Gifts of Grace

 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

Grace is such a small word, but it is so life-giving and freeing. Paul is writing to the Corinthians to give of what little they have. It is different in the ancient world to give if you are rich. Giving to the arts or something else made people indebted to you and the giver usually didn't give it freely, there was a cost of ideas, or what they wanted done. Paul is asking this church to give to the Jerusalem church because it is fair, it balances things. The thing is Paul and the Jerusalem church have a whopper of a disagreement. In order to become Christian you have to be a good Jew first for Jerusalem. For Paul he totally disagrees, Jesus freed us from the law and you can be a believer by believing in Christ. Even with all of this he is still faithful in raising money, in going and visiting them, and in asking them to visit with the Gentile churches. This is grace.

Grace means extending ourselves to one another because we are believers. We do expect a portion or share of grace back, but Paul didn't get this, so why should we? Grace, the kind Jesus gave is a gift. As a matter of fact the Greek charis, is in this passage 10 times. It is just not translated as such. We have gifts to give, each according to the fair balance of which Paul is stating. They give it freely, not because they see eye to eye but because of the example of Jesus, and what is this example lived out?

It is going to the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue, a religious leader who Jesus was always being questioned or challenged by. As a matter of fact in Mark, they have just gotten done calling Jesus Beelzebub. So why should Jesus come and heal anyone from this sect? Grace.

We wrestle so with grace and the free gift of it yet the earliest writings of the church tell us of this gift of Jesus. Paul alludes to this here in the passage. The gifts of Jesus were given because he was rich, he became poor from them. There is a passage in Philippians we read often, it is even a canticle, it is how Jesus being in the form of God did not use this to make people do what he wanted or be waited on. Instead Jesus became the servant of all, even giving his own life in order to serve and give. This is a tall order to measure up to. 

How many of us would give good gifts to those we disagree with? To those who we don't see eye to eye with? Would we collect money to help them? Would we consider it giving a gift? Yet this is the example we are given every time. Whether it is the synagogue leaders daughter who is healed or the woman who just takes the healing from Jesus and wants to run. Jesus never asks are you on my side, do you agree or disagree with my teachings, do you have enough or the right kind of faith? All these were what I was brought up to believe were the most important things to keep faith and all they were are things to gate keep and keep people out. Grace asks us to give lavishly and abundantly no matter what the belief.

So grace pushes us to continue to come forward and walk toward one another. What gifts do we have to grace others with? What wonders might we open up if we walked in these ways, expecting only to find the treasure of the Kingdom of God or the pearl of greatest price? We might find the wonderful abundance of God waiting for us to discover a well-spring of life we can't fathom and yet it gives again and again.