2 Corinthians 8:1-15
October 27, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Last week, Joy and I were at Good Guys and we saw in the showroom the Fujitsu 50” Plasmavision HD Monitor—the slim TV that hangs on the wall like a piece of fine art. We said this would really look nice in our house! It’s on sale this week for $9999.99, original price was $15,000!
I have a 10-year old car. So naturally like all guys, I’ve been “just looking.” But in last Sunday’s paper, I can get a 2002 XK8 Jaguar Convertible from Putnam Jaguar for $61,330! It was originally $74,000!
We live in a society dedicated to the idea that one’s life consists in the abundance of possessions. We like to have things. The “American Way” is that if you can afford it, buy it. A mother in suburban New Jersey was asked by the Wall Street Journal why she spent $20,000 last year on designer clothes for her two-year old daughter. She replied, “I can afford it, so why not?” In seven words this mother said it all. The ethic is simple. If you can afford it, buy it. And if you can’t afford it, get a better job, accept another credit card or refinance your house.
Who has heard of the phrase, “If you need to ask, you can’t afford it?” We live in a society that teaches us that even when we are really not rich, we still want to see ourselves as affluent. We want things and buy things that make us feel complete and full of abundance.
Balancing Act
You and I may not be able to afford the Fujitsu Plasmavision monitor or the XK8 Jaguar Convertible, but in comparison to how the rest of the world lives, we live in tremendous abundance. We can afford to go out to eat, buy new clothes and if you’re lucky, got tickets for the World Series.
Because we have so much, we are taught to manage our resources by balancing the way we use them. We want to give a fair share to our alma mater, to this and to that good cause, and of course, a fair share to the church. We think about giving like balancing a mobile. All our giving is just the right amount so that not any one thing will strain the rest. [Mobile] Here, we give some to my seminary; some to the ABC; some to the church; a lot to mortgage; some for food, etc. We want our giving to reflect our lives—to stay balance in everything that we do and everything that we have.
Balancing Abundance and Needs
Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians was to persuade them to share some of their resources with the needs of those in Jerusalem. The churches in Macedonia have suffered under Roman oppression. They survived a severe ordeal of affliction. During this time of persecution Christians suffered even more than non-Christians. But even in their sufferings, these churches were still generous with their giving. They gave beyond their means. In fact, they even begged to have the opportunity to give.
Here’s a group of people whom we would think should be “victimized” and devastated in their sense of helping others. They should have been more concerned about their own hard times. But they earnestly begged for the privilege to give voluntarily to help others. Their mobiles are not balanced like mine. Theirs were all straining to generously help others.
Then Paul began directing his words to the Corinthians. When he described what they were like, we can see that he was talking to people more like us. The Corinthians’ mobiles are like ours. They already have many things—you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in love. Now Paul wants them to also excel in generosity.
Their mobiles are all in good balance. Now Paul said, “Add one more to your abundant life—generosity.” At this point in the Corinthian church, they have everything they needed. They don’t want to worry about what’s going on with the Macedonian churches. From where they were sitting, they have sufficient abundance. Adding one more thing would throw their mobile out of balance.
That’s our challenge too. We have an abundance of things in our lives but God is saying there’s something missing. We still seem to be unhappy. America is moving steadily in the direction of a society where many of us work more, spend more, have bigger houses and more expensive cars, and yet seem no happier or satisfied.
In Luke 12, Jesus tells a parable of a rich farmer whose land produced abundantly. He had so much grain and crops that all his barns were full. He wanted to tear down his small barns and build bigger ones to store his goods. He thought to himself that now he can sit back for the rest of his life—relaxing, eating, drinking, and being merry. But God called him a fool. You won’t be happy.
God said to this foolish farmer that if tonight were the very day your life is being demanded of you, what good would these goods be? Jesus said, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
The farmer was not a fool because he was rich. He’s a fool because he missed the opportunity to share his abundance with others. His mobile contained all these large barns all filled with grain that gave him a false message that his life is good, happy, and well balanced. He may have many things, but God called him a fool. I suspect he wasn’t happy either.
Became Rich so that We Might Become Rich
For us to know how to live in a society with seemingly unlimited abundance and serve God according to his plan is found in verse 9 of our Scriptures for today. Paul said, “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.”
The good news of Christ is that he became poor so that we might become rich. God became poor like one of us in human flesh but still fully divine. God was not giving Jesus to us because he was trying to balance out his giving to someone else. God was not trying to give a fair balance here. God’s grace is not fair, not balanced. God gives lavishly and generously without expectations from us to give him back anything close to what he has given to us.
Now some of us here might think that we are giving generously already. We think that the portion that we give justifies the lifestyle that we have. We balance the amount of our giving with the abundant lifestyle we keep. But let’s be honest—we still come up short. In fact, most of the time, we come up short. We realize that even though we want to give our whole life to Christ, we are unable to. We realized that we can’t or we won’t so we try to give God only a fair share.
If there is any fair balance or equalization between God’s grace and our giving, it’s not in our wealth, but it’s in our poverty. Just as Jesus became poor though he was rich, so that we might become rich, we need to be poor and realize that all of the abundance in this material world is nothing. It’s worthless. Even our lives are worthless unless we believe that it’s only through Jesus’ becoming poor like us that our lives are now rich because of his love on the cross.
We can find three rules in giving from this passage:
1. Learn from the way others give.
2. Give in proportion to what you have.
3. Share what you have with those who are more needy.
It is all neat and tidy and gives us a sense that if we just did these three things, our giving a fair share would be sufficiently balance.
But generous giving does not come from rules. It doesn’t come from trying to carefully balance our resources. It’s not trying to equalize our giving so that everything has just a little. Generous giving like how God gave his only son, Jesus Christ so that we may have eternal life comes from love. Generous giving is the widow in Mark 14 who gave all that she had, two small copper coins while the rich people put in large sums. Jesus then said,
“Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are
contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their
abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all
she had to live on.”
The only standard of giving that counts toward anything is your love for Christ. There’s no certain amount or percentage of tithing standard. There’s no minimum or maximum amount. We give for our love for Jesus because Jesus first loved us. And that’s the reason why we are here today.
Katie’s Giving
There’s a story by Sam Brink that I would like to share with you. One Sunday morning, his youngest daughter, Katie convinced him that she was a better Christian than he was. That made him feel very uncomfortable.
Time and again Katie has proven to be a better Christian, but that Sunday she tipped the balanced mobile when it was time for the offering. Whenever Katie would hear that the offering was being received she’s reach into her small purse and pull out her little billfold bulging at the seams with everything from rocks to chap stick. While she never carried a lot of money she always had some.
That Sunday Katie pushed aside the coins and gum wrappers and reached for the two bills, a one and a five. Her father watched as she innocently put into the offering plate first the one-dollar bill, and then to his surprise and honestly to his horror, she added the five-dollar bill. Her father wanted to shout out, “No, that’s not the way people do it! You always put the smallest bill into the offering plate.”
But, thankfully, the father remembered where he was and said nothing. As he placed his own offering in the plate, he reflected how he arrived at the check figure inside the envelope. The father looked at his daughter, Katie sitting there with deep satisfaction written all over her face and he knew then that she was a better Christian than he was. He asked himself, “What does she have that I don’t? I want what she has!” The answer he came up with was simple and striking. He was missing Katie’s level of trust.
In her young life, Katie had a sense of trust that if she gave away her money more would come. She knew that whenever she needed money, her parents were always there to help her. Her parents had done a good job of convincing her that they would take care of her because they love her. So when it came to giving away what she had, it was no big deal because she trusted her parents to take care of her needs. Not only does she trust her parents, she acts out of that trust.
When we try to give to God only a small share, thinking that we need to balance everything else in our very affluent lifestyle, we act like we don’t trust God. We have forgotten that it’s only when we empty out our pockets will there be room for them to be filled up again. We are worry that if we don’t save some more for ourselves, God won’t be there when we need him.
God’s Abundance
The good news is that God is here for us. We can trust God. And we don’t need to worry. Jesus said,
“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body,
what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than
clothing.
Consider the ravens, God feed them. Consider the lilies, how they grow.
God values us more than the birds of the air and the lilies in the valley.
Do not be afraid, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.” (Luke 12:22-34)
Everything that we have is God’s abundance for us and his creation. God’s gracious abundance throws everything we think is important out of balance! Anything that we can give back to God is nothing like the generosity that God first gave to us. Anything that we try to give so that we can maintain a balanced mobile comes up short to the ultimate gift of Jesus Christ who was rich but for our sakes became poor so that we may become rich in God’s grace and mercy.
Let us balance God’s abundance by sharing God’s resources in his name and with the world by being like Christ.
“For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty we might
become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:9)
Let us pray.