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A sermon preached by Mr Antony Weiss The Thirteenth Sunday After Trinity Christ Church St Laurence Solemn Evensong – 21st August, 2016 2 Corinthians 9
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 19:14). AMEN.
For several weeks now, the Second Lesson at Evensong has been from Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians. The newly established Corinthian Church was plagued with the serious problems of division, sexual immorality and social snobbery. Paul felt compelled to write initially from Ephesus because of the Corinthian church’s disunity and their self-centred living at the expense of the weak and the marginalised. Paul accused members of the Corinthian Church of putting their own social progression above that of the advancement of the Gospel.
The source of giving and one’s motivation to give are raised in this evening’s Second Lesson from the 9th Chapter of the Second Letter to the Corinthians. In verses 1 to 5, Paul is reminding the Corinthian church, with whom we know he has had his tensions, to remember their commitment to give gladly to the Church in Jerusalem. With a gentle prod he explains that he does not want his boasting about the Corinthians to the cashstrapped yet generous Macedonians to be in vain. Last week we heard that Paul revers the Macedonians citing them as an example to the Corinthians “For they gave according to their means… and beyond their means, of their own free will, begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints …” (8:34). The Macedonians’ generosity is not by coercion or exaction… but in response to God’s grace in their lives.