Jordan Byrd
God on mission through Jesus’ church
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
A few months ago, one of the local talk radio programs was discussing the number of big projects that get started in WNY; and either run into multiple snags along their completion or never get completed. Some examples include: Locally to here: the redevelopment of the Eastern Hills Mall into a mixed-use (residential and commercial) space. Near my house: the re-development of the Northtown Center into Station 12 – a brand-new, shell-ready property, with paved parking and installed landscaping; but sits tenantless and empty. I frequently walk my dog around it multiple times a week. Or, the embattled proposal to cover over the 33 near Humboldt Parkway in Buffalo. Or, the proposed extension of the metro rail from UB South to UB North. Or, the still vacant and undeveloped lot – where the Aud stood next to the Skyway in Buffalo.
What about your personal life? Do you have any projects that you wish you could do, but ran into limits? Money got tied up elsewhere. An injury derailed it. The time to do it got allocated to other needs. Whatever that thing is on your mind right now, we recognize that we run into limits: limits on time, resources, ability, etc. The project is halted not because of a lack of desire necessarily, but because of a limitation of ability or resources.
What do we do when we bump into limitations? What do we do when we bump into scarcity? One temptation is to limit our imagination for what’s possible. We don’t even let ourselves go there, because we know it’s impossible within OUR means. Another temptation is to elevate one need over another. In more dire situations, we’re faced with: Do I pay for food? Or do I pay the electric bill? In less dire situations, we’re faced with: Do I get my morning coffee at Tim Hortons? Or, do I put that money toward a special date with one of my kids? In the dire situation, the desire to have food and electricity is there, but the means to have both are limited. In the less dire situation, the desire to enjoy a coffee and pour into the relationship with your child may be there, but the means to have both may be limited.
We may sense this same tension today as we’re reflecting on supporting our mission partners: that you have the desire to support them, but you also have the desire for many other things; and from your ability, there is only so much to go around. And you’re not sure where the resources to support our mission partners will come from. Or, where the resources to cover your car payment will come from. Or, where the resources to cover that medical bill will come from. Or, where the time will come from – to pour into your kids. Or, where the ability will come from – to make it through the next day’s challenges.
Most of us probably have the desire to be generous people – generous with our time, ability, and resources. But, we bump into the wall that desire alone isn’t enough to be generous. We bump into the reality that we need desire + ______ something else (time, ability, resources). This reality shapes and forms us to see the world through the lens of scarcity.
The good news God’s word proclaims to us today is an invitation to see the world through the lens of Jesus. And, to see the world through the eyes of Jesus is to see a world linked to God’s limitless abundance. When there’s a limit with us, there isn’t a limit with God. And when we doubt there’s a way when we doubt we can’t be as generous as we desire it’s our posture to the God revealed in Jesus that is actually what limits us. Our limitation isn’t time, resources, and ability. Our limitation is on the source of the time, resources, and ability. Our limitation is in seeking to meet needs and be generous out of our scarcity, rather than entrusting our situations to God’s limitless abundance.
A response that God’s word, in 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, calls us to make today is to have faith that the abundance we need is found in the God we encounter in Jesus. 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 calls us to respond to God’s abundance, with a continued heart toward generosity. We are limitless to be generous when we give from the abundance of God.
2 Corinthians 8:1-15 calls us to have faith that generosity arises out of the abundance of God. Generosity arises out of the abundance of God. When there’s a limit with us, there isn’t a limit with God.
A couple of months ago, we made our way through the letter of 1 Corinthians, written by Paul, an early follower of Jesus. Toward the end of that letter (1 Corinthians 16), Paul encourages the non-Jewish backgrounded, Corinthian followers of Jesus to be generous toward the needs of the Jewish-backgrounded, followers of Jesus in Jerusalem, by contributing to an offering that many of the churches (that Paul ministered to), were collecting to help the needs of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem.
Throughout this portion of Paul’s letter, we reflected on how this offering opportunity was an opportunity to love like Jesus, until it stretches you. This opportunity for the Corinthian church to be generous would be a stretching to their faith because of several conflicts happening within the Corinthian church: the Corinthian followers of Jesus were wrestling through what it meant to follow Jesus in a religiously pluralistic culture (what it meant to follow Jesus, amidst people who worship the Roman Caesar as a God, where other people still worshiped the pantheon of Greek gods, and where scattered Jews still worshiped God [but didn’t recognize Jesus as the revelation of God]). The Corinthian followers of Jesus were wrestling through what it meant to worship Jesus beyond the distinctive Jewish framework of worship that Jesus’ original disciples adapted. The Corinthian followers of Jesus were wrestling with their own issues, and here, Paul is inviting them into the issue of the followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. Paul, we have our own issues, how are we supposed to be involved in the lives of people somewhere else?” “How are we supposed to stretch ourselves further? Paul’s letter of 1 Corinthians ends with an invite for the Corinthian followers of Jesus to set aside some of their income – beyond their current support of their own church community – to support the needs of the church somewhere else (to support the broader mission of God). It’s not until Paul’s letter of 2 Corinthians, that we are given further information about this opportunity for the Corinthian church to support the mission of God among the church in Jerusalem.
Maybe you’re like me. When thinking about a new idea or opportunity, I need examples to help me imagine what adoption of the new idea or opportunity would involve. We see this dynamic in a variety of fields. Sales: how will buying this product change my business? Politics: how will this policy impact my day-to-day life? Adoption of technology: how will this new device alter my life? Health: how will this exercise build muscle, improve my health, or improve my energy for the day? Examples give us a compare and contrast to our current reality to see how our lives would be different if we adopted the new idea or opportunity.
As Paul revisits the opportunity for the Corinthian church to contribute to the needs of the church in Jerusalem, we encounter that the Corinthian church has not yet given an offering. To broach the subject, Paul gives the Corinthians examples – to compare and contrast their current perspective about the opportunity to give, with what it would be like if they did give.
Paul describes the experience that the churches in Macedonia have had as they’ve already contributed to this offering opportunity. Gareth Reese notes in his commentary on 2 Corinthians that, “The only churches in the Roman province of Macedonia about which we have any details in the New Testament are those of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.” So, the churches Paul gives as examples are the ones we encounter in Paul’s letters of Philippians and Thessalonians; and what we encounter about the Berean church in Acts 17:10-12. What Paul describes is that the Macedonian churches had issues of their own that stood in their way of giving toward the offering for the Jerusalem church: Paul describes how the Macedonian followers of Jesus were in the midst of some kind of severe trial, while already being in an impoverished state (8:2).
Paul highlights that the Macedonian Christians were not unlike the Corinthian Christians. The Macedonian Christians also had their own issues to confront, and why would they stretch themselves even further – to support God’s mission in a church somewhere else?
Yet, Paul highlights a difference with the Macedonian followers of Jesus. Paul highlights that the Macedonian churches approached this opportunity, not from the perspective of their scarcity, but from the perspective of the abundance of God (8:3). And having given themselves FIRST to the Lord, and SECOND to God’s mission through his church, the Macedonian Christians have entrusted their life to the God of abundance revealed in Jesus. And having entrusted themselves to God’s abundant provision, they’re able to couple their desire to give to the church in Jerusalem, with God’s ability to abundantly provide, where they are scarcely able to provide on their own.
Where does such an attitude and posture come from for these Macedonian followers of Jesus? Paul points to one example in 2 Corinthians 8:15 from Exodus 16, which is a reference to God’s miraculous supply of food, after leaving Egypt and wandering in the desert. In response to the Israelites' complaints, God provides food for them. In the evening, quail covers the camp, and in the morning, thin flakes of heavenly-sent bread appear on the ground. The people are instructed to gather just enough for each person, and miraculously, everyone has exactly what they need.
It’s this miraculous provision from God’s abundance, in the face of the Israelite’s scarcity in the desert, that sits in the background of Jesus’ own life as a Jewish man. Jesus being aware of God’s provision for Israel in the desert, and his own awareness of God’s character, being the Son of God, spurred his belief in God providing food for more than 5,000 people out of 5 loaves and 2 fish, given by a boy that we encounter in all four gospel accounts (Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 9; John 6). Jesus couples the scarcity of his own material resources, the scarcity of his 12 disciples’ resources, and the scarcity of food offered by the boy, with God’s abundance.
In the miracle, Jesus shows his disciples – his followers, like the Macedonian Christians, like the Corinthian Christians, and like Christians like you and me today – that generosity is possible in scarcity, because of our connection to the God who provides all things. That our generosity arises out of the abundance of God. Generosity arises out of the abundance of God. When there’s a limit with us, there isn’t a limit with God.
It’s a regular occurrence in our house when our kids complain about something being unfair. She got more candy than me. He got to do that fun thing, and I didn’t. He got to stay up longer than me. This same dynamic pays out for adults too. They have more money than me. She is prettier than me. He is more successful than me. One thing I try to remind my kids, and ultimately applies to me too, is that someone else is not the ultimate standard of right/wrong. Someone else is not the ultimate standard of fairness and equality. Someone else is not the ultimate standard of what is best. God is the ultimate standard of right and wrong. God is the ultimate standard of fairness and equality. God is the ultimate standard of what is best.
Even though Paul lifts up the Macedonian churches, as an example of being generous in scarcity; and being generous beyond desire and human ability alone. In 8:1-9, Paul ultimately points to the life and example of Jesus. How Jesus reveals God’s standard. How Jesus reveals God’s perspective of reality. How Jesus lived in faith that God’s perspective of reality is what’s: right, just, and best.
Paul points to how Jesus has lived in and out of the richness of God’s life – how Jesus has lived in and out of the abundance of God’s life. Paul points to how Jesus entered the limits and poverty of human life because he knew he could rely on the abundant provision of his heavenly Father. Showing this most fully in the most profound moment of scarcity: death – that even in that scarcity, God is able to provide abundant, eternal life in resurrection. Jesus enters our poverty and calls us to rely on God, who can provide limitless abundance. What we encounter in Jesus is that his generosity toward us arises out of the abundance of God that he’s experienced from eternity past. Jesus most fully shows us that generosity arises out of the abundance of God. When there’s a limit with us, there isn’t a limit with God.
Overall, throughout 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, Paul is asking the Corinthians to consider the example of the Macedonian followers of Jesus; and most importantly, for them to consider the example of Jesus’ life… of having faith that God can supply abundance where all we have is limits, scarcity, and poverty.
What do we do when we bump into limitations? What do we do when we bump into scarcity? We can choose to operate out of our own limited and scarce imaginations and abilities; or, we can have faith that God can supply abundance out of our limits, scarcity, and poverty.
Today, you have the opportunity to lay this perspective of life over the opportunity before us to contribute to the support of our mission partners – giving to God’s mission somewhere else entirely. The opportunity to jump on board with God’s mission for all people to receive and experience his abundant, life-giving love.
We too are like the Corinthian and Macedonian followers of Jesus. We have our own issues, our own needs, our own pressing issues. We too will find it tempting to approach this moment, with a scarcity mindset – that we have limited resources, that we have our own things to take care of, that we can’t possibly give to something else.
I repeat Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians, I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. (2 Corinthians 8:8) I am not commanding you to make a Faith Promise to support our mission partners. But, I do want to invite you to test the sincerity of your love and see if it matches the approach that the Macedonians took in their scarcity of means. Does it match the approach that Jesus took in entering our scarcity to bring to the awareness of God’s abundance? God is inviting us to have faith that his abundance can provide in place of our scarcity. God is inviting us to have faith that our desire to be part of his mission, and offering whatever means we have to contribute to his mission – is all he asks. It’s not because God needs our money, but God wants our generosity to funnel his abundance into the world.
What do we do when we bump into limitations? What do we do when we bump into scarcity? We entrust ourselves to the God revealed in Jesus. We entrust ourselves to the God of abundance. We trust that our desire to be generous, plus God’s abundance, is all that is needed to make God’s abundant and life-giving love known to those who’ve yet to receive it. When there’s a limit with us, there isn’t a limit with God. Generosity arises out of the abundance of God.
If you find yourself yearning for the possibility of life beyond human, earthly limits, and scarcity of means, I invite you to: Entrust your life to God’s abundance. This life of God is available by uniting your life to Jesus’ life through faith, being buried in baptism, and being raised in the hope of resurrected life. If you’d like to consider that step, please find me or another trusted follower of Jesus, to help you take that step.
If you’ve already united your life to God’s abundance through faith in Jesus, I invite you to confess your limitations, your poverty, and your scarcity, and renew faith that the God revealed in Jesus is a God of abundance. Have faith that God doesn’t need you to be a person of means to move his mission forward. God needs you to have a desire to be part of his mission. God’s word is asking you to have faith that your desire to contribute to God’s mission, coupled with God’s abundance, is all that is needed for God’s mission to be funded. God invites you to have faith that your current means are not a barrier to being generous. Generosity arises out of the abundance of God.
Today, we’re asking you to submit a Faith Promise. A Faith Promise is based on what we encounter from the Macedonian Christians in 2 Corinthians 8. A Faith Promise, in our context, is a commitment to give a monthly amount of support to our mission partners, beyond your regular giving to CCC. A Faith Promise is expressed desire before God that you want to be generous toward his mission, but you can only offer so much, and you need God to make a little go a long way toward others coming to know the God revealed in Jesus.
You can read more about the Faith Promise process, and see the form: at the offering box in the back, or at ClarenceCC.org. You can submit a Faith Promise at either of those places, between today and November 3rd. Will you couple your desire to give with God’s abundance? When there’s a limit with us, there isn’t a limit with God. Generosity arises out of the abundance of God.