2 Corinthians 9:6-15
July 23, 2023
William G. Carter
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly
will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap
bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God
is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always
having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good
work. As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his
righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and
bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the
harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way for your
great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us; for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the
needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. Through
the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the
confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with
them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because
of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for
his indescribable gift!
Let’s see if you can remember the theme verse from the fifth chapter of the letter to the Galatians: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity…” Oops, did you catch that? Each week, we’ve been singing “goodness” but our version of the text reads “generosity.”
“Goodness” is the way the Greek noun has been translated in many of the English Bibles. The King James says “goodness.” So does the New International Version, the New English Bible, the New King James, the New American Standard, among others. And goodness? It’s good, really good. We could use a lot more goodness.
Some will think this resonates with kindness, which was the fruit of the week for last Sunday. Kindness, goodness. Together, they remind me of Fred Rogers, the late Presbyterian minister who created the persona of Mister Rogers. It’s been fascinating that even though Fred Rogers died just over twenty years ago, he has made a comeback in recent years. He’s been the subject of two major documentaries, a full-length feature film, and several books. Maybe after the last half-dozen years of our national life, we want a hero who is not only kind but good.
And so, we remember. We remember the show when he had his feet in a wading pool and Officer Clemmons, the Black police officer, came by. Fred invited him to take off his shoes and stick his hot feet in the pool, which he did. He did that when some municipalities were refusing African Americans to step into public swimming pools. Goodness. Moral goodness.
Or his tender care to those with disabilities and differences, especially children. Maybe you saw the clip where he pulled up a chair along a young boy in a wheelchair. He spoke tenderly, asked him about the disability, and applauded what little Jeff was able to do. If you haven’t seen it, stop by and visit me. I’ll show you the video, and I will have tissues for both of us to wipe our eyes.[1] Goodness.
On the night when Fred Rogers was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, they asked him to make a speech. He brought tears to everybody’s eyes as he asked those present to remember the mentors who had shaped their lives and careers. Then he challenged the media business with these words:
“Life isn’t cheap. It’s the greatest mystery of any millennium. And television needs to do all it can to broadcast that, to show and tell what the good in life is all about. But how do we make goodness attractive? By doing whatever we can to bring courage to those whose lives move near our own. By treating our neighbor at least as well as we treat ourselves. And allowing that to inform everything that we produce.”[2]
Goodness. Aren’t we in favor of goodness? Don’t we hope and pray and work for more goodness? Of course we do. It would be enough to stop there. We could pray, “God give us goodness.”
Yet the Bible says, “generosity.” At least, the version in our pews. That’s the New Revised Standard Version, which continues to be revised. One of my friends has been on the translation committee. Now retired from the faculty of Gettysburg College, Dr. Buz Myers is a New Testament scholar. So I sent him a note to say, “Buz, is the word goodness or generosity? Why did the committee translate the word as generosity?”
And he wrote back and said, “I don’t know. I wasn’t in the room when they discussed Galatians 5:22. I was on the Old Testament subcommittee that day.”
But we discussed it back and forth. Paul uses an unusual Greek word: “agathosyne.” “Agatho” is the general word for good or goodness. The suffix “syne” suggests something held in common. So the word for Paul is a slightly untranslatable word that means “mutual goodness.” Or goodness that we share in common. Which is probably why “generosity” is the word that they chose.
We are talking about goodness directed toward others. It is a commitment to the common good, not merely the individual good. It is a giving of ourselves to improve the life of others. And so, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is that kind of generosity.
It’s the sort of thing Paul encourages in the Corinthian church, in the text that we heard this morning. There was a famine in the far-off city of Jerusalem. People were starving. So Paul passes the offering plate to help them out. None of the Corinthian Christians know those people in Jerusalem. It doesn’t matter. There is a genuine need. The apostle makes the invitation to join in the “gracious work” of sharing what they have with others.
This is a favorite section of Paul’s correspondence for me. Always gives me a chuckle! He is shaking their tree pretty hard in the hope that some apples will fall. Green apples if you will. Bright green apples. Expensive green apples. He plays the Corinthians off a rival church in Macedonia, saying in effect, “Those Macedonians amaze me! They have had such hardship – yet they are so generous. They were begging us to take part in this fund-raising campaign.”
“We said no, you have needs of your own. Take care of
your own. But they said no, no, no, it’s a privilege to help somebody else. We
have to do it. We are called to do it. And people of Corinth, their generosity
has amazed us.”
“Now, our dear Corinthians: they have so little, yet
they gave so much. And you have so much… We are sure that you want to be part
of this generous undertaking.”
“Just remember. This is not an extortion (right, of
course it isn’t). But I’ll tell you this: if you sow sparingly, you’ll reap
sparingly, and if you sow bountifully, you’ll reap bountifully.”
And one more thing, don’t forget this: God loves a cheerful
giver. That is, in Greek, a hilarious giver. A light-hearted giver. A giver
with a liberal heart. God loves those kinds of givers.” (God probably loves the
stingy givers, too, though, not as much. That’s not Paul speaking, that’s me.
Just wanted to yank your chain.)
The greater point is that generosity is about joy. It’s the mutual goodness that creates more mutual goodness. If generosity frightens you, then don’t give – and you probably aren’t giving. But if want to create more goodness, more joy, more freedom in your soul, open your pockets to a world filled with need. That’s the sense, I think, of what Paul is trying to say.
Yesterday, after we laid one of our saints to rest, I had to leave immediately for another funeral. A graveside service for somebody I’ve never met. I was riding in the front seat of the hearse, which is always where you want to be. As we made our way through traffic on the highway, my companion told me a story just like a story that I told in my sermon last week.
He was in the drive-in lane at McDonald’s last week. If you’ve been there, you know it’s a double lane, able to take two orders simultaneously. He put in his order for a coffee and Egg McMuffin, then put the car in gear. The guy next to him placed his order, then tried to cut him off. My friend was clearly ahead in line, got flustered, then dug deep into his own soul to recover a Christian impulse. He pulls up to the window, pays for his order, then says, “Give me the bill for the guy behind me,” and pays his order too.
“You should have seen the look on his face,” he said. “It was priceless,” and then he started to laugh. Ahh yes, a cheerful giver. Chris said, “I think my payment for his breakfast totally destroyed his bad mood. Or at least confused him.” And we laughed.
Not long ago, the writer Mitch Albam spoke at an event at a college in the Midwest. The topic was generosity. He began with a confession:
I had honestly not been that charitable a person in the first part of my career, not because I was against it. I think I was just like many young people. I was very wrapped up in my own success and my own ambition. And then I got involved with an old professor of mine who was dying from Lou Gehrig's Disease named Morrie Schwartz. I visited with him every Tuesday.
Tuesdays with Morrie was Albam's most famous book. It came out in 1997. It's one of the best-selling memoirs of all time. Albam continued:
I noticed that when people would come in and visit with him, very quickly the conversation would change. They would come in trying to cheer him up because he was dying from this terminal illness. But within a couple of minutes, he would start asking them about their work, their love life, whatever, and an hour later they'd come out in tears and they'd say, “You know, I try to cheer him up, and next thing I know, I'm talking to him and he's asked me questions, and then he's really asking me questions, and I'm really there, and that's like I'm helping him, and I'm crying. I tried to cheer him up, he ended up cheering me up. He ended up comforting me.
Mitch said, "I asked him, finally, after witnessing this so many times, I don't get it. You're the one who's dying. Why don't you just say, “Let's not talk about your problems, let's talk about my problems.” Morrie replied, “Mitch, why would I ever take from people like that? Taking makes me feel like I'm dying. Giving makes me feel like I'm living.”
Mitch says it's a profound little sentence. It also rhymes so it's easy to remember. Giving makes you feel like living. He says, “I have never forgotten that moment nor have I ever forgotten that sentiment.”[3]
Generosity is the circular movement that keeps the planet alive. Everything we have comes from God. We can receive it, but we never ultimately can cling to it. All the gifts of God come to us and then they move through us for the benefit of whoever is next in line.
This church building came as a gift from those born before us, so we touch it for a while, then pass it along to those who come next. The Gospel was spoken to us as a gift; we didn’t create it; it came as a gift. We welcome the Good News, then make sure others will hear it through us and after us. Generosity is one great big circle. It’s a circle of goodness, a circle of cheerfulness, hilarity, and joy.
And our generosity is but a reflection of the generosity of Jesus. Remember Jesus? Remember how all our character traits, all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, all of that is first modeled in Jesus. Remember that?
Paul says, “I remember that. I remember the generosity of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty, we might become rich.”[4] We live by the generosity of God, that others might live by our generosity.
(c) William G. Carter. All rights reserved.
[1] Or you can watch it for yourself: https://youtu.be/UNUficgWE3U
[3] As recorded on Malcolm Gladwell’s
podcast, “A Good Circle.” Available at https://youtu.be/Ca8-U9KCBns.
Time: 7:36-9:17.
[4] 2 Corinthians 8:9 NRSV.
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