Eastertide #5:

God gives us the victory…now concerning the collection.

(First Corinthians 15:57 & 16:1)

Chapter fifteen of First Corinthians gives us the Bible’s most profound theological understanding of Easter and the resurrection of the dead. What’s interesting is that the very next word is “Now concerning the collection.” Charity marked the church from its birth: “They would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all in need” (Ac 2:45). Too much charity, we might argue. Deacons are set aside to help care for the widows and orphans (Ac 6). To this day the benevolent fund of our church is distributed by the deacons.

I don’t claim for myself the gifts of mercy and generosity (Ro 12:8). My interested this morning lies in how such benevolence marks the church. Without it, the church would not be the church (Ja 1:27). This is revolutionary. As much as we might admire noble pagans like the Roman military officer Cornelius (Ac 10); the pagans were not known for their benevolence. They tended to be, like the Stoics, fatalist. There was for them, no point in trying to care for the needy. Christian faith, from the beginning, floods the world with charity: care of widows and orphans, hospitals, schools, shelters, relief organizations, soup kitchens, medical missions, charitable societies like Franklin Graham’s Samaritan Purse setting up field hospitals in Central Park for New York’s Corvid 19 victims. Easter (1Cor 15) changed everything (1Cor 16).