2 Corinthians 8:1-15
June 30, 2024
Is it possible to be too generous? That’s what pro golfer Steve Stricker may have asked himself several years ago. Stricker was known as an excellent putter and many times when young pro golfers needed some help with their putting they often sought advice from Steve Stricker. There was even a time when Tiger Woods was struggling with his putting and Stricker spent some time with him to help Woods get his putting back on track. One week later, Tiger Woods beat Steve Stricker by 2 strokes in a golf tournament. Stricker said it was not the first time a young golfer he helped with his putting then ended up beating him in a tournament. In fact, Stricker believed working with younger players was part of being a pro golf veteran. He said older players had done it for him and he would continue to return the favor, even if his generosity did cost him prize money in professional golf tournaments. So, was it worth it? Was he actually being too generous?
Imagine if a large Lutheran Church burned to the ground in the Raleigh area and all of the other Lutheran Churches in the triangle area were asked to help rebuild it by collecting a special offering. Every congregation was asked to help, except one. A small congregation that could hardly afford to stay open. They did not have a full-time pastor, because they could not afford one. Most of the members were retired and lived on fixed incomes. Their church building was falling into disrepair due to a lack of funds. And many church officials had told this congregation that they needed to close and the people should join other churches. Yet this congregation begged and pleaded to gather an offering to help rebuild the church that burned. Well, no one thought they would, but they did, and the money they raised was more than their fair share. It was an offering for God and they were motivated by God’s love. While they definitely needed the money for their own church, they joyfully shared what they had raised and never complained about their own challenges. Were they actually being too generous?
The story of Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods actually happened about 15 years ago and the story of a small congregation raising money for a large church actually happened in the days of Scripture. In our second lesson from 2 Corinthians, Paul is on a journey to take up offerings for needy Christians in Jerusalem. Most likely Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem were being socially and economically excluded from society because of their faith in Jesus as their Savior. But now they are suffering the effects of a severe famine and double taxation, while still trying to function as the large, so called “mother church” of that region. So a small, needy church in Macedonia, hearing of suffering Christians in Jerusalem, begged for the privilege of being a part of this offering. Can you imagine pleading with an organization for permission to give to them financially? It was almost like Paul had tried to tell this church that they were not expected to be a part of this offering since they were poor, small, suffering persecution, and had many other challenges. But these Macedonian Christians gave anyway – they gave sacrificially, they gave joyfully, they gave themselves, they even gave beyond their ability, and as a result their community was blessed.
So how did they do it? What was their secret? Was it a sense of duty or obligation? No. Instead it was all because of God’s grace. They knew they had a Savior in Jesus who was rich, who had it all in heaven, but chose to leave the glory of heaven to become one of us, to become poor, so we could live with Him forever. Jesus left no doubt that He had come in poverty by being born in a stable to a poor family surrounded by shepherds. He lived a perfect life and He died on a cross for one purpose – to make us rich, to give us the riches of forgiveness and the glories of heaven as members of God’s family even though we did not deserve it. That’s grace, and you will never understand the Bible unless you understand it is a story of grace. Grace is simply God giving to us what we do not deserve. God created this world and He created you and me, but He certainly did not have to. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on a cross for our sins, but He did not have to. God offers eternal life to every person, but He doesn’t have to. It is all about grace. And in this text Paul was trying to explain grace to the church in Corinth by lifting up a group of Christians from a small, poor church in Macedonia to illustrate what grace filled generosity is all about.
Paul explains that these poverty-stricken Macedonians first gave themselves to the Lord and then they pleaded for the privilege of helping the suffering Christians in Jerusalem, saying in verses 3-5, “For they gave beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints – and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” His point is that if we are going to be generous, it doesn’t start with money. It starts with a caring heart.
In World War II when the number of wounded American soldiers was so large, military medical units developed a policy of triage that involved color coding the wounded soldiers. If you were injured in combat and given a yellow card, it meant your injury was not serious and you could wait for treatment. If you were given a blue card, it meant your injuries were very serious and you needed immediate medical attention. Without it, you would die. If you were given a red card, this meant that your injuries were so serious there was nothing the doctors could do and these soldiers were simply left to die. In one particular situation a soldier named Lou was brought in for a medical review and was quickly tagged with a red card, indicating the hopeless condition of his injuries. But a nearby nurse noticed that Lou was still conscious, so she began to speak to him so he would not face death alone. Their conversation went on for an hour and because of the relationship that had been built between the two of them, the nurse decided she simply could not allow Lou to die. So she replaced his red card with a blue one, and as a result he received the necessary medical assistance that ended up saving his life.
Jesus took our red cards – our cards of sin, shame, disobedience, selfishness, apathy, cruelty, and death, and He put them on Himself as He hung on a cross and died. But through His death and resurrection, He placed blue cards on us: cards of life, hope, faith, forgiveness, and joy. He paid for those blue cards, but the red cards had to go somewhere. So He took them Himself. He couldn’t bear to place them on you or me and watch us die. That is how much He loves us. He took the red card so we could have the blue one and He saved us, knowing that we could not save ourselves from our sins. That is our reason, then, to give of ourselves in service to God and to make our lives an offering to Him and to others. Just imagine how awesome it would be if someday a person in heaven says to us, “I’m here today because you showed me Jesus with the way you lived your life.”
Generosity is not about an amount, but about attitude. In verse 12 it says, “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” When we give generously of ourselves – our time, our abilities, and our possessions – it doesn’t matter how big or little our gift is, compared to what others give. We are generous, we share what we have with others, because we care. Paul, by lifting up the Macedonians in this text, wants us to understand that we have been blessed abundantly by God in order to be a blessing to others.
When you and I joyfully give ourselves to God, as the Macedonians did, we are grateful for all He’s done for us. We ask forgiveness for those times we are selfish instead of generous. And then we seek to be generous – with our loved ones, our church, and those in need in our community and our world. We serve a generous God, and generosity is about sharing with others as God first shared with us. So this week as we celebrate freedom, I encourage you to look for a way to joyfully give of yourself so that others will be blessed by your generosity for Jesus’ sake.
