Wednesday 16 June 2021

Today is Wednesday, the 16 June, in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time.

Molly Parden, with Bifrost Arts, sings a setting of Psalm 126.

Today’s reading is from the Second Letter to the Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 9:6-11

The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. As it is written, ‘He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
   his righteousness endures for ever.’  He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us.

‘The more you put into things, the more you’ll get out of them’—that’s Paul’s point at the beginning. Does this sort of phrase ring true to you?

‘God loves a cheerful giver.’ Do you know any cheerful givers? What is it about them that leads you to think of them in this way?

Listen again, and notice that Paul is less bothered about how much people give than about the spirit in which they give it.

Spend some time now with Jesus, thinking over this idea of generosity. What might it be for you to become more authentically generous?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.