2 Corinthians 8:9

How can we live rich, full lives? How can we flourish at work and at home, at church and in the community? 2 Corinthians 8 answers these questions by drawing out implications of the Incarnation of Christ.

Second Corinthians 8 is a first-century fund-raising letter. The Apostle Paul wrote this chapter to encourage the Corinthian Christians to contribute to his collection for the financially strapped Christians in Jerusalem. In fact, the Corinthians had begun to support this charitable work (8:6, 10). Now it was time for them to finish what they had begun.

After offering initial reasons why the Corinthians should be generous, Paul plays his theological trump card, pointing to the example of Christ himself: “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich” (8:9). The grace of Christ is revealed in his Incarnation. He once “was rich” in that he enjoyed all the perks of deity (see Phil. 2:6-7). Yet Christ “became poor” by becoming a human being. It’s not just that he was born into a family that didn’t have much money. Christ’s “poverty” in this text is his very humanity. When you go from being fully God to being fully human and fully God, that’s quite a sacrifice, a move from essential richness to essential poverty.

Notice why Christ chose to make this sacrifice. He did it, Paul writes to the Corinthians, “for your sakes” (8:9). In fact, he became “poor” so that the Corinthians might become “rich.” This richness was all-inclusive. It surely referred to the benefits of salvation and the gifts of the Spirit. But, in context, it also referred to the financial blessings God had poured out upon the Corinthians. And it suggested that their richness was not just having money, but sharing it generously with others.

Second Corinthians 8 reminds us of how Christ, through his Incarnation, has blessed us beyond measure. This passage also urges us to be generous in sharing with others what we have so graciously received.

Thus, we come full circle in our series on Keeping Christmas Well. As you may recall, the name of this series came from Charles Dickens’ classic description of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. After Scrooge’s supernatural transformation, he promised to “honour Christmas in [his] heart, and try to keep it all year.” He was good to his word, such that the end of A Christmas Carol observes that Scrooge “knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.” At the center of Scrooge’s “keeping Christmas well” was his generosity with people in need.

Centuries before Dickens, the Apostle Paul connected the birth of Jesus with the generosity of his followers. Therefore, keeping Christmas well means being people of generosity, freely sharing with others what God has so richly given us in Christ. As we joyfully receive God’s grace, we cheerfully give to others. Thus, like Ebenezer Scrooge, through our graceful generosity, we keep Christmas well.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: How does the metaphor of Christ’s becoming poor in the Incarnation speak to you? Are you enjoying Christ’s grace in your life by giving it away to others? Is there a specific act of generous giving that God is calling you to today?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, how we thank you for your willingness to give up so much to become human. Thank you for your choice to become poor so that we might be rich in you.

You know, Lord, how easy it is for me to receive your blessings, but then hold onto them. Help me to be a person who imitates your act of generous giving. As I have received financial blessings from you, may I share them freely with others. As I have been gifted by your Spirit, may I serve people in your church and in the world. As I have received the outpouring of your love, may I love others in my life: at work, at home, at church, and wherever I might be.

Help me this very day, Lord, to be rich in you by giving away your blessings to others. Amen.

1 Corinthians 12:27

How is Christ present in the world today? How can you and I represent him in our daily lives? Our text from 1 Corinthians 12 answers these questions by use of an incarnational analogy.

First-century Corinthian culture prized spiritual experience and personal accomplishment. Thus it encouraged both preoccupation with one’s religious prowess and prideful boasting. This cultural tide inundated the Christian community in Corinth, leading some to boast so much of their spiritual achievements that they denigrated the worth of their less-accomplished brothers and sisters in Christ. These folk, in turn, began to doubt their value to the community because their experiences of the Spirit were less dramatic than those of their boastful siblings.

The apostle Paul, who had planted the Corinthian church, realized that his young flock needed more than an exhortation to value each other. They needed to see themselves in a whole new light as the community of God. In order to foster this fresh vision, Paul used the analogy of the human body in 1 Corinthians 12-14. Just as the physical body has diverse parts, and just as all parts are essential for the body to function well, so it is with the Christian community. “All of you together are Christ’s body,” Paul wrote, “and each of you is a part of it” (12:27). Therefore every member matters to the body, and every member has the responsibility of caring for every other member. Nobody is inconsequential. Nobody is dispensable. Everybody matters if the church, as the body of Christ, is to be healthy, strong, and growing.

The original body of Christ in the world was the actual physical body of Jesus, in whom the Word of God was present. This body is no longer present on the earth. But the church of Jesus Christ is now his body in a somewhat different, but still essential, way. As we gather in fellowship and worship, and as we scatter into the world, we represent Jesus. We will only do this effectively when we act as a body in which all parts are valuable and active in ministry.

The church of Jesus Christ needs the message of 1 Corinthians 12-14 just as much today as the Corinthians needed it in the first century A.D. We tend to overvalue the contributions of a few members of the church, usually the pastors and other visible leaders, and devalue the contributions of ordinary folk. How often have you heard or even said, “I’m just a lay person,” as if lay people mattered less than clergy. The church in our day needs to hear once again the good news that we are the body of Christ, and therefore every member has inestimable value.

Keeping Christmas well means living in this world incarnationally as a member of the body of Christ. It means actively participating in the church and joining with this community to bear witness, in word and deed, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER REFLECTION: Do you live as an active, connected part of the body of Christ? What helps you to know that you have a crucial role in the Christian community? Are there specific ways God is calling you to strengthen your relationship with the body of Christ?

PRAYER: Gracious God, even as you once were present on this earth through the human body of Jesus, today you are present through the body of Christ, the church.

Thank you for making us part of your body in this world. You have joined us to the church so that we might receive care, grow in our discipleship, and contribute to the growth of others. Though church life is sometimes messy, thank you for all the ways you minister to us through our fellow Christians.

O Lord, help your church to take seriously the value of each member to the whole body. Even as we respect those who are set apart as ordained ministers, may we remember that we are all your ministers, and that all of us have a role to play in your church.

Strengthen us individually and corporately, so that we might serve you, not only in our fellowship together, but also as we go out into the world. May we be your body for others, even as you once communicated your grace through the literal body of Jesus. Amen.