II Corinthians 9:6-15
David A. Davis
September 27, 2015
God loves a cheerful giver. A proverb-like, Ben Franklin-like, Hallmark-card like quote from the Apostle Paul. God loves a cheerful giver. Wisdom from Paul tucked in here in a longer section of II Corinthians as Paul writes to the Corinthian church to remind them of the collection they promised for the church in Jerusalem. God loves a cheerful giver. Cheerful. Cheerful. It just doesn’t sound very biblical. The word, “cheerful”; it comes off kind of light and airy. It just doesn’t seem to bear the weight of what Paul must have been trying to communicate. God loves a cheerful giver. Yes, it sounds more like Poor Richard’s Almanac” than an epistle of the New Testament. Cheerful. It’s sort of like when folks translate the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel with the word “happy’ instead of “blessed”. “Blessed” is such a better bible word.
“God loves a cheerful giver” New Revised Standard Version. NIV, New International Version. “God loves a cheerful giver”. The New Jerusalem Bible. “God loves a cheerful giver.” The Common English Bible. “God loves a cheerful giver”. The New English Bible. “God loves a cheerful giver.” Ah, the King James. “God loveth a cheerful giver.” The Contemporary English Bible, “God loves people who love to give”. Ew! Too much “quid pro quo” in that translation. As if God loves some more than others.
“Cheerful” isn’t all that common in the New Testament. In Romans 12: “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us; prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exhorter in exhortation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate, in cheerfulness.” In James; “are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise”. That’s about it when it comes to “cheerful”. In the English or the Greek, it’s pretty rare when it comes to the bible. The Greek word for cheerful, it shows up in the etymology of the English word “hilarious”. “God loves the hilarious giver!” No help there.
In his commentary on II Corinthians, John Calvin takes a face value, plain sense approach to the cheerful giver. One need not go any further than right here in v.7 for understanding. “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion.” Cheerful is simply defined by what it is not. As Calvin puts it “when Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver he implies the contrary, that God rejects the mean and the coerced.” A cheerful giver then, is simply someone who giving without reluctance or compulsion. An unadorned description that comes when you lift the verse out of context and plaster it on a poster to be put up in the fellowship hall around stewardship season.
Perhaps Paul, with his bit of embedded folk wisdom about generosity is simply sending a pre-emptive word strike to the Corinthian congregation who are already complaining that he talks too much about money. Maybe anticipating a negative response, or knowing that some folks have already left because all they ever do in the church is talk about money. “Come on now, Paul writes, God loves a cheerful giver”. Paul as the Christian tradition’s forebearer of stewardship, passing forward a snippet for every preacher since who has found out that when it comes to money and giving and pledging and budgets, pastors are in a no win situation. It’s all a lot easier, a lot safer, if you just stay on the surface, stop meddling, don’t talk about money, and just wear the T-shirt that says “God loves a cheerful giver” Rah! Rah! Rah!
The Apostle Paul deserves more of our theological imagination. Paul requires more of our theological imagination. When Paul writes about the cheerful giver, he must have been expecting more of our theological imagination. Just in the text I read to you, take your eyes off the cheerful giver and other words leap off the page: bountifully, abundance, abundantly, multiply, increase, great generosity, thanksgiving, many thanksgivings, surpassing grace, indescribable gift. These verses are overflowing with words about overflowing. Back when our kids were in high school, one of them came home with an essay from English class that was covered in the red comments of the teacher. By about the fifth grade I was unable to help my kids in math but writing and essay, that’s right up my alley. As we sat down to go over the essay, one of the margin comments from the teacher next to a sentence in a particular paragraph was that it was “too watery”. I still know what that means. But if there is a margin note to write here for Paul, a comment on his style, his content, his writing here, it is “abundant in abundance”. Because Paul is over the top with the language of abundance.
Scholars also point out something that is lost here in the English. The Greek word for grace, “charis”, is repeated all through chapters 8 and 9 of II Corinthians. The word is translated in various ways but what is repeated is the Greek word for grace. Back in chapter 8; Paul begins: “We want you to know brothers and sisters about the grace of God”. When he writes about the “privilege of sharing in this ministry with the saints” it is actually “the grace of sharing in this ministry.” A reference to a “generous understanding” can be translated as “an act of grace’. “The generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ” is really “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”. And then in this morning’s verses, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance” is “God is able to provide you with every grace”. And right there at the end, after Paul refers to the “surpassing grace of God that God has given you’ he concludes with “Thanks be to God for God’s indescribable gift” which can also be translated “grace be to God for God’s indescribable gift!”
What abounds here in Paul is grace. Abundant grace. Grace abounds. Grace overflows. God provides every grace in abundance. You will experience grace in your generosity. Your great generosity produces thanksgiving to God, produces grace upon grace. And in response to the surpassing grace that God has given you, that indescribable gift, you offer thanks, you offer grace to God. Abundant grace, it has a swirl to it. From God to you, from you to others, from you and others back to God. More than a circle of grace, more than a grace cycle, it is a swirl, a whirl of grace that with the movement, with the pace, grace splashes off like holy water blessing the world.
Grace received generates grace or it wasn’t grace at all. Grace received generates grace or it wasn’t grace to begin with. A cheerful giver isn’t just a happy one. A cheerful giver is more than just the opposite of a reluctant giver. God doesn’t love cheerful givers because they love giving for giving sake. A cheerful giver is someone who finds themselves up to their eyeballs and overwhelmed daily by God’s grace, the abundance of God’s mercy, and the healing power of God’s love. Cheerful givers are those who rise each day knowing they have been claimed by God’s generous Spirit and thus joyfully take their place in the economy of God’s grace. Passing forward. Fanning the flames. Giving of themselves and their resources. Forgiving and being forgiven. Loving and being loved. Making a difference. Sowing kingdom seeds. You and I and the daily swirl of God’s grace. God’s indescribable gift. To live in and by and through and because of the surpassing grace of God. And to do so abundantly. Cheerful doesn’t begin to describe it!
I have to confess to you that I have been a bit crabby when it comes to the coverage and the intense security and massive response to the visit of Pope Francis. I wish I could blame my Reformed Presbyterian heritage and a Calvinist theological foundation, but mostly, if I am honest, I have just been a crank about it. You can ask my friends, my colleagues, my family. So my response the other day caught me completely off guard. I was at the gym, on the elliptical machine watching the coverage of the Pope in New York City. I was listening to music and only watching as Pope Francis walked into that elementary school classroom in Harlem. He was stopping at each round table as the children would explain their project that was on display. As I continued to watch without sound, what I noticed was the looks on their faces, the smile on his face, the joy and the wonder in the room. At one point, a boy and girl, they wanted to show the Pope a display on an interactive television monitor over on the wall. The little boy reached out for his hand to take him over to the screen. They walked together hand in hand. It was at that point that I realized I was crying. Sweat from the workout and tears running down my face. I didn’t really know why.
I unplugged my music and plugged into the television sound. The Pope was in another room now greeting a group of teenagers from a soccer team, all of them emancipated minors and undocumented immigrants. One of them asked the Pope about his favorite soccer team. Eventually, the Pope offered some remarks in his slow determined English. It was then that I figured out why I started to cry. As he addressed the young people in the room, he said, “Wherever there is a dream, wherever there is hope, wherever there is joy, Jesus Christ is present. Always. Always.” The Pope was talking about grace. Abundant grace. What I saw in that classroom in the face of the little boy who took the Pope by the hand was a face full of dreams and hope and joy. A moment made sacred not by the holiness of the Pope or the innocence of the boy, but by the abundant grace of God and the presence of the Living Christ. That child had the face of a cheerful giver.
On the Day of Pentecost last May I preached a sermon about God’s promise of the Holy Spirit and the future of the church. I challenged what I called “the death of the church movement” in sociological studies, in some professors’ lectures, in speeches from denominational leaders, in journalists who seek to put another nail in the coffin of the church, and in the hand wringing of all the conspiracy seeking folks obsessed with what they think is the chronic victimization of the Christian Church in contemporary culture. At the end of the sermon I cited the cognitive and spiritual dissonance that arises when I read and hear all of that and then stand before the thriving, vibrant congregation I am blessed to serve.
At the church door that Sunday, a visiting professor from another seminary challenged me a bit. It was his last Sunday in Princeton after a time of study. He said, “you know, I don’t think you could preach that sermon in most of the churches around where I live. They are just trying to survive.” My response was to point to the theological affirmation that no matter what the future of the church is in God’s hands and that a positive outlook is a theological issue. “I don’t disagree with you about that” the professor of theology said “but I don’t think you understand how good you have it here at Nassau Presbyterian.” We offered our handshakes, well wishes and good byes and I look forward to seeing him again. I didn’t say what I was thinking as we wrapped up the short conversation. “I know exactly I good I have it here at Nassau Presbyterian Church. That’s why I preached that sermon.”
This month marks the 15th anniversary of my ministry as your pastor. You and I, we are part of such a swirl of grace, such abundance in our life together. We dare not miss it or take it for granted. God is calling us to live in and by and through and because of the surpassing grace of God. And to do so abundantly. Your place here, you service here, your worship here, your giving here, your prayer here, your compassion here, your praise here, your singing here, you….here, it is way to offer grace to others and grace back to God.
Living in grace. It has this amazing swirl to it.
So live in it abundantly.
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