In this month of worship services for our 2025 stewardship drive about generosity this is the first week our main Bible reading is directly about generosity. In 2 Corinthains we read that Paul is telling the church in Corinth about the generosity of the Christians in Macedonia. The Christians in Macedonia were almost certain the ones in the city of Philippi, which gives us the biblical book called Philippians.
I may be taking a backwards approach
to this, but before we get to why the Macedonians were models of generosity I
think it is good to know what they’re being generous about. That was the collection Paul was making to
assist people who were living in famine around Jerusalem. The reason is important. There are lots of people and organizations
ask us for money or support of some kind.
No matter how generous you are, you can’t possibly give to everyone who
asks. And you’ve probably noticed that
if you give to an organization once you’ll be hounded by emails and text
messages, as well as old-fashioned mail, asking you to give more.
Let’s look at some unclear, or
outright bad, causes to give to as a way of getting to the good ones.
You’ve surely encountered people
begging in the streets or at intersections.
When I visit someone at Strong Hospital I usually take 490 into
Rochester and then get off at the Goodman St. exit. Quite often there are one or more people
standing at the end of the ramp asking for help. They usually have a homemade sign made of
cardboard describing their need. The
sign will say something like, “Homeless.
Anything would help. God
bless.” Or, “Veteran needs help.” Or something like that. It’s usually designed to tug at your heart
strings.
Maybe you feel compelled to
give. Maybe you don’t because you fear
you’re enabling them to continue destructive habits. (I know a number of people who create little
care kits that they keep in their car and they can give to beggars. That way they’re helping a need without being
an enabler. But I’ve seen what happens
to those little kits. They often just
get tossed.) Whatever you do, seeing a broken person begging by the side of the
road probably makes you feel uncomfortable.
To give feels wrong. To not give
makes you feel like you’re a selfish jerk.
My general rule is that there are a number of ongoing help programs and
agencies available. Support them as they
support others, but do not give aid directly.
You’re almost certainly enabling a bad habit. And yet, if you feel safe and if you dare,
make eye contact with the person. Let
them know that you see them and their personhood. Usually they look away pretty quickly though
because they feel uncomfortable too.
The church gets a fair number of
calls from people asking for help. Their
requests usually follow a pattern: They
need money. It’s usually for rent, car
repairs, or travel expenses. They’ve
checked with the local aid agencies and didn’t have any luck. They have most of the money but not all. And they have a job but it hasn’t started
yet. If you study the tactics you
realize that the stories are usually designed to pull on the values and virtues
they expect middle class people have.
As a church we don’t offer any
direct aid other than food. So the
conversations are usually pretty short.
I suggest they call the county.
They’re still heart wrenching conversations though. What always comes to mind is Jesus saying
when you did not do it to one of these least of these you did not do it to
me. Ugh.
Of course there’s also all sorts of
ads on TV or the internet asking you to support: disabled veterans, children’s
hospitals, or animal shelters. I’m not
in a position to make judgments on any of that sort of thing. Many are good and worthy causes to
support. What I will say is to
definitely be generous outside of your own family and friends in substantial
ways. But we’ll come back to that.
What is the need going on behind
Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians for aid?
What made the Macedonians so eager to help?
Acts 11, as well as a number of
historical sources, note that there was a severe famine in and around Jerusalem
in the late 40s of the first century.
This was a crisis. But it would
not be an ongoing problem. Or, it
wouldn’t be an ongoing problem if aid was sent soon.
Famines were not unusual in ancient
times. Droughts, destructive storms,
locust plagues, and any number of things could cause a famine. If you were in an area experiencing a famine
you pretty much had two choices if you wanted to survive. One was to buy food. But food was scarce so everyone wanted to buy
food. This was not a simple supply and
demand sort of situation. Remember, they
did not have well developed roads or canals.
There was no reliable transportation system that could transport vast
quantities of anything. Use the Erie
Canal as an example. Before it was built
it took three weeks to ship cargo from New York to Buffalo. After it was built it took eight days. Before it was built I understand it cost $90
to ship a ton of cargo from New York to Buffalo. Afterward it cost $4 for that same ton of cargo.
So, if you have to ship almost all
the food necessary into a populated area you’re shipping a lot of food! All of that food is expensive! The famine will surely come to an end in
time, but in the mean time food was going to be cripplingly expensive!
If you couldn’t buy food during a
famine your other choice was to move away until it ended. But that was a disastrous choice. If you moved what would you do for a
living? If you were a skilled
tradesperson you’d hope to move somewhere that you could get employment. When the famine was over would you be able to
move back? Wouldn’t someone else have
likely moved into your house?
If you were a farmer or rancher it
was even worse. If you move away you
can’t just simply move back when the famine was over. What would you do with any livestock? And when the famine was over you weren’t
going to return to fields ripe for harvesting.
You’d have to plant them and wait for crops to grow. Yet you couldn’t stay to plant because there
was no food!
A famine was a limited time event
with very long-term consequences. It
could even take generations to recover, or recovery might not be possible at
all. A famine would create permanent
poverty for many people.
However, having money to buy the
expensive food for the short-term duration of the famine changed
everything. St. Paul had traveled to
Jerusalem and met with church leaders there.
He knew about the famine and had decided to ask the churches he had
founded for support. An infusion of cash
in the short term would create lasting benefits for many. There was little debate about whether the
cause was worthy or whether it was enabling destructive behavior or
laziness. It was clearly a good cause.
The Macedonians who were either
relatively poor, or perhaps deeply poor, responded immediately with great
generosity. The Corinthians, who were
well-to-do by comparison, weren’t opening their wallets any too wide. Paul was not impressed.
The way he writes to the Corinthians
you can tell he is trying to guilt them into giving more. But that is not his preferred way to get
people to give support
Guilt can be a powerful
motivator. But it can only be used short
term, and it causes quite a bit of resentment.
Any time someone tries to guilt you into doing something you aren’t
happy about it. Ultimately guilt is not
an effective long-term motivator. A lot
of political activists never seem to learn that.
Paul wants genuine generosity from
the Corinthians the same way it was genuine from the Macedonians. And that should be the same reason for our
generosity. Generosity like that is
lasting. It is satisfying. It is even joyful. St. Paul tells the Corinthians that in
Macedon, “during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their
extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” He says the Macedonians found it to be a
privilege to be able to help.
That is generosity based on a
genuine desire to give. It is not based
on guilt.
What is underneath the Macedonian’s
genuine interest in giving is God’s love.
They know they are deeply and solidly loved by God. Despite their having little, they know that
God’s love is bottomless. There wells up
within them an authentic sense of happiness.
It is a root of true faithfulness and satisfaction.
Sure, some times
are good. Some times are bad. Sometimes it feels like you take two steps
forward and one step back. Or sometimes
it may feel like you take only one step forward and two steps back. Life is that way. Things are seldom straightforward or
easy. But when deep inside you there is
an awareness of God’s abounding grace for you – that grace that says you are
forever: valuable, and good, and capable regardless of what the world says
about you – then you are living a truly meaningful life.
Life is supposed
to be that way. At least God wants it
that way. God wants us to feel deep
contentment within ourselves. We should
feel good. We should feel like we have
value and are important. We should feel
fulfilled. When we have that all comes
together. All obstacles can be
overcome. And endless supply of energy
always bubbles up.
That is not to say
it will be easy. There will be hardship,
pain, uncertainty and setbacks. There
always are.
As we are in our
stewardship drive for 2025 I’d like to say that you should be generous to the
church because collectively we do many great things for the community and for
God’s kingdom. I think we do. I think this church is a worthwhile
investment. But I wouldn’t want to guilt
you into anything. Guilt is of limited
value. What I’d really want for you is
to feel God’s love and grace the way the Macedonians did. Everything came together for them. Fullness of life creates genuine generosity.
May you feel God’s
love in you and may it bring you joy and genuine generosity.
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