2 Corinthians 9:1-14 – Stewardship 4

4. Stewardship as a Delight (based on 2 Corinthians 9:1-14),

written by Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman

2 Corinthians 9:1 Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, 2 for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; 4 otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated– to say nothing of you– in this undertaking. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion. 6 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. 9 As it is written, „He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.“ 10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; 12 for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. 13 Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Hearts Overflowing

My wife Kathy and I do not remember the year. We know it was sometime before Nathan began school. He would have been about 4 years old. We do remember the occasion. And we still keep the gifts that were given. Though they are unremarkable to others, they are precious to us. The occasion was Christmas, and our house was visited by the spirit of Christmas. Some time between midnight, after the last worship service of Christmas eve, and six in the morning, we were visited. But the guest was not a white bearded, red suited, sleigh riding elf. At our house Santa has always been just a story. Nathan always knew that Christmas presents came from his parents, relatives, and friends. No, the Spirit of Christmas came inhabiting the white pajama clad body of Nathan.

In the middle of the night, while we slept, Nathan found some art supplies, which for him could have been almost anything at that age. In this case it was cotton swabs and clear tape. He found white paper for wrapping and crayons for decorating. He retreated to his room and made Christmas presents for both of us. Once they were wrapped in their homemade coverings, he stole down the stairs to the tree that waited at the bottom and carefully placed his gifts to us there. Whether he slept or not after that, we don’t know, but he went back to his room and waited for us to emerge and for Christmas Day’s celebrations to begin.

As soon as our rustling sounds signaled to him that we were awake, he burst into our room and begged us to join him at the tree. This is not unusual, as many a child has anticipated the opening of presents on Christmas morn. What was unusual was that this particular year, Nathan did not rush to discover and open his gifts. Instead he showed us the two packages that were not there when we had gone to bed. And he encouraged us each to open them. Surprised, we agreed. What I remember most in that moment was the look of wonder and joy on Nathan’s very young face as we opened these gifts. Nathan had discovered that the joy of Christmas, taking the cue from God’s own gift of his Son, consisted not in the receiving of the gifts, but in the giving.

The delighted giver

In 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, Paul has a lot to say about giving. He is collecting an offering for the church in Jerusalem and has been encouraging the folks in Corinth to participate. But in chapter 9 especially, he says something about the value of the act of giving itself. There are many ways to read what has been written here. Some of them are of the worst sort of self interest that you can imagine. Some people think Paul is telling us that by giving generously we will be given even more. This is the “holy stock market” approach to giving: you don’t really give, you make an investment, and God will guarantee a return in abundant blessings (usually when this line of argument is taken, the inference is that the blessings will be material wealth). Imagine the damage that such a way of thinking can produce. Why would some people get material blessings from God for their gifts and not others? Does God play favorites? Are some people more faithful in their giving? Is the return of wealth to those who give really a sign of God’s favor? If we face the truth, at the bottom of this way of thinking is a simple fallacy. If we give expecting something in return, it isn’t really giving.

In the first several sermons in this series we have covered the foundations of stewardship that Paul also recommends. Good giving is a worshipful response to God’s grace. It requires that we act out of faith in God and leads us to a place where we continue to depend on God. Good giving also requires that we be wise and faithful managers of all of the things that God has given us. But the final piece of the puzzle is here in 2 Corinthians 9. There in verse 7 it states, each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. What most people think when they hear this last phrase is that whatever giving they do they should be “cheerful” about it. A quick look around any Church tells you that this is rarely true.

We, Lutherans, usually talk about our gracious and giving God in glowing terms, only to find that we are not a gracious and giving people. Rev. Donn Abdon of Indianapolis, Indiana, once said that he had discovered the equation. Lutherans received the gifts of God, but didn’t share them. We have all input and no output. He may be right. Any preacher who has ever seen most Lutheran faces from the preacher’s side of worship knows that these are not often the faces of joy, they are almost the faces of pain. It isn’t hard to figure out why. “All input and no output” means that the folks are spiritual constipated. We don’t know how to share God’s blessings and we don’t know how freeing this is for us. Of course it is only God’s blessings and love in Jesus Christ that will free us from this bondage.

When we are free, that’s when the joy of giving becomes a part of who we are. I don’t like the translation of the last phrase of verse 7 because it is so easy to make it into something that I do, rather than something that God does through me. I like this paraphrase, one that Marc Rieke shared with me, much better. “God loves the person who delights in giving.” This is what I have been suggesting all along in these sermons. That when we trust God’s giving way as our way, it isn’t a burden, but a delight. That we participate in the very heart of God, by God’s grace. Finally it isn’t us doing it, but God working through us. Our lives become conduits of God’s love. It doesn’t just come to us, in the many forms that it comes, but it flows through us.

Give until you experience JOY!

I once heard a pastor tell his congregation that they needed to give until it hurt. Of course he was talking about the sacrifice and spiritual discipline that is a part of good stewardship. We covered that ground last sermon. But I have come to understand that if you only give until you hurt, you are missing out. You are either giving too much, or more likely you are giving too little, too little at least to reach the point of joy and delight that comes from living in a relationship of trust and faith in God, the joy and delight that comes from experiencing each day as a gift.

Consider Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” At the start of the story he lives the kind of “spiritual constipation” described above. Through the course of the story, and the course of his long night, he is first confronted by his failures to love and give, then by the enormous weight of his own “chain of greed.” He is given a glimpse of one possible destinyfilled with fear and terror for him. But he is also shown the joy of generosity, both in his past life and loves and in his present, through Bob Cratchitt’s family, and his nephew Fred and his wife. Near the end of his dream he believes his life to be over, only to find that he has been given the gift of life again on Christmas morning. This gift so overwhelms his spirit that he is released from the bondage of his own greed and freed to let the blessings of his life become a blessing for all those around him. He becomes the most generous man that everyone knows. He truly is delighted to give to others.

I always cry when I see the end of a production of this story, even though I know the ending by heart, down to the prize turkey at the butcher shop. I cry because the joy and release that Scrooge experiences are my joy and release as well. I do not experience Scrooge’s journey in a night vision, but rather as a daily struggle, the struggle of my Baptism. As I am drowned to Sin and raised to new life each day, I take up my life as a gift, and my life, too, overflows with joy.

When we see life that way, we don’t give until it hurts, we give until and because it feels good! We do it because we are delighted with the love that God has given us, so delighted in fact that we want others to know that love. We want others to experience our joy.

Nathan discovered on that Christmas morning many years ago that the joy of the day is not in the getting but in the giving. He has not been the same since. Every year he lights up as the presents are opened, not when he gets the gift he wanted, but rather when we open the gifts that he himself has picked out or made for us. He, whose name means “gift”, delights in the giving. But then, look at the family he came from. No, not Kathy and me, nor our parents. Look at the body of Christ. He has been nurtured in the family habits of God’s family. And this family delights in the giving!

Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman
Pastor, Tree of Life Lutheran Church,
Conroe , Texas
lbouman@treeoflifelutheran.org