RCL Proper 13 B - 2 Cor. 8:7-11 - The Upper Room Disciplines 2000

"Paul is raising money for the poor in the church at Jerusalem. He appeals to the pocketbooks of the Corinthians by citing 'the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.' The rationale is not 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,' but 'Do unto others as Christ has done unto you.'

A beggar accosted a social worker and a client while they walked. The social worker ignored the appeal, while the woman on welfare gave the man a dollar. Aghast, the social worker exclaimed, 'You can't afford that!' The woman replied, 'You and others have been so generous in aiding me. And shall I turn aside this man who has even less that I have?' This woman responded because of and example. So Pail asks the Corinthians to respond to the character of God: Do unto others as God in Christ has done unto you.

Statistically, those in lower economic categories proportionally give away more than those in upper brackets. Why? Likely because the poor know how much the help of others means, while we afluent kid ourselves into believing, 'I did it on my own. So can you.' Those who live on the edge know best the value of generosity. And the Incarnation notifies us of how close we are to the edge and of what we cannot do for ourselves; through that self-emptying, God reveals (often to our discomfort) our deep indebtedness to grace.

Thus Paul calls us to 'excel' in generosity ... The biblical word is this: 'It is impossible to be too generous.'"


The Upper Room Disciplines 2000; Upper Room Books; Nashville TN; www.upperroom.org.