When you were growing up did your parents ever compare you to other kids? Parents try to avoid comparing their children to others, and certainly ever doing so verbally, to their child. Sometimes it just can’t be avoided. Especially when there is another kid in the neighborhood who just excels at everything. You know the type I mean, honor roll student, Eagle Scout, talented, a great athlete, always polite, always outside doing their chores. It’s too good to pass up. So when one’s own kid gets in trouble or neglects doing something. A parent is often tempted to point at the kid next door and say in frustration, “Why can’t you be like them?”
That’s a lot to dump on a kid. I feel for bad for anyone who grows up that way; always being made to feel inferior, like you don’t quite measure up. If that’s how you grew up you can take consolation in this little fact. At least you didn’t grow up next door to Jesus. Can you imagine?
“Schlomo! I sent you to the market an hour ago to buy wine. The kid next store just made six jars of it in five minutes! Why can’t you be like Jesus?”
That would be cruel comparison to place on anyone, yet in his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul does just that. As often is the case, Paul uses the “why can’t you be like them” in the midst of conflict. Sometimes we forget that Paul was a controversial figure in his lifetime, not just among those who were opposed to the new Jesus movement, but even among those within it. Throughout his preaching career, Paul was engaged in a heated debate with the leaders of this new movement. Specifically, his argument was with the Jerusalem faction and people like Peter and James. The Jerusalem church viewed the Jesus movement as essentially Jewish. Therefore, if a Gentile wanted to follow Jesus, he would first need to convert to Judaism,be circumcised and follow its purity laws. In contrast, Paul believed that Gentile followers of Jesus, such as the Corinthians to whom he was writing, did not need follow all the prescriptions of the Torah.
Eventually, Paul and the Jerusalem church came to a compromise. As a show of good faith, Paul agreed to receive a collection from his churches in places like Greece, to be given to the poor in Jerusalem. Evidently, among their many other problems, the Christians in Corinth had fallen behind in their giving to this cause. Like a parent comparing their kid to the honor student next door, Paul brings up another one of his churches to the Corinthians. He holds up the church in Macedonia as an example to them. Even though they were facing tough economic times, Paul says, on their own accord the Macedonians gave not just within their means, but beyond their means. He reminds the Corinthians of all of which with they have been blessed, understanding, eloquence and love and exhorts them to excel in generosity.
As we read Paul’s words, our more cynical side may recoil just a bit. (As Conan says, “Don’t be cynical.” I’m with Coco.) We are tempted to dismiss Paul’s words as manipulative and maybe even self-serving. In our jaded context, his words may bring to mind a televangelist pushing the guilt buttons of his audience. With all the hypocrisy and scandals we have seen in churches over the past couple of decades, our skepticism is understandable. However, if we truly want to re-imagine ourselves in the image of Christ, we will need to move past our unease with preachers talking about topics such as giving and money. Generosity and stewardship are not merely subjects to tack onto discipleship. They are integral to it.
For years, I created videos for an automobile manufacturer. This company had a cycle of introducing their new products. Every three and half years, a particular model would get a facelift. These were minor revisions like a newly shaped headlamp or grill. Every seven years, that model vehicle would get a complete redesign. Often the whole car was completely rethought and given major changes to the drivetrain and chassis. Automotive purists would complain that features that had been a part of the design for decades were deleted. Sometimes the change was so radical that it was as if the resulting vehicle had been completely re-imagined.
Money and possessions are important to you and me, and if we don’t allow Christ to re-imagine our attitudes about money, we really are only changing the parts of ourselves that are easy to change. That’s not true transformation. That’s just a minor facelift. Christ invites us into a space where we can be completely redesigned and re-imagined.
When writing to the Corinthians, Paul is not just pushing them to get a minor facelift on their life. He unabashedly is demanding that they completely re-imagine themselves in the image of Christ. So not only does he go into the uncomfortable territory of comparing their giving to the giving of others, he even goes so far as to play the Christ card - the big one. He says not only should they be as generous as the Macedonians, they should be as generous as the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, he says, was rich and became poor for us. Paul is talking about more than the literal fact that Jesus was born in a manger and lived an impoverished itinerant life. In essence, Paul is referring to the richness of almighty and infinite Creator God, coming to us in the powerless and humble Jesus who gave away his love and his life - and he didn’t even get a tax deduction for it.
Paul is not afraid to set the bar high, when it comes to generosity. We should not be either. We should not be uncomfortable with comparing ourselves to Christ. That’s the whole idea of Christianity. When it comes to anything, love, forgiveness, ethics, even generosity, Jesus sets the standard. Our benchmark should not be the mediocre spirituality of civic religion, but the nail holes in the cross. In fact, the word “Christian” literally means “slaves or servants to Christ”. Some even interpret the word to mean “little Christs”. So why can’t we be more like Jesus?
I remember one of the first times I went to an accountant to have my taxes done. When we got to the line on my return for charitable contributions, I didn’t really know what to put down. The accountant asked me if I went to church. I said I did, sometimes.
“And what you toss a few bucks in the plate when you go?” he asked.
“Pretty much, I said.”
“OK. So figure like $200. That’s what most people do,” he said as he filled in the blank.
Two hundred dollars a year? I was spending more than that on beer. (Rest assured, I no longer do. Now that money is spent on red wine). Pam and I spent half that much each time we went out to dinner. In 2006, a survey found that 87% of US households give less than 5% of their income to charity. The national average annual charitable contribution is 3.2% of one’s income. I don’t think that figure would jump up that much if it were limited to those who call ourselves Christians. Or those who consider themselves caring and compassionate people. The Bible talks about giving 10% of one’s income, not as extraordinary giving, but as the minimum.
I realize that may be a lot of money to some of us, especially if you’ve lost your job or had a financial setback. For some of you, what you give to your church and to Christ’s mission of reconciliation in the world may be less than that. For some it might be more. Paul goes on to say that one’s giving should be proportional to one’s income. But for many of us, think of some other categories of our spending; meals out, hobbies, our kid’s activities, manicures and pedicures, a single article of clothing, golf, gym membership, cigarettes, gourmet coffee - together or even individually, these categories may cost us more than $3.2% of our income. (If you’re having financial difficulties and spending a huge percentage on items like these - uh, that may be the problem.)
My intention is not to shame you but nudge you into rethinking and re-imagining your generosity - not for my benefit but for yours. Since money is important to so many of us, even to the point of defining us, what does our generosity say about us. If Paul were writing to us today, he might well compare our generosity, not just to others, but to Christ himself. When examining our generosity, particularly with money, I am often not a little Christ but a little Bernie Madoff.
If we want to be re-imagined in the image of Christ, we have some guidelines here when it comes to generosity. Whether you thinking about tithing or just giving for the first time, there are some basic principles about giving we can learn from this passage. The first is to give regularly and consistently. For most of us, getting paid is not just a one-time occurrence. It happens at certain intervals in our lives and if our giving to God is tied to our getting paid, it too will be consistent and regular. Writing a quick check to the “Human Fund” at the end of the tax year won’t transform your life, but regular and consistent generosity will.
The second principle is to give proportionally. Let each give according to his ability, as Paul says. God is not asking us to be like those who give a whole wing to a hospital. For some of us putting ten dollars in a collection basket or texting a that amount to Haiti is a lot of money. For others, it is nothing. I get charged fees on my cell phone bill that are far more than ten dollars and I don’t even know what they’re for. We are not the owners of what we have. It all belongs to God. So what we give to God is really just returning back to God what is God's already. Consequently, the amount we give is based on the amount we have already received. Giving is proportional.
The third principle is to give sacrificially. Paul praises the Macedonians for giving beyond their means. This is not the old cliche many not-for-profits say of "give till it hurts." This is not give till it hurts, but give till it transforms. Give until you re-imagine. If it hurts us to give, it only exposes that we are too attached to our money in the first place. When we give sacrificially, we are being like Jesus who gave himself in sacrifice for us. Who although he was in the form God, emptied himself and did not count equality with God as something to be exploited. Likewise, we are to empty ourselves of our power (i.e. our money) in service and sacrifice. Without sacrifice, there can be no re-imagining.
The fourth principle is to give cheerfully. Later in 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. This is not about guilt, or fear of punishment. It’s not about givings in hopes that God will somehow make us wealthy. That’s not stewardship. That’s superstition. We give out of joy, the joy of God re-imagining us into generous and selfless people. That re-imagines the world around us.
The fifth principle is to give locally. In the Hebrew Bible the 10% tithe was the minimum and it went to the Temple. God says, "bring the full tithe into my barn, so that there might be food in my barn." There were other offerings the people gave above and beyond that. So for us, the barn is this church. The local church. The church is the principle way through which God works in the world.
Certainly it is not the only way, God is at work in the world too. But we are all a part of this church and part of this community. We are more than just a loosely-knit collection of persons on individual spiritual journeys. Being a community of Christ matters, and for us, this is the principle place through which God operates in the world. Surely God wants us to extend God's compassion beyond the walls of our local church, but our commitment to God and to one another impels us to make our local church the nexus through which that compassion flows.
As much as that line, “Why can’t you be like that other kid” has been misused, all of us still need role models. As we seek to be re-imagine ourselves, especially the parts of us which we guard most closely such as our money, let’s not be afraid to set the bar high. Let’s truly hear the words of Paul about generosity.
“Why can’t you be more like Jesus?”
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