How we act in times of hardship and challenge often illuminates the reality of our values and faith. We are living in times (for most of us) of unprecedented financial uncertainty. As I wrote in my contribution to our annual report recently

"During the final quarter of 2008 our national economy began to struggle. Unemployment rose and increasing numbers of homes went into foreclosure, credit for individuals and businesses dried up, some businesses went into bankruptcy or radically shed jobs and many banks and other financial institutions struggled or even went under".

All the indications are that this situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. Fear can so easily grip and control our actions.  I want today to address the question "what is God calling us to in this situation?" In doing so I am going to make a plea that we choose to act as people of faith and not as people of fear.

A great paradox of the Christian faith is that God calls each and every one of us as individuals to entrust our lives and our futures to following Jesus, but in making that response we are called into a community, a new family, and are invited to live out our faith as members of a community.

Economic challenges have been faced by Christians down history. In the first century, as the church was getting started, the birth place of the Christian Church, Judea experienced a famine. At the same time tensions were rising between Jews in Jerusalem who had come to believe that Jesus was God's Messiah (the minority) and those who rejected this claim. What this meant was that the Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem experienced extreme poverty and there was no state safety net for them. Paul visited Jerusalem in the late 40's and saw at first hand the tough economic conditions that many Christians were facing..

His response was that, since we are one body in Christ, this is everyone's problem - this means being there for one another. For the remainder of his life-about 20 years, he worked organizing a collection of money from the churches he had founded to be given to the Jerusalem Christians. This was during a time of tension between the Church in Jerusalem and the Pauline established Churches, whose members were drawn from a Greek or pagan background.

The majority of these Christians knew or cared nothing about Jewish culture and history, yet it was these pagan churches which supported the Jerusalem Christians in their time of need.

Paul's argument was very simple-we find it in chapter 8 of Second Corinthians-it goes like this:-

He starts with the example of Jesus- he reminds them that Jesus voluntarily gave up much of his riches-his position and power in Heaven so that they could be richly blessed by God. Now, says Paul, you who presently are comfortably off, in comparison to brothers and sisters in Jerusalem can choose to give some of your riches, so that they can survive. Then he explains the principle it is not that those who have resources should feel guilty about this and become as poor as the poorest; but rather that there should be  a fair balance, so that if we have abundance we share with those presently in need. Equally when the need is no longer there, then out of their abundance they give to others

I believe that in our present situation many of us will maintain our jobs and continue with a comfortable income; others will not be so fortunate, they will loose jobs and face real financial stress, not because they are lazy or poor workers but because of circumstances beyond their control they are casualties of an economic recession.

God calls us to care for all in our community. How can we do this?  So many of you have already been very generous in your support of thus church; as you will hear in more detail at our Annual Meeting later today, the average pledge this year (2009) has increased by 27% over last year. But now I am asking that we all give extra, over and above our pledge and direct it to the Rectors Discretionary Fund. Monies given to this fund are not subject to the ACG formula so that 100% of what is given will be used to assist church members who unexpectedly face financial hardships occasioned by the recession.

Those of us who have been shaped by a Western culture may struggle with practical expressions of a corporate faith- our culture is very individualistic stressing each (nuclear) family should make it on its own. Thankfully we have many members of Christ Church who have been raised in non Western cultures which stress our responsibility to the community as a whole.

My challenge to us influenced by a Western European culture is that, like the salmon we swim against the stream and live out the truth that we are one body in Christ.