2 Corinthians 4:5-10 &16-18
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
November 3, 2024
Christians are at times criticized for being so heavenly minded as to be of no earthly good. Some are guilty as charged; but more are so heavenly minded as to be of great earthly good.
While the majority of Christians have been late to the party welcoming sexual minorities, heavenly minded Christians have been leaders in abolishing slavery, ending abusive child labor, bringing full civil rights to all Americans and lifting up non-Americans as well.
For example, University of North Carolina sociologist Robert Woodberry studied the nations of Africa and found a robust correlation between 19th century Christian missionary activity and a nation’s democratization and economic advancement. Those African nations in which Christian evangelists had a significant impact are today much more likely than other African nations to have better health care, more widespread literacy, greater educational attainment (especially for women) and higher levels of overall prosperity and they are much less likely to experience political corruption, societal chaos, violent crime and high infant mortality.
The Apostle Paul was so heavenly minded as to be of great earthly good – so much so, that according to Acts 17 when Jason and others who supported Paul in his missionary work were dragged before the Thessalonian representatives of Roman oppression, they and Paul were accused of “turning the world upside down”.
Because Paul and his pals believed in a better world, they gave their all to better this world. They, as Paul says, made little of how their “outer nature” was “wasting away” by the pain and hardship they suffered in striving to improve life on earth. For they then saw their “inner nature” being “renewed day by day” and in the process being fitted for heaven as they held nothing back in bearing witness to the “extraordinary power” that “belongs to God” and in making “visible…the life of Jesus” through the afflictions they went through that nearly crushed them (but did not) and the hard blows they endured that nearly destroyed them (but did not). They and Paul viewed the trials and troubles they sustained as they brought about the salvation of individuals and the elevation of nations as next to nothing in light of the coming better world, as “a slight momentary affliction…preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure”.
Those who have this heavenly perspective give generously of themselves to serve the earthly purposes of Christ. With an open hand, they share their time, talent and treasure.
Of those three kinds of sharing, the one we resist the most is that of sharing our treasure. For, yes, “treasure” refers to our money. And, yes, the church is about to invite people on Pledge Sunday, November 17, to promise to give Covenant an amount of money of their own choosing over the course of the upcoming new year.
We resist sharing our money because, whether we think about it or not, money is deeply important to all of us. For having money means having the power to get what we want. Jesus recognized that. That’s why He talked so much about money. (Someone has calculated that one seventh of all Jesus’ sayings pertain in some way to the use of money.) He recognized that our use of money can either pull us away from God or pull us close to God. That’s why He said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He knew that our heart follows our money; and thus, if any follower of His wants to become more invested in God, they need to invest more of their money in the concerns that are on God’s heart.
Sixty some years ago, some followers of Jesus believed that building a new church at Third and Atlantic was on God’s heart. So they invested a good portion of their money in constructing these beautiful, long-lasting facilities and in sustaining them for decades afterward. As a result, these physical facilities are to this day facilitating countless spiritual ministries. By the grace of these folks who came before us, we today can see God save people and make them His friends, make of them a community that has blessed and uplifted the larger community around them, make of them a winsome witness to Jesus and His good news, enable them to make new and stronger disciples of Jesus, give them a life of meaning and purpose and power and peace and joy, and provide for many a family that cares about them and supports them through every stage of life.
That we are blessed to be a part of these ongoing ministries is a grace of God we didn’t pay for and don’t deserve. So we who have greatly benefited from the generosity of previous generations would do well to be generous to the present generation and to those that follow it. We get to be a link in a long chain of love.
In his book, Chase the Lion, Mark Batterson cites a Lorne Whitehead article on the chain reactions of dominoes. Batterson writes, “You can picture it in your mind, can’t you? You knock over a domino, and it sets off a chain reaction that can knock down hundreds of dominoes in a matter of seconds.” Whitehead’s research discovered that each domino is capable of knocking over another domino one-and-a-half times its size. “So a two-inch domino can topple a three-inch domino. A three-inch domino can topple a four-and-a-half-inch domino. And a four-and-a-half-inch domino can topple a…well, you get the point.”
By the time you get to the 18th domino, you have the power to knock over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Of course, it’s already leaning so that may not be impressive. But the 23rd domino could knock over the Eiffel Tower, and the 29th, the Empire State Building. Batterson writes, “In the realm of mathematics, there are two kinds of progression: linear and geometric. Linear is two plus two equals four. Geometric is compound doubling…If you take 30 linear steps, you’re 90 feet from where you started. But if you take 30 geometric steps, you’ve circled the earth 26 times.”
Faithful giving in the name of Jesus is geometric and not linear in its impact. Each act of generous giving is, whatever its size, a part of a compounded chain reaction that sets off a thousand chain reactions we can’t see. But, as Paul assures us, the eternal is something that cannot be seen.
Something miraculously geometric happens when the followers of Jesus give out of gratitude for those they can no longer see and give out of love for those they cannot yet see. The God who turned water into wine turns mere money into the uplifting of individuals and communities, both now and in the years to come.
As we pray and think about our giving to this church in 2025 and so bettering our corner of this world, let us bear in mind the still better world to come and its eternal riches. It is never foolishness to give away what we cannot keep in order to gain what we cannot lose!
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