both God and human because his

Father is God and his mother is the human

Mary. And as Christians we enter this holy

family so that we can be like Jesus with God

as our Father and Mary as our mother,

spiritually combining both the divine and

human in ourselves through this relationship.

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Now, I think I should pause for a sec cos I’ve

been throwing some pretty weighty theology

at you this morning. I hope you’ll forgive me

for the lesson on doctrine but since it is your

patronal festival I thought it would be good to

revisit why Mary is so important and why

your church is dedicated to her.

But I’m not just trying to give you a history

lesson, I do also have a point [because

knowing about theology is useless unless it

helps us to live our lives as Christians].

My point this morning is a little bit like this: if

God is our Father, Mary is our mother, and we

are their children, the sisters and brothers of

Christ, it means that as members of the

church we are a family. We are made into a

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literal, spiritual family and when we realise

this we are forced to ask ourselves a very

challenging question, namely:

Do we really treat church like a part of our

family?

And that’s an especially important question

this morning as you celebrate your church’s

foundation, do you love the people at this

church like they were your own brothers and

sisters? Because that’s what Jesus has made

them through faith.

This is a tricky question because how do we

define whether we love something? To

suggest a simple answer, I might say that if

we love something then we care for it and try

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to help it succeed by putting its needs before

our own and helping it out of our own

resources.

So if you’re asking yourself whether you are

treating church like it’s a part of your family,

the real question is what do you do to care

for the church and how do you try to help it

succeed?

At this point you might have guessed where

I’m going with this. I’m here this morning to

suggest that if we call ourselves members of

the church family then we should be actively

trying to care for it and grow it and make it a

success. This means that if we are serious

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about our faith, we have to be ready to give

to the church out of what we have in order to

support it; to help it physically and financially

so that our spiritual family can be strong and

grow.

But it’s not just about asking if we support the

church, it’s also about asking how we support

the church. Do we support it because we feel

an obligation to support it as a local charity or

are we allowing ourselves to feel an

emotional connection that comes from seeing

the church as our family?

If church is our family then we want to help it

not just out of necessity but because we

actively want it to succeed. We want to go

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the extra mile to ensure that our family has

what it needs to grow and thrive.

I’m telling you this to suggest a new way to

think about the how you give to this church of

St Mary.

Giving will usually include some form of

financial aspect, as well as volunteering your

time and skills to help out but, in whatever

way you give, I want to ask you to consider if

what you give is based on just an abstract

amount you feel like you should give to

church or if you have really taken the time to

ask yourself: okay, if the church is my family,

does my giving reflect that?

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Let me give you an example, since the 1970s

the Church of England has suggested that a

good amount to give financially to church is

5% of your post-tax income, and then you can

give 5% to other charities.

This is a good suggestion but it’s a little bit

rule-based and it doesn’t actually ask us to

really think about our commitment to our

church family.

And the problem is some people can’t afford

to give 5% but on the other hand many

people, if they really want to express their

commitment, could afford to give more than

5% so while that number is a helpful

benchmark, on its own it doesn’t take into

account our own personal circumstances and,

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therefore, our own personal response to

membership of the church.

The question, then, if you’re thinking about

how much money and time to give to church,

is not how much am I supposed to give but

how much do I feel called to give?

You’re the only person who truly knowns your

circumstances and what you can and can’t

afford and within that context, and knowing

that church is your spiritual family, it’s all

about what you feel called to give as your

commitment to faith. Or to put it a different

way, how much do you think Jesus would

want you to give personally to support his

family?

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That’s quite a big old question and I’m not

here to guilt-trip anyone, I simply want to

offer you the reasons why giving is such an

important part of Christian faith and what you

do with that information is between you and

God.

That said, I am asking you to review your level

of giving, and honestly ask whether you feel it

is at the right level that demonstrates your

commitment to your church family.

And this is an ideal time to do that because St

Mary’s is introducing a new way of giving

called the Parish Giving Scheme.

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Some of you may already be familiar with the

scheme in which case I ask you to bear with

me but for those that aren’t – what is the

Parish Giving Scheme?

Well, it’s basically a way to financially support

your church by a regular direct debit. But it’s

also a bit more than that. From a church’s

perspective it’s a way to lessen some of the

administrative burden of processing people’s

gifts. This can take up a lot of time, especially

when gifts are in cash because they have to

be counted and banked. And both cash and

standing order gifts need to be processed for

Gift Aid purposes.

The Parish Giving Scheme does all this

automatically and for free which means that

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the church can spend a lot less time doing

admin to process your support and can,

hopefully, use that time to focus a bit more

on mission and ministry so that you can build

your church family.

It’s not just the church that benefits from the

Parish Giving Scheme though. It’s also set up

to be a flexible way for you to arrange and

manage your giving. For starters, you can set

up a regular donation on a monthly, quarterly

or annual basis and you can do this via a

paper form, over the phone, or online in just

a few minutes.

But it also comes with several other benefits.

If you’re a taxpayer you can give Gift Aid

which is processed automatically each month.

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And you also have the option to tick a box

allowing your donation to increase by

inflation each year. This is totally optional and

you can opt-out at any time but for those that

do choose to keep their gift at the level of

inflation it means that their support will hold

its value for the church into the future.

I think we’re all aware of the difference

inflation is making to our own finances at the

moment – I certainly am myself – these

changes equally affect the church’s finances

and by offering to increase your giving in line

with inflation you can ensure that the church

is protected from its effects into the future.

So essentially, the Parish Giving Scheme is a

way for you to support your church and a way

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for the church to easily manage your giving

with as little admin time as possible.

But setting aside this new way of giving, the

message I’d like to leave you with this

morning comes back to Mary. She is our

mother and we are all her children, a family

of believers.

We are called to love our Christian brothers

and sisters and to help them succeed, and it is

up to you to respond in prayer and faith. So I

leave you with the question: how do you

support your spiritual family.

Amen