Reading: 2 Corinthians 9.6-11
The sugar cane harvest is almost finished for another year. We heave a sigh of relief that it’s over again. Not that a farmer’s work is ever “over”. There’s always planting, fertilising, watering… to be done. The benefit of irrigation is that the crop is more certain, but it also means that there is often no real break.
So the Burdekin district has its two festivals. The Water Festival on the Ayr side of the river was held at the beginning of September. This coming week is the Harvest Festival at Home Hill.
A couple of years ago we were visiting Ingham and Rachel’s father-in-law was planting a block of cane. I took the invitation to stand on the planter and feed whole sticks into the machine to be chopped and buried in the furrows.
I did two rows and didn’t hear that those rows fared better or worse than the rest of the block. Although I wore gloves, I learnt about “hairy Maries” – the little barbed hairs that stick in your fingers and take a bit of removing.
This year I have noticed a few more blocks of corn in the Burdekin than last year. You don’t get that from planting cane billets! The principle is that “we reap what we sow”.
A few years ago I heard about an agricultural team that was helping an African tribe to increase their corn production. The tribe had plentiful supplies of fish. They planted by hand and were instructed to bury a fish with every seed. That would be excellent fertiliser for their corn.
“We reap what we sow.” Or as we would put it, “We harvest what we plant.”
In Gal. 6.7, Paul uses that clear agricultural understanding to illustrate a spiritual principle. He goes on, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (v. 8).
In today’s reading Paul insists that we apply another important spiritual principle. It’s not just what we sow, but how we sow – “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Cor. 9.6). In The Message, Eugene Petersen puts it this way, “A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop.” Paul is urging the Corinthian Christians to be generous in their response to the need of the Christians in Jerusalem.
In the Old Testament the practice of tithing is taught. The tithe (or ten percent) has helped many of us to establish a sound pattern of giving. It is a good beginning point, but the Christian is never restricted to the tithe. The New Testament doesn’t command it. In fact, Jesus was critical of those who were super-particular about tithing, but “neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Mt. 23.23). He commended the poor widow who put into the temple treasury “two very small copper coins… all she had to live on” (Mk 12.41-44). Christian giving is on a totally different basis and is never restricted to the tithe.
Paul sets out a number of principles for Christian giving. We would do well to read all of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Today we are only looking at the last part of chapter 9.
Christian giving is voluntary. Paul writes, “Each person should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9.7).
We are meant to think about what we give. Don’t just pull a coin or two out of your pocket and give God the left-overs! Many of us know by heart the verses in Proverbs 3 that say, “Trust in the Lord will all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (vv. 5-6). They were some of the verses I checked out in the New English Bible when it came out. Then I read on and came to verse 9, “Honour the Lord with your wealth as the first charge on all your earnings”. Not the “left-overs”, but “the first charge on all your earnings.” Is that how we view our giving to the Lord?
But it’s voluntary – neither reluctantly nor under compulsion, “for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word means joyous, prompt and willing – so different from the way we pay our taxes! It’s the same expression that gives us our English word “hilarious”.
Christian giving is also an act of faith. Paul writes, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (v. 8).
Giving wasn’t an act of faith for the rich people. But the poor widow was trusting God for all her needs. Sometimes we have talked about giving sacrificially – giving “till it hurts”. But really that can miss the whole point. In Christian giving, we are exercising our faith in the Lord. Jesus said we are to “seek first [God’s] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [basic needs like food and drink and clothing] will be given to you as well” (Mt. 6.33). Is our giving an expression of faith that the Lord will supply our needs?
Christian giving is blessed by God – that’s what happens when we trust God. “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (vv. 10-11).
We all know the old saying that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The words were quoted by Paul in his farewell to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20.35). They are words of Jesus, but not found in any of the four gospels. Do we really believe that it is “more blessed to give than to receive”? Is that reflected in our giving?
What has been called “prosperity theology” is still promoted by some TV evangelists – and enough folk fall for it and make the promoters quite well-do-do. The concept is that if you give enough to “our” ministry today, God may well give you a Cadillac tomorrow.
Ray Stedman, preaching in January 1980, told about a friend who replied to a letter “in which he was told, ‘You can’t outgive God. We have figured it out, therefore, if you and everybody else who hears our program send $67 to us, we’ll have all the money we want and God will give it back to you five times over.’ He wrote back and said, ‘I believe that. I believe you can’t outgive God. But I tell you what: You give me the $67 and God will give it back to you five times over. Then you get the bigger amount!’ For some reason they took him off the mailing list!” (Giving Joyfully, 27 January 1980).
Paul isn’t telling us that we should give in order to get rich. What he is saying is that when we give we can trust God that our own needs will be met and that we will have enough to keep on giving. And that’s just what “cheerful givers” want to be able to do!
A number of years ago I was invited by a member of one of our congregations to accompany him to a promotion dinner for the Haggai Institute. Since 1969 John Haggai has been seeking to fulfil a vision to train Christian leaders in third-world countries. He himself would travel the world to raise the large amount of funds needed for this ministry. He had no hesitation challenging people to give generously, but he had one condition – he wouldn’t accept a cent of anybody’s money if they weren’t already tithing to their local church. That gave his appeals a great deal of integrity.
Following my Link article entitled “Life is an adventure”, you should have received three sheets. Life is a gift – “a privilege, a response, a responsibility! Receive the gift and commit ourselves together to share it within our community!” Life is for sharing – “How will we use the gifts God has entrusted to us?” Life is a response – “ it can be the real adventure the Creator intended it to be only when we truly live in dependence on him – knowing that we can freely share and give because he is still the Giver.”
John Haggai is right. There are many mission-fields that rightly solicit our financial support. But our primary mission-field is right here in the Burdekin. As we sow generously, we will reap generously – and that spirit of generosity in our local area will reach out beyond into other aspects of the Lord’s work.
Christ calls us! Let us go forward together with him!
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