What Moves Us to Give?

Christmas is a time when we tend to be a little more enthusiastic about helping people in need. Why is that? We gave more than normal to Halifax Urban Ministry and to our own Benevolence Fund this past Sunday, December 6. What got into us?

Jeanne Mathieson, chairwoman of our Benevolence Ministry, told me that our offering amounted to $160. That is a pretty good offering for just passing around two baskets during the announcements.

I delivered our Communion Sunday bags of food to Halifax Urban Ministry. The men who helped me unload my car were impressed with the amount of food that was there. They unloaded it into grocery carts. Usually it only takes one cart. This time it took two. We were standing in a slight drizzle of rain. The carts were full. I received more thanks directed to our church than ever before. One of the men told me with a broad smile about the more than 300 hams Halifax Urban Ministry plans to give to people in need this Christmas season. I drove away feeling good about the help our church gave.

What is it that makes us delight to help others at Christmastime? Is it that Charles Dickens made us want to avoid being like Scrooge? Is it that ministries on the front lines are good at making us aware of how much need is out there? Is it the Spirit of Christ reminding us that the Good Samaritan fulfilled the Great Commandment, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” by helping a man in trouble?

Or are we responding to what God did at Christmas? Are we moved to give because God gave to us? “God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son.”