RCL reading for Sunday, June 28, 2009:
Excerpt from the New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
7 Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.
8 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others.
9 For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
10 And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something but even to desire to do something—
11 now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means.
12 For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.
13 I do not mean that there should be relief for others and pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between
14 your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance.
15 As it is written,
‘The one who had much did not have too much,
and the one who had little did not have too little.’
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Paul continues his appeal for the collection for the Jerusalem church, but in an ingenious even inspired way. He parallels the sharing of substance to his Christ mysticism involving the imitation of Christ to achieve union with Christ. Then he adds on Christ's kenotic hymn from Phillipians as an example of how emptying the self and the wallet follows Christ's example of His emptying himself of the godhead. He then invents the progressive income tax by drawing a parallel with the manna in the desert where everyone had enough because nobody had too much.
ReplyDelete