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Can church be a gift?

08:49 15/05/2024
Can church be a gift?

Michael Moynagh reflects on what it means to 'give the church'.

 

Recent clerical child abuse and its cover up, the church’s treatment of certain underprivileged groups, the brutal internal politics of God’s people and more have shrunk the church’s moral high ground to a mole hill. Might the idea of the church as a gift help God’s people to become a more attractive community? And might this start with the church reflecting critically on what it means to be a gift and prayerfully seeking reform?

Might this self-critique, for example, encourage God’s people to become a gift not from a position of superiority, but by standing with those outside the church who have been shamed because the church itself has been shamed, with those who have abused their power because the church has also abused its power, and with those who are anxious about their relevance because in many places the church, too, is anxious about its relevance? Just as friends may be gifts to one another by sharing their failures, might the church become a gift by standing in solidarity with others burdened by failure - “you are not alone. We stand where you stand”?

But giving can be awful. Charity can degrade and demoralise its objects. It can reinforce the status quo by reconciling the poor to their poverty. And it can be a means of control when offered with strings attached. Can the church’s generosity avoid being so dark? Perhaps…, if it is framed with the life and witness of Jesus.

The church becomes the body of Christ when it joins in with the generosity of Christ - when it gives itself to others just as Jesus gave himself to the world. It can do this through pastoral care for instance, by joining struggles for social and ecological justice, by sharing its resources, by enabling the people it encounters to be more fully themselves, and especially by offering communal life with Jesus. No other organisation can bring that particular gift.

These forms of self-giving follow the pattern of Jesus when they begin by receiving first. Jesus received his humanity before he gave his life. As an infant, he received from his parents before giving anything back to his parents. As an adult, time and again he accepted hospitality from others before offering his hosts the hospitality of the kingdom. The church does likewise when, before it gives, it receives from others - not least, when it receives what they have to say, when it listens. The more gifts the church receives, the more it has to give.

The church must then offer its gifts appropriately. Just as the incarnate Son was offered in a human form that the world could receive, the church must offer its gifts in a form that fits the recipients. Giving must suit the context. But it must also be true to the giver. Like Jesus who never lost his integrity when being a gift, the church must remain authentic too. Its generosity must express who the church is, its identity as the body of Christ. Through the Spirit, giving by the body will have the humility and kindness of its head.

The church must then let go. Echoing Jesus who released himself into the hands of his human recipients (even his enemies), the church’s gifts must be released into the hands of those who receive them. Otherwise, they will not be gifts. A gift is not a gift unless the giver lets go. Which means that recipients must be encouraged to receive the church’s gifts in their own way. But this may be painful. The church may find its gifts are not accepted in the way it hoped. Its pastoral care may be taken for granted or received manipulatively. The resources it shares may be wasted or abused. Part of what it means to give sacrificially is to be disappointed in how the gift is received.

As the gift is released, we hope and pray it will be accepted. Acceptance of the gift creates or strengthens community. Jesus offered to share his life with his disciples. When they accepted, community with Jesus came into existence. When you accept a gift, you accept the person who gave the gift and, to a degree, you form community with that person. So when the church’s gifts are accepted, the Christian community expands to include, to some extent, the recipients.

And these relationships are then deepened when recipients give back to the church. Not everyone will offer a return gift, just as only one leper came back to Jesus with the gift of thanks. And it may be that sometimes the return gift seems inappropriate. But even so, wherever possible the church will receive that gift because in receiving the gift it receives the person. The to-and-fro of giving can then continue. Through these gift exchanges, the church’s relationships with the world are deepened.

It doesn’t stop there!  A gift only remains a gift if it is shared with others. A gift that is not shared ceases to be a gift and becomes a possession. So like Jesus, who is a perpetual gift because he constantly shares what he has with the world, the church must turn what it receives from others into further gifts for people beyond its walls. Thereby the church will be a continuing gift, joining in with the never-ending generosity of God.

Giving the Church is published later this month, and available to preorder via our website.

Revd Dr Michael Moynagh is a nationally recognised missiologist and ecclesiologist. He has an international speaking and consulting ministry on new forms of church, which includes being a consultant to the Church of England’s Greenhouse initiative. Associated with Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, he is author of numerous books including Church for Every Context and Church in Life.