Hilton Head Island, SC – February 16, 2014
The Chapel Without Walls
II Corinthians 9:1-15
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – The point is this: he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. – II Corinthians 9:6 (RSV)
The Power of Pauline Ethics: Liberation In Christian Liberality
In 21st-century ecclesiastical terminology, the apostle Paul would be called a traveling evangelist or a church planter or a new church developer. He traveled extensively throughout the eastern Mediterranean region. He had been urged to go to particular cities or areas, but in some places he just went where he thought his efforts might prove especially useful. The Greek city of Corinth apparently was one of those places.
Corinth was a major crossroads of Greek culture and commerce. It was located at the eastern end of the Gulf of Corinth, a long and narrow inlet which nearly cuts the Greek Peninsula into a much shorter peninsula and a very big island. South of Corinth is the Peloponnesus, where Sparta was located. North of it was Athens and the major part of Greece. In Paul’s time, ships would sail into the Gulf of Corinth from the Ionian Sea on the west, because the gulf had such calm water. Then they would offload their cargo in Corinth, and it would be carried by carts over the Isthmus of Corinth, which is only a mile or two wide. Then the cargo would be loaded onto ships in the Aegean Sea. Corinth thus was an economic hub of trade, and an affluent community.
As many problems as the Corinthians gave Paul (which were major), it appears as though they were good stewards. That is, they contributed generously to the needs of other early Christians in the newly-born Christian church. It is likely that many if not most of the first Christians were poor, lower-class people. Christianity offered them hope for a better life in this world and held out the promise of an eternally joyous existence in the next world. Looking out for other Christians in other places became very common among the first followers of Jesus.
Paul recognized this right away when he addressed the subject of liberality in giving. “Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the offering for the saints,” Paul wrote to them. Then, despite the seeming superfluity of it all, Paul said, “for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia” (II Cor. 9:1-2). Macedonia is in northern Greece. What Paul is saying here, without actually saying it, is this: I have told some needy Macedonians that you are generous, and I don’t want you to turn me into a liar. “I thought it necessary to urge the brethren to go on to you before me, and arrange in advance for this gift you had promised, so that it may be ready, not as an exaction but as a willing gift” (v.5). Then he added, “For God loves a cheerful giver.” The unspoken sentiment is that on the other hand, God won’t refuse a grouch, either. Paul was a pragmatist, and he wanted the Corinthians to come through for the needy.
“The point is this,” said the ever-pushy Paul, “he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully.” Few of us have much if any experience as farmers. Nonetheless, we can easily imagine that if a farmer planted too few seeds he will have a small harvest, but if he planted many seeds he will have a large harvest. Continuing with his agricultural analogy, Paul wrote, “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness” (v.10). In other words, if you are generous, God will richly bless you.
There appears to be a contradictory principle which Paul is explaining here. Do you want to be free from financial concerns? Then be generous in what you give away to others. If you are a skinflint, you will always be plagued by concerns over having enough assets to sustain you, but if you contribute to others with liberality, you will always have more than enough. Tight-fisted stewards of God’s resources plant their seeds sparingly, while openhanded stewards plant their seeds bountifully. Cautious planters reap little for themselves, while courageous planters reap much.
Last Sunday afternoon I officiated at the wedding of a young couple from Mobile, Alabama. I met them for lunch a couple of days before the wedding. When the food was brought to us, Brent said a prayer. I was both thunderstruck and very impressed by that. Never before in my presence has any groom ever done that, because unfortunately most of my brides and grooms are Yankees, and thus are unlikely to pray in a public place, and many of them are not closely related to a church. However, both Brent and Jessica were very active Southern Baptists growing up in Mobile.
There was yet another feature about this couple which greatly impressed me. I asked them whether they plan to have children, and they do. Then I asked if they had thought about whether they were sure they would be able to live with only one income for a time, and they said yes. “Whatever our income is is enough,” they told me. That is a rare attitude among most people, and especially among most young people.
I don’t know this for certain, but I suspect that a couple who always pray before they have a meal in a restaurant and say that whatever their income is is enough also give away a good percentage of that income. I would also guess that they may be tithers, who give away at least ten per cent of their income each year to their church and to other worthy causes. There is an old southern expression about child-rearing. When people from the South observe good behavior in young folks, they say they were “Raised Right.” I told Jessica and Brent that they were “Raised Right.” Being a good steward is an important part of being Raised Right. I suppose I am so sold on stewardship because my father and mother were so sold on stewardship.
It seems entirely counter-intuitive, but Paul is absolutely on target when he implies that those who give bountifully live bountifully. Nearly twenty years ago I had the highest income I ever had, actually but especially relatively. At that time I gave away a quarter of the total that I was required to in income taxes. Now, when my income is much lower, I give away more than two and a half times what I pay in income taxes. In other words, I’m better off when I’m worse off. The incredibly complex tax code of our beloved uncle encourages this, especially for geezers, or at least it does up to now. What all of this means is this: Increase your giving; you can’t afford not to. There is a mysterious, almost magical, quality to committed Christian stewardship. Another way to state that truth is to say that there is an amazing liberation in Christian liberality.
Our responsive reading for today was Psalm 24. It begins, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” The first stanza of our second hymn is virtually a paraphrase of that idea: “All things are Thine, no gift have we,/ Lord of all gifts, to offer Thee;/ And hence with grateful hearts today/ Thine own before Thy feet we lay.” There is nothing we have that is not ultimately owned by God. Everything belongs to Him. But He doesn’t need any of it; He makes us His stewards of His good earth. And therefore the thought expressed by the first stanza of our third hymn is also pertinent: “We give Thee but Thine own,/ Whate’er the gift may be:/ All that we have is Thine alone,/ A trust, O Lord, from Thee.” We are God’s trust officers in God’s world. Nothing is truly ours. It all belongs to God. But since He needs none of it, He expects us to get a return on His investment in us.
A New Yorker cartoon: An old guy is sitting in an easy chair in a very fancy room. He says to someone, and we may reasonably assume it is his son, “Giving something back to the community is a fine idea. Just make sure you take a lot more out first.”
I don’t think the old guy has it quite right. He doesn’t get the big picture of what true stewardship is. Stewards must do the best they can for the Ultimate Investor (God) and on behalf of the other stockholders and depositors in The Divine Bank, which is the earth in all its fullness. That’s the primary task of trust officers, and we are all trust officers.
Last Sunday the board of trustees of The Chapel Without Walls had a meeting to discuss all the observations and suggestions which were made at our congregational discussion after the Tenth Anniversary service on January 5. One of the things that came out of that meeting was the establishment of a Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. This fund will be used to provide food or other forms of assistance in our community and beyond to people who need help from time to time. Now and then I have received calls from people who needed food or utility money or rent money, and either we did or we did not have enough money in our general bank account to give them. Now, with this new Pastor’s Discretionary Fund, we will be able to give immediate assistance to those who need it. This is what Paul was writing the Corinthians about two thousand years ago.
How will the Discretionary Fund be funded? Well, periodically you will be reminded that contributions will be encouraged. It would be acceptable to deduce that next Sunday would be such a time. When you write your check, be sure to indicate that it is for the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. Or, if you don’t like writing extra checks, just say on your usual check what percentage or dollar amount is for your regular contribution, and what is for the discretionary fund. However, don’t write your usual check and then split it up, because that leaves The Chapel treasury short, and that’s not kosher, folks. We want you to understand that we are giving you a new opportunity to give additional money to a new worthy cause, don’t you see.
You may have read or heard that a small group of billionaires have quietly been soliciting other billionaires or multi-millionaires to make very large pledges of their income or assets to a combined effort to make a big difference in philanthropy. One of them, Steve Case, calls it “impact investing,” by which he means that they will invest their money and make a profit on it while doing good for others at the same time. I guess it would be like a huge charitable remainder unitrust. Over eighty extremely wealthy individuals or couples have signed onto this effort, which was initially started by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warrant Buffett. They got their idea from reading Andrew Carnegie’s essay, The Gospel of Wealth, which was written a century ago. Mr. Buffett, the Sage of Omaha, said, “I do not see any of the philanthropic activity I run into motivated by the idea that this is going to calm the masses.” However, he also wryly notes that “It is amazing to me the degree of inequality that exists without people really getting upset.” Warren Buffett has made provisions for his entire estate to go to charity, blessed be he.
You might legitimately conclude that it is easier for billionaires to give away many millions or billions of dollars than for the rest of us to give away mere hundreds or thousands of dollars. Knowing that billionaires could not possibly usefully or wisely spend all the money they have, that is of course true. Nonetheless, the level at which anyone gives altruistically and philanthropically is fundamentally a matter of choice rather than is it determined by the size of one’s income or assets. Many people with many millions give away little or nothing, and many others with much less give much more. Stewardship always depends first on a choice to give.
In any case, biblical giving is based on a percentage: ten per cent of income is the amount encouraged for everyone, regardless of income. To an extent, it is no harder for people with low incomes to tithe than for people with higher incomes. Beyond an ill-defined and perhaps indefinable point one no doubt can give much more than a tithe, which I discovered when I was more in the chips than I have been for the past fifteen years or so.
A few months ago Pope Francis I issued a manifesto about how the world treats the poor. He said, “The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode….This is not the case simply because inequality provokes violent reaction from those excluded from the system, but because the socio-economic system is unjust at its root.” As though those words might not provoke sufficient controversy, Francis further wrote, “As long as the problems of the poor are nor radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found to the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems. Inequality is the root of social ills.” Blessed also be Francis I!
In the 1880s, a little girl in ragged clothes went by herself to a church in Philadelphia to go to Sunday School. Because of her appearance, she was turned away. The new pastor of the church, Russell Conwell, happened to see her crying outside the church. He asked her what had happened, and she tearfully told him they wouldn’t let her into the Sunday School, but she didn’t know why. Correctly guessing what had transpired, he brought the little girl into the Sunday School, and firmly saw to it that she was welcomed.
Two years later the girl died in a battered tenement near the church. Her parents asked the kind minister to conduct her funeral. When they took her body away, they found an old purse with a note and 57 cents inside. She had been saving the money for two years. The note said, “This money is to help the little church grow bigger so more children can go to Sunday School.”
The Sunday after the girl’s funeral, Russell Conwell told her story, and read the note to the congregation. He challenged the church officers and members to contribute to a fund to enlarge the building. A newspaper picked up the story, and a real estate developer gave the congregation a large plot of land worth many thousands of dollars. Within five years, $250,000 had been given. For the time, that was an enormous sum. In 1991, the new Temple Baptist Church in Philadelphia was completed. It seated 4,300 hundred people, and was the largest Protestant congregation in the country. Russell Conwell also established Temple College, which eventually became Temple University, and he served as its president as well as pastor of Temple Baptist Church for many years. His Acres of Diamonds lecture was heard by hundreds of thousands of people all over America. It was all made possible by the inspiration he and thousands of others received from the little girl who started it all with her 57 cents. Nothing better illustrates the liberation of Christian liberality than that story.
He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Think about it. Truly, you can’t afford not to.