Gentle Reader,
A teacher doesn’t have much to teach if they’re not continually learning. I am positive that this is true. Because I am positive that this is true, I know that it is important for me to engage with Scripture in order to both nurture my own relationship with God and to continue growing in my understand of the sacred texts, apart from preparing sermons or papers. As such, I’m making my way slowly through Second Corinthians. More slowly than I originally intended, until it was pointed out to me that the pressure I felt to finish by a certain date was all in my own head. What does it matter if I spend a year or more in this letter? It doesn’t matter at all.
This letter actually probably more like Fourth or Fifth Corinthians. This faith community, situated within the bounds of a city important to the ancient Roman Empire, they had a lot of problems. They correspond with Paul regularly. At certain points in his replies, I can just see him pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. I would love to read those other letters. But it’s okay that we only have the two. We have what we need.
As I think about the fact that we have what we need, I am again grateful for the way that my denomination approaches Scripture. We believe
in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, by which we understand the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, given by divine inspiration, inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation, so that whatever is not contained therein is not to be enjoined as an article of faith.
– Article 4, Church of the Nazarene
Why am I grateful for that? Couple of reasons. Plenary inspiration means that what we read in Scripture is trustworthy, because God is speaking in and through all of it. This also means that all of the authors we encounter in the Bible were graced with hearts and minds to both receive direct words from God and to share words that flow out of their own relationship with God. The Bible is the words from and about God. The Bible is the record of the Divine reaching out to the human. It’s beautiful.
Inerrantly revealing the will of God concerning us in all things necessary to our salvation is the other thing. The will of God is that we come to know and love God, and the final and defining statement about that, the thing to which everything in Scripture points, is Jesus Christ, the Word of God. The words of the Bible pave the avenue that always leads to encounter with the Word. This means that we can and should consider things like historical and literary context when we read the words. We can celebrate that the Bible is true and trustworthy, and as the Spirit of God speaks through the words we are lovingly guided into saving relationship with Jesus. And we can do this without stressing out over the differences between one record of a battle and another. We can do this without the burden of reading every line through strict literalist lenses.
And now you’re thinking, if you’re even still reading: Cool. Why do I care?
You care because of this passage.
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 regretfully 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.
– 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (NRSV)
The immediate application, then and now, has to do with money. Paul urges his readers to give to the collection for the Jerusalem Christians who are suffering due to famine and poverty. God wants God’s people to practice generosity. The Book of James is especially blunt about the fact that if you see someone in need and can help them but don’t, then you’re not really living out your faith.
But it’s not just generosity with money.
Look at the gardening metaphor there. If you want to have fifty happy sunflowers, you plant fifty or more sunflower seeds or starter plants. You don’t plant nine. You don’t keep the seeds or starters in the potting shed. You put them in the ground, in a space where they will receive lots of sunlight. You water them. You keep pests away from them. And you enjoy the result of that labor when the orange and yellow petals open up and smile at you.
As I read these verses, and think about the sunflowers, the Holy Spirit reminds me that hoarding isn’t a spiritual gift. Specifically, the Spirit highlights the mess that results when we hoard love. We do that quite a lot these days. We draw our battle lines and our in/out boxes. Some of us do so out of a desire for power or control. Others of us do so because we want to be safe. We don’t want to be hurt again. It’s easier to keep love small, hidden, to share it with only a select few.
But God loves a cheerful giver.
Awareness, boundaries, wisdom – all important. All necessary. God does not require anyone to remain in an abusive situation or take on the characteristics of a doormat. But what if we were generous with our love? What if we could hold convictions in one hand – because we should have convictions – and welcome in the other – because God welcomes us?
I’m the sort who hoards love because I don’t want to be hurt. I have a long list of very good reasons for why I shouldn’t trust others, why I shouldn’t be open toward others. But what if I could seek God’s wisdom and God’s love in the same breath? Ask God to grace me with both?
I think I can. I think you can, too. More than that, I know it.
And even more than that, I am sure, as sure as I am of the new age spots on the back of my hands, that the world desperately needs it.
GRACE AND PEACE ALONG THE WAY,
MARIE
Image Courtesy of Antonio Visalli