Tomorrow Sunday June 28th, 2015 at Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church of Irvine: “Grace Upon Grace Upon Grace” (2nd Corinthians 8:1-9)
Divine Service: 9:30 am
Bible Study and Sunday School will be cancelled tomorrow due to our special fellowship event: we are saying farewell and Godspeed to our organist/choir-director for these past 4 years, Karissa Lystrup, who has been a phenomenal blessing to us at Saint Paul’s! She will be missed!
Location: Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine: 12500 Sand Canyon Ave., Irvine, CA 92618
Directions: Exit Sand Canyon from the 405 or 5, head East towards the hills, cross Irvine Blvd., turn right on Saint’s Way (this will put you on the campus of Crean Lutheran High School…we worship in the event center/gym)
Dear Christians,
Not only was St. Paul the tireless apostles to the Gentiles, but he was also amazing in another ministry: the collection of money for the poor, especially the poor in the sacred city of Jerusalem, for the converted Jews who were especially ostracized and persecuted. So what does St. Paul do? He encouraged the Christians in Corinth to give to the church in Jerusalem and he does so by informing them about the example of the Christians in Macedonia, the region that included the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. But their testimony is absolutely staggering and most likely humbling for every one of us here this morning: the churches in Macedonia were not wealthy. They were in fact very poor.
St. Paul says that the Christians in Macedonia went through “the most severe trial.” (verse 2) We may conjecture that “the most severe trial” was produced by virtue of two main things: 1) The Romans in the process of making it one of their provinces in 146 B.C. discovered gold and silver and had no loss of conscience in taking it from the natives, essentially looting their once great wealth; and 2) Civil wars which decided who would be emperor were fought there and Macedonia had been devastated.
And yet, the Word of God goes on to record something absolutely astounding about these poor and ravaged Macedonians: though they were very poor, St. Paul says this at verse 2:
“Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”
This is such an incredible statement if for no other reason than because it appears nonsensical. How on earth does rich generosity come out of extreme poverty? That sounds like getting water out of a dry well.