07.04 | Plant Your Conkers

2 Corinthians 9

‘The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.’

2 Corinthians 9:6-8

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Every autumn, our kids go crazy for collecting conkers. We live beside a park, that is mostly woodland, including a few horse chestnut trees. Every autumn, our kids climb, sit on my shoulders, or scavenge the ground to find or pick as many as possible. For the next six months, we tend to find little treasure troves of conkers around the house, tucked into pockets and drawers and boxes. I found about twenty in an obscure place in the car last week.

Conkers are great to collect. They are shiny and beautiful, rich reddish brown with swirling patterns that makes each one unique.

But here’s the thing. Conkers aren’t actually meant for drawers. They’re meant to be planted. They’re meant to dug into the ground, that they can germinate and sink down roots and grow. In a drawer, they just gradually dry out, turning from shiny and hard to dull and withered.

They’re not treasure. They’re seeds.

The beauty of a conker is not just what it already is; it is what it could become.

Paul’s still talking about money to the Corinthians.

There’s a good reason for this. He’s running an aid collection for the believers in Jerusalem. They’re undergoing a famine, and so they have been pushed into poverty. Paul’s urging the Corinthians to pull together a collection is a life-saving activity. 

And today he gives them a metaphor for their money that looks to shift their way of thinking.

It has to do with sowing and reaping.

Is your money treasure, or is it seed?

Most of us probably look at our money more as something that we have reaped. Treasure. We sowed some hard labour, and we reaped our salary. My work, my money. My bank balance. My conkers.

Paul wants to change they way they look at this.

What you have is more than what you have reaped. It’s something that you can sow. It isn’t the end of the story, but the beginning of a new one.

What you use your money for is like planting a seed. It is an intentional direction of the heart, living out a certain set of values into activity. It is a choice towards something—either for beauty and celebration and generosity and gratitude, or towards fear and hoarding and introspection and the cluttering addiction to more. 

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

What is this? 

A prosperity ‘gospel’? A ‘give to God and He will make you rich’ kind of teaching?

You can only get there by corrupting the most essential nature of the Gospel. For in the true Gospel, grace is not earned, but given, and nothing is transactional except for what Jesus paid to completely redeem us to glory. Here our relationship with God is only and always grace and grace and grace again, freely receiving all things, with hearts that go from glory to glory amidst the great undulations of life, in suffering and fullness, pain and joy. 

We freely received. We freely give.¹

Paul is pointing to something far greater. He is pointing to a measure of inner vitality that is inescapably connected to what happens with the contents of your bank account. From grasping and hoarding to investing and planting. He is urging them to see that every transaction and choice is a little step either towards the Kingdom or towards the wounded desires of the self. The bountiful inner life comes from a bountiful approach to our money.

Remember it flows from the heart. Sometimes the most Kingdom-hearted thing you can do is to drink the finest wine² because you’re learning to inhabit more fully the generous heart of the Father. And sometimes you give away your second coat because the Uber delivery guy is freezing.

How will we view our money today?

Treasure? Or seed?

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Reflect:

What is in your hand today?

Adjust how you look at it.

It is not treasure to be hoarded. It is seed to be sown.

What one step could you take today to put it to use in the direction of the Kingdom of Jesus? 

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Pray:

Father of all goodness,

Every good things comes from you,

And I bring you again all that I have.

Help me to align my choices,

Towards celebration and joy and freedom,

And towards generosity and compassion and sacrifice.

And Lord,

As I do so,

In the little choices of this day,

Would you work within me to make me new:

Renew me from the fear that leads to hoarding and grabbing;

Renew me from the pride that leads to showboating and humiliating others;

Renew me from the illusion of it all being mine;

Unto a bountiful harvest,

And a deeper inhabitation of your extravagant love.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

Joshua 9-10 | Psalm 44:9-26

1. Matthew 10:8 (NIV)

2. When Jesus turned water to wine, He turned it into the finest kind of wine. See John 2:10.