Burdens and Bounties
What imbalances (intentional or not) of power, class, culture, or various identities do you notice?
2 Corinthians 8:12-14
A gift is appreciated because of what a person can afford…[given] willingly. It isn’t that we want others to have financial ease and you to have financial difficulties, but it’s a matter of equality. At the present moment, your surplus can fill their deficit so that in the future their surplus can fill your deficit. In this way there is equality.
Paul encourages the Corinthians to share what they have with each other — not to prove individuals’ faith, nor as an act of charity, but to correct societies’ injustices.
Corinth’s Jesus-followers included poor and rich alike, which led to severe imbalances when they tried to live out their faith without overturning class hierarchies. (For a particularly egregious example, check out 1 Cor 11, where their communion meals start out with rich members eating to excess while poor members go hungry and humiliated.)
Again and again, Paul must remind them that the Way of Christ is communalist — all burdens and bounties are to be shared equally, in order to live out God’s truth that all resources belong to all people.
In the 300s CE, Saint Ambrose put it like this: “You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his.”
Reflect on a community you belong to. What imbalances (intentional or not) of power, class, culture, or various identities do you notice? Which “side” of each imbalance are you on? What will those “on top” need to let go of in order for the community to move towards Christ’s mutuality?