Abundance or Scarcity
“The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Do you live out of your abundance? Or do you live out of your scarcity? You might think the answer to depends on how much you have and how much you can spare. Yet, that is not the heart of the question or the answer. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians does not begin with assessing how much one has. The point is, you reap what you sow. If you approach life holding on tightly to what you have because you are afraid of losing it, then it will be very difficult to grow or gain more.
This lesson also appears in different forms in other parts of scripture, such as the Parable of the Sower. The sower went out to scatter seeds and some fell on rocky soil, some fell among weeds and some fell on fertile soil. The sower did not hold tight to the seeds and only scattered them where he knew they would thrive. The point is to scatter the seeds in abundance because we cannot control the outcome; we can only control what we sow.
When I was in campus ministry, I would encourage students to invite as many friends as possible to our worship services and events. Sometimes someone would wonder if we were wasting our resources when they knew other students were just coming for the food or entertainment. That is when I would read these scripture lessons on sowing and remember that our call is to sow with abundance, not to control what happens after we sow them. When you share your faith with abundance, you may never know where the seeds of faith land. You may never know if a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ has grown out of what you have shared. That is okay. Where might you sow the seeds of faith this day? Wherever that might be, you can give of yourself and your faith with abundance and without reluctance knowing that God loves a cheerful giver.
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer, p.833
