Somewhere in my house there is a bicycle chain with a combination padlock attached to it, but I've forgotten the combination to the lock. When I bought that lock I knew I might forget the combination because I've done it before and had to go to a locksmith and have him look it up. So this time I got smart,-I attached the little tag with the combination to the inside of my wallet. Now if I ever find that lock, I can look in my wallet and read the combination - provided I can find my wallet.
Within each of us there is a safe. We'll call it the safe of generosity. The door of that safe seems to get locked early on in our lives. One of the first words little ones learn is "Mine!" It isn't long before we become protective or selfish about what is ours. Whether it's from worry or a warped sense of need, or just plain possessiveness or from greed, the safe gets locked and doesn't open by itself.
It takes the right combination to open a safe. The safe in us needs more than a set of three numbers; it requires a spiritual combination.
In this passage Paul is trying to open the safe in the hearts of the Corinthian Christians. He wants them to give and give generously. They had begun earlier but for some reason they had put the brakes on the campaign, or it just ran out of gas.
He wants them to give in particular for the relief of the believers back in Judea - the mother church. There was terrific hardship there. Many of them lost everything when they converted to Christianity. When Paul left Jerusalem, Peter James and John asked him to "remember the poor" (Galatians 2:10). So he set out determined to collect funds from the mission churches to relieve the suffering of the sending churches.
Gentile Christians were asked to assist their Jewish brothers and sisters. Imagine Palestinian Christians in Nazareth today taking a collection for a group of Jews for Jesus in Jerusalem and you get the picture.
But the struggling churches in Macedonia - Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea - have already given for this cause in an amazing way. So Paul holds up their example to the believers in Corinth. What was the combination that had opened the safe in those churches? Could it do the same in Corinth. Can it do the same for us?
The first part of the combination is grace. "And now, brothers [and sisters], we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches." So right off, Paul makes it clear that this is not about some churches being better than others. The great generosity of the believers in those churches did not come from them. The Macedonian churches had poured out a river of generosity but Paul traces it back to the headwaters of God's grace in them. They didn't give because they were such great people; they gave because God had done something great in them. The spotlight here is on God's grace.
Paul uses 'grace' here not in the sense of salvation by grace. There is a grace that saves us and there is a grace that changes us - not two different graces but two operations of God's grace. We are saved by grace and we are transformed by grace. The folks in those churches were dirt poor. They didn't have a plate to pass for collection. But they dug deep in the well of their poverty and came up with a surprising amount of money, given their potential. And what's more, they did it with "overflowing joy." Nobody had to twist their arms or show them pictures of little Jewish children with swollen bellies.
Listen to the odd couples in Paul's description: "Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity." "Severe trial” and “overflowing joy,” “extreme poverty and “rich generosity": how do you account for the marriage of those seemingly incompatible phrases? There is only one way to account for it: the grace of God.
What happened in those churches does not happen naturally. Poverty-stricken people don't give to people they've never met. The desire to give generously is a gift of God. But what if you don't have it? Well then, ask for it. If we lack a certain spiritual gift, that doesn't mean we are just out luck. In I Corinthians 12 Paul lists many gifts - healing, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, etc. Then he says, "But eagerly desire the greater gifts" and he goes to devote the entire 13th chapter to the gift of love. If we don't have love is that just too bad? Or is Paul saying, desire it, pursue it, ask for it, develop it? Yes, he is.
Is giving painful? Ask God for the grace of a glad and generous heart Do you grimace every time you write a check for some aspect of the Lord's work? That's a spiritual problem - ask God for grace to change that and turn your grimace into a smile. Being a generous giver is a grace that God gives but God will give it to those who want it and ask for it. Do you find A cartoon showed a couple walking out of church. A husband says to his wife, "Well, at least I prayed for someone else to give." Don't pray that someone else will give, pray that you will want to give. Pray for the grace of giving to flood your heart. It's the first and probably the most important part of the combination. Unless God changes our hearts, giving will be a dreaded duty rather than a joyful privilege. Only God can change a tightwad into a cheerful giver.
A second part of the combination that opens the safe in us is gratitude. What else could have been behind the incredible generosity of those Macedonian Christians but gratitude? Gratitude for God's grace opens our hearts and our wallets. Ingratitude shuts them like a sealed vault. In this month of thanksgiving we reflect on all the reasons we have to be grateful, but the greatest reason of all is God's gift in Christ. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Do you know that you are rich? How are you rich if you're a believer? It has nothing to do with our financial condition; we have better riches than that. We have faith - who can buy that? We have love for God and our neighbor - where else can you get that? We have peace that passes understanding and eternal hope and the promise of heaven - what investment pays those dividends? How can we help but be grateful? And if we are grateful it will spill over into generosity. If it doesn't, we have to wonder if we're really grateful. The giving of the Macedonians was evidence of their gratitude. What does our giving say about us?
"I am not commanding you," Paul says. No, if we are truly thankful we don't need a law or a guilt trip, just a gentle reminder of our riches at Christ's expense. That's what grace is - God's Riches At Christ's Expense. The more we splash around in the pool of God's grace, the greater our gratitude will be, until we simply have to give - the way we have to smile if we're happy or sing if our hearts are full. The awareness of God's unspeakably great gift in Jesus Christ will light a fire of gratitude that will burn a hole in our pocketbooks.
A third part of the combination is trust - trust in God. The Macedonia Christians gave "beyond their ability." In other words, what they gave for others wasn't extra; it was their own meat and potatoes money. It wasn't surplus; it was their daily bread. Was that foolish? Maybe it was, but then they were fools for Christ's sake. In his letter to the Christians in Philippi, Paul said, "my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." I guess they took him seriously!
In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, "Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or drink or wear…your heavenly Father knows that you need [these things]. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be yours as well." That's what they were doing - they were seeking first God's kingdom as they gave to help needy brothers and sisters many miles away, trusting that God would take care of their own needs.
The safe in us will not be opened without childlike trust that God will provide for us. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse..." God told his people in the days of Malachi. "Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Generous giving is an exercise in trust. If you decide to tithe because you've convinced that's God's will for you, even though it's a stretch to do it, that's an act of trust. God promises to honor that trust and provide for us in surprising ways when we go beyond our comfort zone. Trust is part of the combination.
So is caring about the cause - that's something else that opened the safe in those Macedonian churches. They pleaded with Paul to let them take part in the offering for the saints in Judea. They had never met them, but they felt a kinship with them. They had compassion on them and they wanted to help. The Christians in Judea were their big brothers and sisters. The church in Jerusalem was their spiritual mother. They were on fire to help.
If you don't care about a cause, you won't give much. The more we care, the more we give. But it's also true that the more we give, the more we care. If you get excited about a cause and give to it, you've made it your treasure. And where your treasure is, there your heart (and your wallet) will be also.
One thing that helped the Macedonian Christians care so much was their personal participation in the ministry. Paul says they didn't only give their money but "they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will." They weren't content to put a few pennies in the plate; they got involved in the ministry. Maybe they taught Sunday School, or volunteered in the food pantry, or staffed the local coffee house ministry, or tutored at a nearby school, or ushered. They worked shoulder to shoulder with Paul and his partners. They were personally involved in the ministry. And the more personally involved they were, the more they wanted to give.
When you get involved in some aspect of ministry giving is no longer an obligation but an opportunity. Giving at a distance is better than not giving, and it may be the only option for some. One of our elderly members told a visitor, "I can't attend any more, but I can pray and I can pay." That's great; in fact, that is participation. Getting involved in some aspect of the work of God in the world opens the safe in us. Ask people have gone on mission trips how this works. Give yourselves to some ministry. Stewardship is about more than money. If we commit ourselves, the money will follow.
I want to point out one more part of the combination to the safe of generosity in us. It's implied in this passage but stated more clearly elsewhere. In verse 7 Paul says, "Just as you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us - see that you also excel in the grace of giving." He calls it a "grace" but he says they are responsible to excel in it. They had to make a decision to give. In chapter 9 Paul says, "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Again, make a decision. Don't leave your giving to the whim of the moment. Be specific. Earlier, in I Corinthians 16 Paul says, "On the first day of the week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income..." Do it specifically and do it regularly.
We can have grace and gratitude and trust and compassion and even participation, but if we
don't make a decision about our giving, it will be haphazard. This is the last number in the combination that opens the safe. Make a concrete commitment. Fill out a Stewardship Commitment card and turn it in. Put down a number - it will help keep the safe open.
When the numbers line up, the safe opens. When the various parts of the combination come together, things happen - astounding things! When there is grace and gratitude and trust and compassion, and you are involved in ministry and you top it off with a concrete commitment, something wonderful happens as it happened in the churches of Macedonia many years ago. Giving changes from being painful to pleasurable. It's not just an obligation but an opportunity. You do it with a grin instead of a grimace, and instead of a sense of dull duty there's excitement.
Grace, gratitude, trust, compassion, participation in ministry and a concrete commitment to a definite number - that's the combination. But if you're like me you tend to forget combinations. So let me give you just one word to remember when you think about your stewardship: Jesus.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for the gift of your Son, who though he was rich for our sakes became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich. Help us to live each day in such a way that demonstrates our gratitude. Pour your transforming grace into our hearts that we may be cheerful givers who do not need to be convinced or coerced, only guided and provided with opportunities to join you in your redemptive work in the world. Hear us and help in the name of the One who laid down his life for us that we might lay down our lives for others. Amen
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