Title: A Generous Spirit
Text: II Corinthians 8:7-15
Thesis: A generous spirit acts graciously in love for others in response to the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Research reported that the latest Great Recession began in December 2007 and continued through June 2009. This week I read some interesting statistics about charitable giving during that 19 month period and following through 2012.
Statistically, residents of Las Vegas, a city hit particularly hard by the recession, increased their giving, when measured as a percentage of adjusted gross income, by 14.9% from 2006 through 2012. It was the highest in the nation and twice the increase in Jacksonville, Florida which claimed the #2 spot for having given the most. Obviously a generous spirit can thrive in the most unlikely places.
Residents of Utah were the most generous giving $65.60 of every $1,000 to charity. The residents of New Hampshire laid claim to being the least generous people in our country giving $17.40 for every $1,000 they earned. Incidentally, New Hampshire is ranked #6 nationally for highest household income. Once again, a generous spirit does not seem to be related to how much money people have.
Our text today is not so much about how much we have but how much of a generous spirit we have.
I. A generous spirit is an admirable spiritual quality, II Corinthians 8:7 (Tension: Excelling vs. Lagging)
Since you excel in so many ways… I want you to excel also in the gracious act of giving.” 8:7
Most of us grew up with an A through F Grading System. Some institutions offer Pass/Fail or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory Grading Systems. Pass would mean an A, B, or C. Fail would be a D or F.
In our text Paul simply says he wishes the Christians at Corinth would excel in the gracious act of giving. So it seems he felt their performance in gracious giving as not excelling and perhaps even failing.
This week I saw a sign advertising Pete’s Pretty Good Ice Cream.” Pete needs to excel at making ice cream… pretty good ice cream is something short of the best ice cream on the planet. If you are having brain surgery you want a surgeon who excels at brain surgery. When we watch the Broncos we want to see a team that, to the man, is determined to excel. Paul is saying that he wants the Christians at Corinth to put a stop their “duffer” mentality and start excelling in having a spirit of generosity.
This is about his desire that while they were doing quite well in some aspects of the practice of their faith… they weren’t excelling in gracious giving.
A. Excelling (Tension: Excelling vs. Lagging)
B. Failing
So early on Paull sets the spiritual bar a little higher and urges them to do better. One of the ways he does this is by challenging them.
II. A generous spirit is a challenge, II Corinthians 8:8-10
A. Comparing ourselves to others (Tension: Others vs. Ourselves)
I am testing how generous your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches. 8:8
The comparison spoken of here is in reference to the churches in Macedonia. “I want you to know what God, in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They are very poor. But they are filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.” 8:1-2
Paul is underscoring three things:
1. The Macedonian Christians were very poor
The word used for “very poor” is the Greek word “bathus.” Bathus means very deep and could refer a ship sunken in the depths of the ocean. Bathus is the root for the word “bathysphere” which is a deep-sea research vessel or diving apparatus that is lowered on a cable to explore the bottom of the ocean.
It was Paul’s way of saying the Christians in Macedonia lived in the depths of poverty. We might say, “They were dirt poor.”
2. The Macedonian Christians were joyful and generous
When it says they were filled with abundant joy it means their joy was overflowing and they then expressed that joy as overflowing generosity.
I always feel this tension when missionaries from a Third World Country like Congo show video clips of Christians all colorfully dressed, singing and dancing with joy in an outdoor worship service. In this case the Macedonian Christians were singing and dancing for joy as they received their meager collection for those who were even more destitute than they.
3. The Macedonian Christians were not the beggars begging for someone to help them. They
begged Paul to let them help.
The Christians in Jerusalem were in dire straits and in desperate need of financial assistance. There was no safety net in place. There was no WIX program. There was no subsidized housing. There was no social security or disability or Medicare of Medicaid. There were no food banks. What there was were Christians living elsewhere who had some resources they were willing to share with those in need. The church in Corinth, to which this letter was written, is one example. The churches of Macedonia are other examples of people who were willing to share.
I confess I do not especially like being compared to someone else. On Confirmation Sunday Robert Bauderer took a picture of his sons, Joey and Robbie with me standing between them… and then he posted it on Facebook for God and all the world to see. There stood these two really tall and handsome young men and then there was the shortest, fattest man on the planet standing between them. Short people do not stand next to tall people and fat people do not stand next to skinny people and ugly people do not stand next to good looking people and bad hair people do not stand next to good hair people and we who likely have more than most people in the world do not like being compared to those who live in the depths of poverty who are living joyfully and giving generously.
So in referencing the generosity of the churches of Macedonia Paul was hoping to encourage the Christians at Corinth to also be generous.
Then he moves to the next example.
A. Comparing ourselves to Jesus (Tension: Jesus vs. Ourselves)
You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ… 8:9
The next comparison is with the example of Jesus Christ who, as it says in Philippians 2, though being God did not consider equality with God something to cling to but gave up all his divine privilege to become one of us and then give his life for us to rescue us from our spiritual poverty.
This comparison gives us insight into the nature of generosity as a spiritual attitude. It is not about money… it is about thinking of others and as in the case of Jesus making a huge personal sacrifice in order to rescue us from darkness and deliver us into his glorious light.
His third example hits very close to home.
B. Comparing ourselves to ourselves (Tension: Ourselves vs. Ourselves)
It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first to give… 8:10
Here he uses the earlier attitude and actions of the Corinthian Christians themselves as an encouraging example. “Last year you were the first who wanted to give and the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish it…” 8:11
In using the word “finish” he is saying their generosity, albeit well-intentioned early on, had waned. Their giving to this point is incomplete… Paul wants the Corinthian Christians to finish what they began. Another way of understanding what Paul is saying is to think of their generosity as needing to be brought to full maturity.
When you write a sentence you have to write a complete sentence. A sentence has two parts: a subject and a predicate. The Subject is the part speaks to who or what and the predicate speaks to the action of who or what. The subject is the noun and the verb describes the action of the noun.
For example, “16 fat chickens…” is an incomplete sentence. And “…went to the store” is an incomplete sentence. “16 fat chickens went to the store” is a complete sentence.
Paul was suggesting that the generosity of the Corinthians Christians was an incomplete expression of their love for others. They needed to finish the sentence, so to speak.
So now we know that Paul thinks the Corinthian Christians need to revisit and rethink their compassion for others and their generous spirit…
Then Paul offers up some timeless counsel regarding our attitudes and actions in sharing what we have with others.
III. A generous spirit is a reasonable pursuit, II Corinthians 8:11-15
A. Marked by eagerness (Tension: Eagerly vs. Reluctantly or Begrudgingly)
Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly, 8:11-12
The implication here is that in giving or sharing our attitude is more important than the gift itself. When Paul wrote of the desire of the Macedonian Christians to participate in giving to the Christians who were suffering in Jerusalem, he did not speak of the huge, free-will offering that necessitated an armored Brinks truck and armed guards to deliver it to Jerusalem. He spoke of their”eagerness” to help.
The tension here is the tug we feel when we are asked to be joyfully and eagerly share of our resources when we are feeling reluctant or even begrudging about sharing. This is particularly challenging to western Christians who are culturally conditioned to think individually rather than in terms of the greater good of the community.
One way to get to the heart of our eagerness quotient is to check one’s first response. If my first response is to think of a reason I can’t or won’t… my spirit is lacking in generosity.
One of the treats Bonnie and I enjoy when we are with the grandkids is for someone to make a run to the Dairy Queen for Blizzards. There is a blizzard for every taste.
There is an Oreo Blizzard and a Mint Oreo Blizzard, There is a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard as well as a Blizzard for many candy bars like Butterfingers and Reeses. There is a Banana Cream Blizzard and a Choc O Cherry Blizzard. And the best of all is the Pecan Cluster Blizzard. I always get the Pecan Cluster Blizzard.
Now imagine I am sitting in the recliner gently working at my Pecan Cluster Blizzard so as to not get a brain freeze. The grandkids, on the other hand, are shoveling theirs in. Then one of them comes over and asks me, “Gramps, can I have a taste of your Pecan Cluster Blizzard?”
Is my first response to ask, “You little twit, didn’t you just enjoy your own Blizzard?” Or “If you wanted a Pecan Cluster Blizzard, why didn’t you order one?” Or is my first response, “Yes you may… have a bite?”
The question at this point is simply, “Do you want to share and can you do it eagerly and joyfully?
The second reasonable suggestion is the practice of proportional giving.
B. Measured by proportional giving (Tension: Too much vs. Too little)
Give in proportion to what you have… 8:11-12
Everyone has a different idea as to how much is enough?
The Chronicle of Philanthropy study updated in January of 2015 found that Americans give, on average, about 3 percent of their income to charity, a figure that has not budged significantly for decades. However, that figure belies big differences in giving patterns between the rich and the poor.
The wealthiest Americans—those who earned $200,000 or more—reduced the share of income they gave to charity by 4.6 percent from 2006 to 2012. Meanwhile, Americans who earned less than $100,000 chipped in 4.5 percent more of their income during the same time period. Middle- and lower-income Americans increased the share of income they donated to charity, even as they earned less, on average, than they did six years earlier.
A generous spirit is apparently based on something other than how much a person has, yet some of us still think we need to wait until we have a surplus before we feel free to share. If the giving patterns of the super-rich are true, conventional wisdom would indicate that there is never enough much less any extra we can afford to give away.
So once again, what Paul is urging is not about amounts but about willingness to share a portion of what we have.
The third reasonable guideline is likely to rankle some. It says we are to be motivated by a desire to encourage equity in the community.
C. Motivated by equity for others (Tension: Fair vs. Unfair)
I don’t mean you should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean there should be some equity. 8:13-14
I think maybe a desire for equity was a problem in Corinth. In the Paul’s first letter to the Christians at Corinth and specifically chapter 11, speaks of an inequitable situation. Apparently there was a Love Feast or Potluck Dinner associated with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Apparently the more affluent congregants would get together and hurriedly eat their food and drink their wine so they did not have to share with others. “Some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others. As a result some go hungry while others get drunk. Do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame the poor?” I Corinthians 11:21-22
We do not have the disparity in our church that was present in the church at Corinth but it would never occur to us to monitor who brings what or how much, much less attempt to keep anyone away from the table. We lay out the spread. Main dishes, vegetables, salads and desserts. We ask the blessing and then we pass through lines that form on either side of the serving table. Everyone shares with everyone.
Imagine some Potluck Sunday where Monty brings in a full-slab of ribs, a bucket of potato salad and some Kettle Chips and a six pack of All-Natural Joia Blackberry, Pomegranate and Ginger Soda and set up all by myself at a table with one chair and proceed to eat what I brought… while someone who literally had nothing to bring or share sits across the room watching me gnaw away at the ribs and wash it down with Joia Blackberry, Pomegranate and Soda.
God says it isn’t fair for one person to have a lot while another has nothing. We may be politically of the mind that equity smacks of socialism but in the Book of Acts chapters 2 and 4, it would seem that among the Christians there was a desire to share and in chapter 6 a desire to provide public assistance for those who had no family or means of support. There was no one in need among them!
When we have plenty and someone else is in lack the equitable thing to do is share. The tension is the tug we feel between fair and unfair. The tug we feel when we think what we have managed to get is well-deserved is fair and it being unfair to think we should share it with others. He reasons that you just never know when the tables will turn and you will find yourself in need and those you helped earlier will then come to your aide.
He concludes this series of four guidelines by saying we should govern or manage our desire by the rule of enough.
D. Managed by the rule of enough (Tension: Greed vs. Contentment)
Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over. Those who gathered only a little had enough. 8:15
He took the Christians at Corinth back to the Old Testament story of when the Israelites were desperate for food. God sent quail birds and scattered manna on the ground every day. The people were instructed to gather only what they needed for that day. Naturally there were some who thought they should maybe gather a little extra in case they needed it the next day… but those who gathered a lot found that it spoiled overnight while those who gathered a little had enough.
The tension is always the tug in our hearts and minds between more or less or in other words being content with enough so we can share with others who have less.
The guidelines for sharing what we have with God and others is simple. Our generosity needs to be:
• Marked by eagerness
• Measured proportionally
• Motivated by a desire for equity
• Managed by the rule of enough
Conclusion
Peter Chin tells of an experience he had in a grocery store. He needed a can of chicken stock. After getting the can from a shelf, he headed for the checkout lines, scanning them for the one that looked like he could get through it most quickly. He settled on Aisle 4, which was limited to 15 items or fewer, and where only two customers stood between him and his escape. He soon decided, however, that he'd chosen the wrong line. There was a problem.
“The people at the register continued to fiddle with their pocketbook as the attendant took more canned items off the belt and placed them in a cart next to her. I didn't really know what was going on, but frankly I didn't care. They had more than 15 items and shouldn't have been there in the first place. I had no compassion on people who couldn't do something as simple as making a purchase at a grocery store. I rolled my eyes as the attendant took their final item off the belt. Finally, the couple shuffled on their way, heads down.”
After they left, the man ahead of Chin in line made his purchases quickly, so it wasn't long before it was Chin's turn. As he paid for his can, he saw what the couple had been trying to buy: Similac. Baby formula. Chin quickly surmised that the couple had probably been trying to use one of the city programs like WIC or SNAP, only to learn that the type or size they were trying to purchase wasn't covered. And when they'd looked into their pocketbook for cash, they didn't have enough to buy even a single can. Chin had images of a baby going hungry that night.
Chin was suddenly struck by the callousness of his own impatience. Leaving his own paid-for can on the counter, he ran from the store, hoping to find the couple and buy some cans of baby formula for them. But, of course, they were gone.
Eventually Chin went to his car, in which he sat down in shame. He realized that it wasn't selfishness that had prevented him from helping this couple feed their baby -- he'd have gladly paid for the formula had he been aware of what was happening. No, it wasn't selfishness; it was, in his words, "enslavement to my own convenience." A more generous spirit would have caused him to at least try to understand what was happening to the couple ahead of him in line, instead of viewing them as obstacles to his quick departure from the store. (When is Rich, Rich?, Homiletics, Volume 27, Number 3, P.70)
A generous spirit is about sharing what we have but not always… it’s an attitude.
A generous spirit acts graciously in love for others in response their need and to the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ.
