| II Cor. 8:1-15 "Excel in Everything" |
|
| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 13 October 2007 | |
|
In the book, Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren writes: “The more one respects Jesus, the more one must be brokenhearted, embarrassed, [even] furious, or some combination thereof, when one considers what we Christians have done with Jesus.” People make a whole lot of claims about what it means to follow Jesus. Some of those claims are at best questionable. I am stupefied at what some people justify in the name of God; intolerance, prejudice, hate, holy war, murder. To think that Jesus would endorse these actions is crazy and totally ignores the Gospel witness. Then there are those claims that are unquestionably “Gospel.” One such “Gospel truth” is that Discipleship is a commitment to live a generous life. Few words better describe Jesus’ life then generosity. He was constantly giving himself to others. It’s Jesus that Paul has in mind when he instructs the Christians in Corinth in the art of generosity (v.9). Our reading makes three claims about the art of generosity: 1) God gives us the means to be generous. Verse 11Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. I just returned from a six day adult mission trip with our Adult Mission Trip to Greensburg, Kansas. Twelve of us traveled to this community after learning that 95% of the town had been demolished by a tornado back in May. One of the things that the people of Greensburg, Kansas taught us is that wealth is not a prerequisite of generosity.
God gives us the means to be generous. If we really do live in “God’s world,” then your “means” is what God makes has loaned to us for the privilege of sharing in God’s work in the world. Generosity asks the questions, “What is God up to in the world and how can I be apart of that?” At the National Prayer Breakfast, Bono, lead singer for the rock group made the following statement: A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it…. I have a family, please look after them…. I have this crazy idea... And this wise man said: Stop. Stop asking God to bless what you're doing. Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed. Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing. And that is what he's calling us to do As the church, we need to remember why it is we do what we do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God. God gives us the means to be generous. The 2nd claim our reading makes about the art of generosity is: 2) God only expects us to do what we can do. Verse 12, For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what [one] does not have. A gift is acceptable when it reflects our ability to give so Jesus says in Luke 12:48, “To whom much is given, much is expected.” Ever heard of the saying “generous to a fault?” In our culture, the ‘Generous to a fault” is often perceived as being wasteful. The woman who anointed Jesus was criticized for being wasteful. And Jesus responded, “This woman will be remembered for what she did for me.” (Mark 14:9). Do you ever wonder how you will be remembered? I do. Big-heartedness is a hallmark of those who live in God’s love. According to a new PEW Center survey, 75% of Americans say our Government should do more to curb immigration. So why should we as Christians be tolerant, even accepting of “undocumented” aliens? Because the Jesus of the Gospels embraced all people! Jesus ate, drank, and partied with prostitutes, foreigners, lepers, tax collectors, (the socially marginalized of his day). So how can we say we want to be like Jesus but refuse to be just as bighearted, just as welcoming to the socially marginalized of our society? Four days after a 1 ½ wide FE5 tornado destroyed Greensburg, the bishop of the Kansas West Conference, Scott Jones arrived to survey the damage. And this is what he said: “We live by hope and faith in God. And Its our calling in times like these to bear witness to that hope in word and deed.” That’s what we do. We are the bighearted ones; radical folk called Christians. God expects us to do what we can do. The third claim our reading makes about the art of generosity is: 3) True Generosity Levels the Playing field. Verse 13, Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. Here’s a good paraphrase of that verse. “Not equal giving but equal sacrifice.” Our mission team gathered one night to talk about generosity. Not our generosity in being there but the generosity of the people of Greensburg. In many cases, they had lost everything. They had nothing. But even in their loss, grief, and poverty, they shared generously of themselves.
By holding up the generosity of the Church in Macedonia he is reminding the Christians in Corinth (and thus all Christians) that we are part of a much greater community. And generosity is the glue that holds community together. And if the church is to be the church, we must learn to share generously of ourselves with one another, whatever the community needs. In the book Acts, which documents the early days of the Church, we are told, “All who believed were together and they shared all things in common.” A more literally translation is, “and they shared everything they had.” The relief recovering coordinator for Greensburg, James Bond (and yes that really is his name!), spent the vast majority of his time trying to get an incredibly diverse group of volunteers (Mennonites, Quakers, United Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics), to share and work and play together. He’d say, “this is not a Mennonite things, or a Quaker things, or a United Methodist thing, or a Baptist thing, a Presbyterian thing, or even a Roman Catholic thing, This is a God thing. And if you can’ accept that, you don’t need to be here.” True Generosity levels the Playing Field. The art of generosity: God calls us to live generous lives: 1) God gives us the means to be generous. 2) God only expects us to do what we can do. 3) True Generosity levels the playing field. God has been generous to us and so we commit ourselves to living generous lives. This is what discipleship is really about. It is an act of grace by which God transforms our generosity into mission and ministry that “proclaims Good News to the poor, release to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind (Luke 4:18).” Prayer: God, we love you. We praise you. All that we have comes from you. We rejoice in your presence. Amen. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
