On money

One of the things we know from Paul’s letters is that he was involved in collecting funds for the church in Jerusalem. There’s some debate about exactly why – whether it’s a famine, whether it’s a difficulty for that congregation in particular. It has to do with how you weigh the evidence in the book of Acts versus how you take the letters that he writes.

But it’s clear that in all of his letters he is concerned about money. And I think that’s an important fact on the ground, because so often we imagine that concerns about money didn’t occupy the early congregations, right, those are earthy things that later Christians bring in. Well, they’re there from the very beginning.

It seems to be the case that this collection was not just for relief but was also an opportunity for the churches that Paul had founded all around the Mediterranean – largely Gentile churches – to not just help but do honour to Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. So that, for Paul, this is both about service – it concerns service to others – but it also is a sign of Christian unity, that we do belong to one another, and if one part of the body is hurting it’s important that we take care of it.