Together on the Journey: A Weekly Blog from Fr. Andrew Sheldon
On Ash Wednesday, I addressed those gathered and said: “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord, to observe a holy Lent by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and by reading and meditating on the word of God.”
In my blog the past few weeks, I have discussed self-examination and penitence, prayer, and fasting. This week, I want to address almsgiving.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “alms” as “charitable relief given to the poor and needy.” Almsgiving, then, is the act of giving this relief – usually in the form of materials or monetary contributions. In short, almsgiving supports those in need with money, food, clothing, or other material goods.
In this respect, almsgiving is different than the default understanding of Christian stewardship – something I discuss at length here, the principles of which can also inform almsgiving. In the church, our monetary contributions are mostly directed inwards. We need money to maintain the building, pay the staff, and resource programmes. And all of this – the building, staff, and programming – is primarily directed at those who are parishioners of St George’s on-the-Hill, insiders as it were. Now, not for a moment am I suggesting this is not a good thing. The spiritual nurture, pastoral care, and community building of parishioners is a core commitment of any church, and at St George’s we do this well.
But, as noted above, almsgiving is different in that it is directed outward, and especially to the less fortunate in our community. And so, this Lent I would encourage you to identify a worthy recipient for some ‘above and beyond’ giving. It could be an individual, agency, or you could give to St George’s outreach fund by designating your gift as such.
Furthermore, it is also a tradition to tie together the practice of fasting and almsgiving. As I noted last week, many are in the habit of ‘giving up’ for Lent. Sometimes, what we give up has monetary value – food, drink, pastimes – and so a worthy endeavour would be to calculate the savings from your giving up and donate that to the cause you choose.
At the heart of Christian stewardship is the notion that giving is central to our identity as the people of God. God gave and so we give, and just as God gives from love and finds joy in the giving so do we. May you find joy in your almsgiving this Lent.
Andrew+