Sermon for June 28th

In today’s passage from 2nd Corinthians, you might think that Paul is trying to shame the Corinthian church into giving more. He starts his conversation by referring to a poor church in Macedonia and how their giving overflowed because of God’s grace. But since Paul says that he is not giving a new command, we must then assume he is trying to coersively manipulate the Corinthian church. Goad them into giving. Motivate them into emptying their pocketbooks and write a big check for the sake of the kingdom of God!

But why would we assume that Paul is suddenly turning his back on all that he has said up to this point? Is Paul finally getting his head out of the clouds and getting “realistic” on us? Is Paul giving up on the message of forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ and the new creation he is known to go on and on and on about just because he wants to pile up the money in his coffers to take to the poor? Is this really all that we have learned from Paul this whole time?

No. Not at all. Paul is not commanding, nor is he manipulating, or shaming or “comparing”. He is giving faith to the Corinthians. He says to the Church in Corinth, “We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” “Look at them!” Paul says. Look at what God has done in that impoverished church in Macedonia! Imagine what God will do here with you! God is going to do something amazing!

If this concept still seems a bit too theoretical, or “pie in the sky”, let me give you an example of the same technique in a more contemporary context. A professor of mine at seminary took many trips to Africa, to a particular town where he and his wife, among others, were working for the Lutheran church in Tanzania. The people there were so happy to receive the gospel! He would always talk about how thankful the people were and that they poured out their thanksgiving not only at the feet of Jesus but upon him, my professor, as well.

In fact, the last time he was there, he explained that, when a friend of his in the village saw him, his friend invited him over and invited the whole village to celebrate the occasion of his arrival by slaughtering a goat and eating it for supper. Now, this might seem like a nice gesture until you realize, as my professor told us, that this goat was equal to about 1/3 of this man’s food and income for the year. If the man had sold the goat, he could have eaten for about four months on the money. If he has eaten the goat, his family would have had meat for a very long time. But instead, because of the message my professor gave to this man, that because of Jesus’ death on a cross this man’s sins were forgiven, even in extreme poverty this man saw abundance.

This isn’t about what this one man in Tanzania did. He is not a model for you to follow. This is what God did in Tanzania through this man! This is how God works, and will work even here, even through you. As an old professor sued to say, “If you still think this sounds like “pie in the sky”, well, don’t you like pie? It’s yours. The whole kit and caboodle.

This is what the love of God does, in real life, in Tanzania, with a man, a professor and a goat. Do you really think that the gospel message will not do the same thing here? In Cornwall? In this church? In your communities? In your life? With your money. Out of your abundance? Out of your poverty. I am not trying to shame you into giving more, do you think that that is all the gospel is good for? Shame? To make you feel badly?

I am not trying to force you to do something against your will. Because I don’t care about your stinky old will, your old way of doing things, the gospel of Jesus Christ gives you a new will and you come out smelling like a rose. You are a new creation by faith alone. Because if God’s Word can do amazing things in Tanzania or in Arizona; in South Korea and in Germany; in Macedonia and in Corinth--he will do it here too. Because giving comes from certain hope in Jesus Christ pure and simple.

Some people have assumed that Paul is encouraging communism here. But what is communism but another law to MAKE people give up their money. Another law to force poorer people to TAKE money from others to meet their needs. Jesus Christ is not another lawgiver, he has killed the law and given you freedom. Communism is not about freedom, but law. Where there is freedom, people may give out of their riches to someone in need, but those in need may also give from their poverty to those with riches. The kingdom of God is like a poor man from Tanzania slaughtering his only goat to feed a rich, fat American. Think about the widow that gave all she had. That’s what grace does to people. It makes givers. Grace creates giving and equality, not by force, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps we would understand this better if we were reading from an older translation of the Bible, the Revised Standard Version from a few years back, instead of the NEW Revised Standard Version, which translated the opening verse of today’s reading by using the word “prove” rather than “test”, “I do not say this as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.” Paul is not comparing two churches as if to see if the church in Corinth can test out better than the church in Macedonia. Paul gives the gospel of grace, truth and justice to the Corinthians so that they might know the power of God just as the Macedonians did. He’s not so much looking for more money, but for God to create new hearts that are eager to give, “For if the eagerness is there,” Paul points out, “the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.” Paul says, “Since God is at work in you, giving you the eagerness to give, then do it! “So that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.”

This is why, as I have said before, giving is not about how much you have or don’t have. It’s about planning to give and having the faith to put those plans into practice. The plans you can make yourself, through budgeting and living financially responsibly, but the faith you cannot create yourself. You can try and try to WANT to give or “fake it until you make it” as some say, but faith is a gift. However, once that desire to give, that eagerness finds its way into your heart, the gift of abundance—use it. Do it. Give. This is what God has made you to be—a giver.

So today’s stewardship sermon takes a page from the apostle,: “You who were dead in your sins are now alive in Jesus Christ. God has given you everything.” Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God gave the gift of faith to a church in Macedonia, he gave the gift of faith to a man in Tanzania. I declare to you what God has done in the past to PROVE to you that God’s grace here, now, in this place, will have the same power for you. God intends to give you all the eagerness to give and then, once you have done it, once you have put into practice the gift of faith God has given you, God will use you as an example for somebody else. Amen.