“Dear Wakelee Church…Sincerely, Paul”
The Corinthian Connection Series
“Giving Until It Heals” ~ II Corinthians 8-9
Wakelee Church ~ July 11, 2004
(All verses are New King James Version unless otherwise noted. Underlines added for emphasis.)
(This sermon is based on a sermon given by Bishop Blake (United Methodist OK area Bishop)at the 2004 General Conference.)
THEME: TRUE GIVING NEVER HURTS, TRUE GIVING HEALS.
Introduction
The Ponca Indian tribe has an interesting tradition. When a loved one dies, the family and friends meet to share with one another. They share not in the form of words, but in the form of giving. Now you may think this not too interesting until you hear who does the sharing.
You see, thousands of dollars of gifts are give to members of the tribe and friends. If people need food, the family gives them food. If others need household supplies, the family gives them a basket of supplies. Others are give personal items from the deceased, like blankets and shawls.
Instead of friends giving to the bereaved….the bereaved family gives to others.
And even one year later, the family and friends get together again and the “giveaway” continues.
When asked about this custom a granddaughter of a chief simply said, “We believe you can accept death better by giving rather than getting.”
Instead of giving until it hurt, this custom emphasized that one should give until it heals.
As Paul continued this second letter to the Corinthian church, he needed to give the church an opportunity to heal itself by giving to others. This is a message so different than what we normally hear.
Paul didn’t guilt the church into giving…he told them that they need not give grudgingly or out of necessity…he told them that their faith showed in their giving…and that giving was much more of a Spiritual thing than a physical. Paul told them that they had an opportunity to assist in their own healing by giving.
“Giving until it heals is far more biblical than giving until it hurts. Giving until it hurts turns giving into a negative experience. It is demeaning and painful. But in the New Testament, giving is never presented in such a painful manner.” (source: Bishop Blake, from the Oklahoma Conference of the U.M.C. –General Conf. 2004)
“God loves a cheerful giver…” does not mean give until it hurts.
“Freely receive and freely give…” does not express the idea of giving until it hurts.
“Joy to the world…” does not fulfill the commitment to give until it hurts.
Wasn’t it Jesus, himself, who said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” ?
True giving, biblical, new testament giving, should never hurt, true giving heals.
This morning we’re going to look at four connections that Paul gave the church at Corinth, and indeed to us today, that backs up that fact.
I. Connection: We should challenge ourselves to give not for the cause or the program, instead we give because we have been for-given!
At the very heart of the gospel is the experience of forgiveness. We all fall short of God’s calling. We all miss the mark of faithful discipleship. However, God is a god whose standards are never lowered but whose children are always forgiven.
Forgiveness, the good news revealed in Jesus Christ, thrusts us into the future free from the barnacles of our past. As a consequence, we in turn forgive and “give for” others. We give until it heals not because of we’re convinced of a good cause, but because we have the internal need to give because we have been forgiven.
Paul had gone to the church at Macedonia before coming to Corinth. He was surprised that this congregation, poorer than most of the churches, exceeded Paul’s expectations in their giving for the work being done in Jerusalem.
Instead of giving until it hurt, the Macedonians gave until it healed. Note the verse on your sheets. Paul said that he could testify that they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to the Lord’s will on their lives.
[“For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.” - II Corinthians 8:3-5]
Could it be that we have loaded down Christian giving with so many negative meanings that what is intended to be the positive, freeing, joyous experience of discipleship has become so negative that we shy away from the addressing it all together?
We should challenge ourselves, not by guilting one another or shaming ourselves for this program or cause, but to give because we have been forgiven.
Causes come and go. Programs come and go. Pastors come and go. Whenever giving is tied to any of these, giving will come and go also.
However, forgiveness is eternal, it never comes and goes. Forgiveness is always present, always current. Therefore, when giving is our faith response to being forgiven, it never comes and goes.
Show me people who give until it heals, and I’ll show you people who are full of joy. We are forgiven; therefore, we give until it heals as we have been healed.
True giving never hurts, true giving heals.
II. Connection: Giving should be the most positive, freeing, joyous experience of being a disciple of Christ.
Paul takes an interesting approach with the Corinthian church. They had previously promised to give an offering, but the contributions had yet trickled in, because there were some grumblers in the crowd who didn’t want to give any more than they had to.
Rather than manipulate or shame, Paul lets them decide whether to give or not give. Reminding them that God does repay in kind. Look at the verse,
“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” – II Corinthians 9:6-7
The hook phrase is “as he purposes in his own heart.” When we give joyously, we receive joy. When we give we a spirit of kindness, we receive kindness. When we give with no strings attached, we receive freedom in return.
Paul told the church at Corinth to remember what they had promised not out of guilt or shame, but out of their sheer necessity to experience the joy of giving.
True giving never hurts, true giving heals.
III. Connection: There is a vital connection between grace and giving.
Time for some statistics. As a middle to upper income denomination, we are now almost last in per-attendee giving. However, in Angola, while we average about 2-3% of our income, they average 50% or above.
When a lay leader in Angola was trying to get a concept of tithing done in the Western church, he shook his head at the concept. When asked by a missionary to share his understanding of giving. He said, “All I have belongs to God. My decision is how much do I really need and the rest I give to the church.”
When asked why so much, he simply replied, “Because I have experienced God’s grace….because I am forgiven.” There is a vital connection between grace and giving.
Paul told the people of Corinth, that where God’s grace is, there is also sufficiency and abundance. Look at the verse….
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” – II Corinthians 9:8
We, as Christ’s disciples, need to sit at the feet of those who have learned the intimate relationship between the grace-filled, good news and response of our giving.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that there is more grace is giving, than receiving.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that God will always supply what is sufficient.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that if we stopped focusing on the limited resources, and starting focusing on giving until it heals, that we would have so much money to facilitate God’s mission in the world that we would be celebrating instead of ringing our hands.
It is clear to me, that we do not have a money problem, instead we have a giving problem.
And if we have a giving problem, than we have a faith problem. And if we have a faith problem, then we don’t understand the full extent of God’s grace!
When we put our full trust in the grace of Jesus Christ, instead of ourselves, then giving comes naturally.
True giving never hurts, true giving heals.
IV. Connection: Giving is not about the physical, it’s about the Spiritual.
Which leads us to our last point this morning…giving is not about the physical, it’s about the Spiritual.
Bishop Blake of the Oklahoma Area Conference told this story at General Conference…
“In 1999, the Oklahoma Conference met soon after the tragic tornadoes that swept thought the area, the most severe ever calculated by measuring devices. Many homes and many lives were destroyed. That conference started with the usual wrangling over budgets, resource allocations, and percentages. Until out of the blue a group of young men from Lydia Patterson Institute, a United Methodist prep school for poor Hispanic boys, arrived for a visit.
They had come to be on a volunteer-in-missions project. Out of the two weeks they were to stay, they had planned monetarily for one day of fun at an amusement park in the area.
Upon arriving, however, they saw the devastation, and they experienced the pain of loss, and their plans changed.
These boys, all poor, all without many of the comforts we couldn’t live without, decided to give up their day and donate their funds for the tornado victims. Their gift healed. Immediately, the floor of that annual conference changed.
Instead of struggling with a second major disaster—first the bombing in ’95 and now the tornado of ’99—the conference found itself swept up in the joy of giving.
That offering given by the boys that day, quadrupled and quadrupled again, as the mood and the spirit of the conference shifted from the physical sense of scarcity to the spiritual reality of God’s abundance.
A spirit of joy came upon the conference just like rain on a parched desert floor. These young men knew what it meant to give until it healed…
I learned right then and there,” said the Bishop “that the foundation for Christian giving is not the thickness of our pocketbooks but the forgiveness of our sins. They freely gave because they had freely received.
In Chapter 9, verses 12-15, Paul told the church at Corinth that giving showed their thankfulness to God and the amount of the grace of God that was found in them.
[“For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding though many thanksgivings to God, while through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confessions to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! – II Corinthians 9:12-15]
How much thankfulness and grace will be found in us?
Do we give because we’ve been forgiven?
Do we give out of joy or out of something else?
Do we know that our giving is linked to our belief in grace?
Do we know that giving is about the Spiritual, not necessarily the physical?
We have a choice to make…we can remain shoulder-deep in the muck of trying to maintain our standard of living, our scarcity mentality, or we can give abundantly based on the fact that we are a forgiven people.
As I reflect on the New Testament and the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, it is clear that there is an intimate connection between faith and giving. Paul knew that connection. He shared it with the church at Corinth, and in turn shared that connection with us today.
There is no doubt that we face difficult times,
…but we can always remember the words of the granddaughter of the Ponca tribe…”We can face
difficult times by giving rather than getting.”
…we can remember the words of the Angolan lay leader, “I give, because I am forgiven.”
…we can remember the words of Paul who said, “God loves the cheerful giver…”
…and we can remember the words of Christ, who said, “It is better to give than to receive.”
True giving never hurts, true giving heals.
And the church says….Amen.
#192 – There’s A Spirit in the Air
Benediction – May “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with (us) all. In the name of our God who creates, redeems, and sustains…Amen.” – II Corinthians 13:14
NEXT WEEK: “Being Respectful in Disrespectful Times” – The Corinthian Connection continues
