I Corinthians 16:1-12
…so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go… (v. 6b) and Help him on his way in peace… (v. 11b) These statements seem unusual for Paul to write. Typically he is telling his listeners that he is self-sufficient, that he is not a burden to the church, that he works alongside them. But now he is asking for their support for himself and for Timothy. Maybe it was earlier in his ministry that he was being more self-sufficient and he has found out over time that he is more useful to the Lord when he is preaching than when he is tent-making. Just wondering…
Years ago I was Assistant Treasurer for the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington when Bishop Sauls appointed me to a group that he called the Mission Funding Task Force. Our objective was to evaluate how the local congregations should fund the Diocese. We gathered data and worked through our findings and wrote it up. I don’t need to go into details about our work or our findings, but there was one thing that I learned during my time on that Task Force. There were two Episcopal priests on that committee and three or four other lay Episcopalians. As we looked for guidance from “outside”, essentially where to begin before we started looking at the data, different people (especially one of the priests) did their research and reported back. As I listened, no one talked about the “collection for the saints” (v. 1 in today’s reading). Paul talks about it in his Thessalonian letters and his Corinthian letters and Luke writes about it in Acts. When I brought up this “collection” as a model for the parishes supporting the Diocese, no one knew what I was talking about, not even the priests! I daresay that the priests that we have known in the Anglican Church would have been right there with me, quickly accessing chapter and verse for inclusion in our report. Bottom line: where our Anglican clergy are trained is important – Asbury, Pittsburgh, Nashotah House – when our Anglican priests are trained they come away Bible-literate. And as my wife is prone to say, “And that’s a good thing!”
Slava Bohu!
I don’t think the “help” that Paul expects from the Corinthians in I Cor. 16:6,11 has much, if anything, to do with finances but instead refers to encouragement and prayer. You are right in recognizing that Paul is generally self-sufficient and does not ask for financial support, but that is not something “earlier in his ministry”; it is something he speaks about at length in this very letter: I Cor. 9:1-18.