Thanksgiving

2 Corinthians 9:1–15 NIV

1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the Lord’s people. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given. 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Telic Note. We give thanks to God for what he does for us. He often does this through natural means including what others are led to do for us out of generosity. Here St. Paul appeals to Christians to be generous in helping others. This will lead to them giving thanks to God.

Reference to bulletin and WELS Christian Aid and Relief

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly Lights. As Christians we believe that God is the source of all that is good and that he daily and richly blesses us with our daily bread even without our asking. Luther says, “God surely gives daily bread without our asking, even to all the wicked, but we pray in this petition that he would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgivnig.

What, then, is meant by daily bread?

Daily bread includes everything that we need for our bodily welfare, such as food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, land and cattle, money and goods, a godly spouse, godly children, godly workers, godly and faitnful leaders, good government, good weather, peace and order, health, a good name, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

We would also certainly include the man spiritual blessings we receive from God as well.

But how do we receive out “daily bread”? It is not as though it miraculously appears overnight and all we have to do is open our storage units or at the most gather it from the ground like the Israelites did with the Manna. Our daily bread comes to us from work, gifts, inheritances, and the generosity of others. And yet, we believe that the ultimate source is God and it is to him we give thanks and praise him from whom all blessings flow.

And yet, God uses people to bless us and us to bless others. That is the emphasis that St. Paul is making here and that I want to make today. Be Generous to those in Need so that they will Give Thanks to God.

Jesus says that we will always have the poor. Our text is an example of a group of people who were poor for at least a short period of time. There was a famine in Jerusalem and its immediate area and the cost of food has skyrocketed. People were using almost all of their income just to buy their daily bread and I would suppose some were going into debt. Imagine having to take out a loan just to buy your groceries! There would have been no money left over for even the most basic of necessities.

What to do? Well, the Christians in Corinth who had been directly affected by the famine decided that they would put together a collection of money to send to Jerusalem for famine relief. This section gives encouragement to complete the task. Note several truths that Paul makes for them that continue to be true today when it comes to helping the poor.

Begins with an eagerness to help.

Sometimes we need a little prodding to complete our intentions.

Who sows sparingly or generously will also reap sparingly or generously.

We are to give willingly.

God will lead us to abound in every good work and will enrich us in every way.

Our generosity will result in . . . thanksgiving to God.

Those who are helped will also pray for us.

At least one of these passages should be very familiar to you. It is on our offering envelopes and is used to encourage us to cheerfully give money to our church generously.

However, this passage was not first written to support the local congregation. It was written to command the Corinthians to complete a fund raising campaign to help with famine relief in a distant place. Nevertheless, the principles about generosity still apply whether it is giving to church, a local charity, a far away mission, to help an individual or to provide help in the case of a disaster. We are commanded to be generous, reassured that God is generous to generous people, and that our generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

We will always have the poor. We will always have opportunity to be generous and to give from what God has blessed up to help others. At times we will be the recipients of those who are generous because we are in need.

How important is this? In Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats, he cites examples of being generous as outward evidence of faith.

James is very strong in his command to help the poor.

St. Paul tells Timothy to command those who are rich to be rich in good deeds.

Charles Dickens wrote a powerful story about the consequences of being a miser and the blessing of being generous in “A Christmas Carol.”

Make no mistake. God commands and expects his people to be generous. Note the probing question of Jesus in our Gospel lesson.

So . . . are you generous? Do you help the poor? Are you more likely to spend money on you and yours than those in need? When we find ourselves less than generous, that is a sin that we are to confess to God. He reassures us that that sin is forgiven because he is generous. That forgiveness will lead us to respond in cheerful generosity which will lead others to give thanks to God for what he has led us to do for them.