Wednesday's SOAP - 2 Corinithians 8:13-15

¹³ Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. ¹⁴ Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. ¹⁵ As the Scriptures say,

   “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over,
      and those who gathered only a little had enough.” (Exodus 16:18)

S(cripture) - I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality.

O(bservation) - There is so much wisdom in what Paul is writing here. He's writing to a group of Christ followers who are already poor. But they are wealthier ("have plenty") than Christ followers in Jerusalem who have been facing extreme persecution - so Paul is appealing to them to give generously. He speaks that he doesn't want to over-burden them, but to share out of what is more than they need. It is an amazing glimpse into the early church and its priorities.

These poor churches with no resources other than each other and the power of the Holy Spirit, soon over-ran an empire - like mustard seeds in a garden, like dandelions in an untreated lawn, like tribbles on the Starship Enterprise.  I believe a great part of that multiplication is that they offered an alternative culture (not just beliefs) that was especially appealing to those on the margins.

A(pplication) - The call to share with our brothers and sisters around the world is no less strong today. There are places where the Kingdom is growing incredibly. Usually among the poor. The Kingdom message is Good News for the poor.

The Church (and by extension the Kingdom) does its best work in the places cast off by society. It grows in difficult places like dandelions grow in sidewalk cracks. And sadly, the church doesn't grow well in "manicured lawns" (places of affluence) because the demands of the kingdom are too great - give, share, rely on God - why Jesus could say it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom. We want to make Christianity a religion with a bars that we can reach (don't murder, don't steal, honor father and mother . . .) when the Kingdom ethic requires so much more. SO MUCH MORE. And when we live into this life of sharing and generosity, we too can be part of a movement to change the world. The other option is to continue to make Christianity a low-bar religion that will be lost in irrelevancy.

P(rayer) - Abba, how I long for the church in America to wake-up to its potential - a radical sold-out call to live for Jesus and His Kingdom. And call me and guide me into this kingdom movement. I don't want to go through the motions. Holy, heavenly Father, your Kingdom COME, Your WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day my daily bread, and if I have extra, prompt me to give it away. Amen.