Sermon for June 30, 2024: Abundance and Need based upon 2nd Corinthians 8:7-15

7/2/2024

2Corinthians 8:7-15
Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.

I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something— now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have. I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written, ‘The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.’

It is a curious time to be talking about money publicly in a Christian church in the United States. For one thing, our country currently has an active and powerful Christian Nationalist movement that is insisting that our government be shaped and guided by fundamentalist Christian theology. They particularly want to give more power to fundamentalist Christians to use the government to limit access to reproductive healthcare, ignore on-going systems of racism, and exclude LGBTQ people from basic civil rights.

Secondly, just this week, the US Supreme Court issued one ruling that dissenting justices argue paves the way for government officials to take bribes and a second ruling in which six justices argue that it is not cruel and unusual punishment for the government to imprison and fine people who do not have homes and sleep outside when there are no shelter beds. “Should we be allowed to use our money to pay government officials to do what we want” and “is it ethical to criminalize homeless” are actually significant moral questions about how we use money and how we treat people who have and don’t have it. Those of us who are Christians should look to our faith to guide how we think about and act with money. While Jesus never told his followers to create a nation where only Christians have rights, he did tell his followers to share money and food with those who don’t have enough, and he told that one rich guy to give away all his money.

It is the responsibility of each generation of Christian to figure out how to put those instructions into practice. Today’s reading from one of Paul’s letters to Corinthians is part of Paul’s attempt further develop a Christian financial ethic. Notice that has nothing to do with punishing those who don’t have money and everything to do with those who do have money sharing it.

You might remember that in my sermon from a couple weeks ago, I mentioned that the book we call Second Corinthians is probably excerpts from multiple letters Paul sent to the church in Corinth. Sze-Kar Wan, in his notes on 2nd Corinthians, argues that chapter 8 may be one letter asking for the church in Corinth to take up a collection for the church in Jerusalem and chapter 9 is a separate letter, possibly to a different church that the Corinthians got a copy of, that is also asking for a collection for the church in Jerusalem. Wan notes that the collection has multiple purposes: one, it is to help people in the church who don’t have enough money, and two, to show unity between the poorer Jerusalem congregation and the wealthier Gentile congregations in other parts of Rome.

It’s like Paul is saying: Remember, Christians are supposed to share money with those who need it. And, in sharing money, we can build trust and relationships that span our differences in wealth, ethnicity, and regional identity. In order to better instruct the church in Corinth, Paul brings up the generosity of the churches in Macedonia, specifically the Philippian and Thessalonian churches. That happens in the first part of chapter 8. Something hard has been happening in the churches. We’re not told exactly what it is, just that it is “a severe ordeal of affliction.” And, yet, in spite of great difficulty affecting their congregations, Paul still describes them as abundantly joyful and overflowing in a wealth of generosity, despite being quite poor themselves. He says “For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in this ministry to the saints...” They understood that in giving themselves to God, that also meant that they were to give of their means to others, specifically the also impoverished church in Jerusalem.

With their example in mind, we begin our reading today, which is Paul’s specific instructions to the church in Corinth. Paul is an interesting and skilled author. It is wise, particularly for those of us familiar with his work, to remember that. He is making specific choices in his writing in hopes of inspiring action in those who hear the letters read at church. And, he realizes that if you brag on someone a little bit, they can be more likely to do what you want them to do: “Now, as you excel in everything- in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you- so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.” The “we” here is Paul and Titus, his co-worker who likely delivered this letter. And, the “generous undertaking” is the collection for the Jerusalem church.

He grounds his request in his understanding of Jesus: Jesus was one of great power, who became poor in order to live and serve among humanity. Jesus’ followers are empowered by his generosity and sacrifice. What we are called to do with this power, what he calls being “rich,” is to be generous and make a sacrifice in return. Now, one of the grossest injustices a church can do, to this day, is manipulate very poor people into giving away the little bit of money they have to support the lavish lifestyle of a pastor and staff of a congregation. That is not what Paul is doing here, even as he praises the struggling Macedonian churches for their generosity.

Carla Works notes that this collection for Jerusalem was a huge undertaking and the Corinthian church. It’s taken them a year to do it. Paul says “it’s time to finish what you started last year and “complete it according to your means.” If a believer wants to share what they have as a sign of their faith and their commitment to care for the whole Body of Christ, even if they can only share a little, the small offering is still welcome and a sign of deep faith. “[T]he gift is acceptable according to what one has- not according to what one does not have.” Paul calls for a fair balance in giving, which will result in a fair balance within a church. No one will have too little on which to survive, and, no one will be burdened by the distraction of protecting the money they’ve hoarded.

This isn’t a one-sided relationship. The Jerusalem church has a responsibility to care for Corinth, too. Jerusalem will support Corinth when they are in need as well. That’s what it means to be church: to tend to one another and to be honest about our needs with one another. Now, I know this reading is mostly about crafting a financial ethic to guide relationships among Christians. The news stories I brought up early in my sermon weren’t only about relationships among Christians. There are Christians, and have been for a long time, who mostly want to define the public face of Christianity as only being about constraining human sexuality, coercing people into Christian practice, and denying racism. At the same time, Christian Nationalism is largely ignoring calls for financial justice and mutual care, and, most of the time, rejecting any national policies that look like the generosity described in this reading from 2nd Corinthians.

Paul doesn’t mention generosity to those who aren’t specifically in the church in this passage, but Jesus talked about generosity to the broader community all the time. Just one example is Matthew 25: 31-46, where he said that a nation will be called righteous if it feeds the hungry, tends to the hurting, is gracious to the imprisoned, clothes the naked, and welcomes the stranger. I believe that Paul’s interpretations of Jesus’ teachings around generosity that he was using to help churches be connected to one another can also help us to be good neighbors to people who may never step in our doors. What kind of Christians would we be if the generosity we practice within our community doesn’t extend beyond the doors of the church? Actions that we perform over and over again in one setting will shape our behavior in others. May the generosity we share with our siblings in Christ teach us how to be generous with all the people of this earth. And, may Christ’s abundant love show us how to take care of each other’s greatest needs.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
About the Supreme Court Cases:

Carla Works: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-13-2/commentary-on-2-corinthians-87-15
Sze-Kar Wan's introduction to 2nd Corinthians in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

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Winthrop Congregational Church, United Church of Christ