Cor. 8:7-15  “God’s Economy of Grace”

INTRODUCTION

            As an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, College Park, I took a required economics course.  Along with about 300 other students, I’d meet twice a week in a large lecture room and try to figure out what the professor was talking about.  Later in the week we would meet with our teaching assistant in a smaller group where the real learning would occur.  I learned a little about micro and macro economics, how the stock market works, supply and demand—that sort of thing.

           A new book on the market topping the best seller list presents the economy a little differently.  The book is Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Looks at the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.  Though I haven’t read the book, I’ve skimmed a few reviews.  In the book, the authors present a view of economics as a web of interconnected relationships.   Most of us would like to think that morality governs the world.  However, Levitt and Dubner believe the world works through economics.
           Reviewing data, Levitt developed basic questions challenging conventional understandings of economics.  He sought to discover the why behind the number crunching and prediction making.  Here are some of the questions the authors address in the book:
What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents?
Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
Why did the crime rate in the United States drop in the 1990s? (He advances the controversial theory that it was actually due to Roe v. Wade!)
            Levitt developed the theory that “incentives” are at the heart of economics incentives.  He writes,  “Economics is, at root, the study of incentives: how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing … An incentive is a bullet, a lever, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation.”[1]

INCENTIVES TO GIVE

            Economics have ruled the world since the beginning of time, or at least from the time Adam and Eve were kicked out to the Garden of Eden.  The first most powerful incentive is food and water.  Without them, life is impossible.  So human beings are motivated to acquire food, water, and shelter.  In our complicated society, acquiring these basics is not simple.  Most of us don’t grow large vegetable gardens, graze cattle, and raise chickens in our back yards. So we have jobs.  We need cars to get to work, clothes to wear to work, and on and on it goes. 

            As it is in our day, that many people do not even have the basics—food, clean water, and shelter, so it was in the time of Paul.  Our passage for today from Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth refers to an offering that the Corinthian Christians promised to convey to Paul.  The earliest controversy in the church was whether or not non-Jews, Gentiles, could become Christians without becoming Jews first.  Since for males, becoming a Jew meant circumcision, this requirement was not embraced with great enthusiasm.  Paul went to Jerusalem with his coworkers, Barnabas and Titus to argue for the inclusion of non-Jews through baptism only.  He won his case.  Further, the Apostles—Peter, James, John, and the rest, accepted Paul as an equal and encouraged his work among the Gentiles.  But they made of him one request—that he collect from his richer churches an offering for the poor of Jerusalem.  Paul gladly accepted this task and set about writing to the various churches about the needs of the Jerusalem Christians.

            Our passage today is part of Paul’s letter written a year following the initial appeal.  He still hasn’t received anything from the Corinthian church, even though they had enthusiastically pledged to give.  Paul knew that the Corinthians needed incentives to give.  So interjects a little friendly competition.  In the beginning of the chapter, he tells the Corinthians that the Macedonian churches have given very generously to this special offering even though their people are quite poor.  Then he butters them up, telling them that they “excel in everything—faith, speech, knowledge, eagerness.” Next Paul reminds them of God’s extravagant gift of Jesus Christ who through his willingness to empty himself, enabled them to become spiritually rich.  Finally, he reminds them of their pledge and encourages them to make good on it.

            Paul is in earnest in his appeal, because to him, the participation of the Gentile churches in this one time collection represents a theological truth.  Paul views the offering as a concrete affirmation of his work.  The participation of the Gentile believers in this offering recognizes their indebtedness to the roots of their faith in the Jerusalem church.  Through their giving, the Corinthians will confirm Paul’s contribution to furthering God’s plan for the evangelization of the world.

            We see in this passage how very early in the history of the church, Christians began to care for one another across racial, cultural, and national boundaries.  They saw themselves as brothers and sisters in the family of faith, connected to one another through their common bond in Christ.

THE HUNTING RIDGE CHURCH FINANCIAL CRISIS

            Our congregation is financially challenged. Members must increase their giving to the church. To use a little of Paul’s strategy, here is a comparison of our giving to other Presbyterians.  Nationwide, the average Presbyterian during the year 2004 gave $936 to their church.  That same year the average giving for members of Hunting Ridge Church was about $625.  In other words, we give on average $300 less per year than most Presbyterians.  The Session and the Open Hands, Committed Hearts Stewardship team is diligently searching for the right incentives to move this congregation toward generosity.  How about the idea one church tried?  The Rev. Rick Oliver of First Church of God in Pendleton, Oregon started a new fundraising campaign last fall.  They would sell toilet paper, specifically the upscale brand Angel Soft. The East Oregonian offers the following: “The word about First Church of God’s toilet paper fundraiser has rolled out across the world. ‘We’re global now,’ the Rev. Rick Oliver said about the attention the national and international media have given the church selling Angel Soft toilet paper to help fund a mission to Costa Rica in March. The AP added in its coverage that the “Rev. Rick Oliver is flush with good ideas …”[2]

            Please don’t make our stewardship team resort to this approach to fund-raising, but your ideas are welcome.  Think about what incentive will move this congregation to give. 

            One pastor made an appeal in church for a great and worthy cause. A member of the church, came to him and handed him a check for $50, asking at the same time if her gift was satisfactory.
            The pastor immediately replied, “If it represents you.”
            There was a moment of soul-searching thought and she asked to have the check returned to her. She left with it and a day or two later she returned handing the pastor a check for $5,000 and again asked the same question, “Is my gift satisfactory?”
            The pastor gave the same answer as before, “If it represents you.”
            As before, a truth seemed to be driving deeply. After a few moments of hesitation she took back the check and left. Later in the week she came again with a check. This time it was for $50,000. As she placed it in the pastor’s hand, she said, “After earnest, prayerful thought, I have come to the conclusion that this gift does represent me and I am happy to give it.”

            Paul appealed to the Corinthian Christians to give in a way that represented them—their faith in God, their gratitude for God’s grace revealed in Jesus, and their wealth.

THE RICHEST NATION

            We celebrate our nation’s birthday this week.  What a privilege it is to live in this country—the richest nation that has ever existed.  Yet we know that our wealth comes at a great cost to others around the world.  We consume massive amounts of the world’s resources while much of the world lacks even the essentials of food, clean water, and adequate shelter.  What incentive do we need as a nation to give enough so that others may simply live?

            God blesses America.  But God blesses the whole world as well.  We just need to cooperate in being a blessing to those who are in desperate need.  What’s the incentive for us?  Recognition of God’s economy, which is based on supply and demand (our need and God’s provision), on a micro (individual) and macro (the whole world) level, and on abundant grace available to all.  Amen.