Do Your Best

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 (The Message)

When you happen on someone

who’s in trouble or needs help

among your people

with whom you live in this land

that GOD, your God, is giving you,

don’t look the other way

pretending you don’t see him.

Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse.

No. Look at him, open your purse,

lend whatever and as much as he needs.

Don’t count the cost.

Don’t listen to that selfish voice saying,

“It’s almost the seventh year,

the year of All-Debts-Are-Canceled,”

and turn aside

and leave your needy neighbor in the lurch,

refusing to help him.

He’ll call GOD’S attention to you

and your blatant sin.

Give freely and spontaneously.

Don’t have a stingy heart.

The way you handle matters like this

triggers GOD, your God’s, blessing

in everything you do,

all your work and ventures.

There are always going to be poor

and needy people among you.

So I command you:

Always be generous,

open purse and hands,

give to your neighbors in trouble,

your poor and hurting neighbors.

1 Timothy 6:17-19 (The Message)

Tell those rich in this world’s wealth

to quit being so full of themselves

and so obsessed with money,

which is here today and gone tomorrow.

Tell them to go after God,

who piles on all the riches

we could ever manage—

to do good,

to be rich in helping others,

to be extravagantly generous.

If they do that,

they’ll build a treasury that will last,

gaining life that is truly life.

2 Cor 8: 1-15 (The Message)

Now, friends,

I want to report on the surprising and generous ways

in which God is working in the churches in Macedonia province.

Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit.

The trial exposed their true colors:

They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor.

The pressure triggered something totally unexpected:

an outpouring of pure and generous gifts.

I was there and saw it for myself.

They gave offerings of whatever they could—

far more than they could afford!—

pleading for the privilege of helping out

in the relief of poor Christians.

This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea,

and caught us completely off guard.

What explains it was that they had first

given themselves unreservedly to God and to us.

The other giving simply flowed out of

the purposes of God working in their lives.

That’s what prompted us to ask Titus

to bring the relief offering to your attention,

so that what was so well begun could be finished up.

You do so well in so many things—

you trust God, you’re articulate,

you’re insightful, you’re passionate,

you love us—now, do your best in this, too.

I’m not trying to order you around against your will.

But by bringing in the Macedonians’ enthusiasm

as a stimulus to your love,

I am hoping to bring the best out of you.

You are familiar with the generosity

of our Master, Jesus Christ.

Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us—

in one stroke he became poor

and we became rich.

So here’s what I think:

The best thing you can do right now

is to finish what you started last year

and not let those good intentions grow stale.

Your heart’s been in the right place all along.

You’ve got what it takes to finish it up,

so go to it.

Once the commitment is clear,

you do what you can, not what you can’t.

The heart regulates the hands.

This isn’t so others can take it easy

while you sweat it out.

No, you’re shoulder to shoulder with them

all the way, your surplus matching their deficit,

their surplus matching your deficit.

In the end you come out even.

As it is written,

 Nothing left over to the one with the most,

Nothing lacking to the one with the least.

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Paul worked with many churches. This week we hear him telling the church in Corinth about the church in Macedonia.

He’s not extolling the virtues of a church that is stable financially; it’s no model of security.

In fact, he describes the church in Macedonia using three terms that have little to do with security, certainty, or longevity.

He tells of them having “fierce troubles”, describing them as being “desperately poor”, but also “incredibly happy”.

Three simultaneous circumstances – “fierce trouble”, “desperate poverty”, and “abundant joy”.

These three incongruous circumstances, he says, “have overflowed in a wealth of generosity” on their part, an outpouring of pure and generous gifts.

This does not sound like a congregation that is giving out of a great store of spare resources.

Paul says, “I was there and I saw it myself.” They gave far more than they could afford, even pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians.

What could explain such a thing?

Paul says this: “What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us.

First to God without any reservation, and then, by the will of God, to the church.

Because of this, the other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives.

Paul is telling the church in Corinth about the experience of the church in Macedonia, because it sounds like the church in Corinth is having a tough time completing a ministry they have started.

So Paul is appealing to the Corinthians to recognize what can happen when they give God their best.

He says he is not commanding them, but he is testing them. Specifically, he is testing the genuineness of their love against the earnestness of others.

He reminds them of Christ giving away everything for us – becoming poor, out of his great riches, so that we could become rich.

And now our riches are what God has given us, so that we can do all we can to provide relief to others.

Do the best you can. Do what you can. Your surplus matches the deficit of others.

Here we stand, a church at a crossroads.

We have New Life in Christ.

We have stepped forward in faith, merging two congregations to continue, and not only continue, but increase in ministry – to grow in our reach and our ability to serve God.

We have defined our purpose, our mission.

As Paul reminds the Corinthians, he also reminds us –

You have what it takes to bring this good work to life and to fulfillment – if you will do your best. If you will give it your best.

And your best is actually God’s best. God made you rich in love, in joy, in gifts to be shared.

God provided for you everything you have – not to store for yourselves and parcel out in small portions, but to generously give with abundant joy, with the incredible happiness that comes from knowing Jesus Christ, from following him wholeheartedly.

This was not a new idea, generated for the first time by Paul or the disciples or even during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

In Deuteronomy, in the Old Testament, as Jodie read, the Word of God is given to the people of Israel, saying:

“When someone is in trouble or needs help,

·      don’t look the other way.

·      don’t pretend you don’t see

·      don’t keep a tight grip on your purse

·      don’t count the cost

·      don’t leave your needy neighbor in the lurch

No, instead,

·      open your purse

·      give freely and spontaneously

God is paying attention to how you use what God gave you in the first place.

This is what stewardship is.

God gave us everything we have in the first place.

It is only when we accept that, that we can begin to understand what we are supposed to do with it.

No matter what we currently give of our lives and our riches, we can always do better.

As a church, like the church in Corinth, we are in the midst of a journey.

Like the church in Macedonia, we face challenges.

The question for us is whether we will give generously of ourselves to complete the work that God has begun here.

Will we pledge, and will we give, and will we put our time and energy in, with glad and generous hearts?

Not every church Paul planted took root and grew, and lasted. None of them lasted forever.

Every particular church has a finite life span. But the Church with a Big C, the Body of Christ, endures forever. The question is whether every particular church, during its own particular lifespan, will do its best to generously and joyfully carry out the call that God has placed on it.

What does it look like to do your best?

What does doing your best in trusting God look like?

What does doing your best in loving your neighbor looks like?

What does doing your best in generously sharing what you have with others look like?

Maybe you are satisfied that you are already doing your best in all these things.

But God knows our hearts, and God loves our good intentions, and God also knows that as we grow as disciples, we can always do better.

So I ask you to use the notetaking space in your bulletin, and write down what you can do better, as a congregation – to trust God, to love your neighbor, to generously share what you have with others.

The good news is – we do not do this by our own strength and willpower. We do this only by the grace of God.

As Paul tells Timothy, again offering advice to a church through him:

“Tell them to go after God,

who piles on all the riches

we could ever manage –

·      to do good

·      to be rich in helping others

·      to be extravagantly generous

If they do that, they’ll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.

Amen.