“Gifts & Appreciation” Colchester Federated Church, June 30, 2024, Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (2 Corinthians 8:7-15)

Today we continue our exploration of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.  Let’s remember where we have been to help orient ourselves to what Paul is asking of the congregation.  Paul had previously written to the Corinthians about eternal things that can be their focus.  He shared his belief that grace increases to benefit more and more people, which causes gratitude to increase, which results in God’s glory.  Then we explored Paul’s theological concept of the new creation, an idea that Paul expanded upon from the prophet Isaiah.  For Paul, people in Christ become part of the new creation.  Because the old things have come and gone and new things have arrived.  Last Sunday, we considered how Paul overcame obstacles with great endurance.  We wondered about the difference between arrogance and confidence.  In the end, Paul was honest about having to endure a great deal in his ministry, and he kept on going despite those obstacles in his path.

Which brings us to this morning where Paul speaks to the Corinthian congregation about giving with generosity.  To understand what’s happening, it’s helpful to think about how fundraising played out for the followers of Jesus in the early days of the movement.  The CEB Study Bible has a quick snapshot of what was happening.  Basically, Paul initiated a fundraising effort—the collection of money for God’s people.  Paul wrote about this in 1 Corinthains.  Paul previously wrote, “Concerning the collection of money for God’s people: You should do what I have directed the churches in Galatia to do.  On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside whatever you can afford from what you earn so that the collection won’t be delayed until I come.”[1]  When Paul and the Corinthians were in conflict, the collection for the poor in Jerusalem stopped.  It was a touchy subject, and Paul finally makes his appeal in Chapter 8.  Paul has been defending his ministry throughout, and the tone shifts here.  Paul is now ready to plead for help for those who were part of the family of faith and struggling in Jerusalem.

Now Paul is asking for this collection to be taken for several reasons: to help alleviate financial need among poor believers in Jerusalem, to create a degree of financial equality among Jesus’ followers, to unite the Gentile believers with Jewish followers of Jesus in Jerusalem and strengthen the bonds between and among the congregations (congregations that were spread out across a geographically diverse area), and to provide the donors the chance to worship God and give thanksgiving—for God helping them to be generous.[2]  Paul references how the Israelites thought about possessions in the wilderness (as shared in the Book of Exodus), “As it is written, The one who gathered more didn’t have too much, and the one who gathered less didn’t have too little.”[3]  Paul is talking about communities who are following Jesus having an equal balance of material goods. 

Or we can think about how this plays out in the Acts of the Apostles.  We can read, “The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers.  A sense of awe came over everyone.  God performed many wonders and signs through the apostles.  All the believers were united and shared everything.  They would sell pieces of property and possessions and distribute the proceeds to everyone who needed them.  Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes.  They shared food with gladness and simplicity.”[4]  This was about being part of a community united in Christ.  In this circumstance, that meant sharing everything—food, shelter, property, and possessions so that everyone had their needs met.  The example from the wilderness in Exodus and this practice in the early Church (as shared in Acts) helps Paul make his case to the Corinthians to help their siblings in Christ in Jerusalem because everyone is part of the community.

Just like Jesus, Paul sometimes spoke about economics.  When we go here, preachers are sometimes accused of getting too “political.”  But Jesus wasn’t crucified for just being a really nice guy.  You know, Paul’s goal in collecting money for the saints in Jerusalem is financial equality among the believers.  Paul wrote (and these are his words), “It isn’t that we want others to have financial ease and you financial difficulties, but it’s a matter of equality.  At the present moment, your surplus can fill their deficit so that in the future their surplus can fill your deficit.  In this way there is equality.”[5]  This is a vision of looking out for one another in community that is contrary to how we often operate in modern American society where we prioritize private possessions and ownership. 

Though maybe there are different ways to think about gifts and generosity.  This is what Paul was getting at when he wrote his Second Letter to the Corinthians.  Because giving can be understood as a privilege.  At the same time, Paul is not asking for people to give until it hurts, but to give until it feels good.  “It isn’t that we want others to have financial ease and you financial difficulties, but it’s a matter of equality.”[6]

For another idea about giving, we could turn to indigenous wisdom.  Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer writes and teaches about indigenous wisdom as a botanist, author, and the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.  She often offers insights into the natural world through the lens of Western scientific knowledge and indigenous wisdom, perhaps most famously of late in her book Braiding Sweetgrass.  Dr. Kimmerer contrasts Western understandings of land—land as capital, natural resources, property, and a source of ecosystem services with indigenous understandings of land. 

Can we look at the Earth and become bearers of the gifts of the Earth as opposed to consumers? 

Indigenous understandings of land view land as sustainer, healer, the residence of non-human relatives, and land as enspirited.  There is an ancestral connection to land and a moral responsibility to take care of the land.  Land is viewed as a source of knowledge and land is sacred.[7]  There is an indigenous teaching called One Bowl and One Spoon.  In Dr. Kimmerer’s words One Bowl and One Spoon, “holds that the gifts of the earth are all in one bowl, all to be shared from a single spoon.  This is the vision of the economy of the commons, wherein resources fundamental to our well-being, like water and land and forests, are commonly held rather than commodified.  Properly managed, the commons approach maintains abundance, not scarcity.”[8]

Before reading Braiding Sweetgrass I had not heard of One Bowl and One Spoon.  There is some deep wisdom in this teaching.  It reminded me of one of the Communion prayers from our Christian tradition—that we pray for the day where sharing by all will mean scarcity for none.  How would it change how we behaved if we viewed the gifts of the Earth as being contained in one bowl that everyone had to share with one spoon?  Dr. Kimmer further reflects, “In a culture of gratitude, everyone knows that gifts will follow the circle of reciprocity and flow back to you again.  This time you give and next time you receive.  Both the honor of giving and the humility of receiving are necessary halves of the equation . . . We are all bound by a covenant of reciprocity: plant breath for animal breath, winter and summer, predator and prey, grass and fire, night and day, living and dying.”[9]

In the end, we can recognize that there are various ways of thinking about wealth and poverty, about property and possessions.  There are many conversations taking place about scarcity and abundance in the Church world these days given the realities of buildings and budgets and church membership and less religiosity in our society.  Perhaps what is being challenged is the way we individualistically look at these issues.  We can remember that modern Western views of land and resources (and Church) are not the only views out there.  We can learn with humility indigenous wisdom like One Bowl and One Spoon.  We can sit with what Paul asked of the Corinthians when he was challenging them to take up a collection for those who needed financial help in Jerusalem.  Paul wrote that using a surplus to help others in deficit was a matter of equality, knowing that there could come a time when we are in deficit and need a boost from someone with a surplus.  It’s this give and take and deep care and concern for one another that can hopefully inspire us.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, CEB.
[2] “The Collection for Jerusalem,” in The CEB Study Bible, pg. 346 NT.
[3] 2 Corinthians 8:15.
[4] Acts 2:42-46.
[5] 2 Corinthians 8:13-14.
[6] 2 Corinthians 8:13.
[7] The Honorable Harvest with Dr Robin Wall Kimmerer, Western Washington University, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUcMshWFb4
[8] Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.
[9] Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash