TO A THANKSGIVING PEOPLE
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Text: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
I will confess. It is not easy work being a pastor, and I suppose there is no reason it should be. Over my lifetime I have felt ambivalence about this calling more than once. That does not mean the calling is not real and inexorable, but fulfilling the call can be challenging in so many ways. Working with God’s people can be painful and joyful – sometimes simultaneously. As I moved the portraits of the pastors from the parlor to the library yesterday, I thought that my 3 years and 4 months as your pastor is a very small part of the 116 years people have been gathering as the First Baptist Church of Palo Alto. Some pastors have served much longer than I, some less. Many of you have been here for 50, 60 years or more. So, I’m still a new kid on the block even as I approach my 63rd birthday.
In my short time here we have laughed and cried, worked and struggled, disagreed and cooperated, played and fought. Really, it’s a lot like any family you might come across. But what I want to say to you this morning is a word of gratitude for being who you are, for hanging in with one another and me, even when it has been difficult, for the love and care that each of you exhibits in so many ways for this our faith community and its ministries. The longer I am here the better I understand the things that have kept you faithful to the gospel and to this community over the years. And I thank God for you.
This morning’s ancient word comes from a source of pastoral ambivalence toward ministry. Paul had been busy planting new churches among the Gentiles of Asia Minor and Greece. This in itself brought him into conflict with the church in Jerusalem which insisted that the Jesus Movement observe Jewish law as it pertained to things like circumcision and diet. Paul understood that these requirements would be deadly to the Movement’s growth among the non-Jews with whom he was increasingly involved. It was a sort of Middle East conflict that might even be traceable to part of today’s conflict in that region. Paul went to Jerusalem and cut a deal with the church fathers there to allow him to continue his work with non-Jews. Like Middle East peace agreements of today, it seems to have held for a short period, then crumbled.
Part of the accord Paul worked out with the church fathers in Jerusalem was that he would raise money among the churches that he had started for the poor and needy of the church in Jerusalem. Even after the agreement failed to hold, Paul committed himself to this offering for the church in Jerusalem, partly because the need was real and partly in hopes of showing those in Jerusalem how faithful the non-Jewish Christians in other areas were to the gospel. Apparently he had good success in convincing the Macedonian churches at Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea to support the offering. The church in Corinth was a different matter.
Though Corinth had known hard times, it had become quite prosperous under Roman rule. Paul had stuck his neck out to brag about the generosity he expected from the church at Corinth. In fact, there is speculation that he may have used his anticipation of generosity from Corinth to boost the offerings from the poorer churches in Macedonia. The problem now was that the some of the Corinthian Christians were upset with Paul and he was worried that they would embarrass him personally by not giving generously to the offering. Living in a culture in which shame and honor were so significant, the loss of face if the offering did not come through could potentially end Paul’s effectiveness as an evangelist. He had a lot riding on the response of the Corinthian church.
Now lest this sound too cynical, it is also true that Paul had a great passion for the unity of the church. Though, he himself, was a strong personality, who often stirred up controversy in his travels about the Mediterranean world, he longed for a church that would work in harmony to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. He dreamed of one body of Christ, made of many parts, each with its own importance, working together to change the known world. Even when he was the source of conflict within the larger church, he felt pained by that and plead for unity with integrity.
What he is trying to teach the Corinthian Christians that culminates in today’s text is something about the grace of God. There is a risk that these folk who are better off than their sisters and brothers in Jerusalem and Macedonia will see their gifts as patronage rather than partnership. But Paul wants them to understand that all that they have is by the grace of God. Ultimately, they have not earned it; God has given it to them. It is not because they are better than others. In this case it may well be a blessing of location. Anyone with a piece of real estate knows something of the significance of “location, location, location.” Even those of us who are not wealthy know the benefits of living in a prime location. We are privileged people, living in an upscale corner of the most prosperous nation on earth. But does it make us better than anyone else? Not intrinsically. As another saying reflects, “There but for fortune go you and I.” Or as Paul would have it, “There but for the grace of God…”
Ironically, what happens too often with privilege and prosperity is that we believe we’re entitled. With it goes a tendency to accumulation and hoarding. In her commentary on this text, Mitzi Minor writes, “I doubt there’s a group of believers in the New Testament who resemble American Christians more than the Corinthians. The Corinthian believers lived in a city with an ethos shaped significantly by new wealth, new status, and new opportunities to improve one’s lot in life. Many people there seem to have been competitive, showy, and self-centered.” Sound at all like Silicon Valley? She goes on, “At least some of the believers brought such attitudes with them into their new faith so that they considered themselves strong, wise, wealthy, and right because God had blessed them” (Mitzi L. Minor, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary, 2 Corinthians, pp. 180-1.) They saw themselves as superior beings because they were privileged.
But the truth, as Paul sees it, is that they are not “strong, wise, wealthy or right” by virtue of their own merit. Ultimately, they are blessed because they are blessed. And they are blessed in order to be a blessing. There is little room in the reign of God for one who is not a cheerful giver, who cannot share abundantly from her or his own abundance. When Paul says that they will be “enriched in every way for [their] great generosity,” he is not preaching a prosperity gospel – give more to get more! He is saying that “virtue is its own reward,” that generosity is, in and of itself, enriching. This sounds like Jesus’ teaching that it is in emptying ourselves we find ourselves. Our lives are fulfilled in “obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of [our] sharing…” This is how we acknowledge grace and glorify God.
Again, the cynic could argue that this is Paul making a particularly eloquent pitch for the success of this offering and for his own honor in which it is so closely wrapped. Perhaps this is so, but I don’t think that cynicism invalidates the genius of Paul’s argument. Why wouldn’t God prefer a cheerful giver to one who gives grudgingly, out of some sense of obligation? I’m willing to bet that each of us, at least once, has made a gift for the joy of giving and found it to be infinitely rewarding. No strings attached, unconditional love, extravagant grace. This is what it’s like to be “thanksgiving people.”
Remember in my Spire column for November, I wrote something about being “thanksgiving people.” I wondered if thanksgiving might actually be a way of life, especially for those of us who have known the “surpassing grace of God” and are grateful to God for God’s “indescribable gift!” I said that even in anxiety, frustration, tears, aches and pains, I have so much to be thankful for – family, friends, food, shelter, music, poetry, drama, sunny days, green trees, the excited cries of children, the loving laughter of old friends, the satisfaction of tasks completed or jobs well-done. I could fill pages and not complete the list.
And then there is this faith community that, even when I’m feeling ambivalent, is a source of thanksgiving. It is a joy to sing songs with you, a delight to study scripture with you, a gift to share stories with you, a privilege to laugh and cry with you, a worthy challenge to face the future with you. It seems strange to lift up the fun and fulfillment I felt yesterday on an All Church Work Day – moving furniture, sorting all sorts of accumulated stuff, scrubbing floors, sharing work and conversation and food with together – but it was a good day at old First Baptist and holds the promise of more good days to come. I thank God daily for these indescribable gifts.
I don’t think I’m a thanksgiving person yet, but I want to be, and I hope you do, too. I also wondered in my Spire article if the church’s budgeting process could be characterized by gratitude. What if it was an exercise in thanksgiving? When Paul and Jesus talk about our relationship to the holy it is always in terms of the debt we owe to God for all that God has given us. The truth is that some of us may have more than others, but in the realm of God none of us is more deserving or more worthwhile. We were made by God, belong to God, are drawn inexorably into communion with God by God’s amazing, inexhaustible love for us.
Following Paul and Jesus, Henri Nouwen writes that “It is said that, in our highly competitive and greedy world, we have lost the joy of giving. We often live as if our happiness depended on having. But I don’t know anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others.” What if they are right? What if God is calling us to live together as a “thanksgiving people”? How would our lives, our relationships, our community, our world be different? It is still my hope and prayer that, as we continue living into our calling as a faith community, with all the challenges and joys that entails, we will become truly God’s “thanksgiving people” in this place and for this world. Amen.