Generosity

Summary

We continue with our worship series on the practices that bind us together as a congregation. We renewed our baptismal commitment, looked at honouring everyone, and last week, we looked at rituals of worship, specifically anointing. This week, the practice is generosity. To help us engage this topic, let’s look at this passage from 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 have always intrigued me. Paul is writing to the churches in Corinth, encouraging them to fulfill the commitment they made the previous year—to take up a collection for the poor Jewish believers in Jerusalem. For Paul, there is an important symbolism in this collection—it is from the Gentile believers in the mission churches for the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. This group of people about whom a special council was held in Acts 15, to decide if they had to first become Jews before they could be Christians, is now the group that is giving aid to the poor Jewish believers. The mission to the Gentiles has been successful, so successful that they are now contributing as full partners in mission.